Anu bought many small items for her girls such as inexpensive jewellery to occupy them and compensate for the studious, occasionally fraught lifestyle they had to lead. The individual saris worn by Anu are remembered fondly, some gifts and some handed down from her sister, while we are continually presented with varieties of food particular to an area or eaten during a festival. Some incidents in the little family's life are extremely funny, such as when an old-folks' home was evacuated into the school where Anu was vice-principal during monsoon flooding. He made more than one attempt but as the girls definitely did not want to go, it seems to have been more of a control issue than anything. Anu's own family relationships were constrained as her widowed mother could not support her and the girls were not able to wander as they pleased, for fear Ramesh would kidnap them. Her status as a woman outside her marriage did not affect her at this time but could have closed many doors. The fact of having gained a university education now enabled Anu to teach and after a succession of small jobs she gained work in a Christian school in Lucknow. Anu has to win anyone's admiration for her actions, occurring as they did in 1960s India. Ramesh was obdurate in his refusal to pay for the girls' care unless they lived with him. Not only did this brave woman travel across India to her mother's home in Allahabad and decide to raise and school the girls herself, she engaged lawyers and determinedly fought in courts to get a judicial separation and custody of the children. The third volume picks up after Anu has left her Army officer husband Ramesh, and taken their three young daughters. This is a less light-hearted biography than the first two, but with plenty of colour, bustle and contrast.

Anu by Shabnam Vasisht