The Direction of the Wind

by Mansi Shah

Sophie is damaged goods in the Indian marriage market. A now orphaned spinster whose papa allowed her to focus on her education, obtain an accounting degree, and pursue a career rather than forcing her to learn the ways of the kitchen and management of servants.

In Ahmedabad, the streets have eyes and the wind has ears, so secrets like this would have been impossible to keep from her for all these years.

In India, a bedroom was meant to be functional, not inspirational. That was part of the problem. Nita wanted to be inspired.

One of life’s greatest cruelties was that those who were innocent suffered more than those who inflicted the harm.

“Everything looks romantic in the moonlight, but the sun always rises the next day.”

Personal matters and truths are hardly spoken of in India out of a sense of privacy and unwillingness to show any weakness to others outside of the home.

“I am a woman who needs to work so she can learn more about her craft to one day become an artist.”

There was no place for someone like her—a dreamer who wanted a life beyond being a wife and mummy.

This is the city of l’amour. Love will happen to you when you aren’t looking as well.”

“Pavan ni disha na badali shako, pan amara sadh ni disha badali shako.” The direction of the wind cannot be changed, but we can change the direction of our sails.

She loved her daughter as much as she hated being a wife and mummy and had no idea how to reconcile those two things. She wasn’t sure they could be balanced.

“Money is the greatest curse of an artist. We need it to live, but it takes away from our life.”

She had felt trapped in her life in India, but now she was learning a new form of being trapped and wondered if people were always trapped by something, no matter what they did or where they were.

“Men find a woman trying to speak their language charming. Women, on the other hand, find it tacky and trite when their language is being mangled!”

“that is a genuine pain. Realizing you are not enough for someone after you have revealed your true self to that person. Such a thing will haunt every fiber of your being for the rest of your life.”

At some point, we must let it go and realize that even if we had not been enough in the past, there is still a chance to be enough in the future.”

Children highlighted every trait you lacked. And if you were not meant to be a parent, they stole your spirit in a way you could never get back.

“Even in Kashi, crows are black.”

The words “I’m here for you” had a power in them that was greater than any other, even the phrase “I love you.” “I’m here for you” showed solidarity and acceptance and conveyed in the best way possible that one was not alone.

think that’s why Nita felt so unsettled here. She tried to follow her dreams while leaving her heart with you in India. A dream without heart is nothing at all.

“Life hardly ever works out,” Cecile says, “but on those rare occasions when it does lead you to the right place, it is a thing of beauty.”

all families are dysfunctional in their own way but still find a way to love each other somehow.