Book review: And All Is Said: Memoir Of A Home Divided

Book: And All Is Said: Memoir Of A Home Divided
Author: Zareer Masani
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 248
Price: Rs299
At one level, this book is a cathartic outpouring of a lifetime of repressed feelings. Though the writer Zareer Masani was showered with love as a child, being the son of two tempestuous personalities like Minoo and Shakuntala Masani was tough for him during his growing years, and he has written about this experience with unbridled candour. The predicament of being caught in the crossfire of his parents’ fights is underlined in the sub-heading of the book, Memoir of a home divided.
But the memoir is more than just a personal catharsis. Zareer’s parents were charismatic figures playing an active role in post-Independence politics. What emerges from the narration of their lives is an intimate glimpse into the workings of other political figures. Minoo Masani was a socialist, but after Independence, he became a staunch supporter of free-enterprise liberalism and a strident opponent of Nehru’s socialist policies. The clash of the two titans makes for entertaining reading, as their arguments are peppered with sharp, wry humour.
But before they went on the path of collision, Minoo Masani was very close to the Congress stalwart and often visited the Nehru family home in Allahabad. And he must have narrated to his son many an anecdote about these visits, some of which Zareer has recounted in his book. Apparently, at the breakfast table one day, Jawahar joked about a Parsi nationalist Feroze Gandhi being infatuated with his wife Kamala. “Minoo, can you imagine any man being in love with my wife?” asked Nehru ungallantly. And Minoo replied, “Of course I can! I could easily fall in love with her myself.” Unfortunately, the book does not reveal how Nehru reacted when, after Kamala’s death, Feroze transferred his attentions to Nehru’s daughter, Indira.
While Minoo consistently opposed the socialist policies of Nehru and later Indira, his wife Shakuntala became an ardent supporter of the latter. This widened the growing rift between the two firebrands to a point when reconciliation became impossible.
Sadly, Shakuntala sacrificed her marriage for political ignominy, as Indira soon banished her to the political wilderness, proving that in politics, no one is a permanent friend or foe. Shakuntala continued to hover on the periphery of Indira’s coterie, hoping in vain to someday get a plum posting.
Zareer’s account of his mother’s life — from being the pampered daughter of Sir JP Srivastava, a Viceregal Councillor during the British Raj, to being the wife of the brilliant Swatantra Party founder-member Minoo Masani, to depending on the occasional crumbs Indira Gandhi tossed her way — is tragic. Beautiful, rebellious, talented, Shakuntala was, at one time, the toast of glittering parties, with the likes of JRD Tata playing golf with her, taking her for long drives and even contemplating marriage. But she threw it all away by refusing, in her arrogance, to heed the advice of close family members. Her last months were spent in a National Health Service hospital in London, with none of her suitors beside her. Ridden with multiple health problems, tied to the dialysis machine, severely neurotic, it was an end totally unworthy of a figure as dominating and scintillating as hers.
And All Is Said is a rich tapestry of the times, with the waft and weft of numerous strands being skilfully woven together to produce a detailed pattern that is worth preserving. This is one for the bookshelf.