A most interesting collection of essays on women, their lives, their world,
written with a deceptive simplicity that gently takes the reader through a
biting indictment of society. Writing of women like Shibmohini, Katyayani,
Murola and Indumati, the author, then seventy-six, tells us that she had
observed some of them at first hand and some she had read about. She takes
us through the varied aspects of women’s lives, through the oppression and
sometimes pleasures of the inner quarters, providing a glimpse into women
who triumphed, and those who were defeated. Of special interest are her
observations on men and their mothers, of women and the kitchen and on
cookbooks.
The late Kalyani Dutta