Book Review : Balancing Act

Title : Balancing Act

Author : Meera Godbole Krishnamurthy
Penguin Publication

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Story of a stay-at-home mother of two little children - Tara Mistry, who is struggling to find an identity of her own. She is an architect professionally and is proded by her alter-ego - Yakshi to get into the active lifestyle of being a working woman. In her frustration of comparing herself to seemingly successful women, she starts making bricks along with baking cookies.

She has deep reverence for the great architect Salk and yearns to be a part of the world where his imagination and creations exist. She does get a job offer and then takes the big decision!

The story does replicate the life of many women who struggle to strike a balance between career and family and who are juggling many roles that they don every single day of their lives. There is a long list of quarters from where expectations arise - which a woman of 21st century has to address - her self esteem, her confidence, her social standing among her relations and peers, her impression on other people, her husband, her children, her workplace and its commitments.

I would categorize this book more as a long blog entry than any literary piece. The language is very ordinary, nothing great to talk about. The rifts, the pulls felt by the mind and the issues raised do not offer anything novel. After reading the book, it felt like one among many books, not one that can stand out from a big heap.