Beyond Diamond Rings

Beyond Diamond Rings

by Kusum Choppra


Beyond Diamond Rings is a book that spans five generations. Yet it is not a story of generations that encapsulates a family history. Instead the book touches upon the lives of a women-centric Sindhi family of the Bhaibund community. The story revolves around the family’s post-partition rehabilitation experiences and presents a panorama of relationships between the women. The book follows them from pre-partition times to ours.


The Bhaibunds were the Merchant Princes of Sindh, who celebrated their success with fabulous homes and flamboyant weddings, Sindhi roots streaked with the colours of the world.


Post-partition’s major sociological development was a break with the ancient tradition of Bhaibund men leaving their families at home to live and work abroad, very often fathering a brood there. Genetically programmed almost to live with minimal male interference in their day-to-day functioning, the womenfolk blossomed on their own, taking hold of their lives. Living together with their men made for gender discomforts, in sharp contrast to the flair for living displayed by those lone women whose best was brought out by absent husbands or widowhood.


This book is about the women of those Merchant Princes, how they coped with the trauma and the freedom of this lifestyle, individually and collectively in locales as varied as Pune, Jakarta, Singapore, Dubai, the West Indies and Canary Islands.


About The Author :- 


Kusum Choppra has been writing for over two decades as a Senior Journalist and Gujarat correspondent for Rajasthan Patrika, The Week, Maharashtra Herald, Current, and others. She has had a busy life working in banks and embassies, and running a family gas agency, a handicrafts boutique, and a news agency called News & Views. She has also raised a family of four of her own and several foster children. She is extremely passionate about Numerology, History, Family roots and Environmentalism. Kusum Choppra distills experiences of a lifetime as a woman, daughter, wife, mother and journalist into creative writing.


Some of her short stories have appeared in an anthology called Curtains. She has also published a booklet on Do-it-Yourself Environment Conservation. After a series of short stories and vignettes, Beyond Diamond Rings is her first novel. Her second, a historical novel, is on the anvil. She lives in Ahmedabad, with her family. Kusum blogs at kusumchoppra.blogspot.com