What happens when you are exploited by your psychoanalyst, betrayed by your spouse and then see life turning full circle with your daughter being abused? Paranoia, guilt, melancholia? From the book title itself you will realise The Waiting Room is a dark tale as it takes you through the tortuous thoughts of protagonist Maya. You also realise that the dark clouds hovering will not disperse, as the story opens after Maya?s death when her friend Aniket comes to clear her apartment. So in that sense, it is a doomed tale, as she is unable to free herself of her past.
It is by leafing through the pages of Maya?s diaries that Aniket gets to know about her tumultuous years and the havoc they have brought in her life. Interspersed by Aniket?s observations, who loves her but never collects the courage to state it, the narrations go back and forth, as she writes about the unscrupulous psychoanalyst and her abusive marriage. The dates, however, do not always match up. It is when Maya tries to chronicle the stories of the seven women who have also been abused by the psychoanalyst, that hopes are raised that she will fight for justice and bring the guilty to book. But those hopes are dashed when she decides to stop ?being a gravedigger? and ?let the dog die its mangy death?, as she puts it. However, there is a message here, in the real world, not every tragic heroine rises above her murky past to be a shining example. ?A girl, acutely intelligent? and a woman, enticing and alluring but entirely fallible? is how Aniket describes her.
This is art consultant Anupa Mehta?s debut novel, and she tries to bring a touch of surrealism to it, especially in respect of Maya?s foray into the world of Sufism and past-life regression in her quest for mental solace. Showcasing the interplay of light and shadow in Maya?s life painted in all shades of gray, Mehta introduces colour in her descriptions of Maya?s runaway thoughts: ?the swelling tracery of green that throbs at the inner base of my left wrist?, ?an orange evening bleeding into an indigo night?, ?a white heap stained with wine-coloured blood? and so on. However, she goes overboard sometimes, especially in her surrealistic encounters. Altogether, a dark book, full of hidden nuances if you care to find them though.