Ashes in the Seas: A Novel

The central character of the novel, Ashes in the Seas, is a woman who takes a journey from Assam to South India with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. She is carrying the ashes of her mother, father and her husband to immerse into the seas at Kanyakumari. But her co-travellers are not aware of it. She has preserved the ashes of her dear ones for long years, now she feels that the time has come to set them free. She had been to South India the first time with her parents, the second time as a newly wedded wife, the third time with her parents, her husband and the children and now for the fourth time, and she knows that this will be the last time, with her daughter, son-in-law and her granddaughter. In the course of the journey, her mind travels to those moments of her life as the only child of doting parents, as the wife of a quiet and reserved man, as a mother of two children and then as a grandmother. But apart from being a daughter, a wife and a mother, she is also a woman with her very own needs and feelings that sought to be realized. She thinks of all that she has got and hasn’t got in this short span of life. She has led her life to its full; she realizes it as she travels down to the seas. She also feels about the nothingness of this life that has to end up in air, earth, fire, water and minerals. She reflects upon the belief that life actually has no end; it is simply a continuation and she wonders what kind of continuation life actually is.