• What Makes Us Alike ? •

Staring at the sky, weaving patterns out of the clouds, listening some sounds of life, a child running to play, a door opening with a creak, I ask myself “What Makes Us Alike” ?

Closing my eyes,  I can hear the chirp of birds. A soft chirp barely making a sound.

Is alikeness a language of its own? Is it the soft chirp between a person and his surroundings? Soothing and calm. Yet, barely making a sound.

I pause and reflect upon the title of the book I’m reading. What Makes Us Alike with two women, and a little girl, each with a different hair color and posture, staring at the sky, thinking of all the patterns they could weave. The one with brown hair is the protagonist, Eira. A single mother capable of raising her daughter, juggling with the alikeness she finds in her daughter and mother, Kanika, the grey-haired one. And, Zasha, the one with the ponytail, pointing at the sky, she is a fierce yet lovely daughter at heart. And, oh, sitting at the grass, side by side, they have each other’s back and words and silence. Is this what alikeness may feel like?

Skies apart, Indian at heart, weaving life in US worlds apart, the sense of family, of friendships, of new perceptions about married life and the individual choices, the author does talk about a lot quite subtly.

And, oh, in alikeness, is hurt and feeling for another. Healing the wounds with words and silence. And, while reading this book, I felt this being revealed.

About this book, it did portray what and what not it means to be a single parent, the bonds that are meant to be without lines drawn for rigid rules,  what colors can caring for your loved ones take, what families can be like, and how not every shade is perfect yet beautiful.

A light read within 200 pages, I read it in a single sitting. Crisp and breezy, it was good to read along with my long reads.

Quite a refreshing narrative! 殺