The Poison of Love

KR Meera’s new novel, The Poison of Love, is a cautionary tale about the much abused and mythified emotion of love. The daughter of an IPS officer, the beautiful Tulsi has just graduated with a record score from IIT and is engaged to be married to an NRI engineer. But she falls for Madhav, a journalist as charming and eloquent as the deity he is named after. “Like a gopika enchanted with Krishna’s divine flute music”, Tulsi is persuaded by her gently persistent admirer to elope with him just a few days before her wedding. The consequences — both short-term — for her family — and long-term on Tulsi’s life — are disastrous. The story is told by a much-older Tulsi who has since then moved to Vrindavan and embraced life as a shaven-head Meera sadhu. The narrative switches back and forth in time as she tells her story, which also withholds the secret of why Tulsi chooses to punish herself by voluntarily living in the netherworld reserved for widows or Meera sadhus. When the book begins, a very sick but apparently repentant Madhav has traced her to Vrindavan and is desperate for an audience. By turns savage and tender, The Poison of Love is a spellbinding tale of love and sacrifice, pain and retribution, confirming K.R. Meera as one of our most fearless and accomplished writers.