Mirror Image by Dr. Rama Gupta

Rooted in soil, the short stories contained in ‘Mirror Image’, showcase a vision of life in all its different shades and ramifications, dealing with multifarious nuances, layers and the images reflected in them. The stories are subtle, exploring both the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of the characters. In these stories there are spirited women-realistic and down-to-earth females carrying their own space amidst the patriarchal set up.
In ‘Sumangali’, a chance encounter with a scheming salesman of Sumangali Scheme pushes the old widow of the migrant labourer into a cycle of exploitation. ‘Bye-Bye Blackbird’ uncovers the unnoticed and unacknowledged shades of racism in school in Sydney. ‘My Daughter’s Father’ deals with the theme of love and infinite betrayal of an abused young girl.
Rest of the stories revolve around the themes of loss of trust, fragility of interpersonal relationships, restoration of faith, strange encounters, mystery of human experiences and sudden revelations and epiphanies in life. Thematic structure of the stories is quite rich. The author’s empathy for her characters, in depth understanding of human nature add up to richly layered stories.
The power of these stories lies in the technical device employed as well as in delineation of the psychic patterns in characters.