The Vague Woman's Handbook

Devapriya Roy's first book is a delightful tale of 2 women who form an unlikely friendship at their workplace- a cool laid back government office.

Mil Chatterjee is newly married to her college sweetheart and is on the hunt for a job to supplement her husband's income. Indira Sen is a senior government official- at 52, she, a widow, lives with her daughter and 3 elderly relatives.

Their paths cross when Mil gets this job and over many cups of tea at their workplace, they form a close friendship.

Vague Woman represents the modern era where friendships move beyond age barriers.

It touches upon the thoughts of the modern women- where there is modernity yet tradional thoughts ingrained which is difficult to dislodge.

A longing for parental approval despite the age - Mil's 22 and Indira's 52 is common.
An urge to find their own space or niche is ever present across ages. At 52, Indira Sen was supposed to have done it all- yet Mil shows her new paths and poses her with new challenges which she could take up.

The book cover has a warm. eclectic feel- where women often hangout over coffee in a coffee shop- away from their home troubles. Cookies and cakes in unlimited supply, plenty of leisure time on hand- seems the perfect life - but hey, read on- the perfect life does not exists. These women are discussing their struggles to keep pace with their monetary woes, home troubles, nosey neighbours, persistant landlords and so on and sof orth- they are discussing our problems, they could be us- you never know