3, Zakia Mansion is the story of a Mumbai family in the decades following the seventies. The story centres on Shaheen, a daughter who witnesses the slow fraying of the family fabric. Changing times, obsolete attitudes, a life-changing event within the family-all these come together in a cauldron from which Shaheen must leap out.
"Orphaned again and again" as she calls it, by adults who are at best adrift, and at worst cruel, Shaheen struggles to make a different life for herself. But somehow the sums don't add up. She loses what she thought was her new-found stability ? to come to the realization that there are no shortcuts in the process of living the 'life examined'.
Forced to - and then choosing to - abandon her marriage, she struggles to reach out to her daughter from whom she is estranged. In the process, she meets Manas, a young person from a background that is in broad terms similar to hers, but in its essence, very different. Manas is a grounded, lovingly brought up person. He has grown up in a family that has not, like hers, simply lurched along the decades, but has enjoyed the continuity, thoughtfulness and generosity of generations -the recipe that produces contented human beings.
How Shaheen lets go of her past, without losing what is real and precious, and how she weaves a new life, is the story of 3 Zakia Mansion.
