And All is Said (English, Paperback, Masani Zareer)

And All Is Said: Memoir Of A Home Divided by Zareer Masani is a candid disclosure of the lives of his parents, Minoo Masani and Shakuntala Srivastava, two talented and tempestuous personalities.

Summary Of The Book

The world of the two powerful personalities Minoo Masani and his wife, Shakuntala Srivastava, are brought out into the open by their son Zareer Masani in his riveting book And All Is Said: Memoir Of A Home Divided. The author makes an honest analysis of the personalities of his parents, their intimate relationships, and their chaotic life together.

As Minoo and Shakuntala came from two completely different backgrounds, a clash between them seemed to be more or less inevitable and it eventually culminated in their estrangement. Thus the story of Zareer Masani is “a memoir of a home divided”.

In this biographical study, Masani reveals the contents of various diaries and letters of his parents. These were an integral source of information through which he has put forth their life story.

Minoo Masani was the son of a great scholar. He was a Bombay Parsi, a two time divorcee, and a leader of the Swatantra Party. Shakuntala Srivastava was a UP Kayasth and her father was the wealthy J. P. Srivastava, who was a counsellor during the British Raj.

Minoo and Shakuntala grew up in diverse environments, yet they were destined to fall in love. Their subsequent elopement and marriage was succeeded by a clash of their strong personalities, which made for a stormy marriage. They were both charismatic figures in their own right. Their active participation in India’s post-independence politics and their respective views on the socialist policies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi triggered their constant bickering. This eventually widened the rift between them and led to their separation.

The author narrates this sequence of events, bringing along a class of other important characters and giving the readers a peek into their personal lives. And All Is Said: Memoir Of A Home Divided comes as an honest revelation from Masani’s perspective as a young boy whose childhood was affected greatly by the turbulent relationship of his parents.

About Zareer Masani

Zareer Masani is a well-known author. He has written books like Indian Tales Of The Raj, Indira Gandhi: A Biography, and Macaulay: Pioneer Of India’s Modernization. Masani’s style of writing is simple, strong, and engrossing. Masani studied at Mumbai’s Cathedral School. He graduated from Elphinstone College with a major in History. He went on to earn a Ph.D in Modern History from the prestigious Oxford University.