Walking the tightrope
Leila Seth is an uncommon woman who has many firsts to her credit. But she remains remarkably grounded, as Benita Sen discovers.
The inclement weather couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the sizeable crowd gathered at Crossword, Kolkata to hear the spirited Justice Leila Seth read from her 474-page autobiography, On Balance (Penguin India).
As her decisive voice comes through, you can’t help think, this is the voice that argued for justice and delivered judgements over a legal practice of decades during which there were several firsts. First Indian woman to top the London bar examinations, first woman Chief Justice of India in 1991 and first woman on the Law Commission. And yet a "normal woman" who loves jamdani sarees, fish cuisine and mustard oil. And browsing for books for her grandchildren like any contented grandmother.
The book got going when she was laid up in bed with multiple fractures after tripping over a wire at the launch, ironically, of RK Laxman’s book. Much like his Common Man, this uncommon woman decided to stay silent rather than sue anyone "because I know the vagaries of the slow pace of the law and it would probably take 30 years to get justice." There was a twitter from her audience, but politeness apart, the magnanimity of the statement can be devastating for the common man – and worse, the common woman’s -- morale.
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| Though Leila Seth denies 'any creative talent', her firsts put many in the shade. |
Laid up in bed, effective prodding from her publishers and the thought that she "may not be around" to tell her grand daughter Nandini about her life, she got down to writing the story of her most exemplary career and chequered life.
And so, she packs in three generations including her brother’s romance with her friend, setting up home, and her experience as a lawyer tackling ‘male’ topics like tax matters and criminal cases with the conviction that an autobiography "must be honest."
The Loreto Darjeeling student who almost became a nun, went on to do a secretarial course in Kurseong and was there when she heard for the first time, in the speech of Nehru, the word tryst. That was soon after "Mother India lost a part of her head, shoulder, arm and elbow." Although Justice Seth denies any creative talent and limits her literary experience to graduate in English Literature and to read regularly to her son Vikram, the book is written in an easy style. Evocative passages make you wonder, when she stops reading a passage, what happened next.
While her author son Vikram edited the last three chapters of the book to give some coherence to the parts like the Law Commission, he hasn’t yet, according to his mother, written a character based entirely on her. In A Suitable Boy she isn’t Lata Mehra, she insists, and as proof, points out that she can’t sing a note right. But Rupa Mehra, right down to the red nose and handbag, is certainly all her mother.
