Brunching with Ophelia

Summary

Brunching with Ophelia presents a slice of life entrenched in cultural schizophrenia in our capital city, New Delhi. As Ivy Roy, a lecturer of English literature, virtually resurrects Ophelia, the almost aphasic woman behind the universal man screaming Words, Words, Words , her now husband and erstwhile chat-friend Shumonto Roy retreats into the deep well of wordlessness, mourning the loss of his ex-girlfriend Irene Scott. Is Shumonto turning into a later-day Prince Hamlet of the virtual world? Will today's Ophelia speak up, turn into a voracious wordsmith to counter his oppressive silence? Suddenly the characters who had met in a nebulous world of the Internet are confronted by the perils of the real. Which is the fantasy world? Or do they inhabit a placeless space somewhere in between? Do they live multiple lives giving births to newer selves every time they give themselves a new screen name? In her debut novel, the author lets loose a refraction of university life, heavily coloured by pigments of imagination. And the refracting prism of this overground campus life is the netherworld of anonymous chat-windows and webcam-facilitated screen-dalliances.