Ramona is the sequel to the other book by Manoj V Jain , Balraj, the story of a middle aged executive who suddenly decides to disappear. Ramona is the college sweetheart and wife of Inder, who assumes the identity of a driver Balraj when he disappears. The book explains the disappearance of Inder/Balraj, from the view point of a woman, how she is upset and angry when her husband of several decades suddenly vanishes, without providing any kind of information. However over a period of time, she slowly copes with it, and learns to live independently.

Though her husband has left her alone, Ramona does not make any attempt to find her husband, it is her sister in law who makes the effort to find out where her brother has disappeared, disturbing her busy work schedule. It also exposes how difficult it is to trace a person who has disappeared in India. For example when the family goes to the police station to file a missing person complaint, the police do not help, and dismiss as a case where the husband has run away with another woman. The search for inder forms the rest of the story.

The book also explains the relationship Indian women have with the family of their husband, how the rest of the family members react to the disappearance of Inder. Though she has lived with her husband for several decades, Ramona does not know anyone from the office well enough. It shows the life of most married housewives, who are mainly looking after their home and family, they have very few other interests, or knowledge about their husbands professional life. After a few months, her son also leaves his job, trying to find out where his father has disappeared

Unlike most books, this book describes in detail the friction of the daughter in law, with the rest of the family members especially her mother and father in law. Though sons are valued in india because aged parents are supposed to live with their son, often the daughter in law with not get along with the parents, resulting in disputes. So the aged parents will prefer to live with the daughter, especially if she is single or alone for peace of mind, though it can be very inconvenient for the senior citizen if living alone.

Another problem which the book highlights, are the disadvantages of early marriage. Indian security and intelligence agency employees are ruthless in harassing indian women who are not married, however women who marry early after a college romance, are likely to miss out on their career, which leads to a lot of resentment, which affects their relationship with others. Most women who do not have professional experience, will start a home based business like the cooking classes which Ramona started,

It also shows how indian families are very good at covering up their secrets, though Inder has disappeared without a trace, to avoid damage to his reputation, his sister Ameeta decides that they will tell everyone that Inder has gone for a foreign posting, Only Ramona, her son Shourya and Ameeta are aware that Inder has disappeared without a trace.
People are very careful about their reputation in India, and this again highlights how vicious and dishonest, google, tata, NTRO, CBI, R&AW, security agencies were in destroying the reputation of the harmless google competitor, domain investor owning this and other websites, falsely claiming that google, tata sponsored goan SEX workers sunaina, siddhi mandrekar, cheater housewives nayanshree hathwar, veena, riddhi nayak, naina,deepika, ruchika, asmita patel and other frauds , who did not do any work, did not spend any money online, owned this and other websites, to deny the domain investor, the income and opportunities she deserved.

An interesting book to understand the mindset and working of middle and upper middle class indian families, especially in metro cities.

Ramona
Author: Manoj V Jain
Publisher : Notion Press, 2017
Pages: 101