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Srikanta - though the name of the novel is on the male narattor but it should ideally be "Srikanta & his tryst with women'. Srikanta goes on to narrate only those parts of his life where he met different women & how his life went by while he was watching these magnanimous women going about being virtuous & accomplished. From Kamal Lata, Abhaya, Rajlakshmi or Pyaari - all these women were how women should be - strong, caring, loving, religious, pious and pure. Srikanta seems to be a slice of Sarat Chandra's own life & how the women in his life influenced him. They all loved him selflessly and he valued them though he could love them as passionately as they did. When women love someone they give everything - when man loves them he expects everything.

Beyond the man-woman relationship, Srikanta also talks about the gaps between rich & poor, ridiculous caste system, hollowness of Hindu society, fake brahmins, stinking traditions of dowry, widowhood, child marriage and cruel landlords... you can see the double standards of the society & the people who claim to be the epitome of this society. He also mentions that how in India society treats its women seprately from the men. How unmarried women tarnish family image and they are sold off for Rs 20 to men 10 times their age as wives. The society just started stagnating and could only get worse unless their is a revolution..

But what made me think was that all that Sarat mentioned has been happening still so in a 100 years nothing has really changed, same disease & caste plagued society. Same gaps in rich & poor. Same degradation & selling of women.. same ignorance & uncaring atttude... will the world ever change..