A fine balance

I have read another book about India - A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry. It created a mix of emotions in me. On one level it was sad as the characters in the book, who you get to like, don't fare well. But interestingly, they deal with their misfortunes, largely hugely unjust (they are at the mercy of corrupt forces) with fortitude. In fact, as the final injustice is done, the youngest character resigns himself to his fate stoically and with dignity, and you wonder where he gets it from. Perhaps it is in the Indian psyche, because it is a foreign concept to someone whose life as a westerner has been relatively cruisy. Indeed anyone living in Australia would never experience what happens to these people. And the poverty! Bu they shine through. One of the characters, the most fortunate, does not 'survive' mentally and emotionally the ordeal that seems to be life. His life is the easiest of the four characters as his family is not poor - he has money and a good job (in the end) and he is young and goodlooking. But it does not save his mind and body. The message in this book? It is probably about attitude more than anything else, how you deal with fate. To understand what it means to be Indian is starting to intrigue me!