India, July 5 -- What happens after the picture-perfect happily ever after? After the vows have been made, the union has been blessed, the guests leave, and life kicks in? And what happens five, 10, even 20 years down the line? Author Kamal Trilok Singh takes this premise and presents our protagonist, the unnamed woman, as a bruise dressed in silk. His debut, Happily Ever After, is a 196-page novella told through a stream of conscious narrative. The first half will make the most devout of priests blush at its explicit, almost animalistic confessions of indulgence, pleasure and survival. Through fragments of reconstructed memories, the novella draws the portrait of a woman imprisoned in a cage of her own making. Drowning her sorrow in alcohol, hatred and putrid thoughts, it dissects the very core of a happy marriage. There are no explosive fallouts or harsh words spat like a slap. And yet, both partners are caught in the beige death of a routine that strips away tenderness. There is verisimilitude in the way love and, in its absence, festering resentment is brewed and spilt into daily acts of microaggressions: orgasms faked until sex becomes obligation; a potted plant once bought with great gusto, then left to yellow and fade; makeup applied before date night, not to conceal crying eyes but to romanticise the pain. These seemingly mundane moments are photographed and carried through this 'novel with photographs', like a pictorial journal of the protagonist's deranged mental soliloquy. Happily Ever After is not everyone's cup of tea. It's a glass of Old Monk, actually the fifth or sixth. Readers wanting resolution or certainty will be disappointed. But those who enjoy the subtext between moral choices will find meaning in the shades of grey, and in the glorious unbecoming of a drunk woman caught in a stale, loveless marriage. Title: Happily Ever After Author: Kamal Trilok Singh Publisher: HarperCollins Price: Rs.499...