Leila Seth was the first woman chief justice of a high court in India,the first woman judge of the delhi high court,the first woman on the law commission and the first woman to top the bar examination in London.Just too many firsts!!Writing about oneself in complete honesty is such a tough job and she has truly followed the dictum ,'If its worth doing,its worth doing well'.Her memoir tells us about her childhood,about the time spent away from family,about losing her father at such an early age,about being brought up in a very westernised Bengali family and how this influenced her and inculcated in her a love of gardening.The memoir then shifts seamlessly to a time when she gets married and goes to London with her Husband,Mr Prem Seth and talks about studying law there.Here we come to know that she balances both effortlessly and that for her family comes first.Despite having the unconditional support of Mr Seth,she too makes sacrifices and manages to effortlessly top the bar exam in London.She then talks about returning to India to practice law here in a largely male-dominated profession and how she held her own,refusing to take just women's cases and choosing instead to compete with her male colleagues,taking up tax matters,constitutional law and criminal cases.Shifting to her personal life ,she talks about her remarkably accomplished three children,writer Vikram Seth,who needs no introduction,her second son Shantum who is a peace activist and daughter Aradhana who is a film maker.She talks about personal issues concerning each of them and we realize that she was there for them every step of the way.She dedicates this book to her grandchild Nandini .
My views:This was truly an engrossing read.There is so much to learn from Jutice Leila Seth and the way she has lived her life.I loved the way this memoir has been written with complete honesty.I got to know about incidents like her panicking because she hadn't washed her husbands socks and he was rather peeved .How she held them outside the car window so that they could dry fast and he could then wear them.This makes her as real as any other person.The chapter on Ira was heart wrenching and very sad.The humiliation faced by her family when Mr Prem Seth was falsely implicated by his office in an enquiry and how the family stood together during tough times.She truly has accomplished so much in professional as well as personal life that I cant help but be in awe of her.She has beautifully balanced her personal and professional life and what can be an apt title to her memoir other than 'ON BALANCE'.Truly a life well-lived.I loved the book!
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