Dina Shroff

     Hello again everyone, for today I've decided to give a detailed description of Dina Shroff (later Dina Dalal after marrying Rustom Dalal) life in A Fine Balance.

     Dina's family was wealthy, not extremely wealthy, but they had enough money to afford luxuries that most others could not. Her father was a doctor who died when she was merely 12 years old. After her father's dead, her mother went threw withdrawals for pretty much the rest of her life, and therefore was unable to take care of Dina and her brother Nusswan. Nusswan, who became the man of the house, surprisingly was rather abusive to Dina, to say the least. He would force her to do all the housework, all the cooking, cleaning, hit her when she misbehaved, and even made her drop out of school. Nusswan had dropped so low that he once even made Dina tape her hair that she cut off back to her head, because she did so without permission (how humiliating that must've been for Dina when she went to school!). Dina was a strong-will girl just like her father, and so she rebelled against Nusswan for most of her childhood, including when she had become of age. Dina rejected all of Nusswan's prospective suitors harshly, giving them no thought whatsoever. Instead, Dina found her own husband, a Parsi named Rustom Dalal, who she met at a concert hall and gradually became very close to. Surprisingly enough, Nusswan and his wife Ruby were quite happy for Dina (not because she is getting married, but because they had finally gotten her out of their house). Dina moved to Rustom's flat, and they lived a happy married life for 3 years. Unfortunately the worst thing that could possibly happen to Dina happened. Dina was widowed as Rustom died on their 3rd wedding anniversary (even the worst DAY for it to happen!). Rustom was hit by a bus while he was on his bicycle, on the way to the grocery store.

     Forced to start a new life, Dina became a tailor with the help and guidance of Rustom's parents (this helped her avoid moving back in with Nusswan, thank god). Dina had become quite good at sewing, in fact she had also started quite the little business, going to a few houses in the neighbourhood and sewing them certain things in return for a some rupees. Dina had also found a handsome young man that she became quite close to, but later stopped seeing because of personal reasons and the memories of Rustom. After 20 years of a repetitive life, Dina's eyesight starts to become weak, making her sewing almost impossible for her. To her luck, she eventually met a lady named Mrs. Gupta from a company called Au Revoir Exports, who said she would buy ready-made dresses in Au Revoir patterns. Mrs. Gupta agrees to let Dina sew the special and 'Secret' Au Revoir patterns, and in return paying Dina. However, the twist was that Dina could not sew anymore because of her poor eyesight. Therefore, not wanting lose this oppurtunity to make money and pay the rent for her flat, she decides to hire tailors (and also a paying guest, for a little more income).

     This is where the 3 other central characters are revealed, in Ishvar Darji, Omprakash Darji, and Maneck Kohlah. The author takes the time to reveal each of their pasts, oscillating through the 3 stories and showing how they all came to the current situation (to Dina Dalal's flat; as it is often refered to).