From small but significant concerns like where to find the electrician, how to handle prying aunties and other assorted acquaintances to lasting cornerstones like the sturdy and unflinching support of her parents, the author recounts many a nuanced tale. Gentle support comes from unexpected quarters like her domestic help, who offers to cook and clean for her because Menon decided to move in to the neighbourhood of the house she shared with her husband. The help asks no questions but quietly imports sugar between the homes of the two exes if it is in short supply in one.

Amusingly titled chapters like The Wedding Album That Was More Resilient than the Wedding, Who Will Keep Marquis de Sade and Firing Prince Charming (one of my favourites), the book in its infectiously optimistic tone keeps bringing back the lens to rather thoughtful questions. It asks if kissing during separation amounts to cheating in between dealing with other knotty issues like dealing with anger.

Divorces happen all over the world but like a wedding, they are symbolic snapshots of a culture. The orgiastic excess of an Indian wedding that will always keep our country on top of the charts for colourful, beautifully decorative clothes, a hundred “exotic” rituals, Bollywood dances, traditional folk songs and endless feasts is as emblematic of who we are as a society as how a divorce is received and handled.

Menon’s book does that, at least it did for me. It revealed how our society which is still so insanely besotted with the “happily ever after” narrative is learning to lose its traditional fastidiousness bit by bit. “Divorce is not infectious,” writes Menon, but let’s add that neither is it the ugliest word any more.

You should read this book because it is an engrossing way to note how India is keeping up with what we loosely term “modernity”; from the working classes who find some of their married employers parting ways to parents who accept and enable the needs of some daughters to move on beyond a bad marriage. Who will keep the jointly acquired utensils and furniture and what happens to things like wedding ornaments or family photographs is among the complexities you wade through.

Is divorce a trend in India? I am hesitant to say so, but going by the increasing number of marriages legally breaking up, yes, it can certainly be called a healthy change in the way our society handles marriage.

Funnily and ironically, Indian weddings as events have become bigger than ever. Boasting about the money spent on their lavish rollout is now a part of bonafide social conversations. On the other hand, the no-no word divorce that drove people away from you is being quietly and sometimes not-so-quietly accepted, too, including in open, social conversations. This “trend” of not making a divorcee feel like damaged goods may still be limited to the cities but the ripple effect cannot be far behind.

Indian weddings remain chokingly traditional even if the bride wears an off-shoulder gown with gold shimmer on her decolletage. Marriage, too, remains by and large a conservative and confining institution. But divorces are becoming progressive. Dirty battles over property, custody of children and venom-filled accusations still go on in divorce courts. At the same time, the mutual consent divorce, a legal facilitation, is a reasonable way out. Lawyers, even judges, help you get through it without much ado if you are not locked in an emotional or financial war. Judges no longer look at women asking for divorce with disregard and dozens of marriage counsellors extend professional, paid help should you need it, to move on. Of course, the end of a marriage, however needed, wanted and resolved without dirty fuss, will always remain a deeply painful experience, filled at least with an acute sense of temporary loss. There is also no easy way out for children of divorce. But if you are curious about how India is negotiating social change at multiple levels, I suggest you don’t look at brides in bikinis downing tequila shots at their bachelorette parties. Instead, look at how people deal with divorces.