LatinosUSA

Fragments of Time: Memoirs (Notion Press, February 11, 2025) is an inspiring legacy of one person’s life of legends. In her memoir, Snigdha Agrawal weaves us into her art as though we are threads in the tapestry of her being. The “fragments” (memories) from her birth to her senior years are hardly frayed by time. The memories display vivid colors and designs. We become captivated by the quilt she is creating.
Each thread draws us into her mosaic of moments, places, celebrations, losses, and lessons learned because we are living our lives in similar ways. Our memories of childhood, school, marriage, childbearing, careers, family, aging, and so on, comprise the fabric of being human.
When people hear the word “memoir”, they think of a “tell-all”, a book of scandal and ruin. However, Agrawal writes with humility, gratitude, and joy, honoring a “life lived”. Her treasure can be handed down through her family’s generations as a pattern for how to respond to victories and losses. She reveals her deepest loves and fears. She confesses to her frailties, which are signs of true strength. Life isn’t perfect; nor are the living. She skillfully and lovingly shares her human experience, expressing a wide range of emotions that glisten from the soul: deep love and loss described in honest and raw but respectful and apologetic terms. Her humility stands out as soft silk.
Her memoir is not only a record of family history but a cultural record. Although she hails from a Hindu Brahman family in Calcutta, she had Catholic schooling. The settings in the memoir are backdrops to her comic escapades with her twin sister and the stages of a girl’s life. We can see where she is and taste what she’s eating. We can hear the laughter and songs, adore her clothing, relive her happy times and share her tears as we learn about one person growing up in India from the 1950s to present day.
Agrawal is generous. She invites us to share her life, and in that way, her words become immortal. Her children and grandchildren will appreciate her legacy. Her experiences “touch, teach and connect …across generations”. The births, the weddings, the careers, the funerals, the victories and comical mishaps—Agrawal describes each with a keen eye. Her ability to capture the sensory details belies her claims that her memories are “fragments”.
Agrawal is a skilled writer. Each chapter begins with a poem and unfolds with descriptive, expertly crafted prose that engages the reader until the last page. Each chapter also includes insights about that part of her life. These sections express gratitude for the lessons learned.
The memoir ends with a couple of chapters reflecting on her life and career from a broader perspective and her encounters with celebrities, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These chapters shift to a more expository tone as opposed to the rest of the memoir, which has literary elements. However, because this book is a legacy for family, these chapters fit the book’s objectives.
Because Snigdha and I were born a year apart, I could see myself in her life despite our being from different cultures. I related to her experiences with hearing loss in the Chapter “New Beginnings 1991 and Onward”. Because I was my mother’s main caregiver as she navigated Alzheimer’s, I was sitting beside Snigdha as she cared for her aging mother. I easily related to her conflicted emotions about the changing levels of care her mother needed (“Mother-Daughter Time” in the Chapter “New Beginnings 1991 and Onward”). And her description of her loss of her grandmother was quite moving. That chapter, “Echoes of Loss”, begins with this poem.

In the quiet corners of my heart
Your laughter lingers, a bittersweet art
Whispers of moments never to be
reclaimed
Each memory is a flicker, each shadow a name

Walking through the hallways where
memories bloom
Shadows of grief weave a tapestry of
gloom
Photos on walls, frozen in time
Reminders of love that
once felt sublime.

Fragments of Time (Memoirs) is a memoir about family, community, love, loss, resilience, understanding, humility, and gratitude. It’s not just about Snigdha Agrawal; it’s about all of us. She teaches us how to love, how to grieve, how to be joyous, how to forgive, and how to survive as frail human threads in life’s tapestry.

Purchase Link: The book is available in both Kindle ($2.99) and Paperback ($25.00) formats on Amazon.

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BIOS

Snigdha Agrawal has an MBA in Marketing and Corporate work experience of over two decades. A versatile writer, she enjoys writing all genres of poetry, prose, short stories, and travel diaries.  Educated in Loreto Institutions (run by the Irish Nuns), and brought up in a cosmopolitan environment, she has learned the best of the East and West. She is a published author of five books. A septuagenarian, her passion for writing and travelling continues unabated.  Follow her on her blog, randomramblings52.wordpress.com.

Barbara Harris Leonhard is the author of three poetry collections.  She  is the Editor for MasticadoresUSA and FEED THE HOLY, and Co-Poetry Editor for LatinosUSA-English Edition. Her blog is Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver. She loves to drive to the Wetlands to count the pelicans and deer. She dreams of lasting peace.