2 stars, because it is well written and shows a plethora of well rounded characters and a view into an important time in  Indian History. 

BUT: what really made my blood boil and wanted me to give it even negative stars is how the author handled telling the story ark of Saeeda Bai and Tasneem. The way he just didn't give any importance to the violence against women in his story. 

When Maan attacked first Saeeda Bai and then Firoz, him strangling her nearly to death and her persistent injury and the effects on her voice (her livelihood) is only mentioned in passing. There is no remorse or guilt described in Maan, while the guilt and worry for Firoz nearly eats him up and is described in detail. Not even at their next meeting, the only focus is on how he might have fallen out of love with her and no word about what he had done to her and what she had actually done for him in pretending it never happened and lying for his sake to the police. But even worse was how Seth wrote about the issue with Tasneem. The big scandal being that she was the Nawab Sahib's illegitimate daughter and Feroz's half sister while the fact that Feroz's father actually FUCKING RAPED 15 YEAR OLD SAEEDA BAI AND GOT HER PREGNANT is only mentioned in passing. If there wouldn’t be a child, this would literally not have been an issue. No reason to feel bad about or for any of the characters to acknowledge it, after they learned about it. The widely respected Nawab Sahib drunkenly raped a 15 year old child and 15 years later Maan Kapoor nearly strangled her to death out of jealousy.

 
These facts shouldn't be treated so nonchalantly as if that's a normal part of life and the way you just treat women.  Normalising violence against women is not okay today and it wasn’t okay in 1993 when this book was published.