Back round of the novel;
The plot of the story "Keeping corner" starts with Leela's overall life before being widowed. This young girl was spoiled all her life and her family wanted the best for her but when she finds out that her husband Ramanlal dies of a snake bite from a Kalotar, her family falls apart. Leaving Leela and Ramanlal's family heart-broken after his death, Leela must go through "Keeping Corner" for a whole year and follow strict rules that she thinks is pointless. She wants to break tradition and live her own life as a widow but her father is very strict and makes her follow the harsh customs. Leela has a hard life giving up the things she loves most from her hair to her wardrobe. She still does her studies for school with the help of Saviben and she tries to convince her father to let her break tradition because she can't handle following the customs of widow-hood. As if Leela has more things to stress about, her cousin Shani (who is beautiful, has her hair, is artistically skilled in art, and has a really good husband is envied from Leela) lives with Leela to be closer to the family and to catch up with the family and Leela can't stand Shani because of her beauty inside and out. Shnai and Leela get along and teach each other new things but at the same time it's taking the family a while to get over the death of Ramanlal. Leela's brother want her to move to the big city with him so she can continue her studies at a boarding school but she can't because she's a widow and her father is strict about the things Leela does. Leela's brother cares for her and he tries to help her with her widow issues and how she wants to live her own life but then she builds up courage to confront her father about her concerns. She then is successful with her reasoning to her father and moves to the big city for her career and studies.
The main issues that occur in the novel is basically Leela's family getting over Ramanlal's death, Leela's widow-hood problems, her father not helping her what so ever, and trust. The main theme of the novel is based on the tragedy of Ramanlal and how Leela finds a way out of her misery, the theme of this novel is "You should always respect and listen to your parents in life as your guide, but you should always live your life the what you want to live it and make your own ending and decisions".