Book Summary – Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murty

  Dollar Bahu

                              by

                   Sudha Murty

Penguin Books India, 2007, 142 pp, Rs. 175/-

          My reading of Sudha Murty was intermittent.  It all changed when a friend ‘flipkart’ed a copy of her latest book, ‘The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk’.  I ordered all her available books and read them, but will summarize only three novels.  This is the first one.

Shamanna, a teacher, and Gouramma, a home maker, are a middle class and middle aged couple.  They are blessed with two sons, Chandru, an engineer with a private firm, and Girish, a clerk in a bank, and a daughter, Surabhi.  Shamanna believes in values, but Gouramma is after riches.

Chandru goes to Dharwad on a project and meets Vinuta (Vinu for short) in whose house he stays as a paying guest.  She is an orphan, looked after by a well-meaning distant relative, a student, a singer, and versatile in domestic chores.  For Chandru, it is love at first sight, but his main sight is on bigger things, like making it big in the U.S.A.  He doesn’t tell her of his feelings for her, even when he’s recalled to Bangalore only to be sent on a project to the U.S.A.

Chandru lives his ‘Dollar Dreams’, and enjoys the material comforts that the U.S. offers, but realises the need to have a family after a while.  So he writes to Vinu to ask whether she’s interested in him.

Fate has something else in store- in the interregnum, the relative of Vinu’s in whose care she lived in Dharwad, passes away, forcing her to shift to Banglore.  It is an emotional moment for her to leave the home in which she grew up, but it is heartening that she’s not disposing it off.

In Bangalore, Vinu works in the same school as Shamanna, and bumps into Girish one day.  He develops a liking for the girl and expresses it to his father who is also in favour of the alliance.  Meanwhile, Chandru’s ‘love letter’ returns to him undelivered (there’s no one residing in that home, right?) and with its return ends Chandru’s love for Vinu.

Chandru’s visit to the U.S. enable them to have a first floor in their modest home.  But that does not deter Gouramma from hoping for a ‘status’ compliance from the bride.

Since Chandru does not plan to return till he gets a green card, he doesn’t mind his younger brother getting married earlier.

Though Gouramma insists that bride’s side approach them first, Shamanna arranges it; Vinuta has no great hopes either, so she’s willing to marry a clerk.  The moment Vinu and Girish see each other, they are willing to marry each other but Gouramma throws in a spanner – of a grand wedding – and even suggests the disposing of  the house at Dharwad.  Shamanna comes in the way, and lets the boy and the girl decide.

Girish, who has taken on the complexion and attitude of his father(read: not so good looking but extremely good- natured), agrees to a simple marriage but warns Vinu that her mother, though affectionate, can act tough at times. 

The wedding photos make Chandru uneasy and jealous, but, in due course, he digests the fact.

Gouramma likes her daughter-in-law, until her elder son returns, that is.  The concern of Gouramma and Surabhi over the gifts that Chandru brings on his return is well-presented.

Suddenly, rich parents of eligible girls take notice of Gouramma. A shrewd property developer, Krishnappa, impresses Gouramma with a lavish display of gold, silver and diamonds at their farm house.  This blurs Gouramma from the reality that Jamuna, Krishnappa’s daughter, was rejected by better looking and well settled grooms because of her plain looks (whether looks alone matter is a totally different issue – it is not relevant to the plot right now).  The girl sure this alliance is not lost by being extremely amiable with Surabhi.  Gouramma is very much in favour of this alliance.  Chandru’s rendezvous with Jamuna is more like a business negotiation.

Once the alliance is finalised, Vinu is relegated to the background, only meant to take care of the household, while Gouramma and Surabhi are all over the place.  Chandru remembers Vinu’s favourite colour and buys her an aquamarine saree with a pink border costing a huge sum, despite his mother’s antagonism to it.

The mother-in-law gives up two of her gold bangles to give an expensive present to her ‘Dollar Bahu’, Jamuna. This is the beginning of the differentiation that Vinu is set to undergo.

During the wedding, Girish and Vinu work hard, while Gouramma handles money.  When Chandru leaves for the U.S., the elder daughter-in-law makes an excuse and goes back to her parents’ place and turned up only to intimate the news of her departure to the Land of Opportunity.

Vinuta subsequently becomes a forced listener to all the lavish praise of her mother-in-law for Jamuna, which hurts her. Girish takes it lightly, so she gets hurt further.

The dual standards of Gouramma while being on the hunt for a boy for Surabhi(if the boy were the only son, the in-laws would stay permanently with them, and therefor,e the boy was undesirable) and those of Surabhi herself(she can pass time with some neighbourhood boy, but she can marry only a rich boy) are well described. The efforts of Girish and Vinuta in preventing Surabhi from getting married to an a boy having a live- in girlfriend are not appreciated by the mother- daughter duo. On top of it, Gouramma and Surabhi took out their anger on Vinu – she is blamed as the one creating a ruckus in the family.

The date of Surabhi’s wedding is fixed to suit the timing of Jamuna’s convenience.  Alas, poor Vinuta is packed off to Dharwad for her confinement, all because Chandru’s contribution to the wedding was higher.

Jamuna lavishes Surabhi with a lot of sarees at the latter's wedding, which Vinu is unable to. In addition, Vinuta’s services to her mother-in-law in a case of suspected cancer are quickly forgotten because the lump is benign!

By the time Jamuna is expecting a child, Vinu is only expected to take instructions and no longer recognised as a human.

The prayers of the mother-in-law for the safe delivery of Jamuna hurt Vinu further. Nothing was done by Gouramma when she was in the family way!

Gouramma is very excited to be in the U.S. for Jamuna’s delivery.  She makes some friends of the friends of Chandru and her conversations with them on their experiences open her mind to progressive thinking.  A baby girl is born, and pampered by her grandma,who slowly realises that the 'Dollar Bahu' is only a pretender and had no genuine concern for her.  The fact that the sarees presented to Surabhi for her wedding were used sarees comes as a shock to Gouramma; the last straw on the camel’s back comes when Gouramma overhears her ‘Dollar Bahu’ tell her friends that by bringing in the mother-in-law, she got a cheap baby sitter who took good care of her daughter.  She also makes a reference to the fact that the loving Vinu is looked down upon.

By the time Gouramma is back in India, she realises that Vinu, Girish and their son had gone to Dharwad.  Vinu’s health had deteriorated because of the double standards, so the understanding father-in-law had advised them to take a transfer.

The story of a betrothed groom who dumps his bride to get married to an American Indian, of the Bangalore doctor who double-charges Chandru since he is from the U.S. and of others who survived the difficulties in U.S. to become successful are interwoven with the main plot.  ‘Dollar Bahu’ or not, it is very common to find mothers-in-law showing favouritism towards a richer daughter-in-law or towards a daughter vis-à-vis a daughter-in-law.

The characterization in India is in Bangalore and Dharwad, but readers can easily relate to them.  I enjoyed reading the book.

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