One and a half wife
By
Meghna Pant, Westland Ltd. 2012, 296 pp, Rs. 250/-
Meghna
Pant’s debut novel is interesting and deals with social and marital issues that
the middle class face, but shy away from.
It traces the story of Amara Malhotra, who arrives in US and tries to
live her mother’s version of American dream (posh and polished lifestyle yet
Indian in values). Her efforts to
impress others by living someone else’s life always meet with failure, and her
‘Indianness’ makes her the bride of an ivy-educated millionaire, being his
mother’s choice. Then follows a life of
Jekyll & Hyde – trying to be her Indian self from within and seeming to
lead the husband-friendly lifestyle from without. She forces herself to compromise on her likes
and dislikes and tries to adjust to her husband. She ends up with a double whammy – failing to
rise up to his expectations as well as being herself. All her efforts to ‘save’ the marriage prove
futile, because her husband never wanted her in first place. The truth of the failed marriage is something
she has to come to terms with and at the same time, face the adversity of her
parents and the ostracism of the Indian American community.
Finally,
she and her parents are back in India, where they are in for a pleasant surprise
– they didn’t have to miss out on the American lifestyle and find that Indian’s
attitude became more accepting towards divorcees, though some ‘culture
preservers’ are at work.
With
the help of Shikha didi, who moves on from a painful divorce to make a new life
and Lalit, who supports divorcees in their difficult times, she comes to her
own, makes her own choices and finally becomes successful at home and at
work. Finally, she finds her perfect
mate in Lalit and also adopts the girl child of a young woman for whom the
child is only a reminder of the bitterness that marriage caused her. Also to be mentioned are her US based friends, Stacy and Ria.
Interesting- the title especially, and its justification- one for the successful marriage, and half for the failed one, and prophesied by a parrot astrologer.
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2 comments:
Interesting to read about this novel which captures nicely the present day scenario. There is an increasing trend of divorces in India due to numerous reasons such as absence of 'give & take' or 'adjustment'.
Hari
What I liked about the novel is the 'bouncing back' part! Thank you!
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