Book Review
Desperate Housewives!
Khademul Islam
This is a tale about four white women in India, married to Indians, but very much the outsiders, the memsahibs. The quartet consists of Michelle, French; Sandy, American; Jane and Gertrude, English; and Louise, Canadian--desperate housewives all, but without the redeeming, counter-intuitive allure of their kind. It is a forgettable book, where the characters teeter from being patronizing, (this is Sandy reflecting on her Indian mother-in-law):
Sandy had heard from others about the miserable life Mataji had been forced to lead. Married at fifteen to a dissolute rake and with a mother-in-law who was both dominating and formidable, it was a wonder that she had not emerged, after all those years, totally subjugated and spiritless. In some marvelous way she had retained her own individuality...to being culturally marooned, with a characteristic absence of humour or irony, (as witness Jane at a Holi festival):
One by one, total strangers came up and pressed their coloured hands over her body, poured ink-like water over her hair and her clothes. She tried to run away but they refused to let her go, and all the time there was the high, silly laughter...She was crying with fright, temper and rage--but no one noticed her tears...Jane sobbed with rage. She could hardly speak: 'Savages, barbarians--that's what they are! I never want to see Aroon and Savitri again. Never. Their sophistication--their civilized behaviour--are not even skin deep. I refuse to have them in the house!' Since all these exhausting occurrences/thoughts take place amid fragrant coffee, frosted lipstick, ardent chocolate tarte, and beautiful furniture, one would have hoped that it would go some way in easing the agony of living in this dreary sub-continent. But it doesn't, and the characters get perhaps what they deserve: more of existence at this plane. At one level one supposes the book does reflect reality, but if this is the inner life of most white women living in South Asia, heaven help us! Khademul Islam is literary editor, The Daily Star.
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The Girls from Overseas by Nergis Dalal; New Delhi: Penguin India; 2005 reprint; pp. 210; Rs. 120 |
