Review- A Minute to Death by Ganga Bharani

Blurb: Young, vivacious and an aspiring writer, Riya wants nothing more from her longtime crush/boyfriend than to let her in on one of his exciting investigations. After all, what better source material for a book than a real life tragedy? No-nonsense veteran cop, Rohan picks a case of probable suicide to satisfy Riya’s needs. Little does he know that there is more to this case than meets the eye. What made the victim hang herself at the break of dawn? What is the secret that her group of friends is hiding? Will Riya be able to salvage a workable plot for her upcoming novel out of this case of seemingly simple suicide?







Writing a book is a tough job. One gives their sweat, blood and time to finish a manuscript, then through the rigmarole of editing, multiple drafts and beta reading, and then readying the book for publication. Finding the right publisher and getting accepted is another task altogether.
The world judges a book by its cover. I don't judge a book at all. I live it, love it and breathe it.
Ganga Bharani's second baby is good. I am not saying it's not.
But as an avid reader of crime fiction and suspense novels, there are some things I have picked up about writing a crime novel from the greats like Sir Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and James Patterson and others.
1. Not everyone can condense a crime story into a 100 pages and still manage a credible tone throughout. One does it only after extensive practice. Some good examples of the perfect crime novella would be Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, and Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced. In this case, the author should have stuck to writing a longer version- a novel.
2. I liked the theme of the novel- an aspiring crime novelist going to crime scenes to do some research for her book. I also liked the way the relation between Rohan and Riya has been portrayed. What I didn't find convincing, however, is the dialogue between them- it sounds phony and sketchy.
3. Also, Rohan spends more time playing Romeo than doing his job, working the case. Cops don't have that sort of time, underpaid and overworked as they are. They don't have the leisure to hang out in coffee shops with their girlfriends. In a romantic suspense, the romance should be very carefully interspersed with the main crime story-especially in a police procedural.
4. The novel should have been, ideally, a 200 plus page affair, where the psyche of the killer, the media attention the murders garnered and the impact of the killings on the cops investigating and the victims' families should have been explored. I would suggest that the author, apart from reading extensively, watch crime shows like Criminal Minds, CSI, True Detective and Castle to learn more about handling the various aspects of a crime story in a novel form.
5. I liked the idea of how Riya uses analytical software to study the social media profiles of the victims. I also like how the suspense builds up, but the ending sounds contrived. That's why, the novel should have been longer so that the climax had looked inevitable and logical rather than forced. 97 pages leave no meat of a story for a crime novel aficionado to chew. A good story, with great potential, comes to an incipient-looking ending- like when you immerse firecrackers in water.

That covered, let me now come to my biggest problem with the story- language, the big L. And, of course, grammar. It goes without saying that there are errors in grammar and punctuation- in almost every line. And the prose is languid and flaccid and uninspiring. What is inspiring prose? It's prose that not only ignites the reader's imagination, but also makes one want to write. This prose just made me want to edit and re-write the entire book- my entire reading experience was hampered.
It shows that inspite of having potential, the author didn't even self-edit. She hasn't read extensively in the crime genre, and also hasn't practiced writing enough- two VITAL instruments in any writer's toolkit. Perhaps she hasn't gone through the whetting process any writer must go through- writing  practice, getting the work critiqued by fellow writers, then finishing her first draft, rewriting, editing, and then getting feedback from beta readers, then readying the novel for submission to publishers. Having read hundreds of books, I can tell.

As a writer myself, I wrote, got my work critiqued, then wrote more and got more feedback from other writers for three years before my books got accepted. And today, I find myself a much better writer than what I was 3 years back.
The author's work is still in the preliminary stage, where it needs extensive whetting to mature.

Because a writer's work DOESN'T start and end at publication.

It starts with extensive reading, grows with extensive writing and critique, spreads through publication and never ends.

You can buy the book here: A Minute to Death

Review- Just You, Me and a Secret by Ganga Bharani

Blurb: Just You, Me And A Secret is a story of an amnesiac, Meera, who battles between her past and present. 

Meera Prabhu wakes up after a terrible accident with absolutely no memory of herself. She sees a stranger in the mirror and seems to be living with another stranger, Ashruth, a doctor by profession and a clown by appearance. He claims that he is her fiancé. They were engaged to be married and would have been married already if not for the accident. He keeps on emphasizing on how much she loved him and yet, he keeps her apart from her family for her 'mental state'. Armed with what seems to be her personal diary, Meera tries to grasp her identity and her reality. But no matter how hard she tries, she just seems to be unable to connect. 
In the present she develops a strange liking for Santhosh, a childhood friend. Does he love her the same way she does? Will the marriage be called off? 
Will Meera break through the hurdles in front of her and be able to connect to her friends and family again? Most importantly, will she ever regain her identity again? 
Disclaimer: I downloaded this book from Amazon while it was Free for a day.

Ever since I was a child, I have been a voracious reader of crime and mystery novels. Starting from Enid Blyton to Sherlock Holmes, to Agatha Chrsitie to modern writers like James Patterson, Michael Connolly, Mary Higgins Clark, Thomas Harris and others, I have internalized crime and suspense stories as if they are an evolutionary adaptation mechanism, a basic need. I live, breathe and even write mysteries.

Therefore, I cannot take a badly written mystery novel. And I've read one or two of them too.

Problem is, Bharani's novel is NOT one of the bad ones.

Story-wise, the book is quite good.

I like the intriguing note on which it starts- a girl, waking up, in a hospital, with absolutely no idea of where she is, or who she is. Sure, it's not a new trope in suspense. But the author handles it quite well.

The story develops well. I like the way Meera's story has been narrated, and her ordeal shown, being caged inside a house with a man she doesn't remember, and whom she instinctively shies away from. I also liked the way Meera and Santosh's characters have been developed- even Ashruth's character is mildly interesting.

But I found some parts very odd- like the abrupt, unrealistic way in which Meera gets her first boyfriend. On the other hand, the way she falls for the wrong man, after her break-up, has been handled quite well.

That brings me to my first grouse with this book: Language and Grammar.

There are many, many language problems in this book- basic problems. There are typos, wrong or awkward use of words, odd sentences and turns of phrases, purple prose and even wrong grammar, like over or under use of articles etc. I have a language fetish, therefore I like a well-written book, which is clean of the aforementioned errors. Bad language hampers my reading experience, and puts me off the book faster than I can blink. The prose is languid, jarring and distinctly uninspiring.

I wish the book was better written. It is not sufficient to have a good story- language and grammar IS important. If the language used to communicate the story is bad, how will the story connect with the reader?

Did the author or the publisher not realize, or bother to correct those mistakes during proofing or editing?

My second grouse is the way the author has handled the climax of the novel.

For us suspense lovers, the denouement of a mystery is the highest point of our reading experience. A well-written suspense novel builds up the mystery in a manner that sets readers' hearts pumping- and then gives us a climax to the story, a climax befitting of our admiration and that makes us go 'Wowie! X was the killer! Or- Oh! So Y is actually Z! And Z is actually A!'

Here, the author rushes through the climax, robbing it of a necessary dramatic flair that one sees in novels by the great Sir Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie. Every suspense novelist must know how to incorporate this dramatic flair in the structure and prose of their story, or the flawed execution just kills the joy of reading the book.

Had the author shown us the explanation at the end, rather than making the culprit narrate it, it would have been a much more hard-hitting story.

Verdict: I would suggest the author practice writing to improve her language, style and prose. Here, her writing is precocious and needs refinement- which will come from reading plenty of books- and I mean PLENTY- and writing practice every day. The author must write short stories to hone her craft, and get her work critiqued by more experienced authors. I would also suggest she critically read more thrillers to see how the climax is executed.
The book also needs extensive editing and rewrites. I have been critical and harsh in this review because I expect better from the author. She is a friend, and I would love to see her grow as a writer and produce better literature.

Just You, Me and a Secret is a badly written good story, to sum up.

As a side note, let me point out that there is no need to say 'Suspense Romance Thriller'- redundant wording and odd phrasing. Just saying 'Romantic Suspense' or Romantic Thriller' would suffice.

But if you're not to hung up on language and grammar, and want to read a good mystery to kill time, you can buy the book here: Just You, Me and a Secret

Book Review- The Scion of Ikshvaku by Amish

Blurb: Ram Rajya. The Perfect Land. But perfection has a price. He paid that price.

3400 BCE.INDIA

Ayodhya is weakened by divisions. A terrible war has taken its toll. The damage runs deep. The demon King of Lanka, Raavan, does not impose his rule on the defeated. He, instead, imposes his trade. Money is sucked out of the empire. The Sapt Sindhu people descend into poverty, despondency and corruption. They cry for a leader to lead them out of the morass. Little do they appreciate that the leader is among them. One whom they know. A tortured and ostracised prince. A prince they tried to break. A prince called Ram.

He loves his country, even when his countrymen torment him. He stands alone for the law. His band of brothers, his Sita, and he, against the darkness of chaos.

Will Ram rise above the taint that others heap on him? Will his love for Sita sustain him through his struggle? Will he defeat the demon Lord Raavan who destroyed his childhood? Will he fulfill the destiny of the Vishnu?

Begin an epic journey with Amishs latest- the Ram Chandra Series.

Sometimes someone like me must read someone like Amish. And sometimes, I must risk giving a review on his books because I consider myself a serious purveyor of literature, and a keen observer of publishing trends. Of course, I will be very unpopular among a few of my writer friends who wouldn't like my approach very much. But I must speak out, air my opinion, because that's what I'm like.

I'll be brief in this review, because I have nothing much to say here. Sadly, Amish's latest book doesn't deserve a lengthy review at all. I have written lengthy reviews in the past for books which were examples of serious literature, or at least worth a review. But this book is...the reason I'm writing a review is NOT just a comment on the book, but a commentary on the quality of 'popular literature' in India as well.

So like the Shiva trilogy, Amish has once again done a retelling of ancient Hindu epics- through the Ram Chandra series. He has attempted a new spin on the Ramayana- albeit with a contemporary feel to it. Raavan the demon king's juggernaut looks suspiciously akin to a modern day helicopter, for example. Ram rolls his eyes at his half-brother Bharat, who, before he falls in love, is sort of a Casanova, liaising with many girls- Ram is simply stunned at the number of girlfriends around Bharat, a babe magnet. The four brothers are shown to be loving and caring of each other; Manthara is a cunning but savvy businesswoman, Kaikeyi is a through-and-through bitch who wants to keeps both her husband and her son under her thumb; Kaushalya and Sumitra are demure queens who constantly ingratiate themselves to the misogynist, pig-headed, unreasonable, and borderline psychotic Emperor Dashrath. Ram was born on the same day as his father was defeated by Raavan, so Dashrath hates him for years with a vengeance and wrongly accuses him of being the reason the Sapt Sindhu lost to Lanka. Political intrigue is attempted through the wily, scheming Guru Vishwamitra and the rational, kind Vashishta, who backs Ram and Lakshman, and who trust him too.

Amish tries to inject a mythological fantasy with contemporary issues plaguing society, and he does this well- to an extent. He does it MUCH better than Chetan Bhagat, who CLAIMS to handle such issues in his 'books' but SHORTCHANGES the reader every time. Amish doesn't- he does touch upon plenty of relevant issues.

There is a gang-rape (aka Delhi 2012), and a brutal retaliation, there is debate on the Juvenile Justice Law- which was recently amended so that minors can be tried as adults in crimes like rape, and murder. There is a raging debate on 'masculine' and 'feminine' societies. Masculine as in patriarchal, feminine as in matriarchal? Most of the debate went over my head- and there arises my first problem with the book. Too much debate! The characters, at times look more like competing professional debate teams than characters in a mytho-fantasy. I actually rolled my eyes on having to read a debate in every chapter- I don't want a debate when I'm not in the mood, Amish. There is a time and place for that. You can, instead, write blog posts where your characters talk, or hold online webinars. If your characters must air their opinions, let it be through scenes, or incidents where the characters act upon this belief. Don't impose debates on me when I expect you to tell a story. It sounds preachy. You're telling a story, not doling out advice.

The other problems like cleanliness, city-planning, law and order, how to follow rules, blah blah blah have also been touched upon (PHEW!).

Ram's emphasis on following the law is an issue that pervades throughout the book- and the author has used this quality of his as a motivation to tell a different story than the one in popular Hindutva discourse, which I read as a kid.

Somehow, everyone in the book seems either tall and muscular or dark and muscular or fair and muscular. Do people in mytho-fantasies look all the same- are their looks all in the same damn three categories? People in real life don't look so same, BTW. Please try and imagine different-looking characters in your next, Amish. 

That brings me to my biggest grouse with the book- the plot. Amish has seriously lost the plot in this book of his, sadly. I thought the Shiva trilogy was fairly good, because Amish told a good story, and did his research well. The Shiva series had the plot as its redeeming USP. Something which this new novel doesn't have. If I explain why, I'll seriously give away the plot, so I'll just say that certain events, which are kind of important according to me, have been glossed over. It's like the author was hurrying through this book so he can, perhaps, provide a steady plot in the next one.

Didn't work for me. Although my knowledge of Hindu mythology is sketchy, at best, I still have a good idea about what makes a story good, what plot points deserve a big mention and what don't. What points should be stretched in detail to contribute to the plot, and what should be left alone. Retelling of a popular epic does not mean that you can just trail-blaze through the events like you're doing a running commentary. For eg- in the Shiva books, the one thing I like the most is the way Shiva and Parvati's relationship has been depicted. Here, although Ram does fall in love, at first sight, with Sita in a nicely written scene ( one of the very few that dot the book), there is no passion, no love intrigues, no silly games, no emotionally loaded lovemaking. I don't want sex scenes, no. I just want to feel their love and rejoice in it, I want to empathize with Ram when Raavan kidnaps his wife, I want to feel the depth of his anger, his indignation, his rage when his brave and beloved wife is targeted in this manner.

That brings me to reiterate the well-known fact that Amish is, at best, an average writer. What makes his book tick is the plot, and the good research. His prose is dull, uninspiring, and horrifyingly pedestrian. Now, Westland is a prestigious publisher- one which would have made lots of money from the sales of Amish's books. Why couldn't they hire a better editor? I found the SAME GLARING FLAW in the Shiva books- pedestrian, languid prose and horrible editing. Can't they find someone who can even marginally make Amish's writing better? But then, if the writer is average, how much can the editor do?

People who are first time readers will think Amish's writing is top-quality. But readers like me, who have been reading for more than two decades, and have read some of the stalwarts like Agatha Christie, Sir Conan Doyle, Dostoevsky and all Russian authors, Enid Blyton, VS Naipaul, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Marquez, Steinbeck etc. etc. etc. will make out the flaws in Amish's writing easily.

Just knowing English and English words and grammar and punctuation doesn't make you a good author. Knowing how to weave these words into beautiful prose is.

Since I'm reviewing this book, let me give you some examples from India itself. Recently I read Anees Salim and Cyrus Mistry, and then I read Amish. And I realized something. Salim, Mistry and his brother Rohinton, who is also a great author, Jeet Thayil, Vikram Seth etc. etc- these are quality authors. I, and people who read lit-fic, relate to them better. And yes, literary fiction is not the only serious literature, but it is serious. But these authors never get their due, never get the publicity, the merit and the public adulation they deserve for respecting the venerated craft of writing.

Film director Shekhar Kapur commented that Amish is 'India's first literary pop-star'.

Problem is, Mr. Kapur, we discerning readers don't need pop-stars in literature. We need serious writers who practice diligently to hone their skills to the zenith, and give us excellent stories which are also well-written, which appeal to readers like me. We readers need more Cyrus Mistry-s, more Naipauls, more Salims. Who write something serious and lasting. Time-pass writers who write time-pass stories for the masses are fine...but only to a certain limit.

Literature, if besieged with pop-stars, will wither and die. Good literature, I mean. And if one wants to be a punk, the literary equivalent of a leather-jacket wearing, funky-song singing pop-star, will receive the treatment most modern pop-stars receive. No one will take them seriously. They will be a trend, a temporary craze, a fleeting madness that will disappear when someone else comes along.

Writers improve as they write more books- Amish does the exact opposite. The quality of his prose has not improved...and his novel has gone from okay to bad- this is the opposite of improvement.

This 'pop-star' analogy seriously worries me about the quality of upcoming literature in society. Hopefully Amish will improve a bit in his next book- this one's not really worth all the hype, hoopla and star-studded launches it's getting ( public's love for Amish notwithstanding).

But I don't know if I will read Amish's next. This one has put me off in a big way.

But if you still like literary pop-stars, please go ahead and read this book. But except for a few good paragraphs and scenes, it is completely insipid and lack-luster.

Flipkart

Review- Maya's New Husband by Neil D'Silva

Blurb: In the suburbs of Mumbai, the atmosphere is grim. There is an evil shadow lurking around staling and snatching able -bodied people. The hapless victims are never found again,their bodily traces lost forever in the unknown reaches of the city. In the midst of this is Maya Bhargava, a schoolteacher with a troublesome past. Her career looks promising though.She is learning to pick the broken pieces of her heart and move on. While still trying to cope, love comes her way. It comes most unexpectedly, from a man named Bhaskar Sadachari, who is despised and even feared for his weird ways. The sensible Maya has her head in the right place,but it is her heart that refuses to pay. She chooses the new husband. And the horror begins to unfold.




Horror in the traditional Indian context- in both movies and fiction- has been about bhooth, pishaach, dayan, chuddell, athmaas and the like- supernatural creatures that haunt peepul tress and old havelis and palaces, and terrorize men and women who dare to encounter them. Unfortunately, this horror theme has been so done to death by writers and filmmakers that it has lost its zing. Let's talk about horror novels. The same old, lame old story is thrown at the wary reader- the old, decrepit haveli or palace, the same Rajasthani locales, the same myths about ghosts wanting vengeance haunting the Earth decades after dying. Lame. Boring.
Therefore, kudos to Neil for going down the path never taken- for writing a horror story based on cannibals and crime. For bringing out the horror that resides within the human brain- aka Thomas Harris in his excellent Hannibal series, and Arnab Ray in his novel, The Mine.
I liked the concept about exploring aghori babas- ascetics who reside in Hindu cemeteries, cover themselves in nothing but ashes of the dead, worship Lord Shiva and eat the flesh of the dead.
I remember Aghoris from a documentary I saw on a news channel years ago- where I came to know that cannibalism, ordinarily punishable by law and stomach-churning for a normal person, is practiced as a ritual by some ascetics, and it has religious sanction.
The pivot of Aghoris on which the novel is based makes it all the more intriguing, because of all the mystery these people have built around them- their uniqueness, their weird practices, their staying with chutzpah in places we consider haunted.
The characters are interesting too. Especially Maya Bhargava- the female MC. My feminist self liked her independent, headstrong nature- she's professionally successful, bold enough to teach at an all boys' school despite the stares she gets from the teenage, hormone-struck lads there, and stubborn enough to live life on her terms.
I also liked the character of the sister Namrata- also an independent lady living life on her terms.
I didn't, however, like the character of their mother, Anuradha. I understand that the author meant to portray her as a traditional Marathi woman struggling to come to terms with an increasingly modernizing society around her, but sometimes the descriptions are excessive. Here, my feminist self thinks it's horribly regressive for a woman to think the only thing that gives her value is her ability to cook sweets on Hindu festivals. A woman who measures her worth on such ridiculous benchmarks is a female misogynist. Anuradha is way too regressive and dogmatic for a woman who has two headstrong adult daughters who march to the sound of their own drums.
Also, it is  a little surprising that all three women living in the same house are excellent cooks. Why do ALL women HAVE to be great cooks all the time? That is quite an offensive stereotype. Coming from someone who is an average cook at best- and whose mother is an excellent cook.
I would also add that I had a problem with what Maya did after marriage. When she found herself in dire straits, why didn't she lift a finger to change her circumstances? A strong, intelligent woman like her could have easily managed. Why didn't she stand up to her husband's temper problem? Why didn't she force him to move out of the dumpster they lived in? Why was a tough lady like her so scared of her husband- whom she married out of love? Why did she stay in a marriage where she and Bhaskar had no communication except violent sex at night? Why didn't she bother to find out where he went during the day? How could she stay put in a cold turkey of a marriage? I can understand the stuff about compromising for love and all that, but there's a limit. And how did a working woman like her settle SO quickly into domesticity? How can an intelligent, lively woman not care where her husband goes and what he does? If she was so scared of asking, then why'd she bother to remain his wife anyway?
I also liked the character of Bhaskar Sadachari. I liked the way his past and present has been stitched together to explain his behavior- if I say I'll be essentially giving away the plot.
But wait.
That gets me to my main grouse with the story. Despite having an excellent theme and base, MNH reveals the suspense too early. Now here comes my 'experience'- whatever little it is- with crime novels. Because this novel also has crime- murders, cannibalism- as essential themes.
As a crime writer myself, I know that psychopaths, like the one in this book, are charming people on the outside. They dress, live and present themselves in a way that makes the world believe they're good people. Look at Hannibal Lecter- genius psychiatrist, great culinarian, gifted with excellent social skills and a charming personality. Who could have thought he could turn out to be a cannibal?
But in MNH, that there is something wrong with Bhaskar is revealed too early. It's obvious from his looks, from his behavior, from his dressing sense. Everyone- Maya's mom and sister, her friend Padma and other school students find Bhaskar off-putting. That took the 'shock' element out of the novel- stole its punchline and rendered it less potent than it could have been.
In a crime-horror, you never reveal anything wrong with the character who is the antagonist till the last or second-last scene. You detail the crimes- which Neil has done very well, there are some genuinely puke-inducing scenes- but you keep the identity of the murderer secret.
You reveal it at the last- when the climax comes. Here, if Maya had found out about her husband later- through her own investigations or a tip-off from, say, her friend Padma, who accidentally found out Bhaskar's reality, then the novel could have gone BAM on me. Like, WOWIE! The adorable gentleman, the loving husband Bhaskar is not what he seems?
The writing is good, the prose is eloquent but a bit too verbose in places. Sometimes, too much description and similes spoil the fun of reading.
In some places there are grammatical and typo errors. Some of these grammar errors have been caused by neologisms creeping in- like at one point the author writes 'it was the neighboring woman'. Now I think adding the 'ing' is redundant- it is a result of what some call 'Indian-ness'. Actually we just say : It was the neighbor. Gender can be specified later, or in a different version of the same sentence.
Other redundancies are the love scenes between Hemant and Namrata. There is no other background on these two except that both are horny lovers. It would have sufficed if the author had shown Hemant as Namrata's boyfriend in the beginning, through a meeting between him and her family, and then, at last, they both could have come to Maya's rescue.The sub-plot describing the sex was not necessary. The reason for Namrata not taking Maya's calls- she was busy with her boyfriend- could have just been hinted at.
That brings me to my last nitpick. Initially, I praised MNH for choosing Aghori Babas and their cannibalistic practices as the basis for the plot.
The thing about novels on cannibals and other psychopaths, like the Hannibal series, is that they describe a deviation, a warped mentality, an illness that is all too real.
Ghosts are scary, true, but it's not clear whether they actually exist or not.
Much more chilling than evil spirits and demons are the real life serial killers, rapists and other such samples. Because they detail human depravity, something that comes from the darkness within us.
Their depraved actions can chill you to the bone and make your blood run cold in your veins- that's the effect of the aftermath of psychopathy and criminal behavior.
That's why, in a novel about cannibalistic psychopaths, you don't bring in an Aghori who can predict the future and trace his dead comrade through his 'senses' alone. It sounds like some plot out of a Ramsay movie- and it is ridiculous. It's out of place in a gritty novel showing human depravity.
Yeah, you could show such people as delusional fools masquerading as ascetics lost in grandiose delusions of their greatness.
But you don't bring in supernatural stuff in a novel on criminal psychopaths. Never.
Unless it suits the story. Or you are a genius like Stephen King, who can write a horror combining hardened criminals and evil ghosts with fantastic smartness and skill. Read his Bag of Bones, Dolores Clairborne, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Black House.
But very few authors can write horror like King. So when you're writing a gritty thriller about a cannibal, stick to portraying characters of the cannibal- something the author has done very well. Full marks on that.

I wish the author, whom I know personally as a writer, all the best for his next book. He is genuinely talented, and I have critiqued him a bit harshly because I expect the best from him- he is among the best.

But please do read the book if you want a breather from boring, lacklustre Bollywood matinee movies like Alone, Creature and Ek Paheli Leela. And boring horror novels too.

You can order the book here: http://www.amazon.in/Mayas-New-Husband-Neil-DSilva/dp/9385137077/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1434727759&sr=1-1

Happy Reading!!

Review- Sita's Curse: The Language of Desire by Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

First of all, kudos to the author for daring to write on a topic deliberately suppressed in the annals of public debate in India.

Meera is a girl living in a nondescript village in Gujarat, with her twin brother Kartik and her parents. From the outside she is just another girl living the life her parents have envisioned for her within the defined patriarchal constructs of society- go to school, learn 'ghar-ka-kaam-kaaj' at home, and then once you pass twelfth grade, get married and settle down for a domestic life.

But Meera's mind and heart have a clandestine world of their own...a world where she slowly realizes her own sexuality, desires, her quest for true love and a passionate, fulfilling relationship and her bid for an identity of her own, as she blossoms into a beautiful adolescent, and undergoes many secret intrigues and encounters with people she comes across. At the same time, her world is turned upside down by a tragedy and that part of her life swiftly comes to an end.

Her new life begins as the daughter-in-law of the Patel family, who move to Mumbai and stay in a chawl in Byculla.

The real meat of the story lies here.

Sreemoyee deftly carves out a tale of how Meera survives in her new surroundings. Stuck in a loveless, soulless marriage and sharing a blow-hot, blow-cold relationship with her much older husband, she tries to find a little iota of love from him. Only to get either complete indifference or abuse- verbal,physical, emotional, sexual.
Her in-laws also humiliate her at every turn, blaming her 'planets' for whatever goes wrong in the household and cursing her and her family.=, and blaming her for not conceiving a child. She also suffers a miscarriage in this period.
The Patels also undergo a lot of changes through the fifteen years Meera is with them, interspersed with Meera's attempts to find love outside marriage, to find that one man who can both love her and pleasure her, to assert her sexuality, to be desired and cherished.
Until one day, July 26, 2005, when Mumbai is under the deluge of torrential rains, she finds her salvation- which also forms the climax of the novel.

Sita's Curse is more than a feminist erotica. It is not an Indian 50 Shades of Grey. It is a commentary on the hypocrisies of Indian society, the tyranny of the patriarchal constructs, which suppresses the identity, human rights and sexuality of a woman, taking away her right to make decisions regarding her body, her life partner, her career, her lifestyle. The hypocrisy that says to keep women shut within the four walls of a house to keep her 'safe' from outsiders...and then abuse and torture her within the house. It is a commentary on domestic violence and marital rape.

One must not be misled by the amount of sex in the book. To be fair, this is an erotica, and Sreemoyee has described the encounters in a passionate, colorful manner, and not a titillating way. She writes of sex both as a physical and emotional phenomena- which is not to be found in the other trashy, pulpy novels by most other Indian authors flooding the book market in India.

The amalgam of commentary on social psyche, sexual violence and sexual hypocrisy through the plot and the characters must be appreciated.

Also, Sreemoyee writes very well...no grammatical mistakes or punctuation errors, and her lyrical, non-linear prose is a delight to my reader's sensibilities.

Meera must not be seen just as Meera (which has caused some reviewers to unfairly refer to her as a nymphomaniac), but as an epitome of all that is wrong with the prevalent attitudes towards women in India, as a symbol of every woman straining to assert her independence, her sexuality and take charge of her body and her life, as a symbol of every woman that longs to be seen as a human being and loved and cherished and pleasured.

Very few writers can co-relate love and sexual pleasure successfully- Sreemoyee has done that very effectively.

The only two nitpickings I will point out:
1. I would have liked a much bigger elaboration of Meera and Kartik's incestuous relationship.
2. I felt that the character of Amarkant Maharaj, under the guise of his piety, takes advantage of a young and gullible Meera, rapes her ( with the knowledge of her husband Mohan's family, who know Mohan is sterile) and tries to cover it up by some pseudo-spiritual clap-trap. It reminded me of Swami Nityananda, Asaram Bapu and all those 'God men' in jail for sex crimes against female devotees. I don't know how the author intended to portray him, but I would have liked it better if she had painted him as a rapist (and a nymphomaniac) on the basis of his actions.

Sita's Curse is an important book which needs to be read. Both for its level of writing, and for the issues and questions regarding women's autonomy it raises.

You can buy the book from here:


1.  http://www.amazon.in/Sitas-Curse-Sreemoyee-Piu-Kundu/dp/935009780X

2. http://www.flipkart.com/sita-s-curse-language-desire-english/p/itmdva52fuhh4vfz