About a book

I recently read this book by a British-born Indian author, Meera Syal. I have to admit at this juncture, that I have never read any books by any Indian author, born Indian or born abroad, except for a book by Khushwant Singh, "The Train To Pakistan". That book was bought out of curiousity to see what an Indian author would write in a presumably foreign language, English. I was impressed by that book, which was based on the Indo-Pakistan border split in 1947. The book gave the impression that Indians and Pakistanis didn't like what their respective governments were doing. The Hindus and Muslims living together in a small border town eventually had to undergo a painful separation. The book was quite real.

Now, to come back to Meera Syal's "Life isn't all ha ha hee hee". I picked it up at random from the library so I had absolutely no idea what to expect out of a book written by an Indian; the being-born-british didn't really get to me in the beginning. Her name was Indian, and thats all I looked at before picking it up. It so happens my choice for reading wasn't a bad one. The book is about three punjabi women living in London, from which I am inclined to think there is a higher population of punjabi people there compared to any other Indian community. In the same lines, I think Halifax has a majority of a south-indian population, in general, as I was able to find a dosa place downtown quite easily.

Back to the book. Its about this three women, as I mentioned earlier. All three of them are different, awfully different, but together as friends. All of them are in their mid-30s, that stage of life where even if you are married, life is insecure for a while. If you lose whatever is holding you as one piece, you lose everything - your life, your marriage, your kids, your friends, your everything. Something like this happens to each one of them - think trust and betrayal... these two words should cover most of what happens between friends I guess. And there are the men, the men of each of their lives, the men who stayed, the men who cheated, the men who made a passing difference...

As I read the book, I marvelled at the way the author brought about the "male" part of Indian men; the usual "I-am-the-man-of-the-house-you-should-bow-down-to-me" attitude of Indian men, elevated mostly by the attitude of the women in the house; the "wife-should-be-at-home-and-reproduce-sons-and-keep-house" dream of Indian men; the "I-always-need-to-have-another-woman-apart-from-the-wife-for-everything-else" thoughts of Indian men. Though I had always known that 70% of Indian men adhere to these strict rules, reading about how they go about it was fascinating. Come to think of it, I think I should say that the men in India are not this bad... Its the ones abroad, the ones who left India to live as Indians elsewhere, that do such things.

I have always noticed that second-generation Indians living abroad, who have no chance of going back to the country they claim to be from, live in an indian time-zone that is twenty or thirty years behind. They would get the shock of their lives if they ever visit India... India has changed in a lot of ways. Yes, there are some places where people still stick to cultures and traditions and fear them, but elsewhere, people are changing to a new dimension, where the same cultures and traditions don't bother them anymore.

Though this blog never shaped up the way I wanted it to in the first place, I am still posting it coz my thoughts sort-of flowed off and I didn't want to waste them. If interested, this book is a good read... the author has a lovely sense of humor with which every word in the book comes to life. "Tussi great ho" Meera Syal. And yes, this book is surely a reality check, but mingles with comedy so much that you would laugh your heads off, thinking about the India in London and the India in India.