Home By Manju Kapur

I read this wonderful book in two blissful days. It was a quick read, but totally engrossing without being vapid. It centers around a lower middle class business family in Karol Bagh, a colony in Delhi, and encompasses two generations of the women in the family. The first generation are Sona, her sister Rupa and her sister in law Sushila. The next generation focuses on Asha, Pooja and Nisha.

The author, Manju Kapur, handles the politics within the family very descriptively. In the family the seminal values are making money for the men and for the women producing boys, taking care of elders and the men of the household. This is done by arranging marriages to preserve the status quo.

Once the basics are taken care off, jealousies, financial and educational differences in the men the women married came up. Ours and theirs is clearly differentiated. Vicky was Sushila’s son, and since she was a sister, he was always seen more as a burden, then the other children. The child abuse that Nisha faced was hidden within the depths of the family, but action was taken to remove the child from the house, where she was disturbed. Women’s education and work were seen as irrelevant, as long as the women were as educated as their husbands, college degrees or work did not come into the picture. Nisha, who did create her own business was tolerated as long as she was unmarried. After marriage, her husband and her family did not encourage or allow her to continue to work. Producing male heirs, was seen as the most fulfilling task, a women could ask for.

The author described these values without judgement, she showed, rather than told. The book reminded me of a suitable boy, with its descriptions of Indian middle class family life.

This blog has a good review of the book.