Author: Amita Trasi
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Pages: 416
Date Started: 24 December 2021
Date Finished: 27 December 2021
The first reason for me choosing this book was the rating on Goodreads. I was at a used bookstore looking for a book to read over the holidays and couldn't stop myself from buying this after I read the synopsis and the rating. I should also mention that I have been reading quite a few books by Indian authors and most of my books have been by female authors too. The picture of two girls in front of Gateway of India, Mumbai was another reason I picked up this book.
The story starts with Tara, who lives in the United States of America, visiting India to get an update about a case her father filed for a girl who was abducted from their house in Mumbai about 11 years ago. The girl was Mukta, who is a daughter of a devdasi, living with her mother and grandmother Sakubai, in Ganipur, located on the border of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Mukta who is pushed into becoming a prostitute or a temple slave is rescued by Ashok Deshmukh, who is also from the same village, who now lives in Mumbai with his wife Karuna and daughter Tara. Karuna is not happy with Ashok for bringing the low-caste girl into their house, but Tara, who is about a couple of years younger than Mukta, becomes close friends with her.
Tara's mother loses her life in the Mumbai bomb blasts in 1993, and while she is recovering from the death of her mother, Mukta is abducted in the middle of the night, and Tara since then feels guilty of not saving Mukta that night. Later, Ashok decides to move to the USA, and Tara grows up still guilty of not doing much that unfortunate night. The story is narrated from both Mukta and Tara's views and experiences. Mukta is sold into prostitution after abduction and the narration of the lives of prostitutes is heartbreaking.
Tara tries to find Mukta with the help of Raza, who was her childhood friend, and with a couple Dinesh and Saira who also runs an NGO for saving women and children from prostitution and run a center to train the rescued. The story is about the struggles everyone goes through, Tara, Mukta, Ashok, Karuna, Raza, Navin (Tara's neighbor's son), Anupam Chacha (Tara's neighbor, who also hails from the same village as her father Ashok). The struggle to find Mukta continues for more than three years will Tara ever see Mukta and how will their feelings and reactions be if they ever meet have been carried in the books very well till the end.
All the characters involved in the story have their unique part to play. Raza stood out in the entire story for me. Raza, once a local small-time goon, sells drugs and threaten local business to get things his way. He transforms himself into a useful member of society and works to make life better for the women and children pushed into prostitution. Even though Tara had a bad experience with Raza when she was younger, Raza makes sure she trusts her and apologizes to her for his actions.
The book for sure was a roller coaster ride of emotions. The curiosity and mystery starting from page one continue till the end. The story never takes any downturn and all the characters have maintained their importance and dignity. The stories of the women in the red light area are extremely heartbreaking. The story of Tara's perspective also shows that one can be guilty and can also make things right. The story of Mukta shows to accept life as it comes, and yet not stop dreaming and hoping. Overall, I felt that things do work out in life, but it is our expectation that makes our lives miserable and brings sadness.
Favorite lines from the book:
Coming from a long line of devdasis, I was bound to become one eventually. But as a child, I did not know that.
Sometimes I forget I was a child once.
I wasn't allowed to enter the house. I was to sit in the backyard on the cold, concrete slab that would become my bed for the night. I'd eat my food there, and sleep there. It was a ritual I never questioned. I didn't know any better.
When we die, we become stars in the sky so we can water over the ones we love.
When I was young, I took too many liberties with my ideas of freedom and tried to create a revolution in the village. Now I think there are more peaceful ways of making people understand. I still very much wish though, that people would open their eyes and understand that humanity is more important than caste or even religion. And every human being has rights; treating others badly is a sin.
Once I even asked her, "What do you get from those books, anyway?" She closed the book she was reading, thought for a while, and said "It is better than the world we live in."
You could travel the world but never be able to see it the way she could describe it to you.
The only way we can rectify our mistakes is to try to undo the wrong we have done.
What we didn't recognize then is that death doesn't just bring with it stifling grief; it changes us in more than ways than one.
Tara, sometimes we have to find a new life, a new dream, especially when the old ones don't work out.
"I am a devdasi, a temple slave. This is what I was meant to do." I didn't have to explain. They understood. Each one of us had a similar wound, similar grief, a similar hope of rising in our hearts.
Hope is like a bird. It wants to keep soaring; no matter how much you want to tie it down.
Sylvie was the only one brave enough to be there; she understood how painful it was to be all alone. I wish I could have told her that the comfort of her presence was what I would remember the most.
Those were the good days when all I was worried about was one meal day.
It was only now that I understood the threads of life don't always weave the way we want them to; sometimes the pattern at the end of our lives is different than what we imagined it would be.
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