I was a reader when I was
young. I read constantly. I do not recall my town having a library but my
mother would borrow books from school libraries over the summer and I would
spend hours reading them. As I grew up I read John Grisham, Michael Crichton
and Robin Cook. There was something about the foreign land and their
technology, Science and their courtrooms
that was intriguing and enthralling. The novelty of that 'foreignness'
and just the escape to another world that seemed so far away. I even had a lady
in a train in India ask me if I was very interested in cooking, as she had seen
me read a book written by Robin Cook. I politely lied. I was a voracious reader but then life
happened. Two kids later, I found myself gazing at 'What to expect during the
baby's first year' and then 'What to expect during the toddler years' and
eventually at Children's books.
Then one day, two friends of mine, handed me a book at
church and one said, "Read it. Two weeks. Tuesday. My house, Book club at
7". I was baffled. It had been so long. I had forgotten what it was to get
lost in a book. My world was full. An infant and a toddler. But in 2 weeks, I
showed up! I have never stopped since then. I have loved being a part of this
group of wise women. Funny and wise. That is important to state. This is my
safe haven in many ways. For once,
someone seemed to expect my brain to talk. I wasn't being judged by my
appearance or my "Indianness" but was sought after for my knowledge
on the book. That by itself was a relief. A safe haven. Did we read a bunch of
books- classics, fiction, non-fiction, life strategies........ relating the
book to our lives, relating our lives to the book, finding the Jesus character
in every book, laughing at some quips, hating some of them. We are free to pipe
in your opinions even when we haven't read the book. And we laughed. A lot.
As much as I decry being noticed for my 'Indianness',
my favorite was when we read books on India. Then I got to explain the Indian
terms and lifestyle and culture. As I have mentioned before, I love that. It
also dawned upon me how I had longed to read American books when in India but after
I moved here I now long to read books on India. Call it irony. Call it silly. This book group
has seen me get overjoyed explaining India and get equally miffed when the book
was written by an author of Indian ethnicity who was born in England.... grew
up in the United States and yet won a Pulitzer Prize for writing a book on
India. Sure, if that author has 3 MAs and a PhD, the writing is going to be
darned good. As I grapple to figure if I hate or love this particular author, I
devour her books, one after another hating that she would dare to write about
India and yet loving her style of writing with such profound understanding of India,
its people and its culture. Sure, she weaves in the Indian immigrants' lives in
the US and the impact 'immigrating' has had on their lives and their decisions, yet,
I am infuriated that she does it so well. I wonder if this was why Mindy Kaling chose
this author's last name as her own last name in her TV show, "The Mindy
project". (Oh! Mindy, if I were to write about you that is another post by
itself.)
To satiate this hunger for Indian books, I started reading books by Indian authors only
to find that some, like the one mentioned above have never really lived in
India. Some have, for a few years, some have visited over Summer and some went
just to research to write a book on India. Well, at the end of the day, they
haven't broken any rules but just messed with my expectations of having some
authenticity to what they write about! Aside
from being annoyed, I have hope that maybe one day, I ,who grew up in India and
eventually moved to the US,can put all these posts together and sell it, and
maybe it becomes a best seller...... you will buy it, wont' you?
