Shielding Her Modesty
Sita Bhaskar
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2006 Frog Books
ISBN: 8188811343

Tales of modern India & new lives in America.

Spilling over India's borders into contemporary American life, the stories are of these characters being jostled between the pull of both cultures, exposing the myriad contradictions & commonalities deeply embedded in looking at things with an Indian eye while adapting to Western mores & thought. Taken together, these stories form a distinct palette of cultural vignettes that paint an entertaining picture of the Indo-American experience.

As an immigrant myself I love stories about the culture clashes -- they have so much to tell of both what was left & how the new is viewed, & coped with. Sita Bhaskar's stories range from hypocrisy to hilarity, underlying the poignancy of redemption born out of the crucible of pain & suffering.

Muruga is a billboard painter who cannot read yet ponders the influences of painting luscious American women whose “intimate parts” he hurriedly covers when he must take his lunch break, guarding his beautiful women from the leers & jeers of the ogling goondas far below on the street.

Kaveri used to be an artist, back in Tanjavur in the south of India. Six months ago, she'd told her mother & aunties she would only marry a man with a PhD. They'd found one, in America. After she arrives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she tries to be a good wife, except Keshav doesn't want an Indian wife, nor Indian food, nor his apartment run the way Indian wives do. & Kaveri is bewildered by American life. All she wants is to squirrel away her passport, jewels & ticket back home. That's why the sign Your Self Storage drew her in... except they have no containers the size she's looking for. If she got a bank safe deposit box she'd have to give her ID. She befriends the girl running the storage unit, & starts learning how to live with her new husband.

Raksha's parents are coming all the way from Madras to be at her graduation in Wisconsin... except... Raksha's had a live-in boyfriend & must now get rid of every telltale thing. Upon arrival her parents are confused about her lifestyle -- what is pizza? & how life is lived in an American college, & Raksha just can't seem to do anything right.

The one I loved is The Bharati Doll -- it's delicious -- young Parvati's older brother, Gopi, works in a toy factory. She yearns for one little pink shoe from the dolls he makes. Here the names of the dolls in America & in India vividly illuminates the chasm between cultures.

All the stories are engrossing & illuminating, sometimes heartbreaking & sometimes hilarious. Very well done!

Sita Bhaskar was born & educated in India & presently makes her home in Madison, Wisconsin.
(06/18/06)

Rebecca