Memoirs Of An Indian Woman

This vivid memoir recounts the experience of Shudha Mazumdar, a woman born at the turn of the century to Indian parents whose ideas on child rearing differed greatly. Her father, a wealthy Europeanized Zamindar, tried to instill Western values, while Shudha's mother emphasized the traditional, even going as far as arranging a marriage for her daughter when she was thirteen. Although true to Indian traditions, Shudha eventually manifested her father's influence by becoming a published writer, by becoming a member of a number of social service organizations, and by serving as the Indian Delegate to the International Labour Organization.

This vivid memoir recounts the experience of Shudha Mazumdar, a woman born at the turn of the century to Indian parents whose ideas on child rearing differed greatly. Her father, a wealthy Europeanized Zamindar, tried to instill Western values, while Shudha's mother emphasized the traditional, even going as far as arranging a marriage for her daughter when she was thirteen. Although true to Indian traditions, Shudha eventually manifested her father's influence by becoming a published writer, by becoming a member of a number of social service organizations, and by serving as the Indian Delegate to the International Labour Organization.

The brave and moving memoir of a woman's journey of transformation: from a sheltered Indian upbringing to success and academic eminence in America. Padma Desai grew up in the 1930s in the provincial world of Surat, India, where she had a sheltered and strict upbringing in a traditional Gujarati Anavil Brahmin family. Her academic brilliance won her a scholarship to Bombay University, where the first heady taste of freedom in the big city led to tragic consequences—seduction by a fellow student whom she was then compelled to marry. In a failed attempt to end this disastrous first marriage, she converted to Christianity. A scholarship to America in 1955 launched her on her long journey to liberation from the burdens and constraints of her life in India. With a growing self-awareness and transformation at many levels, she made a new life for herself, met and married the celebrated economist Jagdish Bhagwati, became a mother, and rose to academic eminence at Harvard and Columbia. How did she navigate the tumultuous road to assimilation in American society and culture? And what did she retain of her Indian upbringing in the process? This brave and moving memoir—written with a novelist's skill at evoking personalities, places, and atmosphere, and a scholar's insights into culture and society, community, and family—tells a compelling and thought-provoking human story that will resonate with readers everywhere.

A memoir of childhood summers spent in a Laurentian village and of an Indian woman who lived according to her ancient code of courage and humanity. A heartwarming story. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Long before Ruhi fell pregnant, she knew she was never going to be the 'good Indian daughter' her parents demanded. But when the discovery that she is having a girl sends her into a slump of disappointment, it becomes clear she's getting weighed down by emotional baggage that needs to be unpacked, quickly. So Ruhi sets herself a mission to deal with the potholes in her past before her baby is born. Delving into her youth in suburban Melbourne, she draws a heartrending yet often hilarious picture of a family in crisis, struggling to connect across generational, cultural and personal divides. Sifting through her own shattered self-esteem, Ruhi confronts the abuse threaded through her childhood. How can she hold on to the family and culture she has known and loved her whole life, when they are the reason for her scars? Good Indian Daughter is a brutally honest yet brilliantly funny memoir for anyone who's ever felt like a let-down.