Anyone who grew up in India in a middle class (or higher) family would be familiar with the narrative of this book. The story intertwines the past and present of two women - Bhima and Sera. Bhima works as a servant in an upwardly mobile Parsi household in Bombay.. her mistress, Sera appears to have it all --a loving husband and a doting child -- but is hiding a world of humiliation and disgrace.Over the years Bhima and Sera develop a bond, which is born as a result of sharing household tasks, daily chores and the closeness that comes from experiencing life events together. However, their relationship is a precarious one - Bhima and Sera are not friends, nor are they simple acquaintances. Their connection is a complex sum of many parts.. convenience, guilt, benefaction, and the fact that they are both mothers, two women struggling to keep their men from breaking their spirit. However, they are two women on opposite ends of the class spectrum, and this is a gap that just can't seem to be bridged. It is this ambigious, shifting balance that is the focus of this bittersweet story. It puts a face on the millions of Bhima's in India - who serve their masters with unswerving faith, washing someone else's dishes, floors, clothes, only to come home to their own world of squalor.
Bhima is stranded in a perverse cycle of illiteracy, hard work, poverty, shattered trust and loss of loved ones in every chapter of her life. Does she manage to find any hope of redemption in her life? You have to read this beautifully written book to find out. Not only is the author's language authentic to her protagonists, but her writing is evocative of the rich prose that has characterized the works of some of my favorite Indian writers - Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy and Rohinton Mistry.
