Normally, I only write down reviews for books/movies that I adore, but this one is an exception. This is an extremely strong negative review of a piece of trash called "The Dowry Bride" by Shobhna Bantwal. It was lent to me by an Irish girl I was sharing a hostel room with in Cairns.
The story is about a girl Megha whose marriage is arranged by her parents. The man she is married to is a weakling and completely under his mother's thumb. His mother is a tyrant who is looking to extract a huge sum as dowry from the Megha's parents. There is immense pressure on Megha to produce a baby, and although she does get pregnant, she loses the baby. Her mother-in-law, once she realizes that the Megha's parents have no money to give her, decides to do away with the girl with her son's help, and marry him off to someone who has more money. Megha manages to escape this plot of killing her by setting her to fire, and somehow manages to find her way to her husband's cousin, who is a man respected in the community. Meanwhile, the evil woman and her son now state that Megha stole from them and ran away, and sic the cops on her. It turns out that the husband's cousin Mega ran to, had been carrying a torch for her all this while, and so hides her, waiting for the uproar to die down. Of course, this implies that they are in close contact, and end up falling in love. In the end, the mom-in-law is requisitely punished, while Mega marries the cousin.
There are a number of problems I have with this novel. Firstly, it is awfully written. I am actually surprised that it was allowed to be published in the form that it exists. Secondly, although it is true that dowry is still a problem in India, the way this book tackles dowry, arranged marriage, and other social issues in India leaves a very wrong impression on those who don't know the reality, for e.g. my Irish roommate. She was surprised to learn that in India there are a number of women who choose their mate themselves, that dowry is now a rarity rather than the norm, and that apart from isolated incidents of female infanticide, girl babies are welcomed into families as much as boy babies are). I do understand that the author was trying to bring awareness of the dowry issue to the western world, but her book portrays an India of may be 40 years ago rather than current India. Lastly, in order to add some spice to the story, the author introduces the love angle between Megha and the cousin, which is something that might definitely happen in current India, but totally would not have happened in the India of 40 years ago. Thus the result is this unsavory mixture of pathos and sex which is really hard to swallow and leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. There have been other books which have talked about sex and love in an older India, like "The Far Pavilions" by MM Kaye, but they tackle the subject in a much better and authentic fashion, rather than this potboiler.
All in all, this book is a complete waste of time, and the only reason I read it was that I had no other printed material to read!
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I also noticed that the same author plans on releasing a book about female infanticide in India!
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