Yes, I'm sorry. I hope I won't drive you mad by too much of A Suitable Boy. I am hoping to write about it once a week or so, but since it is on my mind and what I am reading at the moment, it seemed perfect teaser material. Besides writing about it regularly will help me both keep the momentum up as well as keep the characters and story straight. I was hoping to find some sort of reading guide online for it. Not that it is hard going in any way, but just to fill in the social history and historical background, but then I thought maybe this will be my ongoing project with it. I'll need something extra to keep it all moving from week to week and have something of interest to share.
So, first things first. Let me introduce a few of the main characters and those I expect to be sharing lots of time with and then give you a taste of the writing. There are four very handy family trees at the beginning of the book, which I have been referring to each time I sit down and read. The Mehras, the Kapoors, the Khans and the Chatterjis. This is going to be mostly Lata's story and she is a Mehra. The Mehras live in a small (provincial?) town called Brahmpur. Mrs. Mehra is a widow, her husband having passed away only a few years previously. Lata is the youngest daughter and a college student studying English Literature.
She has three other siblings, the two eldest are married (or soon to be). There is Arun who fell in love (at first sight it would seem) with Meenakshi Chatterji and they married within a month of meeting. They live in Calcutta and I get the feeling they are rather superficial, or at least more concerned with appearances and money and nice things than the other Mehras. They have one young daughter, Aparna. Savita is the eldest daughter and the story opens with her marriage, arranged, to Pran Kapoor. Lata reflects in this opening scene that she knows Pran more than her own sister as he is a lecturer and she has taken one of his classes at university. Varun is closest in age to Lata. Compared to his older brother he is meek and a "nervous shadow". He is also a college student, and studies mathematics in Calcutta where he lives with Arun and Meenakshi.
And that is about as far as I have gotten in the story when it comes to characters. I suspect it will be quite a large cast of characters by the time I finish. Sometimes it is most interesting to meet a character through the eyes of others, so my teaser is a description of Lata by Pran Kapoor's younger brother, Maan, who knows her from college.
"He noticed Lata making her way through the guests. Quite an attractive girl, Savita's sister, he thought. Not very tall and not very fair, but attractive with an oval face, a shy light in her dark eyes and an affectionate manner towards the child she was leading by the hand."
The child in question is Aparna, her niece (who calls her Lata Bua). There is lots of good description and peppering the story of details of Indian life and culture, so lots of words that you can mostly tell from context what they mean. I have, however, started keeping a small notebook of words and phrases and references to look up later.
So, for instance there is a reference to having a jaymala done, which seems to be a superstition and has to do with knowing the correct configuration of stars (perhaps for choosing a wedding date?).
Mrs. Mehra laments the fact that her husband's absence means she cannot wear her own wedding dress, which was a tissue-patola sari. If you google it and look for images you will find some gorgeous, vibrant and colorful saris. These saris are known for the quality of weaving and are made in a particular region in India.
Gulab jamun is a sweet that is being served at the wedding, and Gajak a desert made from sesame seeds, neither of which Mrs. Mehra can eat due to her diabetes.
Men are dressed in Achkans for the wedding and women wear a Choli, but Meenakshi's is skimpier than others!
I'm not sure I will keep up the lists of words to look up later, but I hope I do since it is nice to have these visuals in mind as I go. It makes a much richer reading experience (and hopefully won't be too boring for you to read about).
Since this is one of my first "proper" posts for my epic read, here is where I am starting from. My first "goal" is to surpass that second bookmark, which is how far I got on my second attempt to read this book. Page 154 is what I am reaching for and if I can get passed it, I will know I am really on my way. I am not going to try and set too concrete of goals. I could try and try and read a certain number of chapters or pages each week, but I think for now, I will try and spend a little quality reading time with the story daily. As Mrs. Mehra searches for a suitable boy for Lata, I look forward to seeing who Lata chooses for herself. I'll be back with more of A Suitable Boy in a week or so!