After being extremely impressed with her story telling in the Silent Dictionary, I looked up Massey and read up a little background on her website: sujatamassey dot com. Her website gives information on how she was inspired to write the Perveen Mistry series. This book also is a great jump from the Sleeping Dictionary...as you move from the Calcutta in the Colonial Times to Bombay of the same time frame. It is quite unbelievable to think of what women had to go through and how much they to sacrifice in comparison to the opposite sex. In education or at work. Just not in India but abroad as well. Women were considered best for home keeping and making babies and entertaining guests at large tea parties. So, it is not surprising that Perveen Mistry faced enough flak in this story and equally inspiring to see how she sailed through.
Back to the book. This book was published in India as A Murder on Malabar Hill (2018). The storyline of this book was superbly simple. Realistic even. Who says you have to write in the most distinguished language and complicated manner to be considered read worthy? A big thumbs up for Massey's simplistic writing. I loved the way thoughts and feelings were explicitly written out as though the reader were thinking themselves. There is one thing I loved the most in the story was Perveen's relationship with her father, Jamshedji Mistry. I wish every child could have a parent like him. Authoritative, loving, strict, and most importantly, the one who stands with open arms despite mistakes made. Perveen marries Cyrus in a wonderful romantic setting. But, six months down the line, she realizes that what she thought was love, was actually greed of marrying her for money and family name and status. So, when she returns to her home in Bombay from Calcutta, her parents and brother received her with arms open wide. And when she was emotionally and mentally strong, her father hand holds her through the then unheard situation of judicial separation. No gyan given, he didn't reprimand her, he didn't say, "I told you so". Instead, he put the papers in front of her and asked her what she would like to do to go ahead in life. She went on to study at Oxford to become the first female solicitor. How inspiring and endearing. Maybe we as parents should take a cue from such stories. Parents should be concerned of their offspring only. And the betterment of their child. Not of log kya kahenge. Many dreams and lives have been shattered under this statement.
The book runs through two timelines 1917 and 1921. One shows Perveen as this docile and soft hearted girl and the other shows the confident woman she had become. Perveen works at the Mistry Law Firm and helps her father on a case where the three widows of a certain Mr Farid need to have their rights to money and assets divided equally. But, there are many loopholes to go by. At times I got a little confused about all the names of the Farid household and ignored them to stick to the story line and I was impatient to jump timelines.
Does Perveen do justice to her role of solicitor? Do the widows get justice? To know that, you would have to read this lovely story. What is most lovely about a Parsi story is the mention of the cuisine they follow in their homes. Also of the main motto - having good thoughts, good words and good deeds. This is their way of life. Their philanthropy is well known not only in Bombay but also in Singapore. It was wonderful to read up on how the Parsi dealt with their careers and business in the fields of law and soda bottling or being in the shipyard. I have read up similar information for my own museum research and it is always a delight to read about the Parsis.
Comments
Post a Comment