“Dollar Bahu” is the English translation of one of Sudha Murty’s most popular novels “Dollar Sose”, originally written in Kannada and earlier translated into four other Indian languages.
Like most other novels of Sudha Murty, this novel too dwells on the aspirations, dreams and struggles of traditional middle–class Indian families - this time vividly portraying the promise of plenty that the US dollar holds for the Indian steeped in middle–class mundane living.
The story weaves the tapestry of the life of Gauramma, torn between her roots in Bangalore and her unstinted admiration for the life led by her US based son Chandru and daughter–in–law Jamuna. Her blind obsession for the dollar and her “dollar bahu” disrupts the harmony in the household, and prompts her to constantly make comparisons and belittle Vinuta and Girish, the daughter–in–law and son who live in India. Gauramma’s visit to the United States to baby-sit her new granddaughter Manasi (in the manner of most grandparents today, all parents of non – resident Indians!) sees the crumbling of the many illusions she has about that country. The façade stripped, she notices the callousness, the selfish goals, the hunger for prosperity, status and the green card that consumes the Indians there, leaving them very little time for family affection and bonding. She returns disillusioned and chastened, seeing in a new light the sincerity of her family left in India. All that the dollar symbolizes ultimately loses its lustre, and makes way for contentment with the rupee.
Although written in Sudha Murthy's usual self righteous manner, the book is definitely worth a one time breeze through. Not for those who think America's the man-made paradise on earth though!
thus spake Pollyanna @ 8:20 pm
Footprints: 15
