Missy by Raghav Rao
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My take on the book:
1974 India — Young Savitri and her mother are abandoned by her father when drought hit their village in Rayalaseema. Left with no choice, Savi and her mother set on foot in search of livelihood and reach Madras where Savi’s mother died on the steps of St Ursula convent. The nuns are kind enough to take in orphans like Savi, educate them along with providing food and accommodation.
Girls like Savi ended up as nuns in other convents or sent as servants/mistress in wealthy households once they reached adulthood. Savi felt lucky when the Nandiyar family chose her to stay with them in their estate and to take care of their younger son Aditya. Renuka, the landlady, promised Savi a monthly salary and a higher education in the future. Savi also met Ananda, the stapathi or sculptor who made idols for the estate’s garden, with whom love blossomed soon.
Savi thought her life is finally peaceful and content, until one night she is forced to run away with Ananda, leaving behind two dead men. Years later Savi is now Missy in the United States, running her own driving school and a help center for immigrants. When her elder daughter Shilpa’s Indian boyfriend Varun enters their life, how Missy is forced to confront the demons she assumed she left behind, forms the rest of the story.
The story has two parts — Savi’s young-adult years first at the convent, later at the Nandiyar’s estate and as Missy in the United States with her daughters Shilpa and Mansi. The first part of Savi’s life in India impressed me the most — the prose has a classic, lyrical feel, the twists are unexpected, life in the 70s and 80s in Southern India, especially in the estate is presented amazingly by the author.
The story has the underlying theme of what we call “Home” and how Savi yearned for a home and identity during her stay in the convent or next in the Nandiyar’s estate or her shorter stays in the Middle East and finally after assuming a new name in the US. Along the way how Savi added these memories into her life is also interesting — taking Royce as their last name, the dancing Shiva from sculpture garden in the estate used as a family symbol.
The regret Missy harbors for how she left India and how she constantly links that to anything tragic happening in her life is realistic and showcases her humane and vulnerable side. The second half of the story showcases Missy’s life as a migrant in a country that welcomed her and gave her a deserving second chance to build a beautiful life, while highlighting how her life once as a domestic servant is a never forgotten past.
Missy’s resilience and passion to achieve more in life despite the circumstances is a slow transition. Missy using words like kanna and bidda add to authenticity of how her origins are depicted in the story.
Shilpa and Mansi’s characters also have their own graph, especially Shilpa when she visits India and tries to relate everything she encounters with what she heard about her parents’ home country — culturally and otherwise. To the extent of trying to find similarity between her facial features and the Indians she sees around; Shilpa represents the ethnic and cultural dilemma kids face when parents are immigrants in a new country.
Through minor details like — the group photo clicked with Savi and family is what Aditya uses decades later to express his grief, the author highlights how every person we meet, every memory we leave behind are forever a part of our life. While the ending is predictable and could have been better, the book overall keeps the reader engaged through out. Highly recommended.
My rating:
4/5.
This review is part of the Blogchatter Book Review Program.