330%: Making The Impossible, Possible by Sanjana Kanamarlapudi
My take on the book:
Seven year old Kalki Singh is a child prodigy; her essay in second grade fetched 330 percent from her school teachers who were amazed at her talent at that age. Kalki read books beyond her age daily in the school library and solved mathematics problems beyond her syllabus. Hence, her school allowed her to skip grades and be promoted to higher classes.
But her mother only dreamt of marriage of Kalki and her twin sister Lakshmi as early as possible. Also she insisted the two sisters did all household chores even if it meant missing out on their studies. Though Kalki rebelled at her mother’s orders, Lakshmi obeyed all of them, thus irritating their mother more.
With such a challenging and hostile home environment, will Kalki be able to accomplish her dreams and explore her potential, forms the rest of the story.
While child marriages and girls getting married before legal marriage age has been a deep rooted tradition in many parts of our country which is being fought by social workers for decades, unfortunately teenage marriages against the will of the brides is not an often discussed topic.
Like in this story, Lakshmi’s mother arranges for her engagement at fifteen years age and though the marriage is done cleverly by such parents just after the girl turns eighteen, to avoid legal issues, the girl would not have had the maturity or freedom to choose her life partner, neither would be encouraged to pursue basic education.
Households like Kalki’s strongly believe that the end goal of a girl’s life is to get married and hence their potential at other aspects like education, career, sports, arts or other fields are often ignored. The author being a very young girl articulating her opinions about teen marriages through a story deserves appreciation. The author shows utmost maturity and clarity of thought throughout the story including the narration style and character development.
Though Kalki’s mother’s attitude towards her children and husband is questionable, I did find Kalki’s behaviour rude especially for a seven year old. Also the first half of the story catches the reader’s interest more, as the second half is rushed at places covering too many events in Kalki’s life and also gets predictable.
With a strong message of perseverance, resilience delivered through a realistic story of a young girl, 330% is a must read for kids and adults alike.
My rating:
4/5.