Word Attack!!

Madras on Rainy Days

April 1, 2008 on 5:34 pm | In Book Reviews |

May 5th, 2006

They say, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But that is exactly what I did a year ago, when I traipsed into Landmark with hubby and Sab.

I took one look at the cover of Madras on Rainy Days and immediately bought it. The cover intrigued me, and well, it turned out to be a good buy after all.

Madras on Rainy Days is the story of Layla, an NRI muslim who’s life is divided into 6 months of America and 6 months of Hyderabad, India.

Layla is now in India, for her marriage to Sameer, a handsome engineer who dreams of moving to America for the untold riches it can offer.

The story begins with the reader’s learning of a strange affliction that Layla has. A stomach pain, accompanied by bleeding that doesnt seem to stop. Her uptight mother, a divorcee, takes her to a renowned alim to exorcise the demons within her. But the demon within her is the America she has left behind forever. Although she will return, it will never be the same as before.

Layla’s story moves on with the different days of celebration of marriage. We see her father, with his young, pregnant second wife, flaunting his virility in the view of his first wife. We see her mother, who is divorced, but who has not revealed the fact to anyone in India, for fear of being looked down upon. We see Henna, her cousin, and confidante, and now married at 18, heavily pregnant, her husband away at work in Saudi and her uncaring in-laws who have sent her back to her parents home.

The characters in this debut novel are etched finely, and we see the forms emerge one by one. Layla is not very sure of the marriage with Sameer but she enters it, and we see that all is not well there either.

We see Sameer, the young man with big dreams, who has some shameful secrets he is hiding. We see his overzealous mother, his quiet and unassuming father, and we see how Layla learns to adjust in the new house.

Layla and Sameer are expected to travel to Madras for the application of their visas to the promised land. And this is where, we see the vague patterns that had appeared before, erupt in bright colour, the turning point of the novel.

Samina Ali brings out the relationship between the husband and wife with a lot of ease, capturing the uneasy beginnings, the new intimacy, the awkward attachment.

I googled for Samina Ali and found out that she suffered from a life-threatening neurological condition after her son was born. Her only concern when she started recovering was whether she would be able to write again. And Madras on Rainy Days is a vindication to the illness that she had conquered. I am waiting to read more from her.