Tuesday, July 20, 2010Crossword Kemps Corner, 9/11 Mohammedbhai Mansion, Below Kemps Corner Flyover,
Mumbai (Bombay), India
From the acclaimed writer of The Music Room (winner of the Vodafone Crossword Popular Award 2007) comes a supremely entertaining novel about the world of business families. Aftertaste is full of riveting details about baniya families from the 40s down to the 80s – in these pages you’ll see a vivid portrait of Kalbadevi, the old business district of Mumbai, how the unofficial banking system worked and learn secrets about the mithai business. You’ll also see the private lives of these families. The ways in which marriages were arranged, young women moulded into wives, the politics of mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws, the manner in which inheritances were dealt — or indeed not — dealt with.
Diwali, 1984. Mummyji, the matriarch of a mithai business family, lies comatose in a hospital in Bombay. Manipulative, determined and seemingly invincible, she has held together her family through bribes of money, food and adoration. Surrounding her are her four children: the weak ineffectual Rajan Papa who is desperately in need of cash; Samir, the dynamic head of the business with an ugly marriage and a demanding mistress; Suman, the spoilt beauty of the family who is determined to get her hands on Mummyji’s best jewels; and Saroj, the unlucky sister, who has always lived in her shadow. Each one of them wants her to die.
Aftertaste tells the story of one business family and its bitter dynamics: of resentful wives, emasculated sons, controlling in-laws and rapacious siblings. For at the heart of a good Indian family lies money, not love. Full of rare period detail and insights into the world of baniya familes, it is worldly, astute and utterly riveting.
More information here.
