It is one of the most moving novels I have read. What makes it more realistic is when the author reveals in her notes that Bhima is not a figment of her imagination. The character is inspired by the maid who worked for her family.
Thrity Umrigar’s descriptive language and simplicity of plot keep the reader as much glued to the pages, as do her gamut of emotions that run through the plots.
She interestingly alternates the narration of the lives of two women, speaking from each one’s perspective. Over the years, a bond of understanding and trust, and a certain sense of caring for each other, has been built. Yet they stand at different ends of society’s spectrum – the wealthy Parsi widow Sera Dubash, who lives happily with her daughter and son-in-law, and is awaiting the birth of her first grandchild. At the other end is the illiterate Bhima, Sera’s domestic servant who dwells in one of Mumbai’s slums taking care of her orphaned grand daughter Maya.
The story opens in Bhima’s hut where she lives with her granddaughter Maya whom she has high aspirations for but who shatters her dreams when she announces her illegitimate pregnancy at the age of 17 years.
Sera and her family play the role of guardians to Bhima’s family for many years since Bhima started working as a domestic helper in Sera’s home. This too perhaps is a form of gratitude that the employer develops towards the employee – an escape from her own life.
Sera’s privileged life which is evident to the world hides a lot of personal trauma – of years of nastiness when as a newlywed she lived in her mother-in-law’ home. And the torture extended further in the form of physical and emotional abuse by her husband. In all this, the only comfort comes from Bhima who share her misery and consoles her.
Over the years a deep bond is formed between the two women from such diverse backgrounds. Sera’s joy – if one can call it that – comes when she is free from her mother-in-law and later her cruel husband. She finds her widowhood with her daughter and son-in-law more peaceful than her past like under this roof – and now she looks forward to the arrival of her first grandchild.
Bhima, once her work is done at Sera’s home, goes back to her real world in the slums surrounded by more poverty and misery. Knowing that she has to get her grand daughter Maya out of this existence, and the only way is to get Maya to abort her child. She seeks Sera’s help who too agrees with her decision.
The pages reveal a gamut of emotions, many of which Sera and Bhima share – the chasm is there because of their disparate caste and class – which do not allow all the barriers to come down.
The poetic manner in which the author shows the two sides of the coin that is Bombay – the wealth and poverty, the powerful and the weak – and the common link of the overpowering sadness which engulfs most of Bhima’s and Sera’s lives, makes this book a page turner.
