MAIDlESS IN MUMBAI
Author- PAYAl KAPADIA
Publisher- Bloomsbury, Rs 299
The candour and honesty of the author’s tone bring effervescence to this book which makes it hard to put down. It charts the protagonist’s journey over the span of a little more than a year in the form of diary entries, writes Avantika Pokhriyal
Payal Kapadia’s debut venture into the world of ‘grown-up’ novels, as she calls it, after a series of successful publications in the genre of children’s literature, is a like a breath of fresh air. The tightly woven narrative is both humorous and heartfelt. Writing fiction is not easy, writing a piece of satirical fiction is tougher yet, but Kapadia manages to pen down the agonies of a maidless mom with panache. Her prose is born out of lived experience and this not only gives her writing authenticity but also enables her to strike a chord with thousands of other working women/moms/moms-to-be.
The protagonist, Anu Narain, is at the ‘top of things’ in her life, until one fine day, when she is not. Having a child is a monumental event in any one’s life but Anu’s strategically compartmentalised world goes awry when the nurse she has hired to look after her child refuses to join. The following months are spent in a frenzy of hunting for the ‘right’ maid but coming up empty handed each time. But behind the hysterical goof ups and comical antics of Anu as well as her maids is a more serious issue of how women alone are expected to juggle with all household problems on their own. Beneath the witty repartees and the self-depreciating jokes, Maidless In Mumbai is about the compelling but often conflicting desires of a mother to be the nurturer that her baby needs her to be, and the warrior-at-workplace that she wants to become. At such crossroads, ‘modern’ Indian women continue to find themselves alone, trying to grapple with the ever mounting pressures of the personal and societal kind. The husband too seems to offer consolatory support at best:
‘Motherhood has stretched my stomach like a chewing gum, and the father gets away with a status update on Facebook and babysitting duty on the nights he’s freeIJ’
Although ultimately he comes around and becomes the supportive spouse he should have been from the very beginning, the change seems too abrupt to be convincing.
Maidless charts the protagonist’s journey over the span of a little more than a year in the form of diary entries. The narrative technique effectively makes the book seem like a private communion between women. The narrator is unabashed about sharing personal details and unapologetic regarding her opinions. The candour and honesty of tone bring effervescence to the book which makes it hard to put down. What ultimately makes the book work is that it talks about the ordinary life of the urban Indian woman. It is almost as if you were listening to your friend, or maybe yourself, having a mini-meltdown. Anu is far from perfect as she grapples with personal insecurities and petty jealousies of her own:
‘When I am old and grey, Deepu [the nanny] will be old and grey, too. Tara [Anu’s daughter] will be tending to Deepu. I will be in an old-age home, forsaken, forgotten. I am losing my perfect child to the perfect maid’.
The writer also registers her problem with the modern myth of the ‘Supermom’ which creates undue pressure on working women to excel both at the home and the world beyond it. The book does not offer any solutions to the problems it raises nor does it offer a superficial resolution for the sake of a happily-ever-after. Towards the end of the novel, we see Anu coming to terms with the changes in her life. This is not made possible overnight but after a painful process of self-realisation. The book concludes with the protagonist still trying to bring order to her chaotic world, and as it happens in life, Anu too realises that this is going to be an ever going process. The best one can do is learn to live with both the beautiful and the bizarre. There is no manual which can teach us how to life our life or to raise our children, for that matter. It is something you cannot master unless you do it wrong first. Aspiring for perfection in life often makes us forget that it is the journey that makes the destination worthwhile. Anu too, finds the most tender moments with her child creep up on her when she suspects the least. As Maidless teaches us, life is full of surprises — some welcome and the others, like one’s MIl, not so much.
However, what seems to not have been duly appreciated is perhaps how integral to the success of a working mom is the presence of a maid. like Anu, every woman needs a support system comprising of other women. But one of the most important and undervalued parts of that network is one’s maid. Without her, it is virtually impossible for the working women across urban spaces to step out. They are the unsung heroes who make it possible for women to take on the world and their importance is best realised only in the unfortunate event of losing them!
The reviewer is an Assistant Professor of English, Delhi University