Book Review: Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murthy

Today I picked up Sudha Murthy’s Dollar Bahu which impressed me with its simplicity and narrative style. Murthy recounts the tale of Chandru and Girish, the children of Shamanna and Gouramma, a middle class people. Chandru fulfils Gouri’s dream of earning Dollars in America “The Mecca of Money”. Girish is as laidback and contented as his father. Girish marries Vinutha, the perfect bahu in the eyes of repentant Chandru, who marries Jamuna, The Dollar Bahu.

The story unfolds gently through the narratives of Chandru, Vinutha, Gouramma and the narrator herself. Murthy climaxes the story with an unexpected twist and is able to sustain the suspense and the interest of the reader till the end. It is delightful the way the twists and turns in the story sound very familiar as if one has heard of it from a friend or in the neighbourhood. Murthy has the knack of creeping upon you unawares with an imagery that draws you right into the middle of the scene.When she talks of the protagonist Chandru leaving for US, “who felt joy laced with streaks of fear like a new bride who leaves her parents home to start a new life with her husband”; we know exactly what she means. She strikes a right chord in us when she talks of the deep bond developed with Dharwad, the subtle humour in the lines “the deep red Earth created a bond with all the shoes that walked on it”.

The pull of Chandru towards Vinutha is revealed to the reader in the way Chandru agrees to take the room on the terrace of Vinutha’s house on rent even though his cousin feels that the rent is exorbitant. Chandru quietly watches Vinu as she goes about her household duties, the subtle blame he lays on the people of the house in the realisation of the thought, she must be doing the major chunk of the work as her name is taken up often and the tail end of the thought…was she an orphan…a maidservent…? Chandru would get upset but not Vinutha when her aunt berated her for singing as Chandru had already fallen under Vinu’s spell. He describes her voice as golden, dulcet, divine, sweet as honey. He waxes eloquent on the charms of Vinu and dreads that they would learn her importance too late which could apply to him too.

Murthy speaks tongue-in-cheek in the lines on Chandru, “ He had not yet gained the ability to speak without hiding a thought or feeling under the guise of politeness-it was a skill most people of Dharwad were very good at.” Chandru writes to his mother “If you were here, you would have filled these lovely bottles (empty) with pickles.” Murthy has us in spilts when she says how Chandru’s letters sent awry Gourammas’s culinary skills, as she would be present physically but her spirit would be flying around America. Chandru’s avarice is delicately painted by first making the readers get a negative picture of Nebraska where no one would want to work and then letting it sink in that Chandru would work there as the Dollar’s lure is too strong. The characters of Vinutha and Girish are lovingly filled up with a few sentences here and there which takes the reader to the very core of their essence as in Girish relishes the quality of self-respect in Vinutha, offers to buy her saree and mangalsutra without asking for dowry or saddening her by selling her house to treat the guests to a lavish wedding feast. The characters come to life in front of our eyes.

Girish is a good husband but not a connoisseur of music. Chandru is one but lets the chance of becoming a good husband slip by .The realisation comes to Chandru the very day he gets his green card for which he had been waiting for three years holed up in that back of the beyond, Nebraska. Chandru’s feeling of jealousy is open-hearted but he gets a grip on reality and the way he treats his sister-in-law and buys her a saree of her favourite colour and has a soft spot for her, makes us wish he had married her. He owns up to himself that she was the kind of woman every man wants (because of her affectionate nature). Even Gouramma felt, it would be good if Chandru gets a wife like Vinutha. Murthy takes the reader through the hustle-bustle of NRI son coming home for a short stay and bride hunting; the jubiliation of the mother ; the gentle irony when she says how even water sipped outside home spoilt Chandru’s stomach and as such it was not the best time to choose the right candidate for holy matrimony.

Chandru compares Jamuna, his bride’s diamond earrings to a glowing tube which paled before Vinutha’s inner incandescence. Shamanna who was always in the background like the citizen in R.K.Laxman’s cartoon sees through Jamuna’s “goodness” but Gouramma has her eyes blinded by the Laxmi residing in Jamuna’s house. The lure of the dollar exacts a heavy price. The Rupee Bahu Vinutha cannot measure upto the dollar bahu Jamuna as her monetary value is more. Gouramma goes to the USA to help out with Jamuna’s delivery and child care and has the scales from her eyes removed one by one. Gouri goes through a journey of moral regeneration. She travels back in time and sees what would have happened to her daughter Surabhi’s life if Vinutha hadn’t intervened; by seeing that tragedy befall some one’s daughter in front of her eyes.

Gouramma sees Jamuna for what she is, and when she starts to introspect on the kindly help of Vinutha, her regeneration is complete. She realizes what it is to be on the otherside of the fence when the white lady in the bus changes her seat when Gouri sits next to her, just like how Gouri had done when a sweeper woman had sat next to her. She realises what that sweeper woman must have felt. Gouramma rushes home to India, with the warm feeling of Vinutha waiting for her as a good bahu, but the tide has turned and Gouramma has to change herself to woo her bahu back. The reader is taken by surprise and elated with the turn of events when the 100 dollar note does not evoke the same passion in Gouramma when it falls from her suitcase down to the ground at her feet.