{"id":51,"date":"2010-03-25T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/03\/book-review-the-marriage-bureau-for-rich-people.html"},"modified":"2011-06-30T19:50:34","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T19:50:34","slug":"book-review-the-marriage-bureau-for-rich-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/03\/book-review-the-marriage-bureau-for-rich-people.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : The Marriage Bureau for rich people"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"marriage<\/a>Title : The Marriage Bureau for Rich People<\/b>
Author : Farahad Zama<\/b>
Pages : 291<\/b>
Publisher : Amy Einhorn Books (G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons)<\/b>
Rating : 3.5\/5<\/b><\/p>\n

Farahad Zama\u2019s<\/a> debut novel, \u201cThe Marriage Burueau for rich people\u201d is a simple story, set in coastal Andhra Pradesh. I was drawn to it by comparisons of it to the \u201cThe No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency\u201d books, and Jane Austen\u2019s works. Unfortunately while neither of those claims stand (very) tall, this is still an entertaining read. <\/p>\n

The story, told with a minimum of fuss and lots of detail, is centered around a Marriage Bureau and the people who run it. Mr. Hyder Ali, a retired government clerk, decides to open up a Marriage Bureau. As the business thrives, Mr. Ali hires an assistant, Aruna, a poor but well-educated girl. As the two go about sorting through client\u2019s wants and problems regarding potential matches, Aruna must resolve a problem of her own . . .<\/p>\n

Zama creates sympathetic, well-etched characters in his book. Mr. Ali is retired, and now he\u2019s at home, \u201cdisturbing his wife\u2019s routine\u201d (so says his wife). Both Mr. and Mrs. Ali are good, middle-class people, helpful and kind. While Mr. Ali goes about finding potential life-partners for the rest of the world, he frets about his own social worker son, who has devoted his life to advocating on behalf of the poor and repressed. Aruna is a mild-mannered, dutiful girl, very conscious of societal proprieties, and the author manages to give us a feel for what\u2019s going on in her head, when she must step out of her self-prescribed bounds.<\/p>\n

As for comparisons with Jane Austen\u2019s works, there aren\u2019t any, except for the fact that this book is about match-making, and Mrs. Bennett excelled at it. It is a little galling, from the feminist point of view, that modern day Indian films and books (Bride and Prejudice, A suitable boy, A marriage bureau for rich people), can still be inspired from a \u201chistorical\u201d romance, wherein the only objective and occupation of people in above said dramas is matrimony. Not that it in itself is a bad thing, but the fixation of \u201cmarriage\u201d as being the resounding (and only ?) answer to all female problems, is detrimental to the health of most girls.<\/p>\n

Mr. and Mrs. Ali are older folk, who have seen the world and are wiser for it. Through the interactions between them, Mr. Ali\u2019s clients, and Aruna and her family, we get to see different points of view, interspersed with home-spun morality and advice :<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat stories you tell,\u201d said Mrs. Ali, laughing for the first time since the day before. \u201cHow can you compare human beings and animals? It doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/i>

<\/i>
Mr. Ali shook his head and said, \u201cIt is true, though. Many men think that their daughters will only be happy if their son-in-law is a rich officer or a software engineer in California. That\u2019s not necessarily true. You need a man with a good character who will respect his wife. If you have that, any woman will be happy, even if money is tight.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The author also brings out the caste and class-ridden culture, and the plight of folks in difficult financial binds. I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of people in this story \u2013 rich, poor, beautiful, plain, boorish, sensible, haughty and greedy \u2013 the marriage bureau being the perfect place to meet all of them. Plus it was interesting getting a look-see into the marriage market :<\/p>\n

Mr. Venkat\u2019s demands for his son\u2019s bride were not many, thought Mr. Ali ruefully. She had to be fair, slim, tall, educated but not a career-minded girl. Her family had to be wealthy, ideally landowners, and from the same caste as Mr. Venkat. If they were from the same city, that was even better. They had to be willing to pay a large dowry, commensurate with his own family\u2019s wealth and son\u2019s earning capacity. Mr. Ali wrote it all down.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, Mr. Zama is not a word-smith, and I say this kindly. His words are simple and to the point, which gives this book a modest beauty. While he describes events and actions in the book in great detail, this isn\u2019t lush, lyrical prose which will sweep you off your feet. In fact, sometimes the details feel dry, because he is just chronicling steps, one by one. Here\u2019s an example :<\/p>\n

Aruna\u2019s mother lit the second ring of the gas burner and put an aluminum pan on it. She poured a couple of tablespoons of oil into it. When the oil was hot enough, she took out an old, round wooden container. She slid the lid open on its hinges. Inside there were eight compartments, each holding a different spice. She took a pinch of mustard seeds and put them in the oil. When they started popping, Aruna\u2019s mother dropped cloves, cardamom pods, and a cinnamon stick into the hot oil. She added a small plate of chopped onions to the pan. The lovely smell of frying onions filtered through the kitchen and the rest of the house.<\/i>

<\/i>
Aruna finished cutting and joined her mother at the burner. When the onions were brown, she lifted the brinjals, letting the water drain out of her fingers, and added them to the pan; they sizzled loudly. Once, they had all been added, her mother stirred the vegetables around. Aruna got an old Horlicks bottle holding chili powder out of the cupboard. She took out a spoonful of the dark red powder and mixed it into the onions and brinjals.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For someone like me, familiar with the city and it\u2019s locales, and much of the local customs (and cooking), it was at times exasperating to read in painstaking detail about \u201ccountry liquor\u201d, or of making \u201cpulihora\u201d, or brinjal (egg-plant). But it is a minor quibble. <\/p>\n

Most of the language used by the author is simple and straightforward, pretty much what-you-see-is-what-you-get; there is not much scope for reading between the lines, or subjective interpretation. I will say that there are few books which can employ such a writing style and still work, as this one does. This book also works because it is strong on content and it\u2019s characters are well thought out and exude \u201cgoodness\u201d (and not in an annoying way).<\/p>\n

There are a couple of oddities in the book \u2013 for one, why is an Andhra-ite bride wearing a red sari ? Don\u2019t they wear cream (off-white) ones during the ceremony ? And also this : <\/p>\n

On Friday, about a month later, Aruna arrived home and went into the kitchen as usual to help her mother. She started chopping up ladies\u2019 fingers \u2013 okra \u2013 into little rings. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The lady\u2019s finger (or is it lady finger ?) appears to have been pluralized to ladies\u2019 fingers. If okra remains okra, then why does lady\u2019s finger turn into ladies\u2019 fingers ? Grisly humor (one can just imagine Aruna chopping them up on her cutting board), or just plain typo ?<\/p>\n

All in all, a nice, light read \u2013 recommended.<\/p>\n

P.S. : I can totally see this as a Hindi film, a la Katha<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Title : The Marriage Bureau for Rich PeopleAuthor : Farahad ZamaPages : 291Publisher : Amy Einhorn Books (G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons)Rating : 3.5\/5 Farahad Zama\u2019s debut novel, \u201cThe Marriage Burueau for rich people\u201d is a simple story, set in coastal Andhra Pradesh. I was drawn to it by comparisons of it to the \u201cThe No. 1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71,3,10,24,4,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4_star_rating","category-books","category-india","category-recommended","category-review","category-south-asian"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Title : The Marriage Bureau for Rich PeopleAuthor : Farahad ZamaPages : 291Publisher : Amy Einhorn Books (G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons)Rating : 3.5\/5 Farahad Zama\u2019s debut novel, \u201cThe Marriage Burueau for rich people\u201d is a simple story, set in coastal Andhra Pradesh. I was drawn to it by comparisons of it to the \u201cThe No. 1…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}