Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo: three stories summarized


Author: Doctor Terence Rajivan Edward (or 0161__Rajivan, if that helps)


Amma. This story details the changing relationship of some females to someone they went to school with who becomes a famous beloved Indian actress and then politician, namely Jaya. The school they go to, Sacred Heart, appears to be a school for the hardworking snobbish affluent middle class. Jaya joins the day after a prepubescent schoolgirl is expelled for an affair with someone from the boys' school. Jaya's father is dead and her mother is a character actress. Parents of the other girls express disgust that this mother bore her thigh in a film. The girls call her Moosarundi Murthy: rotund junk-food eater, i.e. fat. She is the favourite of the schoolteacher Chama Miss, who went to the same school - a sign of failure for the children. One day they steal chocolates from Chama Miss and all eat them together, including Jaya, but she is tricked into going into the storeroom and locked by classmates there. She gets suspended but it is soon forgotten by Chama Miss and after that, Jaya's relations with classmates are cold. On a special diet, she develops a beautifully proportional figure, for which she is later admired as movie star. She is  first in class, offered a scholarship to Stella Maris (?) - not one of them got close to this - begins an acting career; they go to college, 8 to a Christian one. They are all married by 23. They talk of her constantly. She lives in Poes Garden, a bungalow near Sacred Heart. They have the exhausting duties of children but wish to be her. After a decade, this ceases. Jaya becomes the greatest actress of her time, mistress to a Kollywood star, heroine in 28 films. He becomes chief minister of Tamil Nadu, dies, and she runs for public office. She struggles with weight: they remark that she was disposed to before. She has one friend from school who moves next to her, but later she kicks out the husband and then her. She is arrested, after police find 10500 saris etc. Madhavi, who gave her the fatty nickname, says she intuitively knew all along; her husband is inspector general of police. Jaya is acquitted. She appeals to fishermen, rickshaw drivers, bricklayers; her devotees include women, children, many men. One artist used five litres of his own blood to sculpt her head! 


Three Trips. The story describes three trips taken by Taruni, the girl narrator. At 9, she travels with her family from the USA to South India, Madras, where she stays with her father's family: his brother, brother's wife, their daughter Padma (a cousin, also presented as her sister), and more. She and Padma become best friends there, but Taruni catches her father's brother, a dentist, having an affair, which Padma advises not to tell anyone about. At 14, her family travel within USA, from Pittsburg to California, to visit Disneyland. Padma and her aunt now live in that state. They attempt to visit the Aunt. Padma answers the door but is unwelcoming - mother is out and she is not to let anyone in - and they leave. She eats ice cream after but without pleasure: she does not want to. Taruni's dad said, "Padma, it's Taruni. Your sister. I'm your uncle." Taruni says she has only one sister. In her 20s, Taruni visits her father's brother in India, months before he dies. The family who left him still call; Padma is graduating soon from UCLA and applying to medical school. Taruni shares memories of Padma in excruciating detail. (Most of these we are not told! This author, Sindya Narayanaswamy by original name, tells us a lot about medics and biologists, their thoughts and emotions, but is that her background?)


Will do the third one later, hopefully!


Bhanoo, Sindya. 2022. Seeking Fortune Elsewhere. Catapult Books.