All novels have a bit of biography in them. But some are suspiciously very biographical. Samini Ali’s biographical information – a Muslim Indian woman raised in both India and America – mirrors her central character, Layla in those particulars, and tantalizingly, perhaps more. But never mind that; such is the prerogative, perhaps the necessity, of a debut novel.
I chose to read this book because I am drawn to literary settings in places I have visited. Madras, on the Indian subcontinent lower eastern flank, is a port city I remember mostly as crowded and steamy, but with alluring beaches, and there was an unfortunate encounter with a crazy woman with a monkey. As it turns out, most of this novel is set in Hyderbad, with Madras reserved for a brief, but plot-turning episode. Never mind that disappointment also; the real journey in this novel is into the world of the Indian Muslim woman, a journey behind the veil and the ambiguity of the chador .
Layla lives in two world’s, but in deference to her parents, they themselves with a Indian-American backgrounds, consents to a arranged marriage to an Indian-Muslim young man who aspires to himself go to American with his new wife. Typical of Muslim women Layla’s local world consists almost exclusively of relations with women, her mother (who has been relegated to a “second wife” position by her father new wife), aunt’s, and female cousins. Traditions, especially those related to the marriage, a process that take’s several days, and the servile status of women in general and especially to their husbands, provide the dramatic tension of the novel.
Madras on Rainy Days confirms the fact that Muslim women have few choices in life; their main goal is to find a man, or more likely have one found for them, to marry and serve, the serving also involving breeding. Outside of marriage there is nothing but exclusion and suspicion. But for educated and more sophisticated like Layla, there are other prospects, perhaps not in India, but then there is always America. [1] Maybe this fall-back position is always in her mind, but Layla seems bent on being a good Indian-Muslim wife.
What might have been a tedious excursion into that world is made more interesting by Sameer, Layla’s Western-dressing, motorcycle-riding husband. Sameer has already been compromised by a riding accident that leaves him with a gimpy leg he disguises as best he can with lifts in one shoe, but Layla overlooks that in favor of his tall stature and good looks. It may be easier to overlook in that Layla has her own “secret,” the pregnancy she has returned with from an encounter with her former American boyfriend. Despite these difficulties the marriage, rather the several days of marriage as is the custom in India apparently for both Hindu and Muslim ceremonies, takes place with yet another secret to be exposed. This last element requires some explicitness by the author in portraying the sexual relations of the newly-married couple.
As more of the Muslin world as been dragged through contemporary events the mysteriousness of that world has become more intriguing. Only recently have Muslim women had the courage or position to come forward with views into its more shadowed reaches, particularly that part obscured by the seraglio [2] , the chador and sharia . When it comes to the chador , orburkha an interesting observation is made by Ali: that rather than seeing themselves as trapped inside these garments, some women feel paradoxically “liberated” because they could see others, and yet not be seen by others. It is a curious notion of “empowerment,” but then much of the long-obscured women’s position under Islam remains behind a veil of secrecy, repression and perhaps some self-denial.
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©2005, James A. Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 7.20.2005)
[1] This novel was published in 2004, but perhaps written before the events of 9-11. The assurance of easy admission to the US has changed since then.
[2] See, for example, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Valide, a novel of the harem , !986, and Marianne Alireza, At the Drop of a Veil , 1971, about a California woman’s tenure in an Arabian harem. Also worth reading is Indu Sundaresan, The Twentieth Wife , 2002