One Indian Girl by Chetan Bhagat

One Indian Girl is nothing special. Written by a man but narrated as a women, the main character is heavily idolized and the internal conflict she goes through doesn’t evenly match with her external performance. Chetan Bhagat has written this novel to show the world where he stands on the issue of feminism and it is written as a Bollywood script so surely he aims to make a movie out of it too as he is doing with his other novels. Apart from that, this novel is beautifully crafted piece of work which takes you to a journey of love, hatred, seduction, jealousy, stress and many beautiful and heartbreaking moments in a woman’s life and her way to deal with it. The novel highlights the gender discrimination avertedly citing many of the social taboos in existence in Indian society like, the want of a boy child in the family, the “must marry” rule for a girl, higher education and high paying jobs are only for boys and girls should devote herself to her family and kids than work and money. This novel like his previous ones also portrays sexual details as an essential element and the changes in cities and scenarios which brings change in the character’s life also add freshness to the story every now and then. The characterization of “Minnie me” as Radhika’s alter ego adds fun in her otherwise boring monologues. I also realized some inspired storylines in the book, like the relationship between Neel and Radhika at the beginning resembles to George Clooney and Anna Kendrik from “Up in the Air”, also the breaking up on text message is similar. Debu being and notorious ex coming to Radhika’s wedding and trying to convince her to elope with him is a common scene in lots of Bollywood movies. In a nutshell, sometimes boring and unnecessarily emotional, sometimes funny and beautiful moments, “One Indian Girl” surely takes you one a ride full of love, emotions, craziness, confusion & heartbreaks and will end up turning you into a feminist.

Story (Spoiler Alert)

The start of the story sets in Goa, where Radhika, an investment banker in Goldman Sachs, is getting an expensive destination wedding in Goa with Brijesh, software engineer at Facebook. The story begins with marriage chaos, starting with unavailability of rooms in the hotel for all the guests. The writer, portrays the main character as a strong independent lady, analyzing and solving the problems by herself and also narrating the story. She is different from the women we see every day and she is very successful so the writer warns the readers assuming to be of patriarchal mind set may not like her. The programs in marriage ceremony, meeting of brides and bridegrooms and the awkwardness of an arranged marriage is beautifully crafted and gives a good start to the story. Followed by bachelor and bachelorette parties and all the craziness is fun. Then comes Debu into the story, Radhika’s ex-lover from her New York days. He flies to Goa and starts stalking her in her marriage. She finally agrees to meet him in the gym and they talk about their New York days.

Radhika after completing her MBA joins Goldman Sachs, New York. The new city is very lonely for a low self-esteemed Radhika until she meets Debu, in a friends get together. They both become friends soon as Debu uses his charms praising Radhika for her beauty and smartness and desperate Radhika falls for it in no time. Being sister to an extremely beautiful Aditi, Radhika has been always over shadowed and now when she finds a man praising her, she wants nothing more but Debu to make a move towards her. They soon start dating. And one day when she invites Debu to her apartment in excuse to see her sister’s picture they end up having sex. The writer details all the foreplay and intimateness which is fun to read. Radhika soon gets a permanent position in the distress debt team, the toughest section in the Goldman Sachs and gets busy with her work. Soon they realize they have very few time for seeing each other, so they decided to move in together. Debu, working in an advertising company earns relatively less and stays with two other roommates’ moves with Radhika in her apartment. Everything is fun at first, sex is awesome but slowly things start to crumble. Radhika’s mom starts arguing with her for her marriage while Debu wants a stable career for him first. He starts cutting off expenses and ignores relationships and marriage talks with Radhika. Finally Debu gets a big promotion and Radhika throws him a huge party hoping to bring positivity in their relationship. Soon after, Radhika gets a huge bonus of $150K apart from her salary which shakes Debu. He starts comparing and get annoyed to the fact that she earns so much. Their relationship only worsen when he doesn’t show up on her office party and leads to an argument about his job and seriousness towards the relationship. Radhika shows her desire for him to propose her but she stalls saying that he wants to be secure in his job first. One day when Radhika is having a work related conference call, Debu over hears her and criticize her work which leads to another argument where he says that she can’t be a good wife or a mother and hints for break up. Radhika tries to save the relationship with all her might but Debu states the fact that he wants his wife to be a housewife and will only accepts Radhika if she leaves her job. She disagrees with Debu’s view towards working women and leave for work. That same day Debu breaks up with Radhika over a text message. She cannot endure the break up and starts trying desperate moves to get him back but she only gets hurt with every move she try. Her condition only worsen and she finally realizes that being with Debu is better than any career or money. So she decides to quit everything and but flowers and ring to propose Debu. He already moved out so she goes to his old place and with a plan to give him a surprise appear at his bedroom door without warning only to find Debu sleeping with another girl. She feels pathetic and low, she drinks till she pass out and cry whenever sober. She files resignation but viewing her dedication and excellence in her work, Goldman Sachs decides to transfer her to Hong Kong instead, as it would help her resolve her situation. She tries getting back with Debu till the last hour but he keeps ignore her, so she toss the phone into the river and leaves New York for good.

The story shifts back to Goa, where Debu begs Radhika to be back with him. He even proposes her the idea that they can swap the grooms and the wedding need not to be cancelled. She tries to ignore Debu and get more close to Brijesh, but cannot focus completely. They go on a bike ride, drink beer, smoke weed and get into trouble when the police catches them with weed. During all this craziness, a new character is introduced, Neel. Neel starts texting her, leaning about her wedding and flies to Goa that same day and they soon bump into each other.

The story then again sets in past, this time Hong Kong. After arriving Hong Kong, Radhika gets herself fully resolved into work to avoid Debu’s memories but soon get nostalgic when the work is over. So when Neel, a senior partner in her department offers her to work with him in a secret project in Philippines, she accepts it without thinking twice. They slowly bond and Radhika finds a getaway in Neel from Debu’s memories. Neel also turns every stone upside down to comfort Radhika. He even cancels a great business prospect with Japanese investor for a joke they make insulting Radhika being a woman in distress debt department. As the Philippines deal close, they open up with each other. Neel shares about his unsatisfactory marriage life and she shares her heartbreaking New York love story. And in all those emotions and shots of champagne they have sex. And this time too, the writer has detailed every bit of foreplay and sexual intercourse. Radhika feels extremely guilty for sleeping with her boss and decides to pretend it never happened. Later when Neel confesses that it was one of the most special moments in his life, she shows her indifference. Neel soon gets her into another project with him. In between Radhika meets with Neel’s wife and children. While Radhika is still struggling to get over Debu, Neel confess his love towards her in a text message. They start to sleep in their every business trip and Neel got her into a lot of trips with him. He confessed his love again and again but Radhika never reciprocates her love. One day Neel come over to Radhika’s apartment to stay with her where she confronts that he is using her just for sex. They have an argument and Radhika ends up saying that she loves him too. She takes a short vacation and travels home to India, where her mother compels her to agree for a marriage and they agree to wait a year more. She shares the idea of marriage with Neel, but he opposes that. He supports her carrier and their affair to stay as it is. But when Radhika shows her desire to be a wife, a mother, Neel replies that she is not meant to be a mother, which breaks her heart and she kicks him out of her apartment and cries all night. She applies for resignation but Neel convinces her to take a transfer to London and she agrees with a condition that he won’t be in contact with her again. Radhika moves to London and soon her mom visits her there. Her mom hunts boys for her and shortlist some only to be rejected by Radhika until they come across Brijesh’s profile. She first talks with him in skype and later meet in New York. The only thing she hates about Brij

esh is his name and her mother insists this to be a good match and she finally accepts.

The story returns back to Goa, where Neel is apologizing to Radhika for his behavior in the past. He shows his divorce papers with his wife and proposes Radhika to marry him. He says that he has a chartered plane ready and they can escape any time she wants. She asks for time to think and returns to wedding where she finds Debu who informs her that, he has already talked with his parents and they are on the way. Though emotionally shaken by all those events happening around Radhika tries to focus on the dance practice for sangeet ritual but cannot focus and she breaks down and starts crying instead. It’s already over her endurance limit. She decides to talk with Brijesh about this and proposes him to cancel the wedding. Brijesh request her to think it over and leaves her. She thinks all night and come up with an idea. She decides to bring the boys face to face. She texts Neel and Debu to meet her at 5 am in the café. Neel and Debu try to compete with each other and convince Radhika to choose one over another but Radhika says that she won’t choose either because deep down they have another face which will show up in future and hurt her.  She ask them both to leave and then meet Brijesh and tells him everything that is happening around. Brijesh is stunned hearing all that but agrees to put away the past. But Radhika insists on cancelling the wedding. She finally talks with her family and then with Brijeshs’ which gets totally awkward and chaotic. Finally Brijesh helps her out and the wedding is cancelled.

Radhika then travels around beautiful cities and after 3 months catch up with Brijesh in San Francisco. They talk about their life since then and Radhika even offers to help him with work. They decide to go for Arijit Singh’s concert later in the evening.

(Do comment how you think about it.)

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The stoning of Soraya M.

This Persian language movie is adapted from the book written by a French Journalist Freidoune Sahebjam in 1990 called “La Femme Lapidée”. This is a very powerful movie presented by the makers of “Passion of the Christ”. In short this movie is a dramatized version of a true story of killing a women by hitting her with stones because her husband wants to get rid of her so that he can marry another women. The movie plot is narrated by a character called Zahra played by Shohreh Aghdashloo who narrates the whole back story that led to the stoning of her niece, Soraya played by Mozhan Marnò, as she converse with a foreign journalist played by James Caviezel. She wants the journalist to carry the story out of the village and reveal the truth to the whole world. She wants him to take her voice with him. The journalist listens her story of extremism and brutality against a woman and records in his tape recorder. This movie presents the complete scenario of the event depicting the taboos of Islam and the position of women in a male dominated Islamic societies. This story makes you want to change what’s going on out there in the world.

The movie is set in a remote Iranian village called Kuhpayeh. A foreign journalist gets stranded in the village due to his car failure. As he takes his car to the local mechanic for repair, a peaky woman approaches him to tell a brutal story about a stoning that took place a day earlier in the same village which seems to be in so peace as of now. The mayor and mulla of the village appear who start to ask about his whereabouts and even invites him with them for lunch or tea. They call Zhara an insane lady and to ignore her. Surmised by the events he chooses to rest in a peaceful café where he is again approached by Zhara. Though he hesitates at the beginning, but after Zhara throws him a piece of human bone wrapped in a paper he gets curious and follows the map in the wrapped paper. He is still unwilling as he asks why he should he listen to her as she says that the voice of women in this part of world doesn’t matter for which she urges him to hear the story first to know.

The story begins as Ali, Soraya's abusive husband who tries to get the village's mullah to convince Soraya to grant him a divorce so that he can marry a 14-year-old girl. Ali is able to convince the mullah by making threats to tell the rest of the village about his past as a convict. Mulla approaches Soraya with accusations against her that she is ignoring her husband. He tells her that Ali wants to marry other women and offers her some land, house and furniture for divorce. He also proposes her to be his 'Sigeh', a temporary wife in exchange for protection and monetary support for her and her two daughters. Zhara barges in and stirs Soraya to refuse and also threatens the Mulla that she will tell the entire village how evil his intention were. The Mulla runs from there calling them witches and threatens them that he shall take revenge in time. Zhara asks Soraya about her marriage, if she keeps Ali happy and Soraya shows bruises in her chest due to Ali’s brutality. Zhara suggests Soraya to divorce him, but Soraya would lose the support and would be unable to provide for her children. Then Zhara asks Soaraya about the girl Ali wants to marry. Mehri, a 14 years old daughter of a rich father who has been sentenced to death for an unspecified crime. Ali's marriage to the teenager is conditional on Ali's ability to save the girl's father. Ali hits Soraya for not agreeing for his offer of divorce. Ali has also turned his sons against Soraya as he wants them to be with him. He lures them with stories of big cities and good food. Soraya escapes with her two daughters to Zhara’s house. Zhara once again suggests for divorce but Soraya tells her story about how she was exploited at young age when she was made to work for a man because her parents couldn’t feed her. She says that she doesn’t want the same fate to her daughters. Zhara advise her not to provoke Ali and do whatever he wants. But Soraya doesn’t want to go back. She looks at her daughters sleeping calm which they are not able to at home due to Ali’s torture. Suddenly a man from neighborhood, Hasheem appears asking for help with Zhara. He states his wife is very sick and Zhara prepares to leave. As they go outside they find Ali in a car with Mehri, laughing and showing off. People are cheering up for him and he looks really happy. Zhara feels sorry for Soraya and angry towards Ali. Hasheem’s wife dies leaving her husband and mentally impaired son behind. After the wife’s dead different women come to his house in excuse of providing condolences but they rather steal stuffs. Soraya tries to save some of his belongings from being stolen. The mayor and mulla suggest Soraya to work for the widower for some wages so that she can earn money and feed her daughters. Hasheem thanks Soraya for saving his belongings and she also grows attachment with his little son as she works there. Ali looks over this all very closely. While Soraya earns some money and is able to live a better life, Ali plans to use the unusual circumstance to spread lies that Soraya is being unfaithful to him so that she will be stoned and he can remarry. Ali also knows if Soraya were dead, he would not have to pay child support. Ali and the mullah start a rumor about Soraya's infidelity so they can charge her with adultery. One day while Zahra is walking in town, she realizes that a rumor has spread that her niece is being unfaithful to her husband. Zhara senses a plot and asks Soraya to quit the job. But Soraya disagrees as it is her only hope for a better life. Ali and the mullah need one more "witness" to Soraya's "infidelity" to be able to formally charge her. They visit Hasheem at home and, using threats, manipulate him into agreeing to back up their story. Soon after, Ali drags Soraya through the streets, beating her and publicly declaring that she has been unfaithful. Zahra intervenes and takes her niece. Ali, and the Mayor of the village go to her house to talk privately. They bring Hasheem to the home and, after he lies and says that they had engaged in adultery, a trial is pursued. Only men, including Soraya's father, are allowed while Soraya is confined with some women in Zahra's house. She is quickly convicted. Zahra tries to flee with her and after realizing she cannot, goes to plead with the mayor for Soraya's life, even offering to switch places with Soraya. The conviction is upheld though, and as they are preparing for the stoning, the Mayor prays to Allah for a sign if they are not doing the right thing. Before the actual stoning can begin, a traveling carnival van comes through and tries to perform their act. They are shooed away, where they wait by the sidelines as the stoning begins. Soraya's father disowns her as he is given the first stone to throw but he misses her repeatedly. A woman in the crowd pleads to the mayor that the stones missing are a sign Soraya is innocent, but none of the men listen. Ali takes up stones and throws them himself. Her two sons are also forced to throw stones. Hasheem is given two stones to throw but instead walks away in tears. The crowd finally joins in and Soraya is stoned to death.

The people come to know that Zahra is narrating the story to the journalist about Soraya. Soon, Hasheem, the mechanic appears to inform the journalist that his car has been fixed. After some time Ali appears alone in his car. Asked upon his marries he says that, the marriage is called off as the Mehri’s father has been executed. Hasheem could not control himself realizing how big crime he has committed. He asks Ali, “Was it all for nothing?” Then he admits that he lied about the fact that Soraya had been involved with him in adultery and he was coerced by Ali and Mulla to do so. As the journalist prepares to leave with his belongings and collect his vehicle since it has been repaired, the mullah orders a Revolutionary Guard to stop him at gunpoint. They spill out the belongings of his bag, seize his tape recorder, and destroy all of the tapes. But as the journalist prepares to drive away, Zahra appears out of an alley with the real tape in her hand. Men attempt to run after the car before the journalist is able to drive away. Zhara says to everyone that the god is great and now the whole world will know what happened in that place.

This movie shows the despairing inequality between man and woman in the society, the intimidation and domination a man impels against a woman. The scene where the little girls get scared when the journalist enters the gate shows that the man in a society as such are depiction of cruelty. Zhara’s dialogue like the voice of women doesn’t matter in this part of world; there are men in this town who are wild dogs also shows the status of women. Ali’s behavior towards his children, being responsible towards his sons and ignoring his daughters, boasting of dominating his wife, and his son’s learning from his father, trying to hit Soraya when she speaks against Ali is clear depiction how the society has turned to be as it is. He teaches his son that this is the man’s world and beats Soraya in front of them.

It also shows the taboos in Islam that women are not allowed to smoke, a husband has all the rights to do anything he wants with his wife and the consent of wife doesn’t matter, the provisions for allowing men to keep Sigeh. The story Soraya tells about her childhood, the exploitation she had to face is heartbreaking. The girls from very young age are being abused and used as a toy for pleasure. They are abused within their family, from their own relatives. The purity of women is considered as her virginity, they believe that they can do anything with a girl other than an intercourse. The movie also shows the taboo of Islam that a woman must give birth. A woman with no children are considered incomplete and is rejected from the society. The women without husband are considered worthless. They have no rights to talk with other men, or have their say in any matters. A widow should respect other men and do what they decide for her. The provision of non-participation of women in public matter is also depicted in the movie. Like Zhara or any other women were not allowed to be a part of jury for the trial and whatever they decide would be the judgement. It also talks about the harsh Islamic law which states that a trial can be proceeded with any witness coming forward. The genuineness of the witness is not considered. And the biggest flaw of religion shown in this movie is the extent of brutality. In accusation of adultery Soraya is stoned and killed brutally but Hasheem who is also accused to be a part of the act is set free without punishment. The inequality and cruelty in the laws makes it more conservative and superficial.

The movie also portrays the extent of a human endurance and emotion. The scene where Zhara tells to the journalist that she is a hundred years older today than yesterday shows how helpless she is and how broken she is emotionally. She says that the devil himself visited the place yesterday which paraphrases the weight of event that happened the day earlier. The two little girls had to witness the brutal death of their mother by none other than their own father, relatives and neighbors. This event shall affect them psychologically and emotionally for their entire life. And the pain Soraya had to endure cannot be explained in words. Every time I watch this movie, I just think what might be in her head when she sees her own father, husband and sons stoning her as a punishment for a crime she didn’t commit. She must feel pity for them, for their worthless life and sad for her daughters and all women. I just pray for Soraya’s soul and may any other women never have to go through what she had to.

FIN

Appendix:

(Last excerpt of the summary of the story of movie is copied from Wikipedia, as I decided not to summarize the stoning and its brutality.)

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