Meenal Deshpande, Saroj Chawla and Uma Basu McGuiness left
India to start new lives and have remained close ever
since. Their daughters Kiran, Preity and Rani have dubbed
their little group the Hindi-Bindi Club. They eat great
Indian cuisine, discuss books and basically enjoy each
others' company. They've tried to pass on their customs to
their daughters, but competing with all things American is
not easy. Then Kiran Deshpande asks her parents something
they've always wanted to hear; but is it too late?
Kiran has asked for the assistance in a time-honored
tradition to arrange her next, and hopefully last,
marriage. This comes about because her first marriage ended
when she accidentally walked in on her wanna-be rock star
husband with another woman. She e-mails childhood friends
Preity and Rani about her current marriage plans. This
stirs up feelings from the past for all of them about lost
loves, forgotten jealousies and buried dreams.
Preity, who is very happily married with two children, does
some soul searching about her first love. It brings up some
unresolved feelings about her mother that she doesn't
understand. Will she confront her mother or keep them to
herself? Rani, a struggling artist, is about to show her
work at a gallery. Is she afraid of failure or success?
THE HINDI-BINDI CLUB by Monica Pradhan is a
wonderful debut novel about the relationships between
mothers and daughters and long-time friends. Everyone has a
story to tell and is struggling with something from the
past. Mouthwatering recipes are an added touch to this
story.
For decades they have remained close, sharing treasured
recipes, honored customs, and the challenges of women
shaped by ancient ways yet living modern lives. They are
the Hindi-Bindi Club, a nickname given by their American
daughters to the mothers who left India to start anew—
daughters now grown and facing struggles of their own.
For Kiran, Preity, and Rani, adulthood bears the indelible
stamp of their upbringing, from the ways they tweak their
mothers’ cooking to suit their Western lifestyles to the
ways they reject their mothers’ most fervent beliefs. Now,
bearing the disappointments and successes of their chosen
paths, these daughters are drawn inexorably home.
Kiran, divorced, will seek a new beginning—this time
requesting the aid of an ancient tradition she once
dismissed. Preity will confront an old heartbreak—and a
hidden shame. And Rani will face her demons as an artist
and a wife. All will question whether they have the courage
of the Hindi-Bindi Club, to hold on to their dreams—or to
create new ones.
An elegant tapestry of East and West, peppered with food
and ceremony, wisdom and sensuality, this luminous novel
breathes new life into timeless themes.
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