Book review: 'Priya In Incredible Indyaa 'reminds of sexy Paro

Book: Priya In Incredible Indyaa
Author: Namita Gokhale
Publisher: Penguin Viking
Rating: ***

It’s easy to see why Namita Gokhale resurrects some of the characters from her classic novella, Paro: Dreams of Passion, in Priya In Incredible Indyaa. And why she chose to especially remind readers of the sexy Paro who lived life by her own rules. Priya, then, a very vulnerable and endearing young girl, has now evolved into an elusive housewife of Suresh Kaushal, a powerful politico in Delhi.

But you know that she doesn’t have the careless abandon that Paro had, even as she enviously, yet lovingly, recalls the seductress of the ’80s. Priya is excruciatingly aware that she could never be Paro.

Priya now represents Delhi’s high society, wants to desperately cling on to it and yet mentally mocks it all. She is at once nostalgic and dismissive of her life in the dingy 1 BHK in Mumbai. But she often looks lost in the now sprawling colonial bungalow in Delhi.

She says she suffers from ‘social vertigo’ but wants to stay there. So she discusses SEZs, agricultural progress, the Maoist movement et al, with the swish set, and just as easily detaches herself from them. She is modest about her journey up the social ladder, determinedly working towards playing the quintessential Indian wife to a self-absorbed politician and an ideal mother to her twin sons — one, a pierced hippie artist, the other striving to step into his father’s political shoes.

Out of the many roles she plays, Priya is perhaps the most honest and content being a mother.

While Priya is a woman of contradictions, she is also a social wannabe. She likes her Gucci glasses and Dior bags alright, even as she sometimes spitefully observes her ‘new friend’ Pooonam chase status and power with her seductive ways. Priya doesn’t care much about being called ‘Mrs Menopause’.

She herself is a woman full of desire, a character trait you’re unlikely to find in other middle-aged Indian literary women. She doesn’t hesitate to check into a hotel with her former lover, Paro’s first husband.

But she silently watches her own husband straying and surrendering to Pooonam’s insinuations. But the husband could’ve been sketched better. The only character who no longer fits in and, you know, will eventually fade out is Lenin, Paro’s devoted lover.

This social misfit is the only other person you unerringly sympathise with… maybe even a little more than you do with Priya.
Mind you, this is not chick-lit. Namita’s Priya is more of a satire — a voyeuristic peep into the shallowness of Delhi’s big-shots. The witty writing often makes you smile, as you go through this gripping tale of status, sex and power.

Priya somehow manages to emerge unscathed. As for Paro’s ghost? Well, it never really leaves her.
—Jayeeta Mazumder