Goats, toilets and gender politics

That’s what you’ll find in Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s novel, ‘Earning the Laundry Stripes’

When you’ve lived in a world where girl children aren’t counted as part of the population, you’re bound to come out with a story. Hong Kong-based Manreet Sodhi Someshwar came out with a novel. ‘Earning the Laundry Stripes’ is a fictional tale, based on her experiences as the only female area sales manager in Hindustan Lever Limited travelling through the dusty inroads of forgotten villages. “You know the stories about travelling with goats in a bus – I’ve actually elbowed my way out through those buses,” she laughs.

Her first novel is a far cry from her management degree from IIM Kolkata. “I was the first woman sales manager in HLL in years and no one was prepared for it. I finally decided that despite it being a man’s domain so far, I wouldn’t do it like a guy; I’d give it my own feminine touch,” she continues. That meant distilling the instant suspicion that usually greeted her in the village shops where she presented herself as the sales manager, not a customer. “I was immediately taken to meet the family, the pets, just as a reassurance I wasn’t a threat,” she says.

The woman’s touch also meant the building of bathrooms. “The men would just stomp into the fields while I tested my bladder control. So a separate toilet was built for me with a lock – so no one else could use and make it dirty,” she laughs.

‘Earning the Laundry Stripes’ strings this together to unravel more than just a woman’s journey of self-discovery. It talks of gender politics within a boardroom and the mud walls of a hut. “I’m a feminist and it was inevitable that it would creep into my writing.” Manreet has now been a full time writer for 6 years, even winning an award for her short stories. “I really seem to be living an ideal life – I write, I surf the Internet for interesting books and then review them for a newspaper,” she grins.

s_rituparna@dnaindia.net