Discovering Sudha Murty’s Fiction

The Mother I Never Knew, Dollar Bahu, House of Cards, Gently Falls the Bakula, Mahasweta

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The Mother I Never Knew:
Yet another book from the treasure trove of Sudha Murty, The Mother I Never Knew: Two Novellas is a poignant tale of two men, Venkatesh and Mukesh, as they set out on a journey to find out the mothers they never knew. Both men are happy and settled in their respective lives when they come across a shocking truth.

When Venkatesh realises he has a half-brother from his father’s extramarital liaison, his world changes. He finds his step-mother out and is pained to see the pitiful condition she is living in. He must make amends for what his father has done but the question that haunts him deep within is if it is really possible to undo everything. Mukesh is in a similar state of agony when he comes to know that he was adopted as a kid. Pushed by impulse, he decides to find his biological mother. But the farther he goes, the more unclear the picture becomes. He must decide towards whom his true love and loyalty lies: the woman whom he called his mother all his life and who raised him or the woman who has given him birth.
The two men are bound by the same dilemma and the same complexity of emotions. and it is important for them to find their way back to bring stability in their lives. The core interest of the book is in exploring if it is really possible to come to terms with a reality as blaring and as deceiving as that of Venkatesh and Mukesh.

Dollar Bahu:
Dollar Bahu is the story of how money can wreak havoc in the life of any family, if things spin out of control. Vinuta is a young woman, who marries Girish, who is a bank clerk. Vinuta then begins to live in Bangalore, with Girish’s family and starts to get accustomed to her new family. She gets used to this new change quite well and spends her life looking after her in-laws and her husband. She even tries her level best to ignore the taunts of her mother-in-law, Gouramma. Things take a turn for the worse, when Chandru, Girish’s elder brother, gets married. Chandru is based in the US, with his wife, the ‘Dollar Bahu’ and they live quite an extravagant life, because of the fact that Chandru earns well. Vinuta now faces constant comparisons between her and her new sister-in-law, much to Vinuta’s dismay. Now Gouramma, Vinuta’s mother-in-law, decides to pay Chandru a visit in the US, which turns things around.Gouramma now looks at the other side of life in the US, where she realizes that she will never get the respect there, which she gets in India. Even though middle-class life in India is difficult and bound by rules, it is one that is full of love and respect. Can this enlightening trip bring about a change in Vinuta and Gouramma’s relationship?

This is only some of the incredible reads one might find in this collector’s edition!