Uncertain liaisons
- New Delhi Viking Penguin 1993
- 213p.
THE RAISON D'ÊTRE FOR THIS BOOK WAS OBVIOUS-IT WAS overdue. Many years ago, a businessman confided in 'me, "These days it's far more difficult to find a good servant than a well-trained wife... and frankly, I'd settle for the former any day.' He looked genuinely distressed. I was naïve enough to feel alarmed by such a remark way back then. Before I could get all huffy and puffy, his wife nudged me and whispered, 'Forget it... ignore him ... my husband is stupid enough and drunk enough to be honest ... but basically all Indian men feel that way.' I asked her why she didn't rebel against being compared to an efficient domestic servant or appliance. She shrugged noncommittally. This was twenty years ago. But even today, a wife's status is little more than that of a servant in most Indian homes. A servant without salary or sick leave at that. But whereas a disobedient domestic can be fired and a dissatisfied one can walk out of a job and seek fresh employment, a wife is really and truly stuck in a 'like it or lump it' situation. Plus, she is often forced to sleep with the boss.