The Hindu Business Line : Diaspora dilemma

The dilemma of an Indian couple settled in the US as their children grow up and their teenage daughter Gowri talks of going on a date with her classmate, is described in Sivasankari's novel Portable Roots (published by Promilla & Co in association with Bibliophile South Asia).

Originally published in Tamil as Ini and transcreated by Rekha Shetty in English, this is essentially a saga of the Tamil diaspora in the US and their desperate attempts to hang on to their `roots' in India.

Mythili is a housewife and Venkat is in a comfortable job in the US, but both of them are very proud of their Indian origin and values. However, when Mythili tries to pass on this pride in all things Indian to Gowri, and what is acceptable and what is not under the Indian ethos, Gowri counters with an avalanche of questions, many of them pertinent.

Throughout the novel Mythili keeps going back to her days in the small town in Tamil Nadu where the absolutely strict Anandam Patti ruled the entire family with a firm hand, and where youngsters listened to elders without any questions. But the American-bred Gowri cannot accept that all that is `traditional' has to be followed even if it is irrational, and asks: "Just because someone is older than you, you have to listen to them even when they are wrong?"

She tells her stunned mother: "Thank God, I'm not in India. Every time you describe this stuff, I have less and less desire to go to India. Not too many people in India seem to believe that it is wrong to be nosy about other people's business, or to comment about them or make decisions for them."

While all the close friends of Mythili and Venkat are Indians, with the children it is different; with Gowri openly hostile towards the "personal questions" that Indians tend to ask. When Mythili's small secure world, kept together through a bubble... "the tight little circle that she had drawn to protect her family, is about to be breached," she and Venkat panic and decide they will return to India. But a chance meeting with plastic surgeon Mukundan who makes a disastrous attempt to relocate to India, and comes scurrying back to the US, changes their decision.

He firmly tells them that it's a mistake to think that these children, whose "seeds are sown in this country's soil" could develop roots in India. "It's like pulling out young plants as they are sprouting and planting them in a soil that doesn't suit them."

Even though an interesting read, considering that it is written by an established and gifted writer and thinker like Sivasankari, you come away from the book a little disappointed, and wish it had more depth. Surely life for the Indian diaspora in the US has more complexities than the poori-versus-pizza debate or anxiety over a mere dating ritual. Venkat and Mythili's decision to stay back comes through as a choice of convenience than one of conviction. In a book on the clash of cultures — American versus Indian — too many words are wasted on mundane details of daily routine. The complexities and the trauma that the diaspora faces in the western world have only been brushed in large strokes. Perhaps a sequel can fill in the details and the colours?

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