Another Man's Wife

Another man’s wife is an excellent collection of women oriented stories. I enjoyed the title story a sad tale of displaced people. Manjul describes everything in her characteristic poetic detail, from the strength in adversity and adaptability of a tribal woman and also makes profound observations on the destruction of our environment by our greed. Ripe mangoes was the shocking, but it is true to life with poetic description of a graceful dancer and her relationship with her musician. It reiterated the truth that a genius has to be self centered. The few lines describing Munnibai, the half relative, half servant in this story were gut wrenching, and bought tears to my eyes. The loved the character of the old mother-in –law in “Lottery ticket”. I could read this book over and over again and discover lines of beautiful writing that move me each time .

With a casual flick, this book dislodged my reader's block of a year ( with some futile prodding from David Baldacci and Lee Child) as also my prejudice against most Indian writers.
'Another Man's Wife' is earthy, touching and refreshing. The characters real and unreal enough to enchant. Nowhere is the dull vacuity, shallow, frivolous identity crisis of rootless migrants. It is a rich colorful world of lakhnavi chickan, kathak, paan, mango orchards, forests,displaced tribals and kamla nagar dhaba- a beguiling mix.The language doesn't groan under the weight of a labored syntax, effort or circumlocution. It sparkles and finds it's mark.
The most impressive trait is the sheer Indian-ness and the wide array of circumstance and the responses of human souls in tumult. Right from the unabashed Muslim woman's scorn for convention in 'Ripe mangoes' to the anti-climactic infatuation in 'Marrying Nusrat' and the resilience of a tribal woman in the cover story, there is no stereotyped formula or monotony that makes one feel let down. The stories reflect India as it hasn't been in a long time. It is like floating in a warm, sunlit pond of Indian experience and emotion. Highly recommended for youngsters who have missed a glimpse of old world charm and small-town discomfort in their claustrophobic, chartered world.
Manjul Bajaj is a brilliant, sensitive story-teller. A must-read for sheer novelty and perspective of Indian woman's passions.

It’s not every day that you come across a book with the first line- “Ammi, you are a whore!” The line instantly reminded me of an author of great courage, Vladimir Nabokov, whose novel Lolita’s first line read ‘Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins’. Another Man’s Wife is Manjul Bajaj’s second book, and first published collection of short stories. Her confidence as a writer shines through its pages.
The collection has 8 short stories and a last long story (which could easily qualify as a novella). The stories are set in different parts of India, and gives us a glimpse of people who live there and the spaces they inhabit- a barsati where a former lover lives between nights of passionate love, a newsprint with a report of an absconding criminal, an Omni van filled with the prayers of an aging mother-in-law, framed photographs of a celebrated jazz singer, chikankari embroidered white and soft colored fabrics, an old bungalow wrapped up as a diwali gift, rooms with cameras in a shikara in Dal lake, the dark mind of a young man contemplating murdering his grandmother and the sweet sweat of a tribal girl who is ready to become another man’s wife; spaces where stories worth telling are born.
Bajaj’s strength lies in the way she selects her themes for her stories and how she makes them believable. Her style is easy and deliberate, and her research thorough. You can feel your mouth water when she talks about exotic mangoes “Kotihur…Ranipasand…those are mangoes so delicate…a connoisseur eats them at the exact moment of its ripening, knowing the moment with a touch, a glance” or when she enamors you by talking about the language of chikankari “of butis, motifs of elephants, fishes, birds and lotuses…created with a delicate parting of the wrap and weft of the muslin to reveal a finely patterned mesh…some (women) did the outlining, others the filling and shadow work…a duppatta or sari passed through many hands before it was complete”. Through many of her stories – Ripe Mangoes, The Birthmark, Under the moonlit sky, Another Man’s Wife- Bajaj shows us the struggles of women in a patriarchal society, and how they are finding cracks in the walls built around them to, in smalls ways and big, live life on their own terms.
Another Man’s Wife is a sincere and well crafted book. And Bajaj as a writer is gifted with sensitivity and restraint. And one can see that the time she spent on her mother’s knees listening to her stories, was time well spent :)

REVIEW OF ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE By MANJUL BAJAJ

Hello fellow readers - good news – welcoming a new author (at least newly discovered by me...) Manjul Bajaj! Just finished the first of her 2 books - ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE - a collection of stories set across India, showing a sensitivity and insight to everyday events and how these impact real people.

Very fluid and easy style and each story flows from
her in simple, matter-of-fact language – against a backdrop of real issues, real places and current events! She has successfully and adroitly avoided falling into the trap of moving from an unbiased observer to a participant – no easy task specially when faced with situations where one could hardly be blamed for taking a moralistic high ground.

To be able to portray all these lives and people, their choices and also present all sides of the coin in a way that each reader is permitted to interpret independent of being “coached” into a viewpoint is no easy task and I would toss my hat to Manjul for her skill and her ability to divine a deep understanding of the minds of diverse subjects. An even more daunting prospect- considering the different regions, backgrounds and social strata each of the protagonists draws from.

Manjul is a rare contemporary Indian writer who has been able to tell a good tale well and without sensationalism. Well structured, eminently readable, a good plot with a deeper perspective – Another Man’s Wife is a must read for those who would like to understand modern India, and how each and every action, which may seem isolated, has a connection which can ripple across time, space and peoples.

All in all a book written with the oldest objective of sharing a tale and not with a view to creating a bestseller – and those of you who are still looking for meaningful and good book to curl up with, loosen those purse strings and get yourself a copy. (I would recommend an online buy at Flipkart for I could not find it on the shelves in several bookstores)!

And now, all set to read her other book COME BEFORE EVENING FALLS!!!! Watch this space for my take on that…..

An excellent collection of diverse short stories set in the vast Indian landscape that strike a chord with the reader. The stories are fast paced, have great visuals and there are twists in the tail that make some of the stories memorable. Ripe Mangoes for instance. There are three things that I particularly loved about the book. First, I love the the specific details that the writer adds to the story, giving a credibility to the goings on - whether it is the geography of India - Nepal border, finer points of jazz scene in Goa or varieties of mangoes grown in Bengal. Manjul Bajaj has chosen a wide range of settings to tell these stories - Rural Punjab, Touristique Kashmir, Tribal Gujarat, Goa, Lucknow - and has managed to capture the cultural nuances very well. Seond, I love the way she gives attention to minor characters - how they are developed and come alive in the pages. There is the visual of Khan sahib (those valiant eight hairs grown long and drawn on one side), or the description of Shreya (she is a quilt work of everyone she loved), or Sammy Fernandez' father, the man who says it all without uttering a word. Third, I appreciate Manjul Bajaj's insights on life and human nature that come out in the stories. Sample some of the phrases: Love is a free bird that doesn't ask for permission to fly out, my marriage hadn't lasted long enough for us to breed anything. Familiarity. Contempt. Children. Too many dreams chasing too little space.

All in all, an excellent read. I really enjoyed it.