Shame

by Jasvinder Sanghera

Details hodder

Started reading 5 January 2008
Finished reading 10 January 2008

A true story. Arranged marriages and how the author escaped from such a fate and managed to overcome adversity to find her own niche in life. The scenes depicted seemed more fiction than fact, with so much hyperbole and drama, Could this tradition still be prevalent in the world.

Unfortunately all the experiences of the girls in the book are true. To compound matters, the girl's family is party to the atrocities that some of them endure at the hands of their new families. Any complaints to their own parents are set aside.

The girls are supposed to just grin and bear it since arranged marriages has been a time honoured custom since time immemorial. The saddest part was how some mothers could brush aside the maternal caring instinct on the altar of saving face even when they are so far away from their original ancestral home.

A breezy read and a reminder that women are still the downtrodden in most societies.