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A review by gulshanbatra
Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee
2.0
Coming of age stories are uplifting, enlightening, endearing, sometimes amazing, and often at least worth telling.
Miss New India attempts to be one such story of a girl from a small town in the interior of India, who finds reason and courage to move to a big city to find herself, and make a name and a life as well along the way. The story revolves around Anjali / Angie, who has a somewhat confusing sense of entitlement, that at times seems outright misplaced and sometimes utterly mistaken. She is shown as the sparkle of the small town, she can do no wrong, she can't go wrong, she has big future written all over her cute face... but, of course, life - and reality - can't read all that.
Right away we are shown a girl who has been encouraged to feel good and great about herself, and who is told - repeatedly - at least by her English teacher whom she holds in utmost awe (and infatuation!) that she is destined for the stars and big money and generally making it big, and out of their small town.
That sets the tone of the story. She has some bad encounters in her hometown - and right away you see something is not right.
Not in the story, but in the character of Anjali / Angie - whom you're supposed to believe in, enough to want to follow all the way to the big city, and at least for the rest of the book. She comes across as somewhat shallow, naive, juvenile, self-centered, almost arrogant - in other words, a typical 20-yr old who thinks they are the answer to the world's questions. Except in her case, it is hard to see why would she think that.
Even in Bangalore - where the majority of the story happens, she somehow is fawned over by almost whoever she meets. She is shown as this extremely lucky girl, surrounded by others falling over themselves to help her out and lift her out of whatever hole she has dug herself into.
I happen to have spent a couple of years in Bangalore, a few years after what's depicted in the book. I knew many of the landmarks named - the roads, neighborhoods, the restaurants, the pubs, alleys, offices, the crowds - the sheer teeming millions, public transport- which Angie needs to use but once, IT industry - reading about all that brought back a lot of memories. That made the story almost relatable - but I was struggling to feel any empathy for Angie.
I was discussing this book with my son - who happens to be reading The Last Kids on Earth series, and he says that the main character grows as a character during the books. I realized then that that was my biggest complaint with this story. I told him the book I'm reading - the main character hardly grows all through the book, despite being given many chances by smart, intelligent, cunning and idiotic people all around her. She has a lot of chances to look and learn and grow - but even in the end, she is as much of a dunce and as shallow as she was to begin with.
Granted she develops some sort of courage in that last-but-one chapter for that small skirmish, but it is over literally before it begins, and she goes right back to being full of only herself.
Many of the other characters come across as more empathetic and worth knowing-more-about, and you get glimpses of real ideas and thoughts and people and passions and hard work and even biases and ideals and ideologies - none of which seem to leave a lasting mark on our protagonist.
The most intelligent portions of the story are the ones either about Peter Champion, or where you get to read Dynamo's column in the newspaper.
Agreed - not everyone can be a thinker, an intellectual, creative, constructive, modest, intelligent, smart, likeable, honest, humble, hard-working... but then, with a title like Miss New India, the bar was expected to be at least this high. Why else would she deserve that title? Why else would she be representative of the masses? There is a lot of hard work, constant toiling, endless late-night shifts, adjustments, criticisms, insults even, and of course cutthroat competition that is Bangalore. The city has not been built by chance or easily. It is not easy to make it in that city or in that industry. I know - I was there once.
Clearly, not for Anjali / Angie.
2/5 only for the authenticity of the locales, the times, the situations, the people - except Anjali/Angie herself.
Miss New India attempts to be one such story of a girl from a small town in the interior of India, who finds reason and courage to move to a big city to find herself, and make a name and a life as well along the way. The story revolves around Anjali / Angie, who has a somewhat confusing sense of entitlement, that at times seems outright misplaced and sometimes utterly mistaken. She is shown as the sparkle of the small town, she can do no wrong, she can't go wrong, she has big future written all over her cute face... but, of course, life - and reality - can't read all that.
Right away we are shown a girl who has been encouraged to feel good and great about herself, and who is told - repeatedly - at least by her English teacher whom she holds in utmost awe (and infatuation!) that she is destined for the stars and big money and generally making it big, and out of their small town.
That sets the tone of the story. She has some bad encounters in her hometown - and right away you see something is not right.
Not in the story, but in the character of Anjali / Angie - whom you're supposed to believe in, enough to want to follow all the way to the big city, and at least for the rest of the book. She comes across as somewhat shallow, naive, juvenile, self-centered, almost arrogant - in other words, a typical 20-yr old who thinks they are the answer to the world's questions. Except in her case, it is hard to see why would she think that.
Even in Bangalore - where the majority of the story happens, she somehow is fawned over by almost whoever she meets. She is shown as this extremely lucky girl, surrounded by others falling over themselves to help her out and lift her out of whatever hole she has dug herself into.
I happen to have spent a couple of years in Bangalore, a few years after what's depicted in the book. I knew many of the landmarks named - the roads, neighborhoods, the restaurants, the pubs, alleys, offices, the crowds - the sheer teeming millions, public transport- which Angie needs to use but once, IT industry - reading about all that brought back a lot of memories. That made the story almost relatable - but I was struggling to feel any empathy for Angie.
I was discussing this book with my son - who happens to be reading The Last Kids on Earth series, and he says that the main character grows as a character during the books. I realized then that that was my biggest complaint with this story. I told him the book I'm reading - the main character hardly grows all through the book, despite being given many chances by smart, intelligent, cunning and idiotic people all around her. She has a lot of chances to look and learn and grow - but even in the end, she is as much of a dunce and as shallow as she was to begin with.
Granted she develops some sort of courage in that last-but-one chapter for that small skirmish, but it is over literally before it begins, and she goes right back to being full of only herself.
Many of the other characters come across as more empathetic and worth knowing-more-about, and you get glimpses of real ideas and thoughts and people and passions and hard work and even biases and ideals and ideologies - none of which seem to leave a lasting mark on our protagonist.
The most intelligent portions of the story are the ones either about Peter Champion, or where you get to read Dynamo's column in the newspaper.
Agreed - not everyone can be a thinker, an intellectual, creative, constructive, modest, intelligent, smart, likeable, honest, humble, hard-working... but then, with a title like Miss New India, the bar was expected to be at least this high. Why else would she deserve that title? Why else would she be representative of the masses? There is a lot of hard work, constant toiling, endless late-night shifts, adjustments, criticisms, insults even, and of course cutthroat competition that is Bangalore. The city has not been built by chance or easily. It is not easy to make it in that city or in that industry. I know - I was there once.
Clearly, not for Anjali / Angie.
2/5 only for the authenticity of the locales, the times, the situations, the people - except Anjali/Angie herself.