“Be patient. India is not going to be like London. When you enter India, I want you to think how it felt to leave this place and go somewhere as orderly as Britain, with ruler straight rows of houses and trains that run on time.”
I didn’t realise how much I loved this book till I sat down to write this review and I was at a loss for words on where to start. Just like in her previous novel, Jaswal lightly touches upon some societal topics with such ease and completely pulls you in and before you know it and suddenly you’re as invested in the lives of the characters.
This is story is a journey of 3 sisters to India to fulfil their mother’s dying wish. Having grown up in London, Rajni, Jezmeen and Shirina have understood very little of their culture and heritage through their Mother’s recollections of her time in India. Rajni being the eldest has always played a mother to her 2 younger sisters, helping their mother after their father’s sudden death. The sisters didn’t particularly grow up very close and by the lives they now led made it clear they grabbed the first opportunity they got to start their lives over.
The 3 women are reunited by their ailing mother to fulfil her wish by visiting the Gurudwaras in India. She writes a letter with the itinerary for their time in India and sets her daughters on a holy pilgrimage across Northern India, from Delhi to Amritsar.
“Share your meals together. I cannot remember the last time I saw the three of you at the same table. Don’t take for granted that there will always be time to do this in the future. Make conversation with each other”
Now, a few months later as they arrive in India, Rajni, already strained about how she left home, the last conversation with her husband and son playing over in her mind. But she also knows this trip is her chance to redeem herself from her last trip to India with her mother, the guilt of which still hangs over her head.
Jezmeen, a struggling actress in London, still reeling from her downfall that hit her quickly because of a video, that to her surprise, had spread like wildfire. The fire caught up with her in India when the millennials start to recognise her. Maybe it was the Delhi heat or her sisters, Jezmeen was already regretting this trip.
Shirina, found herself a groom and moved all the way to Australia to start afresh with a new family. This was a her chance to a happier home. Something she thought she missed growing up with her dysfunctional family in London. Arriving in India, Shirina has come with her own baggage and a task to fulfil for her new family, a secret that’s been eating her up with regret and shame a secret she has to keep from sisters.
The journey brings its own course of arguments, disappointments and regrets. But more importantly it reminds them of the love they had for their family which was somewhere lost fulfilling their own journeys.
“By this time you girls are probably annoyed with me for making you get up early each day but a sunrise is something you shouldn’t take for granted. Just once, for me, stand still and watch a new day beginning. Think of all the days you have left, and reflect on how you will choose to spend them.”