Review of 'Real Life' by Amrita Mahale
Mohan Gulrajani
‘Real Life’: Amrita Mahale’s new novel considers women who violate the mandates of caste and gender
The novel asks real, urgent questions.
Author Amrita Mahale.
Amrita Mahale’s Real Life, published seven years after the publication of her acclaimed debut novel Milk Teeth, is the story of two women, Mansi and Tara. It is a literary mystery that unfolds at the intersection of caste, womanhood, and digital capitalism. Free-spirited and passionate, Tara is a wildlife biologist, researching the dholes of Himachal Pradesh. Mansi works at a fairness cream company in Delhi, trying to improve their formula. Her life is dictated by the unjust demands of her husband and his parents. She reaches a breaking point when Tara disappears in Mahamaya Valley – a remote backpacker’s paradise in Himachal Pradesh. Disconnecting from the conventional life she has built, Mansi sets out on a journey to the mountains to uncover the mystery of Tara’s disappearance.
Tara and Mansi
Mahale captures the strangeness, solidarity, envy, love, and vitality of the bond between Tara and Mansi that was formed in childhood. She also captures the contradictions of this enduring bond between the two women – Mansi enjoyed the class and caste privilege that Tara never had. For the longest time, Mansi believed in the existence of casteless merit, and that was a point of contention between the two women. And yet, the reader can sense that in the end, the only true love Tara and Mansi had experienced was for each other. While Mansi took the path of least resistance, Tara carved out a radical existence, challenging the boundaries of the caste and gender hierarchy. Real Life tells the story of the repercussions of Tara’s rebellion against a life of indignity.
The novel is divided into three parts – centred on the narratives of Mansi, Tara, and Bhaskar, respectively. Bhaskar is the prime suspect in the investigation of Tara’s disappearance. The second part of the novel centres on his outlandish narrative and his inner monologues. He is an AI research engineer who wants to create language models to replace human interactions. In addition to an entitlement fuelled by his mother’s devotion for her single boy child, a bottomless loneliness also spurs his aggression and his contempt for women. Bhaskar was raised to believe he was extraordinary. However, his interactions with women, including Tara, shatter that idea, wounding his hubris.
Collective amnesia
Mahale’s book is peppered with sharp cultural observations. She talks about the collective amnesia of the people in our country. Tara’s disappearance may have shocked the people, but their short-term memory will soon be erased, only to be replaced by the shock of the tragic death of another young woman. Speaking about the heavy influx of tourism in the valley, Mansi muses, “Once the travel bloggers arrived, the college students and burnt-out office workers were not far behind either. Before long, I am sure, hordes of red-wristed newlyweds and families with loud monkey-capped children will discover the place too. You will delay their arrival by a year or two, but no longer. Memory in this country is short, and tragedies are never in short supply. A young woman cut down in the prime of her life. Who can keep a count of how many times people have heard that story?” Forgetting, then, becomes a survival tool for people.
The third part of the novel provides views of Tara’s life and her disappearance. A compelling closure awaits the reader. The desire for agency and the urgency to break away from the shackles of caste and capitalism drive Tara’s retreat into the remote caves and forests, where every day is a reward for her. Through Tara’s disappearance, Mahale seems to question, what is the price to be paid by women who dare to violate the mandates of caste and gender? A rare work in contemporary Indian fiction, Real Life asks real, urgent questions.
Real Life, Amrita Mahale, Penguin India.
Professor (Dr.) M. L. Gulrajani F.S.D.C. (UK)
Former Professor and Dean (I.R&D), IIT Delhi
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