Book Review: "The Mother I Never Knew" by Sudha Murty

“You want to pay back a debt that your father owes somebody. I want to pay back a debt that my father owes too.”

Author: Sudha Murthy

Genre: Fiction

Language: English

About the Author:

Sudha Murthy is an Indian novelist who is known for her notable contribution to Kannada and English literature. Apart from being an incredible author, she is an entrepreneur and also a chairperson of the Infosys foundation. She is also very well known for her social work, in 1996 she found Infosys foundation a non-profit organization that supports the underprivileged section of the society. She was awarded with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2006. 

Her stories focus on social issues, plight of underprivileged section in the society and family values. Her most notable works are "How I taught My Grandmother to Read", "Dollar Bahu", "The Mother I Never Knew", "Wise and Otherwise", "Mahashweta" etc. 

In "The Mother I Never Knew", two novellas focus on the lives of Venkatesh and Mukesh who sets out on a journey to find the mothers they never knew. Their ordinary lives get transformed as they encounter the bitter truth of their lives. 

About The Story:

The book is divided into two novellas. The first one is about Venkatesh who is a Bank manager and an ordinary man who has a wife, Shanta and two children, Ravi and Gauri. Ravi is more like his mother, who has a money-making mind and is more practical and insensitive towards her husband’s feelings and then there is Gauri who is compassionate, sensible and kind-hearted girl just like her father.

Venkatesh’s journey to Hubli transforms his ordinary life into a mysterious one and he sets out on a journey to discover the truth. When he stumbles upon his look alike and discovers that he has a stepbrother and a stepmother who have been living in poverty just because of a misunderstanding, he decides that he would do the least he could to make it up to them for what his family has done to them. Gauri supports her father in his decision but Shanta and Ravi think that Venkatesh is doing is mere stupidity and nothing else by paying them a major portion of their wealth. But he still goes ahead with his daughter’s support and pays them the money.

The second one is about Mukesh who is a program executive in BBC and covers India’s heritage and culture, he comes from a financially well-off family and lives in London with his wife Vasanthi. He has a family back in India, his father Krishna Rao and mother Sumati, his sister Neeraja and brother-in-law Satish. His whole world turns upside down when his father succumbs to heart attack and the family finds out the bitter truth that Mukesh is an adopted son. He sets out on a journey to unravel the truth behind his biological parents. On discovering the truth behind his birth and adoption, he finds himself in a dilemma but finally decides that her real mother is the one who brought him up and has always been there for him throughout the ups and downs of his life.

Review:

Sudha Murthy’s novels usually talks about the culture of India and never fails to give the readers a glimpse into the rich culture and heritage of Karnataka. The thing I admire about the author is that she always narrates the most complex issues with such a simplicity that anyone can grasp it. This book is about motherhood, as the title suggests, and family values. It can be read in one go and both the novellas are light hearted but shed light on sensitive issues of the society. It focuses on the plight of a woman in Indian society and especially when she becomes a mother. Simplicity in the writing style is the actual beauty of both the stories. 

Written by: Harshita Bansal