Desirable Daughters deals with America and its liberties, individualism, and money power and with India and its gods, ghosts, and curious social ill practices. The story is about three Calcutta-born sisters, Tara, Padma, and Parvati who were born into a wealthy Brahmin family presided over by their doting father and his traditionalist mother. Intelligent and artistic, the girls are nevertheless constrained by a society with little regard for women. Their subsequent rebellion will lead them in different directions, to different continents, and through different circumstances that strain yet ultimately strengthen their relationship.
Characters of Desirable Daughters:
Tara Lata is the main character and the narrator of the novel. She is an Indian-born American who recently got divorced from Bishwapriya Chaterjee, a successful software engineer inventor, and businessman based in California, and got a big sum of alimony. Tara and Bish have a son named Rabindranath or Rabi who is living with Tara. Padma is the eldest sister of Tara whom she calls Didi. Padma is six years older than Tara and she lives in New Jersey, is a well-known news anchor who also runs a designer sari business on the side. Since her younger days, Padma is a brash hypocrite and a shameless flirt. Parvati is the other sister of Tara who lives in India. Parvati is three years older than Tara. Unlike Tara, Parvati married in a love match rather than through an arranged marriage. However, after her marriage, she gracefully accepted and adopted the traditional role of an Indian housewife. Unaware of the delicacies of Indian ways, Tara describes Parvati as an anxious woman who cleans compulsively, and her husband is depressed. Ron Dey is a Christian Indian who had an affair with Padma, the eldest sister of Tara during her younger years when she was aspiring to be an actress. Ron and Tara had an illegitimate child named Christopher Dey. Padma, Tara, and Parvati are unaware of Christopher Dey’s whereabouts because Padma gave birth to him in secrecy without even revealing it to her family and never cared about Ron or Christopher after leaving them. Jai Krishna Bhattacharjee was an ancestor of Tara Lata in yester years. He too had three daughters and one of them was named Tara-Lata who later became The Tree Bride.
Summary of Desirable Daughters:
The novel begins as Tara remembers one of the mythical stories she has been hearing since her childhood. She remembers Jai Krishna, one of her ancestors who had three daughters. One of his daughters was named Tara Lata. The narrator reveals that her ancestor Tara Lata was betrothed to a boy at the age of 5 as arranging a married relationship during childhood was a norm in India in the past. However, just before the ceremony, the groom is bitten by a venomous snake and dies. The deceased groom's family arrives at the home of Tara Lata's father, Jai Krishna, they insist that she is responsible for their son's death. Though the marriage has not taken place, the bridegroom’s father claims his share of Tara Lata’s dowry as he blames her for the untimely death of his son. Jai Krishna blatantly refuses this demand, saying he would see his daughter marry a tree before paying the price for a marriage that did not take place. Thus, Jai Krishna made good on this promise, forcing Tara Lata to remain a virgin for life. Thus, Tara Lata, the ancestor of the narrator became known as the Tree Bride.
The narrator then describes her present. She was named Tara Lata after her ‘Tree Bride’ ancestor. She describes her past in India when she was 19 years old. Her eldest sister Padma was aspiring to be an actress in the Indian film industry and she got an offer to play the lead role in a big-budget movie. However, she was forced by her father to turn down the movie offer who considered it a menial and derogatory job. Padma developed an affair with a fellow actor Ron Dey but since he was a Christian, Padma couldn’t marry him. Later on, she ran away from home and settled in New Jersey, America where she works as a news anchor. Tara’s elder sister Parvati too rebelled against her father and engaged in a love marriage without her father’s permission. After completing her school, Tara Lata wished to continue her studies but her father was already frustrated by her two elder daughters and decided to arrange the marriage of Tara Lata as per his choice. He said, “There is a boy and we have found him suitable. Here is his picture. The marriage will be in three weeks” Tara was aware of her father’s pain because of her elder sisters’ rebellion and didn’t wish to create more ruckus and thus she decided to marry. She mentions her dilemma about this marriage by saying, "I married a man I had never met, whose picture and biography and bloodlines I approved of because my father told me it was time to get married and this was the best husband on the market."
Tara gets married to Biswapriya Chatterjee who is an Indian immigrant in California, America. Tara settles in America and leads an opulent life there. Biswapriya is an Americanized Indian who devotes most of his time to his newly established software business. He is a self-made Silicon Valley multimillionaire who recently developed a computing algorithm that is earning millions. Tara tries to fulfill the duty of a housewife and soon gives birth to a son named Rabindranath whom she lovingly calls Rabi. Rabi is a sensitive child who is very close to his mother while her father remains busy with his business. Sometimes, Biswapriya spends 15 hours in his office, and when he returns home, he would follow his traditional Indian religious chores first and then notices his wife and son. Tara, on the other hand, is more interested in American ways and starts thinking of her own Individual self as an independent woman. She realizes her dream of a free American wife was not fulfilled. She wished to drive, but she had no place to go. Though she was not well-educated and only completed her school education, she wished to be a working woman, but couldn’t work because people would think that Biswapriya Chatterjee couldn’t support his wife.
As her frustrations continued to grow, she decided to divorce Biswapriya and lead her own life. She got many millions as a divorce settlement and started living in San Francisco with her son Rabi. Biswapriya regretted the divorce and wished he could prove to be a better husband. He continued to take financial care of Tara and his son. Tara, on the other hand, started working as a primary school teacher and soon developed an affair with Andy, a latter-day hippie described as a “Hungarian Buddhist yoga instructor/contractor.” Tara doesn’t like the Indian immigrant community in America and doesn’t approve of divorces. She recognizes herself as American. She compares her life with her sisters. Padma is still leading an unabashed life. She runs her own saree business and works as a popular news anchor. She is married to a man in New Jersey. Her other sister Parvati is happily married to her lover. Though she revolted against her father and refused to accept an arranged marriage, she now lives as a traditional Indian housewife, taking care of her husband, his kids, and his parents. Tara, on the other hand, is a woman living off a generous divorce settlement from one man while playing around with another and still keeping the first one on a leash.
One day, a young man appears at the door of Tara’s home. When She arrives home, she finds a stranger sitting with Rabi in her living room. The man, Christopher Dey, addresses her as his ‘mashi’ and explains that he is Padma’s illegitimate son, the product of an affair with a Christian man when Padma was only a teenager. Christopher shows her a letter written by Ron Dey, his alleged father. Tara knew Ron Dey since her teenage and remembers her eldest sister Padma developing a tumultuous passionate affair as an adolescent. This secret shocks Tara as it means a huge sin in traditional Indian culture. First, it means that Padma was not a virgin when she was married. Secondly, she bore a child out of wedlock. Finally, she intermingled her Brahmin bloodline with someone of a lower caste and different religion. This causes Tara to question her traditional upbringing and how it has affected her present circumstances.
However, despite reading the letter from Ron Dey, Tara is not fully convinced about his claim and decides to discover the truth behind it. Christopher continues to pester Tara again and again and this causes Andy to break his relationship with Tara and leaves the shared apartment. Tara decides to take the help of Parvati, her second sister in confirming the status of Christopher Dey. Parvati reluctantly agrees to help her out. Eventually, Tara comes to know that though Padma did give birth to an illegitimate child of Christopher Dey, the man who appeared at her home is not the son of Padma and Ron. He is a scam artist with a history of fraud, and he is not her illegitimate nephew. This fraud belongs to an Indian hacking group that had planned to blackmail and rob Biswapriya Chatterjee and thus, he targeted Tara. Tara has already lost her lover Andy and thus, she decides to find her roots by traveling back to India with her son. When she arrives in Calcutta and goes to Mishtigunj, the birthplace of the Tree Bride that she discussed in the beginning, she feels a similarity with her, as if she is the Tree Bride, reincarnated. Tara starts to feel the good aspects of her culture and childhood, and that even with all its faults, she harbors a deep respect for her homeland.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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