The Hindi-Bindi Club
by Monica Pradhan
Bloomsbury, HK$181
The strap line on Monica Pradhan's The Hindi-Bindi Club reads: 'Join the club for recipes, love, marriage and motherhood'. That means readers can expect advice on how to make dishes such as chickpea chilli, quotes from poets such as Tagore and words of wisdom from women who've been there, done that: in explaining to her daughter why she shouldn't have pre-marital sex, a mother pulls out the universal, 'Why buy the cow if the milk's free?' An Indian The Joy Luck Club, this novel revolves around the relationships of three women (Kiran, Preity and Rani) with their mothers - whose gatherings their daughters, as children, titled the Hindi-Bindi Club - as well as the inter- and intra-familial bonds tying characters to their past. Like the Amy Tan blockbuster, cultural, gender and age differences setting parents apart from their offspring add spice. This time it's not Chinese families in America but first-generation immigrants from India living their hopes through their US-born daughters. While not as soppy as The Joy Luck Club, the narrative still wrings emotions while giving an insight into the consequences of immigration and history (ghosts of India's 1947 partition continue to haunt). A thick book that makes light reading, it is also a cultural primer with thought-provoking insights.