NetIP Houston: Bookworm Wednesdays!
by Shyam Pillai, Member, NetIP Houston
On a breezy Wednesday evening (May 12th) at the Cafe Express Breezeway a sizeable group of NetIP Houston members, also known as ”Bookworms”, met to discuss Shilpi Gowda’s debut novel “Secret Daughter”. The group interestingly enough consisted of both avid book readers and non readers looking for a fresh literary start, which made the discussion fascinating as we had a wide range of questions and opinions.
The gang put their critique hats on and discussed the minutest aspects of the book with zest. From small gestures of the characters that we either loved or expressed disbelief over, to big sweeping plot changes, we put it all on the table. Since the book deals with several issues that are relatable to a huge diaspora of the South Asian population in the US, we each talked about at least one personal event similar to ones desribed in the book. Whether it was getting sick in the stomach while visiting India; the heinous dowry system (some of us did not know it still existed), adoption issues, interracial marriages, traffic in Indian cities or possibly the worst – female infanticide, we each had our own experiences and opinions to share.
We mostly applauded the author on her simplistic writing style, attention to detail, very well organized chapters and her ability to capture human emotions to perfection. However, where there is praise there will also be criticism… Some felt the story was somewhat “Bollywoodish”, that a few plot turns were cliché and the potryal of the ideal Gujarati family was unreal.
The crowing glory of the evening was, Shilpi Gowda, the author of the book, who called in to answer questions and have an informal tete-a-tete with us and this phone chat turned out to be quite a treat. We chatted with Shilpi about her upbringing, why and how she became an author, the different aspects and book and thus got to know the person behind the writing talent; a rare and one-of-a-kind event for sure. We also got an exciting list recomendations for our next book club event, if this were a movie, I’d call it a Box office hit!
For more information on NetIP Houston and their upcoming events please visit www.NetipHouston.org or www.facebook.com/NetIP.Houston.
Edited by Latha Nehru, VP of External Affairs, NetIP North America
www.NetIP.org
