Sunaina Luthra ON Aug 03, 2023, IN BOOK REVIEW, I WAS RAISED TO BE MAAME NOW I WANT TO BE ME BY JESSICA GEORGE
Rating: 4/5
Hey readers!!
Let’s start by talking about my favourite Bollywood movie ‘Piku’. An immersive and emotionally gripping movie, it celebrates the eccentricities of life. I really feel this indisputable need to talk about it and its protagonist, Deepika Padukone. Yes, Right here! Because she has this familiar scrimmage that Madeleine goes through in the book ‘I was raised to be Mamme Now I want to be me’ by Jessica George; an ineluctable warfare to release the emotions held back, and unpardonably sifting of the prescriptive norms from the percipient impulses.
Jessica George’s vulnerable character ‘Madeleine’, a resident of London, is no different from ‘Piku’. Hopelessly gridlocked between duty and adulthood, the challenging and demanding task of being a caretaker abrades her spirit and her personal life takes a backseat. Either time has eludes her or Madeleine has clasps it, stuck in the cannonade of fulfilling her duties. Most of the girls of her age vacillate in the pageantry of partying, dating and earning well but Madeleine takes care of her 57 year old father suffering from Parkinson’s disease. She is exhausted from mind and body, her dreams falling off into a ravine delinquently flowing into an abyss, but her grit is a paranoid hammer hitting the nail till it is endeared by the wall.
Her family is an inconvenient one; branching out for greener pastures and being oblivious to the amount of effort and the time that goes into being a caretaker. Her mother in dereliction of her duties escapes to Ghana to look after her ancestral business. Her brother too pinches the nerve to leave for better prospects. Madeleineis crest-fallen but as they say, ‘every black night is followed by a refulgent sunlight’, and so she discovers her inner-self to find a companion in the Know it all- ‘Google’.
The challenging and demanding task can abrade a person’s spirit. As we find ourselves enmeshed in the web of responsibilities there are many things that takes a back seat. Amidst the demands of care giving for our elderly parents we sometimes lose sight of ourselves and our personal interest gets unnoticed. On the sudden return of her mother, Madeleine leaves home. She marches to the beat of her own drum and take the reins of her own life to pursue her dreams.
Madeleine finds herself among new flat mates, says ‘yes’ to after-work drinks, pursues the career she always to and explores the bewildering world of internet dating. But, sometimes a brighter sunshine too falls short to exfoliate the blackened wounds especially when the insidious penetration of an undefined bruise leaves you unresolved. A tragedy, unforeseen, leaves Madeleine punctured. Henceforth, starts a journey of healing –embracing the journey of letting go for a brighter future.
‘I was raised to be Maame Now I want to be me’ by Jessica George brings forth the challenging and demanding task of being a caretaker with poignancy and humour. The book is a medium to show solidarity with pride that we women are effortlessly and naturally raised to
- be independent:
- to shop for our own clothes
- cook our own meals
- carve a niche for ourselves
- strive to move ahead amidst all the impediments
- be trusted
A woman is usually a sole caregiver, maybe one of the inherent traits, I guess! Unfortunately, this responsibility is often shirked or sought to be escaped by our male counterparts.