Shobhan Bantwal's 3 books: a MUST read! :-)

 

I've recently finished Shobhan Bantwal's three books she's published so far, and I must say, she's an AMAZING writer! She writes novels based on the problems many women go through today in India and she makes the tale both realistic, magical, and spellbinding. I strongly recommend you guys read at least one of her books, if not all three. It'll be well worth your time, I guarantee you.😃 I'll list them in the order of my favorites and give a short summary of each one:

 

My first favorite out of her three books is The Forbidden Daughter. It is a breathtaking story!😍

 

It is the story of young Isha Tilak, who is the mother of a five year old girl (Priya) and pregnant with another. When Isha and her husband go to their Obsetrician to find out the gender of their baby, they are worried when they find out that it is another girl, not because they are biased against female babies, but because they fear the wrath of Isha's in-laws, who want her to produce a male baby after Priya. The Obstetrician suggests that they get an abortion, despite selective abortion being made illegal. Isha's husband flies into a rage that the doctor, whose role in society is to save lives and not to take them, could suggest something so cold-blooded, but Isha calms him down before he could do something and they return home. Isha's in-laws are angry when they find out Isha is carrying another girl and try to force her to abort the child, but Isha and her husband adamantly refuse to abort their child simply because it is not a boy, and happy & reassured that she has the full support of her husband in this issue, Isha continues to carry the baby contentedly, looking forward to her birth.

But then one day, Isha's husband is murdered while locking up the shop his family owns and preparing to return home. Though it is clear that Isha's husband was murdered, the police hush up the case and proclaim it as robbery gone wrong. Finding herself a widow and without the support of her husband, Isha is antagonized by her in-laws and Priya is both physically and mentally abused by them simply because she cried for her father. Isha decides that being a single mother would be easier than to live with her in-laws and runs away from them with Priya. She receives help from a women's convent until she gives birth to Diya, her new baby daughter. In the convent, she meets Hareesh, a pediatrician who comes there once in awhile to give free vaccines to the orphans.

With the help of Hareesh and her sister-in-law, Sheila (who always supported her like Isha's husband), Isha moves out of the convent and manages to buy a flat for herself and her daughters. She eventually learns that her husband's death was not a coincidence and a murder, and the main suspect is of course their old Obsetrician. Isha finds documents that tell her that her husband had threatened the Obsetrician that he'd make his illegal business of selective abortion made known unless he stopped then and there.

 

The rest of the story is about Isha, Hareesh, and Sheila's search for the truth about Nikhil Tilak's (Isha's husband) murder, and finding out who the true killer is.

 

A veryyyy enlightening book about selective abortion going on in India even now despite it being made illegal, and a single mother's unending love and strength to stand on her own two feet, with no outside help, for her children.😊

 

If you guys want, I'll give the summaries of the other two books. Sorry if I wrote too much, but I just love this book.😳