The Full Moon Bride

by Shobhan Bantwal

Genres: Literary Fiction

Synopsis

What makes a marriage-love or compatibility? Passion or pragmatism? Shobhan Bantwal's compelling new novel explores the fascinating subject of arranged marriage, as a young Indian-American woman navigates the gulf between desire and tradition. . .

To Soorya Giri, arranged marriages have always seemed absurd. But while her career as an environmental lawyer has flourished, Soorya is still a virgin, living with her parents in suburban New Jersey. She wants to be married. And she is finally ready to do the unthinkable. . .

Soorya's first bridal viewings are as awkward as she anticipated. But then she's introduced to Roger Vadepalli. Self-possessed, intelligent, and charming, Roger is clearly interested in marriage and seems eager to clinch the deal. Attracted to him in spite of her mistrust, Soorya is also drawn into a flirtation with Lou, a widowed colleague who is far from her family's idea of an acceptable husband.

In choosing between two very different men, Soorya must reconcile her burgeoning independence and her conservative background. And she must decide what matters most to her-not just in a husband, but in a family, a culture, and a life. . .

"One of the best [novels] I've read this year. I couldn't put it down. . .this book is a gem!" --Mary Monroe, New York Times bestselling author on The Unexpected Son

"Compelling and memorable." -Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author on The Forbidden Daughter

"Vivid, rich. . .expertly portrays a young woman caught between love and duty, hope and despair." -Anjali Banerjee on The Dowry Bride

"Dazzles you with a taste of Desi culture in America." -Caridad Pineiro

Release date: January 28, 2011

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 320

Sample

Like most second-generation Indian-Americans, I’d dismissed arranged marriage as a ridiculous and antiquated custom. Tying oneself to a man one hardly knew, and pledging lifelong love and fidelity on top of that?

“For a modern woman it’s nothing short of insanity,” I’d mocked many a time.

But after reaching adulthood and realizing that everybody in my big South Indian Telugu family was married in that fashion and looked utterly content, except for my uncle Srinath, whose wife was suspected of being a hermaphrodite, the concept didn’t seem so absurd. I figured I’d even give arranged marriage a try. That is, if I could find a man to marry me—and it was a huge if.

So far, I’d acquired an Ivy League education and moderate success as a big-city attorney, but I’d come up empty in the marriage department, perhaps because I’d distanced myself from the madness of the dating scene.

If it weren’t for the fact that I really and truly wanted to get married, I wouldn’t have ventured into the old-fashioned Indian form of torment called bride viewing. Fortunately it wasn’t as bad as it was in India, where girls were often put on display and expected to tolerate their potential in-laws’ scrutiny like cows at a cattle auction.

Here in the U.S. it was just a matter of boy meeting girl and family meeting family in an informal setting. There was generally no undue pressure exerted on either party to marry. But convention required them to be polite and respectful of each other. However, the system was biased in our male-worshipping culture. The respect shown by the girl and her parents to the boy and his family often bordered on sycophantic.

At the moment, standing before the oval mirror in my elegant bedroom with its honey oak and pastel furnishings, I gave myself a once-over. In spite of the clever use of cosmetics, the face staring back at me seemed rather plain—ordinary nose, full mouth, curious eyes fringed by dark lashes, tweezed eyebrows. Nothing beyond plain Miss Soorya Giri.

Being the potential bride in yet another bride viewing was hardly pleasant. The mild fluttering in my tummy was gradually escalating into an anxiety attack at the thought of meeting one more eligible man.

With a damp palm pressed against my belly, I waited for my bachelor and his family to arrive. I stood in my bride-viewing finery—the whole nine yards—or in this case, six. The sari happened to be six diaphanous yards of silk—soft, glossy, South Indian silk.

My suitor and his family were coming all the way from Kansas City, Kansas, making the occasion all the more unnerving. Looking outside the picture window, I contemplated if I should make a quick and silent escape into the backyard.

The weather was perfect for lounging around our kidney shaped swimming pool, shimmering like a sheet of turquoise glass in the balmy afternoon sun. Mom’s lovingly tended zinnias, marigolds, and impatiens were fat and bursting with vigorous colors. The copse of pine trees in the distance looked cool and darkly forbidding, but no more forbidding than what perhaps awaited me in the coming hour.

Fleeing was tempting, but I couldn’t summon the courage to do it. In fact, I’d never had the stomach for it. Good Hindu girls didn’t indulge in blatant disregard for convention. Conformity and duty to family above all else were deeply embedded in our DNA. All the Americanization in the world could not eliminate what was intrinsic to the Hindu psyche.

Although Indian-American kids are often branded as “coconuts”—brown on the outside and white on the inside—girls and boys like me can talk, eat, party, work, and think like Americans during the adolescent years, but once we’re no longer teenagers, our Indian-ness starts breaking through the brittle plastic façade.

I had discovered I was a dark Telugu-American some ten years ago, no matter how much imported-from-India Fair & Fabulous bleaching cream I rubbed over my skin.

Besides, our community was small and close-knit, and rumors of my wayward behavior would spread fast, humiliating my parents, my grandmother, who happened to live with us, and me in the process.

I could picture Dad frowning down at me with his enormous arms folded across his equally enormous chest. “Soorya Giri, I am appalled at your behavior. Did you have to ruin the family name in such a reckless manner? If you weren’t interested in meeting the young man, you should have told us in the first place. We could have saved those folks and ourselves a lot of grief.”

Mom would put on that wounded basset hound look, with her head tilted to one side and her big eyes blinking. “Baby, did we do something wrong? Is that why you are behaving in this strange manner?”

My paternal grandmother, Pamma to me (short for Papa’s Amma), was too deaf to know what was happening around her most of the time, but even she would have a seizure at my shocking behavior. “If I do this kind of nonsense things when I was a small girl, my father squeeze my throat and throw me in river,” would be her reaction. Then she’d remind me that in my next life I’d have to pay very dearly for bringing such shame upon the family. “God always watching, baby. You do bad-bad things in this life, you get bad-bad things in next life.”

Taking into consideration family honor and dignity combined with bad-bad karma in my next incarnation, running away was definitely not an option at this time.

The doorbell chimed downstairs, sending a mild ripple through my system. Oh God, they were here.

“Soorya, they have arrived,” Mom announced from below, confirming my thoughts.

I listened while my parents welcomed the visitors and ushered them into the living room. After a minute I quietly tiptoed down the stairs and slipped into the kitchen. I would wait there until the time was right for my planned and practiced entrance. There was an established procedure.

The pistachio-colored kitchen curtains looked fresh and crisp from a recent wash. The appliances gleamed and I could literally lick the smooth, waxed hardwood floor if I had a mind to. A garland of fresh, turmeric-yellow marigolds was strung around the picture of Lord Balaji in its silver frame. The mildly pungent odor of ammonia cleaner combined with sandalwood incense and spices lingered in the air.

Everything looked warm and welcoming in the sunlight filtering in through the towering sunburst windows, down to the multicolored roses arranged in the Waterford crystal vase on the sill. Mom, the perfectionist, didn’t leave anything to chance.

Voices in the living room were clearly audible and the thick Telugu accent unmistakable—each R rolled around with relish and the dialogue flowing in the present continuous tense. “We are coming for the first time to New Jersey. Do you always have so much traffic congestion here or what?” asked a male voice. Always sounded like aahl-vays.

A few other voices, including my parents’ and grandmother’s, came to mingle with the man’s. Pamma spoke mostly Telugu, although she knew a fair amount of English. The old lady conversed with me in English, read the New York Times each morning, and rarely failed to watch the evening news on TV.

My father’s accent was a shade less pronounced as he proceeded to respond to the honored guests’ comments. “Newark Airport and the main highways are naturally congested, but our vicinity is quiet—no apartment buildings and condos.”

Dad loved to throw that in—the fact that we lived in an exclusive area of New Jersey. Bergen County bordered New York and was more like an upscale suburb of New York City. God forbid we should have apartments within a ten-mile radius.

Catching my image in the smooth surface of the stainless steel refrigerator, I couldn’t help but adjust the pallu of my sari, the loose end that goes over the left shoulder and cascades down the back. The green sari with red border embellished by gold thread or jari had me looking like a Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, but Pamma and Mom had convinced me that green and red were auspicious colors.

My lips still looked glossy. My shoulder-length, iron straightened hair looked salon-perfect.

But the gold thread abraded and itched where it touched my neck. I scratched at the three ugly welts that were getting larger and redder by the second. Good thing they weren’t all that visible on my dark skin; there was no reason to panic yet.

The wet stains on the underarms of my red blouse were a different matter. My industrial-strength antiperspirant wasn’t performing so well today.

Mom came prancing in from the living room, a hundred-watt grin lighting her face. She approved of the family from Kansas. “They seem like nice people, Soorya. And so cultured,” she informed me, then went to the oven to inspect whatever was in there.

The aroma of fried food came at me with a whoosh as she pulled on her pistachio green oven mitts, deftly removed a loaded pan of goodies from the oven, and placed it on the beige speckled granite counter. Whatever lay on that pan continued to sizzle for a few seconds.

I offered no response to Mom’s statement. I preferred to reserve my comments until after I met the folks from Kansas. Instead I discreetly scratched my hives and inhaled the curly wisps of aromatic steam traveling toward me.

“Don’t scratch, Soorya. You know it leaves scabs.” Mom threw me a stern look, or at least as stern as she knew how. My dear mother didn’t know what stern meant. “You remembered to take your antihistamine?”

“Yes, Mom. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Honestly, I wasn’t all that fine.

After countless times, I should have become a pro at this. But no such luck—I was still reduced to a nervous glob of dark, pudgy female at the thought of being on parade before people whose names I didn’t know. Oh boy, I really didn’t know. “Mom, what did you say their name was?”

“I told you the other day, dear, Vadepalli.”

Vadepalli—a nice, old-fashioned Telugu name, pronounced Va-they-palley. My mother had a knack for discovering them—families that had similar backgrounds to ours in terms of language, religion, and culture.

“The Vadepallis are good people with healthy genes according to your auntie Prema. And you know Prema is very smart in these matters.” Mom opened the refrigerator and retrieved a crystal bowl covered with plastic wrap.

“Yeah, I know. She’s arranged the marriages of no less than thirty-two people.” I was kept abreast of Prema’s impressive record on a regular basis.

“It’s thirty-three now; she arranged one more last month. Every one of them with healthy genes,” Mom boasted.

“No kidding!” My aunt’s idea of healthy genes included most anyone who wasn’t dying of advanced tuberculosis or AIDS. On the other hand, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, hypertension, Parkinson’s, and even lunacy were considered minor ailments and were to be overlooked, especially when the lack of marriageable young men was bordering on dire, as in my case.

“First you get married; afterward you discuss all those unpleasant genetic things,” my aunt had said to me once, after having lectured me on the advantages of marriage.

I couldn’t imagine how such grave genetic health inquiries could be put off until after marriage, when it was way too late. But I wasn’t in any position to argue with my aunt, who was like a runaway steamroller when it came to arranging a match. Thirty-three was an impressive number, though.

I watched Mom carefully lift the hot snacks off the metal pan and arrange them on a sterling silver platter—a variety of spicy fried delicacies that smelled divine and had acquired a perfect golden tint—crisp lentil vadas, onion pakodas, and vegetable samosas.

The crystal bowl filled with bright green mint-coriander chutney sat in the center of the arrangement. I knew how it would taste: tangy and fiery hot—pungent enough to strip the top layer off one’s tongue. Beautiful and oh so enticing! My mouth watered.

A carved silver bowl held luscious-looking gulab jamuns—the round, dark brown orbs of fried pancake flour that resembled chocolate Munchkins floating in rich syrup. I eyed them with longing. They were a definite no-no on my latest diet: the Red, White, and Green Vegetarian Diet—anything that didn’t fall within those colors was not even to be looked at.

I lived on salads, red and green fruit, select cooked vegetables and sprouts, skim milk, Diet Sprite or diet cherry soda, and plain nonfat yogurt.

And damn if brown, yellow, black, and everything in between didn’t look and smell divine.

“Mom, is my sari still all right?” I cocked an eyebrow at my mother, hoping to force my attention away from the food. Mom had patiently wrapped the sari around me in the traditional style with lots of safety pins to keep the complicated folds and tucks in place. Once or twice she’d had to yell at me to stand still and not wriggle.

I didn’t know how to wear a sari any more than I knew how to steer a fighter plane. The fabric was like an endless bolt of interconnected bedsheets. But no South Indian girl worth her blood would find herself at a bride viewing in anything less than a Kanjivaram silk sari.

At Pamma’s insistence, I wore the traditional diamond earrings and necklace, too. Several twenty-two-karat gold bangles jangled along my wrists. The red dot on my forehead was nice and big to suit my face.

Her own purple sari with a saffron border slightly askew from her exertions, my nearsighted mother blinked and studied me critically for a moment. “It looks fine, dear. But try not to fidget with it too much.” Then she offered me a warm, reassuring smile. “You look nice, baby, really pretty.”

“Yeah, right, and Mars is inhabited by little bald men, Mom.”

My wry comment earned me a tight frown from Mom.

Laughter floated in from the living room. Dad was doing his part in keeping the Vadepallis sufficiently entertained while Mom took care of the food. He could be quite a lively host, especially when it came to impressing important people—like potential in-laws.

Gregarious and witty, Dad was often the soul of the party, especially after consuming a couple of stiff martinis garnished with his favorite pearl onions. But there was no liquor on this afternoon’s menu. What if the Kansas folks were teetotalers? Worse yet, what if they frowned on alcohol? One had to be politically and culturally correct in such delicate matters.

Mom placed the platter and bowl on an oblong wooden tray alongside the rose-pattern Lenox plates and pale pink cotton napkins. Then she filled the silver coffeepot with South Indian coffee—strong and thick, with loads of frothy whole milk and sugar. “Be an angel and get the matching cups and saucers, dear,” she said to me.

I gathered up the necessary items and stacked them on the tray set aside for the coffee service, then took a deep breath. Another minute and I’d make my grand entrance.

At least the previous bride seekers had come from within the tristate area—near enough to make a hasty exit and drive home when I didn’t measure up to their standards.

Soon I’d be gawked at and inspected from all angles by the Vadepallis. Despite having lived over three decades in the U.S., some folks still subscribed to this manner of matchmaking. Traditions often died a very slow death in conservative Hindu households.

But to give credit where it’s due, if I didn’t want this method of meeting a future spouse, my family had offered me the option of dating—within reason, of course, meaning it had better be an Indian boy, or at least Asian. And also, no premarital sex, and positively no shacking up together before marriage.

Mom’s eyes twinkled with barely contained excitement behind her plastic-framed glasses. As a wealthy woman Mom should have been wearing stylish designer eyeglasses and elegant clothes, but her humble Indian background still lingered inside her. Her wardrobe was mostly furnished by discount department stores: slacks in different colors topped with coordinated short-sleeved tops in the summer and pullover sweaters in the winter.

Somehow the gold, diamonds, and silk saris that were considered solid investments didn’t quite go hand in hand with the $19.99 shoes and the $49.99 watch that were viewed purely as consumer goods, not worth throwing good money at.

“Never pay too much for anything that loses value the minute it comes out of the store, and don’t buy unless there is a half-price or better sale,” Mom preached, and habitually scanned the newspaper ads for special end-of-the-season clearance events at the local department stores. A seventy-five percent reduction sale could make Mom giddy with delight.

That philosophy didn’t extend to my dad, of course, since he was a prominent doctor and had to look the part. He always wore designer labels, drove an expensive car, and had his offices lavishly furnished. They were all investments. Mom’s life, on the other hand, was an eclectic mix of cheap and pricey, elegant and tacky, drab and colorful.

“So, what do you think of the boy, huh?” my mother asked in a conspiratorial whisper as she placed the lid on the coffeepot.

“I haven’t even seen the boy yet.” I’d been trying to postpone the inevitable as long as I could.

“You mean you have not taken a secret peek yet?” Mom looked shocked. She always assumed I was as wildly excited about these occasions as she was.

“Of course not. I don’t spy on people.”

“It is not spying, dear; it is simple curiosity. Every girl does that, you know. When your dad came to see me, I hid behind the wooden screen in my parents’ home and took a good look at him. He looked so nice. He was a lot thinner then, too.” She giggled. “Your Pamma caught me at it, but she didn’t seem to mind.”

“Good for you, Mom.” I couldn’t help smiling.

“Just wait till you see this Kansas boy, and tell me if he’s not handsome.” Mom looked like an eager little girl waiting for my reaction to her first kindergarten project. Except in place of pigtails, she sported a short, bouncy bob that was dyed a shade too dark.

Mom’s bathroom cabinet held a jumbo pack of Clairol hair color. All her toiletries came in discounted multipacks.

“Handsome, too? Looks like you and Dad have outdone yourselves this time,” I said. This was the first time I’d heard any suitor described as handsome. But then, in Mom’s opinion, practically every fourth man she came across was nice-looking or distinguished-looking, so I had serious doubts about this Kansas guy.

Mom’s face settled into a troubled frown. “I hope you are not going to be difficult about this, Soorya. You will behave like a good girl, right?”

“Yes, Mom, I promise.” Sometimes she seemed to forget I had outgrown the toddler stage a long time ago.

Mom’s tone softened. “I know this is tough, but the Vadepallis have come a long way to meet you, dear.” Good thing Mom was a forgiving sort and had overlooked the first few bride viewings when I’d deliberately worn faded jeans and sweatshirts or short skirts and tank tops that revealed my rolls and bulges to the point of driving away any potential young man and his family.

Those were the days when I didn’t want to marry and get saddled with a husband and a couple of kids.

However, along with maturity had come the slow realization that I did want all those sentimental and wholesome things. My thirtieth birthday some months ago was a sobering experience. Many of my girlfriends were married, and a couple of them had babies already. Even my best friend, Amy Steinberg, a rebel who’d denigrated marriage for many years, was now engaged.

All of a sudden, I wanted a husband, too—a guy who’d bring me flowers, help me chop vegetables for the salad, shovel the snow, warm my bed, and hold my hand when I went into the delivery room to bring his babies into this world. Besides a fabulous career, I wanted marriage. I wanted a family.

Why couldn’t I have it all?

But it meant seeking out the right man first, or at least letting my parents find him for me. And that’s why I stood there dressed in a sari, wearing diamonds and makeup, and trying not to let it get to me. Nonetheless, my bland reply to Mom was, “Kansas isn’t the end of the world. I’m sure they can hop on the next plane and go home.”

I had subjected myself to this torment since I was twenty three. Not that I counted the bride viewings anymore. The occasions were too numerous to keep a tally, too humiliating to acknowledge, too frustrating to ponder.

It wasn’t Mom and Dad’s fault, though—this was the only method they knew. If I were to find someone on my own, they’d accept him wholeheartedly. In fact, they hoped I’d find someone and get married as fast as I could. They dropped enough hints on the subject. Since I hadn’t obliged, they were trying their level best to get me to the proverbial altar—or in my case the mandap, the ceremonial Hindu marriage canopy.

Each time a potential groom came to meet me, the outcome was the same: rejection—for one reason or another. I was either too tall or too heavy or too dark-skinned, or a combination. After the barrage of negative responses, I’d become even more apprehensive about going out and finding a man on my own.

I often wished I could summon enough nerve to go to bars and parties, get myself a boyfriend and put an end to this husband hunting. Amy had managed to find her perfect Jewish man in David Levine through the Internet. But I couldn’t. I had learned my lesson as a teenager when no boys in school had noticed me.

My fear of dating was pathetic for a grown woman whose spirit was intrepid in every other sense, but I just couldn’t get over my inhibition. It had left me more or less out in the cold, to use a trite cliché.

Despite wanting to know what a kiss felt like, I’d never had a taste of it. Imagine that—I’d never kissed a man in my entire life. I had often wondered what it would feel like to have a man’s lips touch mine, his tongue dueling with my own, his arms holding me in a passionate embrace.

But I was too damned afraid of rejection to go out and find all those sexual experiences I dreamed about. I was afraid to fail. At least when my parents tried to find a man for me, any failures were as much theirs as they were mine.

Initially, I believe what enticed the would-be grooms and their families to come bride-seeking to our house was the BIG DOWRY sign around my neck—my father’s flourishing medical practice. He owned three clinics around New York City, where he performed his own brand of magic: cosmetic surgery.

My father’s clients included a long list of celebrities—movie stars, models, singers, business moguls, and sports heroes. A certain real estate tycoon had his puckered lips enhanced and his face lifted so he could bag his fifth trophy wife. A basketball legend had an unsightly birthmark removed from his armpit. A middle-aged gay singing sensation had his penis reshaped.

Then there was the blond movie star whose breasts were enlarged so many times that she nearly fell on her face a couple of times, after which Dad was asked to refashion them to a more manageable size.

I had a feeling Dad had perhaps played God more times than he could remember—he had probably adjusted, reshaped, rearranged, and remolded more body parts than anyone on the East Coast. Dad’s list of famous patients and their fascinating stories could fill a book.

Too bad Dad’s charmed scalpel could do little for his only child. Unfortunately, I had inherited his looks, and he had inherited his from his father. But to his credit, he had tried very hard to use every ounce of his medical and cosmetic skills on me in conjunction with other specialists who’d given my looks a boost.

In the end, after a few layers of fat had been surgically removed from my hips and belly, my nose cleverly restructured, teeth aligned with orthodontics, hair removed permanently from my upper lip and arms, and some elaborate beauty treatments, I had made the happy transition from unappealing to slightly better than plain.

“Look, baby, Dad made you so beautiful!” Mom had clapped her hands with girlish delight and held the mirror before me when the last of the procedures was over. I was twenty years old then. “Now all we have to do is find a good husband for you.”

Pamma had nearly lost her dentures from grinding them too much and shedding tears of joy at the sight of her granddaughter’s improved appearance.

I had merely walked away from the mirror with a long, tired sigh. From that day on I’d be known as Pramod and Vijaya Giri’s homely daughter. But homely was significantly better than ugly, I’d consoled myself.

My latest birthday resolution had been to do whatever it took to look attractive.

“Soorya.” Mom’s voice pealed like a bell to shake me out of my depressing thoughts. “Stop daydreaming now. It’s about time you came out and met them.”

“Can’t you and Dad entertain them and send them on their way?” I pleaded with her.

“I realize you’re nervous, but the boy seems very friendly, dear. I’m sure you’ll like him. He’s different from the other boys you have met.” She wiggled her eyebrows and grinned. “And don’t forget handsome.”

“They’re all very friendly until they meet me, Mom,” I murmured. Even our eye-popping mansion, complete with fountain, swimming pool, hot tub, and Dad’s steel-gray Porsche sitting in the garage, didn’t appear to matter once they laid eyes on me. Then they all seemed to panic and run like hunted rabbits.

The irony was, even the ugliest suitors wanted a pretty bride. It was all part of the male-worshipping Indian culture. The potential groom could be short, overweight, bald, or even disabled, but the prospective bride had to be perfect in every way. Centuries of technological and cultural changes hadn’t managed to bring about a shift in the double standards.

“But his horoscope and yours match beautifully, Soorya. Besides, by a happy coincidence, today is purnima, full moon,” Mom chirped. “It is an auspicious moon. Maybe this time it will click.” She thrust the coffee tray into my hands while she put the finishing touches to the other one loaded with snacks and sweets.

Mom always found something auspicious about every day. She was the eternal optimist, cheerful as the lark that heralds the dawn with a burst of song. But her temperament had its advantages. Thanks to her boundless faith in me, I had excelled in school, college, and then law school, and eventually become an employee of a prestigious Manhattan law firm at a young age.

Of course, one of the reasons I got hired at the firm was Matthew McNamara, or Mac, the firm’s senior partner and one of Dad’s most grateful clients. Despite knowing the job was granted as a favor to Dad, I knew I deserved it. I wasn’t just a good lawyer, I was an outstanding one, and an asset to Mac and his august team of legal professionals.

Mom finally picked up her tray. “Okay, baby, let’s go,” she announced.

Pulling in a deep breath, I followed Mom’s slim figure down the hallway toward the living room. Even after three decades of knowin. . .