The Mother-in-Law, book review (flash)

Married or not, give the Mother-in-Law a read
Title: The Mother-in-Law, the other woman in your marriage
Author: Veena Venugopal
Price: Rs. 299
Publisher: Penguin

As published in Hindustan Times

Cover of the book

The title and the cover may mislead you into thinking that you’ll get to read silly, ridiculous stories about the proverbial mother-in-law (MIL) and daughter-in-law (DIL) tiffs. But, be warned. This book exposes the vile and barbaric world of ‘monsters-in-law’, who go the extra mile to make lives of their DILs unliveable.

Through the harassed DILs, dotted with writer’s impression of them and their in-laws, the book — in 11 chapters — shows that villainy, cruelty and inhumanity knows no class, religion or society. For instance, this bikini-wearing MIL ensures that her not-allowed-to-wear-jeans DIL gets no love from her son, even in her (DIL’s) dying days. And this Delhi-based MIL and her three daughters treat the three DILs (a journalist, a banker, a professor) as maids, and ­worse still – DILs take it.

And men, conditioned to not stand up for their wives, are just spectators, when not beating or abusing their wives to please their moms. Although it would’ve been nice to read Mummyjis’ perspective too, this engaging, well-written book is capable of making it to the human psychology syllabus. Married or not, give it a read.

Medha Shri

First published in Hindustan Times