"Everything just started off with some one-liners or one little thought," Bhaskar said. "There was no plan, because I know that when you
start writing, you write about your own experiences and it's more autobiographical. I wanted to get away from that and started thinking
outside of myself. You know, I've lived as an adult in India and am living as an adult here."
Her newfound "personal freedom" that America offers its people further allowed her to explore freely and put in words thoughts that
could otherwise be considered taboo or nontraditional in a strict sense.
The book is purely fiction, a collection of short stories that deal with life in India and in the U.S. "It sometimes deals with
comparisons," Bhaskar explained with a wide grin. "Either someone from here goes to India and the story brings out the difference
between one way of thinking here and over there; or someone from India who one thinks is very traditional, and the story brings out a
totally different reaction."
Bhaskar offers a perspective that is both fresh and exciting, while it could be held controversial by some as well. "It's just that
sometimes, what you see on the outside might not be happening on the inside," she thought. "Here, there's no preconceived mold into
which you have to fit, so you can really open your mind and think which way you want. And that's what we should do. But we don't.
Suddenly we come here and we grab onto all our traditions and we wear it like a cloak around us like 'This is who I am.' No, that's not
who you are. That's what your country is about. And in India, things are changing so fast that each time I go there, things have moved
ahead."
For instance, one of the short stories in "Shielding Her Modesty ..." is titled "Scoring Some Viagra," about an Indian couple who came
to the U.S. to attend the graduation of their daughter, Raksha. Raksha's father pretended that his brother in India needed some Viagra to
put life into his married life and asked his daughter to get it for him. The truth was, it was him who wanted it, with the sudden fortune of
having more time and privacy with Raksha's mother. A side to the story is Raksha's live-in arrangement with boyfriend Alex, who was
forced to tentatively get lost during Raksha's parents' visit. The author truly injected her great sense of humor in this story.
The book also tackled India's pre-arranged marriage tradition, where the "happily-ever-after" endings may or may not happen.
"Pre-arranged marriage has become 'commercial' in terms of things that the parties are bringing to the table," Bhaskar observed.
"Marriage is what you make of it. I think we give too much importance to the start of a marriage and we never see what's going to change
in a few years. Are both people going to grow in the same direction? People keep changing in a marriage; we never see that until they're
both in the same place."
That personal belief could may well be the truth in her life. Bhaskar's marriage, while not a totally pre-arranged one, ended up in a
legal separation. "My husband came here 10 years after I arrived here," she narrated. "He never made up his mind as to whether or not
he'll stay here, but he visited us every year, and the kids would visit him in India every summer. We kept that marriage going great -- long
distance. Then when he finally came here in 2000 and decided he was going to stay, that's when we both realized we've grown 10 years
apart from each other. We had gotten used to living alone, independently. But we have remained friends, and I think that's important to
the boys."
To continue exploring how to bridge cultural gaps through her writing is Bhaskar's goal. "The stories I write about are interesting
because they deal with the bridge across our two cultures," she stressed. "What I would like to do is to continue writing to automatically
create a demand and a flow and then to be able to get more books published."
Reaching this goal is tough, though, as Bhaskar noted. "Forecasting is a little difficult in this field for the simple reason that people
don't read anymore," she lamented. "You're competing with TV, web casts, and all kinds of stuff. In India, even though we have so many
more people, if you sell say 2,000 copies of your book, that is considered a hit. Here in the U.S. they talk of nothing less than tens of
thousands of copies. So that puts a lot of pressure."
Bhaskar has long realized that success doesn't come easy. It always comes with a price. "When I came here, I had two brothers, but I
was living alone with my sons," she recollected. "The message I always got was, 'What you are trying to do is impossible. You're going
to have a hard life trying to raise two sons on your own." She implied that it only took her resolve to prove them wrong, and the same
might work again as far as pushing her literary genius ahead.
"One thing nice living in Wisconsin is that you have all the winter months and you don't have to tend your yard, so that gives me time to
write," Bhaskar said. "My boys are both grown up; the eldest graduated from Purdue and is now in Australia, while my youngest is
studying at MATC and is now living downtown."
A continuous flow of visitors, relatives and friends from India almost every year (spring till end of summer) and her personal visits to
India give her lots of stories and ideas to write about. "I just love it," she burst with an infectious laugh. "People just keep on talking ... we
keep on talking, and then I realize how much we've all changed after all these years."
Is she active in the Indian American community in Madison? "No, I spend most of my time at home reading all the time," Bhaskar
admitted. "I like quiet time with my book. I keep saying that staying alone becomes an addiction, and then you don't know how to let go."
But her thoughts are spreading like wild fire, and the Indian American community takes notice that it is them who provide half of the
seed that connects Bhaskar to her world.
Sita Bhaskar was born in Bombay, spent her college years in Bangalore, and settled in Madras. She attended various Catholic
schools, then Ghandian colleges where professors wore dhotis to class and taught calculus in Kannada. She gained her master's in
physics and strayed into the world of computer software. Today, Bhaskar is a computer consultant, and her current project is with the
Department of Workforce Development.
Visit Bhaskar's website: www.sitabhaskar.com; e-mail her at BSITA@aol.com.
**********************************
Review of "Shielding Her Modesty and Other Stories"
Bend it like Bhaskar: May 18th, 2006,
by David Lee Rubin
A native of India and longtime resident in the US, Sita Bhaskar focuses on the vexed interface between two cultures. Her stories are
readable as transparent, light-handed plots exquisitely composed either to provide grounds for pity, laughter, condescension, or
bewilderment-most often in medleys; or to explore a master idea (such as alienation); or to dissect the "when in Rome" commonplace.
Their most compelling profile, however, is materialistic. Bhaskar's narrators speak for no one-self, the Indian community or the American,
higher authority, or a disciplinary consensus, though she is versed in anthropology as well as the poetics of comedy. What is "really real"
to Bhaskar is a latent dynamic of temperament, culture, class, and gender; everything else is outward manifestation, invariably engaging
but always pointing beyond and below. The method of Shielding Her Modesty is classically logistical: conflicts and classifications as well
as syntheses (fated to fail) are governed by rigorous laws of antecedent and consequent, causal or associative. Finally, the texts are
elemental: similar (but far from identical) characters act and react in analogous ways to cognate situations; the resulting array of tightly
integrated patterns creates a dystopia of in-betweenness. Fans of Bend it like Beckham and The Monsoon Wedding will revel in
Bhaskar's wit, finesse, and empathy.
start writing, you write about your own experiences and it's more autobiographical. I wanted to get away from that and started thinking
outside of myself. You know, I've lived as an adult in India and am living as an adult here."
Her newfound "personal freedom" that America offers its people further allowed her to explore freely and put in words thoughts that
could otherwise be considered taboo or nontraditional in a strict sense.
The book is purely fiction, a collection of short stories that deal with life in India and in the U.S. "It sometimes deals with
comparisons," Bhaskar explained with a wide grin. "Either someone from here goes to India and the story brings out the difference
between one way of thinking here and over there; or someone from India who one thinks is very traditional, and the story brings out a
totally different reaction."
Bhaskar offers a perspective that is both fresh and exciting, while it could be held controversial by some as well. "It's just that
sometimes, what you see on the outside might not be happening on the inside," she thought. "Here, there's no preconceived mold into
which you have to fit, so you can really open your mind and think which way you want. And that's what we should do. But we don't.
Suddenly we come here and we grab onto all our traditions and we wear it like a cloak around us like 'This is who I am.' No, that's not
who you are. That's what your country is about. And in India, things are changing so fast that each time I go there, things have moved
ahead."
For instance, one of the short stories in "Shielding Her Modesty ..." is titled "Scoring Some Viagra," about an Indian couple who came
to the U.S. to attend the graduation of their daughter, Raksha. Raksha's father pretended that his brother in India needed some Viagra to
put life into his married life and asked his daughter to get it for him. The truth was, it was him who wanted it, with the sudden fortune of
having more time and privacy with Raksha's mother. A side to the story is Raksha's live-in arrangement with boyfriend Alex, who was
forced to tentatively get lost during Raksha's parents' visit. The author truly injected her great sense of humor in this story.
The book also tackled India's pre-arranged marriage tradition, where the "happily-ever-after" endings may or may not happen.
"Pre-arranged marriage has become 'commercial' in terms of things that the parties are bringing to the table," Bhaskar observed.
"Marriage is what you make of it. I think we give too much importance to the start of a marriage and we never see what's going to change
in a few years. Are both people going to grow in the same direction? People keep changing in a marriage; we never see that until they're
both in the same place."
That personal belief could may well be the truth in her life. Bhaskar's marriage, while not a totally pre-arranged one, ended up in a
legal separation. "My husband came here 10 years after I arrived here," she narrated. "He never made up his mind as to whether or not
he'll stay here, but he visited us every year, and the kids would visit him in India every summer. We kept that marriage going great -- long
distance. Then when he finally came here in 2000 and decided he was going to stay, that's when we both realized we've grown 10 years
apart from each other. We had gotten used to living alone, independently. But we have remained friends, and I think that's important to
the boys."
To continue exploring how to bridge cultural gaps through her writing is Bhaskar's goal. "The stories I write about are interesting
because they deal with the bridge across our two cultures," she stressed. "What I would like to do is to continue writing to automatically
create a demand and a flow and then to be able to get more books published."
Reaching this goal is tough, though, as Bhaskar noted. "Forecasting is a little difficult in this field for the simple reason that people
don't read anymore," she lamented. "You're competing with TV, web casts, and all kinds of stuff. In India, even though we have so many
more people, if you sell say 2,000 copies of your book, that is considered a hit. Here in the U.S. they talk of nothing less than tens of
thousands of copies. So that puts a lot of pressure."
Bhaskar has long realized that success doesn't come easy. It always comes with a price. "When I came here, I had two brothers, but I
was living alone with my sons," she recollected. "The message I always got was, 'What you are trying to do is impossible. You're going
to have a hard life trying to raise two sons on your own." She implied that it only took her resolve to prove them wrong, and the same
might work again as far as pushing her literary genius ahead.
"One thing nice living in Wisconsin is that you have all the winter months and you don't have to tend your yard, so that gives me time to
write," Bhaskar said. "My boys are both grown up; the eldest graduated from Purdue and is now in Australia, while my youngest is
studying at MATC and is now living downtown."
A continuous flow of visitors, relatives and friends from India almost every year (spring till end of summer) and her personal visits to
India give her lots of stories and ideas to write about. "I just love it," she burst with an infectious laugh. "People just keep on talking ... we
keep on talking, and then I realize how much we've all changed after all these years."
Is she active in the Indian American community in Madison? "No, I spend most of my time at home reading all the time," Bhaskar
admitted. "I like quiet time with my book. I keep saying that staying alone becomes an addiction, and then you don't know how to let go."
But her thoughts are spreading like wild fire, and the Indian American community takes notice that it is them who provide half of the
seed that connects Bhaskar to her world.
Sita Bhaskar was born in Bombay, spent her college years in Bangalore, and settled in Madras. She attended various Catholic
schools, then Ghandian colleges where professors wore dhotis to class and taught calculus in Kannada. She gained her master's in
physics and strayed into the world of computer software. Today, Bhaskar is a computer consultant, and her current project is with the
Department of Workforce Development.
Visit Bhaskar's website: www.sitabhaskar.com; e-mail her at BSITA@aol.com.
**********************************
Review of "Shielding Her Modesty and Other Stories"
Bend it like Bhaskar: May 18th, 2006,
by David Lee Rubin
A native of India and longtime resident in the US, Sita Bhaskar focuses on the vexed interface between two cultures. Her stories are
readable as transparent, light-handed plots exquisitely composed either to provide grounds for pity, laughter, condescension, or
bewilderment-most often in medleys; or to explore a master idea (such as alienation); or to dissect the "when in Rome" commonplace.
Their most compelling profile, however, is materialistic. Bhaskar's narrators speak for no one-self, the Indian community or the American,
higher authority, or a disciplinary consensus, though she is versed in anthropology as well as the poetics of comedy. What is "really real"
to Bhaskar is a latent dynamic of temperament, culture, class, and gender; everything else is outward manifestation, invariably engaging
but always pointing beyond and below. The method of Shielding Her Modesty is classically logistical: conflicts and classifications as well
as syntheses (fated to fail) are governed by rigorous laws of antecedent and consequent, causal or associative. Finally, the texts are
elemental: similar (but far from identical) characters act and react in analogous ways to cognate situations; the resulting array of tightly
integrated patterns creates a dystopia of in-betweenness. Fans of Bend it like Beckham and The Monsoon Wedding will revel in
Bhaskar's wit, finesse, and empathy.
| Sita Bhaskar A writer of truth in fiction by Heidi M. Pascual |
Sita Bhaskar doesn't strike one as an ultra-modern, fully assimilated
Indian in America. She dons the sari just like any other woman who
hailed from South India, and carries an unmistakable accent even after
15 years in the U.S. She loves carnatic music and bharatnatyam, she
says. A classic veena is prominently displayed in her living room,
although she admits she doesn't play it -- seemingly a reminder of
where she came from. Wearing no makeup, short-cropped hair; simple,
comfortable clothes; and with eyeglasses shielding her deep-set dark
eyes, Bhaskar looks like an educator to this writer.
After more than an hour-long interview, she did educate me.
Bhaskar moved to the U.S. fully armed with her "globally in-demand
skills" in computer programming on top of a master's degree in physics.
There's no question that her line of work and education put her ahead of
many immigrants who arrived in the U.S. in the '80s and '90s in terms of
early financial stability. That allowed her to raise her two sons "alone"
with less stress. She also noted that here in the U.S., hard work is
appreciated and rewarded. Today, she owns her computer-software
consultancy firm and, as an empty-nester, she has found time to focus
on her passion: writing./ Bhaskar's first book titled, "Shielding Her
Modesty, and Other Stories" is a product of her rich imagination.
Indian in America. She dons the sari just like any other woman who
hailed from South India, and carries an unmistakable accent even after
15 years in the U.S. She loves carnatic music and bharatnatyam, she
says. A classic veena is prominently displayed in her living room,
although she admits she doesn't play it -- seemingly a reminder of
where she came from. Wearing no makeup, short-cropped hair; simple,
comfortable clothes; and with eyeglasses shielding her deep-set dark
eyes, Bhaskar looks like an educator to this writer.
After more than an hour-long interview, she did educate me.
Bhaskar moved to the U.S. fully armed with her "globally in-demand
skills" in computer programming on top of a master's degree in physics.
There's no question that her line of work and education put her ahead of
many immigrants who arrived in the U.S. in the '80s and '90s in terms of
early financial stability. That allowed her to raise her two sons "alone"
with less stress. She also noted that here in the U.S., hard work is
appreciated and rewarded. Today, she owns her computer-software
consultancy firm and, as an empty-nester, she has found time to focus
on her passion: writing./ Bhaskar's first book titled, "Shielding Her
Modesty, and Other Stories" is a product of her rich imagination.
The cover of
Bhaskar's first book,
"Shielding Her
Modesty and Other
Stories"
Bhaskar's first book,
"Shielding Her
Modesty and Other
Stories"