Jyotsna Sreenivasan, illustrated by Merryl Winstein,
Aruna's Journey
Smooth Stone Press, 1997.

This is a delightful little book aimed at children in fourth grade and up. The protagonist is an eleven-year-old Indian-American girl named Aruna who is forced by her parents to spend her summer vacation in India. The book portrays Aruna and her situation with sympathy as well as humor.

On one level the book is about the struggle that children of immigrants go through to make a place for themselves in the larger American society. They want badly to be just like their peers; and the Americans as well as their parents seem united in an effort to make that objective as hard as possible to attain. For example, when Aruna meets a new teacher she must answer at least one question about India (it is so exotic!). And, her parents insist that she not wear make-up, not watch television shows that have sex or violence, and that she attend an Indian dance and culture class.

On another level it is the struggle that the same children go through when they visit their relatives in India. Again, they must try hard to fit in by remembering all the rules of behavior (removing shoes at the door, accepting something only with the right hand, talking softly), showing a familiarity (if not mastery) with the local language, taking the change in environment (strange bathrooms, weather, food, insects and servants) in stride.

Considering the paucity of books aimed at Indian-American kids, this book is an invaluable resource. Children reading the book will, probably for the first time, be able to identify with the main character and the situations that are set here in the US as well as in India. In fact, each page of the book has at least one insight that sheds light on the world as seen through the eyes of an Indian-American child.

And therein lies the immense value of this book to parents. As caring parents, we like to think we try our best to understand our children's feelings and the challenges that they face in the outside world. But, the fact is that we don't really know. The children cannot quite tell us what it is like for them out there primarily because of their inexperience and their need for privacy; but this happens also because they are not really familiar with the frame of reference that is within us. After reading this book, I felt I had opened a window into that other elusive world.

The book excels when it comes to addressing issues of identity (am I Indian or American) in a very elegant way - it gives children permission to ask themselves that question. More important it gives them a vocabulary to start formulating their own answer to the question.

The book is chock full of easy explanations of some of the most common questions that we and our children face: the purpose of the kumkum or bindi, the role of arranged marriage in Indian society and the role of women in India. A separate study guide is available that would be of great use in educational settings such as schools, girl scout troops and even bal vihars.
I have only one complaint: I want to read more of Aruna's Journeys as she navigates her teenage years, college, and eventually finds her own place in her community.

Nandini Pandya
September 23, 2002

Nandini Pandya is a mother of two and a resident of the US for almost twenty years. Originally she is from Mumbai.

http://www.desijournal.com/book.asp?articleid=22