The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder

303 Pages·2009·1 MB·English

by  Serena Nanda

The Gift
of a Bride

The Gift
of a Bride
A Tale of Anthropology,
Matrimony, and Murder
SERENA NANDA AND JOAN GREGG
A Division of
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
ALTAMIRA PRESS
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Copyright © 2009 by AltaMira Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nanda, Serena.
The gift of a bride : a tale of anthropology, matrimony, and murder / Serena
Nanda and Joan Gregg.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7591-1149-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1150-9 (pbk. :
alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1160-8 (electronic : alk. paper)
1. East Indians—United States—Fiction. 2. Anthropology—Fiction. 3. New York
(State)—New York—Fiction. I. Gregg, Joan Young. II. Title.
PS3613.A579G54 2009
813’.6—dc22 2008048562
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2) ™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Daughters and sons are one’s own, but the daughter-in-law is other.
—Indian proverb

The Gift
of a Bride

Chapter
Chapter One

Senior civil officer invites correspondence from North Indian professionals
only, for a beautiful, talented, intelligent daughter, 5'3", slim, fair, MA in
psychology. Prefer immigrant doctors, between 26–29 years, living in the tri-
state area. Reply with full details and returnable photo.
Julie Norman thoughtfully reread the matrimonial ad that her friend
Shakuntala had placed in a New York City Indian-American newspaper
on behalf of her daughter, Amrita. After Shakuntala and Amrita had
vetted the responses, Shakuntala had asked Julie to meet the men who
seemed like the best possibilities as a first step in arranging the marriage.
“I must do my duty as a mother,” Shakuntala had told Julie on her
recent fieldwork trip to India. “It is the right time for us to marry Am-
rita off to a good boy. She prefers someone already settled in America,
and I would prefer New York or New Jersey so we will not seem so far
away. Amrita is, after all, our only daughter, so I must at least try to
fulfill her wishes.” Julie, of course, had agreed to help.
Shakuntala had placed several ads, offering a few details about her
requirements and requesting phone numbers and “biodata” along with
a photograph. Amrita had already turned down several of the respond-
ing candidates on the basis of their photographs. One candidate was
3