#Review: Lies Our Mothers Told Us by Nilanjana Bhowmick

Lies Our Mothers Told Us
Author: Nilanjana Bhowmick
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Rating: 4.5/5

Reading this book was like getting the taste of my own wrongdoing in some way. As an Indian woman, if I have chosen to return to work after having a child, I have invited trouble because my home demands complete attention and so does my work. While the people around me believe that when I return from work my ‘working hours’ are over, they are reluctant to acknowledge that upon returning home, I do a double shift of managing my child and my home. But who cares to call household work or childcare ‘work’? Isn’t work supposed to be a job that gets you money?

Lies Our Mothers Told Us is a bold yet honest attempt to shed light on the misguided feminism which we believe in. It is dark and reeks of apathy that the opposite gender (sometimes, even the same gender) demonstrates towards women in general. The book comprises several anecdotes backed by powerful narrative that throws light on how the women are misled right from their birth. Whether it is about pursuing a career of your choice or about having a desire to work after marriage, every situation clearly demands sacrifice (only by women). A woman who decides to bear a child is not given enough importance at the workplace as she is deemed unfit for professional stress. Similar analogies are made when women decide to become full-time homemakers. Life’s not a cakewalk when the people whom you call your very own are always badgering you, taunting you and putting you down. Since our society has been perpetuated with patriarchal and misogynist thinking, it is difficult to take a stand against blasphemy too.

Women, in no way, are respected for the work they do. Lies Our Mothers Told Us highlights the wishful world that our mothers help us fantasise about only to realize later that that world is like a house of cards; it shatters soon enough. Hence, this book is a recommended read, for it will leave you retrospecting about the ways of the world.

Best wishes to the author!

Buy this book from here: Amazon