Girls Don’t Cry

She leaves behind pleas for help on rolls of paper that are discovered three years later by the new tenant, Krishna Belur, professor of economics at the University of Iowa, US, who is on a year-long sabbatical in India. The realisation soon dawns on him that the fate of the writer of those entreaties, and the five other children she mentions in these notes, rests in his hands, although he is not sure if the children are still alive. With little evidence to support his case, Belur embarks on an eventful journey he had least expected on his arrival in India.

Warrier, a former journalist, uses an easy conversational style that keeps the narrative pacy. The book is peppered with references to real life incidents, including the coal scam and the much talked about murder of a teenage girl and a domestic help in New Delhi- incidents that lend the story immediacy. In the notes, Suchitra talks about missing home, about the beatings she is subjected to and the horrors of life in captivity. “I don’t believe in God because if there were God, he wouldn’t do this to me or to these children,” she notes.

But somewhere between the crisis and its resolution, the book loses its plot. Far too many characters are introduced and the resolution becomes more convenient than logical. In the end, you’re left with a sense of disappointment that it didn’t deliver on its initial promise.