Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion

by Piyali Bhattacharya

Overview

Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion, edited by Piyali Bhattacharya, is the first anthology to examine the multiple facets of daughterhood in South Asian American families.

 The voices in this volume reveal how a Good Girl is trained to seamlessly blend professional success with the maintanence and reproduction of her family's cultural heritage. Her gratitude for her immigrant parents' sacrifices creates intense pressure to perform and embody the role of the "perfect daughter." Yet, the demand for such perfection can stifle desire, curb curiosity, and make it fraught for a Good Girl to construct her own identity in the face of stern parental opinion.

 Of course, this is not always the case. Certain stories in this collection uncover relationships between parents and daughters that are open and supportive while also being exacting. Many of the essays, however, dig into difficult truths about what it is to be a young woman in a world of overbearing cultural expectation.

 Good Girls Marry Doctors is filled with honest stories, difficult and joyous, heartbreaking and hilarious, from a diverse array of powerful women. These narratives combine to expose struggles that are too often hidden from the public eye, while reminding those going through similar experiences that they are heard, and they are not alone.

 Contributers: Ankita Rao, Ayesha Mattu, Fawzia Mirza, Hema Sarang-Sieminski, Jabeen Akhtar, Jyothi Natarajan, Leila Khan, Madiha Bhatti, Mathangi Subramanian, Meghna Chandra, Natasha Singh, Nayomi Munaweera, Neelanjana Banerjee, Phiroozeh Petigara, Piyali Bhattacharya, Rachna Khatau, Rajpreet Heir, Roksana Badruddoja, Sayantani DasGupta, SJ Sindu, Sona Charaipotra, Surya Kundu, Swati Khurana, Tanzila Ahmed, Tara Dorabji, Tarfia Faizullah, and Triveni Ghandi.

This collection is filled with stories that put into words the feelings and struggles that isolate daughters of the diaspora. ... There is pain. There is trauma. There is also humor and hope. In short: there is truth. Every story, every word comes from a place of vulnerability and pain — from a struggle toward self-understanding and self-acceptance. These are the voices of women who have fought to be themselves and who have chosen to come back to their pain in order to offer a helping hand to the young girls and women who still inhabit that painful space.  —Karen Marrujo, Poetry International

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781879960923
Publisher:	Aunt Lute Books
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Piyali Bhattacharya is a writer, editor, and professor of Creative Writing. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Literary Hub, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic and elsewhere. She is the editor of the anthology Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion (Aunt Lute Books, 2016), which won the Independent Publisher Book Award and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Piyali is the Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has received the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring in Creative Writing. She is currently at work on her first novel, which has been supported by fellowships from Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and ARGS. She was born in New York City, and lives in Philadelphia and New Delhi.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tarfia Faizullah i

Introduction Piyali Bhattacharya v

The Cost of Grief Tanzila Ahmed 1

My Mother, the Rebel Jabeen Akhtar 11

The Fantasy of Normative Motherhood Roksana Badruddoja 19

The Photograph of My Parents Neelanjana Banerjee 27

The Politics of Being Political Piyali Bhattacharya 33

Fair Game Madiha Bhatti 41

Daughter of Mine Meghna Chandra 45

Flipping the Script finding the Love of My Life While Writing the Book of My Heart Sona Charaipotra 51

Good Girls Become Doctors Sayantani DasGupta 55

Subterfuge On How to Be Obedient While Rebelling Tara Dorabji 59

Good Girls Pray to God Triveni Gandhi 65

Someday Never Comes Rajpreet Heir 73

Affording the Perfect Family Leila Khan 81

Acting the Part Rachna Khatau 89

Becoming a Reluctant Breadwinner Swati Kharana 95

Modern Mythologies Surya Kundu 101

Without Shame Ayesha Mattu 109

The Day I Found Out I Was a Witch Fawzia Mirza 117

"The Only Dates Are the Ones You Eat" and Other Laws of an Immigrant Girlhood Nayomi Munaweera 123

Patti Smith in the Dark Jyothi Natarajan 131

What It Looks Like to Grow Ankita Rao 141

Breathe Phiroozeh Petigara 149

Amma Hema Sarang-Sieminski 159

Draupadi Walks Alone at Night SJ Sindu 171

Cut Natasha Singh 175

Operation Make My Family Normal Mathangi Subramanian 181

Contributor Biographies 189