ISBN No: 9834141505
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages:327
Published by : Sensations Pro Sdn Bhd
Publication Date: September 2003

Summary

Are women mere commodities? Do Indians suffer from an identity crisis? Do children who are sent overseas for their education return home 'educated'?

These are the questions that Avantika Narayanasamy Sivadas (Tika) contemplates over and over again as she experiences the process leading to an arranged marriage.

Set in the quaint town of Alor Star, Malaysia at the beginning of the new millennium, it is a hilarious account of Tika's adventures with her two suitors and all the criticisms, both constructive and destructive, of the members of the Institution of the Aunties, family and friends.

Excerpts from The Banana Leaf Men

Chaos they would call it and yet in some moments chaos was comforting compared to the stress created by supposed order. Stress that was created by endless rules and policies that were never made public until one broke it.

That night, before she slept Tika contemplated the problem - should she forget everything this weatherman said and follow her best-of-friend's advice and take it all with a pinch of salt?

On the other hand, if she refused to believe a word he said, then why did so many people go to these weathermen at all? ... Indeed in every culture and religion of the world there seemed to be one of his kind. Gypsies who looked into crystal balls. Psychics who could do 'readings'. Indeed Master Chung had not been too far off the mark in his predictions for Tika. Indeed, every search engine she had visited on the Internet had, on its homepage, something connected with horoscopes. One could not deny that there were also countless number of arranged marriages that were successful.

In silence, Tika wondered what next to say to Pradeep. They had absolutely nothing in common. Politics, no one ever spoke of. Sex was taboo - it is understood that children grow on trees. Religion and race had been dealt with - Pradeep was not, God-forbid, Hindu and most certainly not Indian. What on earth could she talk about to a fossil from the Stone Age?

Food! That's what I can talk to him about. But then, he already knows all about a banana leaf meal, debated Tika in Silence.

Reviews of The Banana Leaf Men

A Suitable Groom by Jayagandi Jayaraj
The StarMag Friday 27 February 2004

THANK goodness it was in the privacy of my room that I was reading The Banana Leaf Men by Malaysian Aneeta Sundararaj. I couldn’t remember reading a book and laughing so much in such a long time. The last book that made me cackle was While I’m Dead, Feed the Dog by American Ric Browde.

Of course, these two books are worlds apart. While the latter gave a sense of black humour with loads of obscenities and Mafia activity, the former would most certainly inject any Malaysian (if not all Asians) with a big dose of engaging humour as it touches on various topics of taboo among the middle-class Malaysian Indian community and women. Its other themes are conflict of interest between the young and old, Malaysian history and local culture.

The story is about Tika, a 30-year-old unmarried woman who returns to her hometown in Alor Star, Kedah, after leaving her treacherous work place that she terms the “Snake Pit”. Settling for an arranged wedding, Tika begins her adventure in going about the process as she consents to harmless pressure from the ever-nagging “Institution of the Aunties”. Tika’s journey begins with a mandatory reading by an astrologer. Moving on to face the chauvinistic and selfish suitors who are very much “fossils from the Ice Age”, Tika is put through a period of tribulation as she meets her suitors and discovers the ugly and baffling truth about each.

Although the plot can be similar to any Indian girl’s wedding story, what makes this one stand out is its direct relation to modern Indian women in Malaysia. If you still find the plot boring, then I suggest you be a bit open and read it anyway just for the light humour. You might eventually like it as I did.

Using simple English, with some references in Malay (done in an effort to preserve the essence of the words), the story adopts the occasional flashback and fast-forward. The short paragraphs and relatively short chapters make the 327-page reading comfortable.

What I liked best about the book is the way the story is carefully orchestrated from one scene to another in a cohesive manner. Maintaining sleek transition and at the same time leaving questions to ponder, one chapter gracefully slips into another, thus providing new angles to look forward to. Thanks to the author’s rather wide knowledge, you will also gradually pick up certain useful information on ? things; you have to read it to discover them.

With suggestive references like the Midget Weatherman for the astrologer, Bug-san for the first prospective groom who is a lawyer and Dr Monkey for the second prospective groom (a doctor), the story not only tickles one’s funny bone but also exposes readers to the reality of the common questions raised and issues that matter in and around an Indian wedding – identity crisis, gender racism, old-fashioned ideas and astrology.

I also particularly liked the crafty way in which the common issues of skin colour, caste, profession, level of education and family background are inserted into the story while in the quest for a suitable suitor for Tika. Along with it, two contradicting mind-sets are also cleverly projected – the simple outlook on life by the overseas-educated children against a web of traditions espoused by the old aunties. In other words, the book is like a huge forum on new and old thinking, especially when Tika gets around with her friends Sharmini, Danny, Arjun and cousin Raj.

And what I can say about Sundararaj? Well, for a first book, it is definitely a way to go. Touching on so many topics, even indulging in some sensitive ones and discussing them in depth and openly, reflects a sense of freedom in writing itself.

The discussion about the Ceylonese and Malayalee and their “egotistical sycophant” nature (though I must agree that it doesn’t apply to all, of course) and the open observation about the “Chinki” (Chinese) are just some of the provocative subjects. (As I was reading the book, I was aching with laughter and the urge to call some of the Ceylonese aunties I know and recommend this daring book – I’d love to witness their arguments over the “Indians from Jaffna” issue.).

What more can I say? Trained as a lawyer, Sundararaj presented her case well in the writing while deftly delivering her messages concerning the issues enveloping the Indian community for centuries, including those of the upper-middle-class Indians of modern Malaysia. At the end of the day, it all boils down to modernity versus tradition. Hanging on to things that we don’t know much about and paying thousands to acquire them, the modern Indians are a confused lot. Not quite Malaysian, not quite Indian, just in between.

Well, we can start looking forward to her next book.

Although the ending is quite predictable, you would certainly want it to end the way it does. Just like an Indian movie with a happy ending. Just like a fulfilling banana-leaf meal.

Review by Sharmini Tiruchelvam

Within the seemingly childlike style, the curious cutting up of paragraphs for sentences to stand apart on their own, the personalising of the times of day and aspects of nature, the free and idiosyncratic use of Capitals : “Morning did not reply’ … there is a very real voice coming through. A young, honest adult voice. The voice of many young, women of today.

Marinated in pain, chagrin, anger and outrage at having had to be exposed to the ugly and dishonourable beings fetched up for Avantika as eminently desirable husbands by the Institution of the Aunties – spearheaded most especially by her maternal aunt, Nirmala, she tells is about those encounters without losing any of the power of their innate awfulness by metamorphosing them with a sort of black humour into passages of very real comedy. I laughed our loud at some, even as I registered the underlying anguish and the relief obtained for herself by savouring the sheer soul-salving sobriquets she bestows on some of them. ‘Bug-san’ comes to mind.

Avantika – like so many other intelligent, seemingly independent young women in the very early twenty-first Century, perhaps even un-knowingly mourning the loss of the protection and caring involvement in their lives and future once given them not only their families but by society itself – now turns to that once great support system to find a way towards the next phase of her life as a wife and mother, only to find that the system is now hopelessly flawed. Perhaps through sheer neglect and lack of practice, through carelessness, through uncaring; or who knows, even through envy and mean-spiritedness. The ditching of caring, by society at large, is obvious. But the old prejudices stand: a man’s word, especially if he is a ‘professional – a lawyer or a doctor’ – is taken against Avantika’s.

What is interesting, is that basically kind Avantika- for which I think that one can fairly safely substitute the name Aneeta – has, a protections for herself, the unerringly sharp, terrifyingly cruel and observant eye of the born writer:
 “Then not to give into viciousness at this moment, she focused on Nirmala. Like Tika, Nirmala too had gone on a protein diet. Only as usual, Nirmala had gone overboard ……..Tika’s mind began to wander and she could see the images ………..One dark chocolate coloured forefinger tickling the white chocolate wrinkled wattle and folds and folds of skin around an oblong navel that had shrunk too fast”.

The rest of that paragraph illustrates the above claim, only too well and deserves quoting too: “The Encyclopaedia of Useless Information (Nirmala’s husband) stroking the esteemed member of the Institution of the Aunties (Nirmala), leaning against the ivory hand-carved head-board of the master’s bed in the Penang upper-middle-class house, would be saying: “You know, my dear, modern bananas originated in the south-east Asian and western Pacific regions. The earliest records of cultivation are from India about 2,500 years ago.’”

Enough said.

The girl writes with an original hand and eye … and a wonderful sense of the ridiculous.

MORE!

This first novel has scored a bull's eye. The Banana Leaf Men is a very interesting, exciting, humorous book that holds a reader's suspense very well. The author uses some lovely phrases, articulates very well and shows a great deal of knowledge about many things, particularly relating to the practice of medicine and law. The little historical facts that appear occasionally are well placed and makes the book most informative without being a tourist guide. The book provides a very interesting description of the social mores, customs, rituals and thinking of young educated contemporary Malaysians. In dealing with the Aunties, the way many Eastern girls still think and act provides a daunting background to the power wielded by the older generation. The manner in which this generation is able to still control their offspring; in spite of their having been educated abroad , shows that customs die hard. The author makes an interesting point that education abroad does not necessarily improve a person 's character especially if it is at the expense of ethics being replaced by egotism. I think this book could make a very exciting and interesting television series.