This new book explores the journey of brides across borders from India to Nepal

Smriti Ravindra. pic Courtesy/Harper CollinsIndia

How we understand places through their people is as experiential as the minute impressions of geographical and cultural sites on persons. The woman who climbed trees, Fulbright scholar Smriti Ravindra's first book, has readers in a fix. Even by the end of the book, they struggle to decide if it has been a journey in learning the implications of the history between India and Nepal or, one about the unflinching Meena - a 14-year-old who is married off to a 21-year-old Nepali man, and sent across the Indian border to the neighbouring country. The reality is a heartbreaking criss-cross of separation and longing.

Meena and Manmohan are paired together. The initial chapters of the book are brief; they move on to the next leg almost on a cue. Meena and Manmohan's abrupt marriage keeps up with the beatmatching. Soon after the wedding, when the protagonist leaves for her sasural, she realises that she has been made to grow up before her time. With every turn of the rickshaw, her heart sinks. Not just the teenager, even Manmohan isn't consulted about the alliance. His mother awkwardly hands over a few wedding cards to him asking him to invite his friends. The cards felt like sand slipping through his fingers because he didn't know what this life decision would mean to his political aspirations. Could he sneak in and out of alleyways with his wife waiting at home? After all, Manmohan was a student in India who had fled his own country to avoid being imprisoned by King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah.

The story meanders into Nepal, from its flatlands, onto its hillocks and mighty mountains. And like the topography, Meena's life changes, too. Away from family and familiarity, she begins to find comfort in her sister-in-law. But despite the pressures, will the protagonist - who never wanted to relax - find her way to resolution?

Title The Woman Who Climbed Trees
Author Smriti Ravindra
Genre Biography
Publisher Harper Collins
Cost Rs 599