Rosemary’s Retribution : India’s cultural differences create a modern-day Romeo and Juliet

Book Name: Rosemary’s Retribution

Author: Nandita Chakraborty

As an Indian ex-pat and an independent woman in her forties, author Nandita Chakraborty knows a lot about the pressures of a cross cultural existence. With aspects of Indian culture featuring heavily in the headlines across the world of late, people are struggling to understand a largely patriarchal Indian society which subjugates women and a portion of which still looks down on cross cultural relationships. After moving to Melbourne in search of a more modern life in 2000, Nandita had her own cross-cultural love story after she married a much an older Anglo man. She experienced firsthand how love could divide and create huge misunderstanding between families.

Despite having experienced many disappointments including the breakdown of her marriage Nandita has always been an advocate of love. After her divorce she like so many fell victim to a horrific blackmail encounter via an online dating experience. An occurrence which has become prolific in society today, especially for women. However, it was one of the darkest periods in India’s history known as ‘The Emergency’ which inspired her most recent love story, Rosemary’s Retribution. Having first developed the concept in 2007 in her Creative Writing class at RMIT, this troubling period was also the backdrop for the film 1980 award winning, Aakaler Sandhane (In search of Famine), produced by her father, Dhiresh Kumar Chakraborty. The period saw then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi pass an ordinance about how the state was in danger. All the fundamental rights were suspended, politicians were arrested, and a heavy censorship imposed on the media. Several other human rights violations were reported from the time, including a forced mass-sterilization campaign with the programme leading to 8.3 million sterilisations, most of them forced.

Nandita says, “Rosemary’s Retribution is not written to push a political agenda or hurt any culture, caste or creed – the characters are purely fictitious and dedicated to those millions of people who are elevated by love. Some have been brave, crossing or breaking barriers – while some were not so lucky. I also see the cultural barriers in modern India and Indians living in Australia, who appreciate their freedom but are caught between their new life and their cultural obligations. They are in a continuous battle for their identity.”

The book is set in Kolkata in 1975, follows a thick plot of family secrets and the woes of cross cultural marriage. It follows the story of Shabana and Ted, one a young diplomat from Melbourne and the other a maid in the foreign office in Calcutta. The unconventional friendship between the two turns to love under the shadow of Urdu poetry and western literature. Against cultural differences, both fight for social acceptance and find themselves caught in a web of secrets and betrayal that spans forty years.

The book explores the social stigma of inter-caste marriages in India, a country where being ‘modern’ is still a concept that people are getting comfortable with. The book’s cross-cultural themes are reflective of the chaos in the world right now and show how lack of tolerance can result in mayhem. Rosemary’s Retribution is a book about forgiveness and fighting against all odds … but most importantly ensuring we remember the past so that it history doesn’t repeat itself.

This book will appeal to lovers of romantic novels, politics, history and Indian culture. Nandita will be launching the book on Thursday 10th May at The Bohemian Bar in South Wharf, Melbourne.

The book is available for purchase through Bookwire, Amazon & Busybird Publishing.