Dog Days

MEENAKSHI REDDY MADHAVAN'S SOFT ANIMAL IS ABOUT LOVE OR THE LACK OF IT-IN THE TIME OF COVID

- Rimi B. Chatterjee

SOFT ANIMAL

by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

I started this book with a lot of excitement. Dog-rescue in times of Covid! Or at least that's what the blurb led me to think.

The main character, Mallika Rao, a.k.a. Momo, is trapped in a marriage of convenience. She's pregnant and unwilling to tell her husband, the stereotypical regular guy Mukund Chugh. Momo is also functionally jobless and obliged to do the lion's share of the household chores. On the surface, she accepts this, but there is resentment seething below.

Covid arrives to strain this fragile arrangement. Mukundis now home, or at least his body is: his mind is mostly on Zoom for work and pleasure. Mallika is left a spectator to the continuation of his life by virtual means. How is she to pass the time? Aunties from the RWA [resident welfare association] make an appearance and urge her to "do more" in these trying times, but Momo is reluctant to join their enthusiastic pot-banging. In the middle of this, her mother calls. Mum is stranded in Hyderabad courtesy the lockdown, and she needs Momo to go get her dog from boarding. Thus, Gudiya, a small mixed-breed furbaby, enters the story.