TELLING TALES

Indrani Mukerjea presents her side of the story in this no-holds-barred (well, almost) memoir

- Manjula Padmanabhan

UNBROKEN
The Untold Story
by Indrani Mukerjea
HARPERCOLLINS

Murder-accused Indrani Mukerjea’s life story makes for unpleasant reading, but there are at least three things to admire.

True grit, for one. The daughter whose murder Mukerjea is accused of was the result of being raped as a teenager by her own father. A male friend offers to legitimise the birth while offering to marry her. A year later, she has a son by him, but remains unmarried. She does well at school and college, abandons the friend, and at barely 19, cedes custody of both children to her parents. She goes to Kolkata, completes her degree, begins her working life with the Diners Club and soon marries Sanjeev Khanna, a businessman. Has a daughter by him, grows disenchanted and moves to Mumbai. There she meets Peter Mukerjea, eventually marries him and they fly up the corporate totem pole together.

Second, there’s her steely disregard for society’s double standards. Throughout this narrative, wherever any other young woman would have been crushed beyond repair, Mukerjea raises her head and pushes past “what will people say” to reach the blessed freedom of “I don’t care”. She talks openly about the treacheries she has faced, from parents, lovers, husbands and her children. But even as she describes her tears, her rage and extreme isolation, she presents herself as a warrior, not a victim.