The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta

By Anuradha Marwah

Anuradha Marwah-Roy is erudite, has a way with words and compels attention.'
- Khushwant Singh
'Roy's remarkable first novel, intelligently crafted, touchingly told.'
- The Times of India
'The book is wholly modern and yet Indian enough, is fluently written and easily read.'
- The Hindustan Times
'point(s) to an indigenous state of good literary health.'
- Professor Meenakshi Mukherjee

Meet Geetika Mehendiratta, born into a family of modest means and progressive ways, in a place where 'there was nothing to do except cry, make a phone call or masturbate'.

Desertvadi, Rajasthan is a retirees' paradise, but a claustrophobic nightmare for a young girl. Especially one steeped in stories from faraway lands where people lived liberated, extraordinary lives on which novels upon novels are written. Geetika thrives on fiction and in her academics, but the prospect of living out her youth circumscribed by small-town mediocrity begins to suffocate her.

So when an opportunity to spend a few weeks in the big, bustling Lutyenabad presents itself, Geetika leaps at it, eager to get away from her parents and the miasma of chronic boredom that envelopes Desertvadi. But she's hardly prepared for how the metropolis is about to fling the windows of her mind wide open. Soon, her aspirations inflate in proportion to her dreams; her tastes evolve and her ambitions solidify. She has a new goal now: to master the ways of Lutyenabad.
But even as the cosmopolitan life begins to feel like a snug fit and her steady boyfriend, a famously fine catch, offers her a corollary to a conventional marriage, Geetika wallows in doubt. When her reverie inevitably shatters, Geetika is compelled to face some tough questions.

Whose was this life she was living? How can she make it her own? Geetika finally finds a resolution in a startling new life choice.

Republished for the first time since 1993, The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta is a one-of-a-kind, hilarious and heartening coming-of-age story of a girl and a culture; a delightful meditation on the complexities of simpler times.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BJH1Q9NF
• ISBN13: 9798358791596
• Release Date: August 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"