Balli Kaur Jaswal is an author with Singaporean roots, now living in Australia. This book won the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelist Award in 2014. It traces the evolution of a family, originally from India, living in Singapore from the 1970s to the 1990s. Jaswal writes particularly about the Sikh diaspora, their religious and social cultures, and the struggle to adapt to modernity, particularly outside India and the Punjab region.

Inheritance is about two generations of a family, living with Singapore and struggling with reconciling their identities amidst a rapidly changing social and economic environment. Harbeer Singh moves to Singapore with his young wife, Dalveer. While he embraces Singapore’s competitive, rigid social environment, she struggles to adapt. They have three children, and she dies in childbirth, never knowing her youngest. The book is divided into three sections, each with a chapter focusing one of the four remaining members of the family. Each family member faces their own, specific peculiar challenges. While Harbeer assimilates into Singapore’s tight, conformist society, he finds that his children do not, and he is trailed constantly by the ghost of his dead wife. The oldest, Gurdev, is most like him but cannot understand his own three daughters, who have different ideas of success and freedom, nor his wife, who hates how society gossips about the rest of his family. Narain, his second son, is gay: homosexuality is illegal in Singapore and Harbeer cannot comprehend nor comes to terms with this: Narain, in turn, can't fit in and struggles to maintain covert relationships. The youngest, Amrit, has mental health issues, struggles to keep a job, has problems with alcohol, and is not diagnosed until late in adulthood: all anathema to the conservative Sikh diaspora, which is quick to condemn them.

The title, ‘Inheritance’ refers not only to the property and money that Harbeer thinks his younger children ought not to inherit, for their many ‘sins’ but also to the genetic links: a family history of mental health issues, so visible in his daughter, possibly emerging in his grand-daughter, and in himself. It refers as well, to their culture and upbringing, and how they carry it from country to country, struggling to adapt and evolve. This was a very well-written, but sad book. It did end on a note of hope, but as a South Asian living in a diaspora, it was painfully familiar in the story it told.

Forgetting that I'd previously read Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows I read Inheritance as the debut novel of a thoughtful author, and was not surprised to learn that it won the SMH’s Best Young Australian Novelist Award.

The novel covers the development of Singapore an independent state while telling the story of a Punjabi family that settled there. Harbeen, a policeman, was posted to Singapore before its independence. He stays on because he hopes for greater opportunities, even although his wife Dalveer hates it.

The story is narrated in four time frames (1970-1, 1977, 1984-85 and 1990) from the perspective of the main characters: Harbeen, now a single-parent father; his adult children Gurdev and Narain; and his teenage daughter Amrit. There are also occasional enigmatic episodes featuring the wife Dalveer who 'exited' in obscure circumstances early in the story. Other characters of importance are Gurdev's wife Banu and his three daughters; and (like Singapore, orphaned from the Malaysian Federation) the orphaned cousin Karam, who does really well in spite of it.

The father's ambitions mirror those of Singapore's leadership: education, hard work, order and conformity as the route to success. Those who do not 'fit' suffer accordingly.

Narain is expelled from the army because he is gay, and to protect the all-important reputation of the family, his father sends him away to study in the US. It is supposed to 'make a man of him' but instead introduces him to more permissive ways and a resentment of Singaporean interference in its people's lives. When he eventually returns, he is empowered to reject his father's demands that he marry, but his relationships have to remain covert. The same is true of his tentative forays into political activity.

Narain's absence had left Amrit vulnerable, because she has an undiagnosed mental illness and it was Narain who was protecting her. When she disappears, Narain is summoned home, where he learns that shame had a blinding effect on Harbeer and that the police must not be involved because of the family's reputation.

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Book Title: Inheritance
Author: Balli Kaur Jaswal
Format: Kindle

My Thoughts:
Leading a life in a foreign land comes with many challenges.
Leading a teenage life without proper care comes with problems.
Leading a life with self-pity comes with personality woes.
Leading a life with unheard voices comes with mental health disorders.
Leading a life when one's own father treats his children as a curse comes with rebellious attitude development.

Each of the above-said statement is the description of the characters in the story.

The story is about the family that immigrated from India to Singapore at a time when the country they moved to was beginning to find itself, change its existence. With the rise of this new multi-cultural country, belonging to the community that always has eyes on you, is challenging. The family faces these all! When a person and the bunch of the members of the family are under vigilance by a mob of people, it gives unwanted pressure. Though the intention is good, going to the root level and dissecting every thread talks about personal liberty and freedom at stake. These struggles are very well articulated and shown in the book.

Author Balli Kaur hails from the country of Singapore in which the story is set, makes it easy for her readers to understand much about the country and its metamorphosis in her simple and engaging narration. She also stretches her writing in explaining the land rules and the difficulties faced by the people. There are also dark and raw things embedded in the story. The story also brings forth its readers the country and culture before India's Independence and also before Singapore became an Independent Country.

This is my first book by the author, and I am delighted to read her work. I look forward to reading more books from her.

What to expect from the story
Expect the unheard woes of a girl who is subjected to physical abuse.
Expect the delicate feelings unexplained from a person who identifies himself sexually-oriented in a different way.
Expect the story of a single father who tries to cope up in a foreign land with his children to meet the daily chores.
Expect a story that runs in two parallel storylines, one about the characters and other about the country which itself is also a character.

Who can read?
The book is targeted to the readers who understand what teenage life feels like; how various problems attack a person's psyche. The book also has matured elements that consist of abuse, gender orientation and mental diseases. Keeping in mind these factors, the book is not suitable for children below 14 years of age.

What is the storyline?
This book, ' Inheritance ' - by Balli Kaur Jaswal is a fictional story set in the country of Singapore between the 1970s - 1990s. The story is about a Sikh Punjabi family. In the story, the female child, Amrit, is the reflection of many unsaid feelings from a female's point of view. Her brother, Narain who goes to America for further studies is another reflection of the gender orientation and awareness that which was not existing much in those days in India or around the world also I can say. Many other characters make up a great part of the story.

Though the story dates back to decades back, the narration hooks up the readers to the book.

My take on the characters
A character can be a person, a thing or a place or so. A writer writes and builds a character that performs actions, takes forward the story and thus gives life to the story. Characters make stories. Without characters, there is no story to tell, no situations to imagine nor any scenery to describe. This prologue on characters is necessary here because Balli Kaur's characters in this book ' Inheritance ' are so very important that not even a page can be thought without the characters. Usually, there will be central and side characters in a book. But here, all of them are the central characters. Because the story is conveyed from every one of them. Be it Amrit, or Narain or Gurudev or Kiran. Every character is given ample amounts of scope, strength and timing.

How good is the author's writing style
This is my first book from the author, and I shall admit her simple yet strong writing has opened new avenues in my thought-process. As I am unaware of the Punjabi lifestyle, their family structure and the tradition, I am even unaware about life, and it's a metamorphosis in the Singapore country. In this book, with an intriguing narration author, Balli Kaur introduced me to a new horizon of Indians living in a foreign country. As the story is set up in the 70s era, the nativity and the flavour of the then life is projected interestingly. Easy langue and good vocabulary added more beauty to the writing. The taboos and the unheard difficulties faced by teenagers and young adults are very intrinsically explained in a universally acceptable language.

How entertaining is the book?
The story has intense emotions, interesting drama and a parallel story of a country's development. There are many places where a wow factor, a sorry feeling and shocking interpretations of incidents attract the readers. The book is a perfect blend of feelings and events and thus makes it a good entertainer.

Final Verdict
A story that explores life beyond imagination!

Rating:
3/5









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