Introduction

"This is a captivating, delightful novel. I was totally engaged by Tishani Doshi's people and by their world, and the language often rises—when speaking of the great matters, life, death, and above all love—to powerful metaphorical heights."—Salman Rushdie Meet the Patel-Joneses—Babo, Sian, Mayuri, and Bean—in their little house with orange and black gates next door to the Punjab Women's Association in Madras. Babo grew up here, but he and Sian, his cream-skinned Welsh love, met in London. Babo's parents disapproved. And then they disapproved unless the couple moved back to Madras. So here they are. And as the twentieth century creaks and croaks its way along, Babo, Sian, and the children navigate their way through the uncharted territory of a "hybrid" family: the hustle and bustle of Babo's relatives; the faraway phone-line crackle of Sian's; the eternal wisdom and soft bosom of Great-Grandmother Ba; the perils of first love, lost innocence, and old age; and the big question: What do you do with the space your loved ones leave behind? Tishani Doshi, a prizewinning poet, plunges into fiction for the first time with this tender and uplifting debut. With rich feeling and dazzling language, Doshi evokes both Zadie Smith and Rohinton Mistry as she captures the quirks and calamities of one unusual clan in a story of identity, family, belonging, and all-transcending love.

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Excerpt

i. Departures and depositories of deceit

In the early hours of 20 August, 1968, the morning of his son’s departure, Prem Kumar Patel succumbed to a luxury he had never, in all his forty-seven years of living, experienced before: he had a dream. It was a long, terrible dream that seemed to take him back to the coils of his mother’s womb and hurl him to the end of his life, to a valley submerged in ice. In this dream Prem Kumar was climbing mountains, trying to find his wife and four children. They were lost to him in a strange kingdom where men carried the ghosts of ancestors on their backs and women hid in trees throwing poison-tipped arrows. Prem Kumar, standing in front of a great wooden doorway, could hear his children screaming. Babo, especially; his eldest, who was cold and wanted extra blankets to sleep, who wasn’t used to this bite in the air that was making him turn from a dark shade of walnut to a pasty pistachio. Babo kept calling out to Prem Kumar, Why did you send me here? Why did you send me away? And the other children – Meenal, Dolly and Chotu, cried in chorus after him, Why did you send him away? Why did you send our brother away? ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1. Who are the “pleasure seekers” of the novel’s title? Which characters seek pleasure first
and foremost, and which seek other forms of fulfillment—romance, spirituality, duty,
wealth? How do these characters challenge the Jain religion’s prohibitions against
pleasure?
2. The Pleasure Seekers spans more than thirty years and four generations. How does each
section of the novel capture its era? What milestones and trends of British and Indian
history are re-created in the novel? Which period details come to life?
3. What are Babo’s first impressions of London? What hardships does he face as he arrives
in this new city? How does he negotiate new attitudes toward family, work, food, and
women? How does Babo’s journey serve as “the turning point for his entire family”
(259), the milestone by which the Patels measure their family history?
4. Trishala refers to Babo as “this first-born, this child of desire” (34). Why does Trishala
blame herself for Babo’s romantic choices? How does Prem Kumar, in turn, express guilt
for his son’s behavior? How does Babo’s marriage test their spiritual faith?
5. Compare the relationships Babo and Siân have with their parents. How are Babo’s and
Siân’s family disputes similar and how are they different?
6. Siân lives her life “plagued by separations” (113)—leaving her parents, her homeland,
and her customs, again and again. How does Siân cope with her permanent exile? What
helps her adjust to a new life in India, and what will she always miss of her tiny Welsh
hometown?
7. Meeting her great-granddaughters for the first time, Ba predicts, “Mayuri is going to sink
her roots deep. She will know what she is and what she wants, always. But this one, this
Beena, she will change from earth to water to fire, again and again” (117–18). How do
Ba’s predictions eventually turn out? In the end, which sister seems happier in her
element: earthy Mayuri or mercurial Bean?
8. Discuss Babo and Siân’s friendships with the other mixed couples of Madras. What
comforts do these friendships provide? Do these couples and their children seem happy
with their lives in India? Why or why not?
9. Two pieces of tragic news strike Sylvan Lodge at the same time: Indira Gandhi’s
assassination and Trishala’s breast cancer. How does the Patel family handle this dual
challenge? At which other moments in the novel do national history and family history
intersect?
10. The Pleasure Seekers chronicles as many deaths as births, balancing pleasure and grief.
How do the novel’s characters cope with loss? Which characters have the most difficulty
recovering from the deaths of loved ones?
11. Consider Bean’s decision to move to London. What does she seek there, and what does
she leave behind? How does her quest compare to her father’s journey, so many years
before?
12. Discuss the high and low points of the long marriage between Babo and Siân. What
challenges their happiness as a couple, and how do they recover from their marital
difficulties?
13. Trapped in the Republic Day earthquake in Anjar, Bean experiences a “moment of
blinding clarity. Forty-five seconds of it. Bean hadn’t thought of Javier. She had thought
of her baby, of Ba. Of what Babo, Siân and Mayuri would do without her in the world”
(310). Why do thoughts of Javier slip away in this moment of near-death experience for
Bean? What does she learn about the bonds of family and the bonds of love?
14. Consider the sights, sounds, and smells of Ganga Bazaar, Ba’s home in Anjar. What
makes Ba’s home and community so special? Why does the novel close in Ganga Bazaar,
with Ba having the last word?
15. What kind of mother might Bean become? What might the future hold for the unborn
child, who has already survived an earthquake and her mother’s heartbreak?
16. Tishani Doshi is a poet and a dancer as well as a novelist. What elements of poetry and
music can be found in The Pleasure Seekers? Point out some examples of particularly
poetic language in the novel.

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