A Lingering Unhomeliness: Book Review of Devi Yesodharan’s “The Outsiders”
Yesodharan’s new novel is a commendable addition to diaspora literature from India
“The Unhomely — It captures something of the estranging sense of the relocation of the home and the world in an unhallowed place. To be unhomed is not to be homeless, nor can the “unhomely” be easily accommodated in that familiar division of social life into private and the public spheres”
— Homi Bhaba, “The World and the Home
The characters that come to life in Devi Yesodharan’s The Outsiders are embodiments of what Homi Bhabha calls “the unhomely”. Dwelling between the gaps in boundaries, in a liminal state that is both exile and acceptance, they are “homeless hearts” that navigate the currents of immigrant life (254). Although there is a plethora of literary works that hinge on the diaspora and migration, Yesodharan’s narrative is very intimate, and while throwing light on the alienation its protagonist faces in a foreign country, it is centred on human connection and love that is mightier than dichotomies and categorisations.
The novel’s protagonist Nita is a representative of the large number of Malayali immigrants who moved to the Gulf (the Arab states) during Kerala’s Gulf Boom in the 1970s and 80s. “The Gulf, as the Arab countries of West Asia are referred to, on the other shore of the Indian Ocean, seems to have been a place full of treasures. In the Arabian tales of migrants, one kept hearing of the Arabi ponnu, or gold,” writes Karinkurayil. It was a significant period in the history of the state that witnessed massive migration to the Arab countries.
Like many Keralites of her time seeking improved opportunities and a better fortune in the Gulf, an orphaned and widowed Nita migrates to Dubai for a new, highly-paying job as an English tutor, leaving her young son behind. She is welcomed there by her new employer Rouhi, a kind and beautiful woman of Egyptian descent and her daughter Saba who is Nita’s pupil. In the absence of Rouhi’s husband Haroun, who works on a merchant ship, the house is an exclusively female space. Regardless of the various divisions between them- of ethnicity, class, religion, and language- Nita and Rouhi form a delicate friendship that provides security and solace to both women who are outsiders in the rich and hot soil of Dubai. However, when their friendship spills over these margins, challenging them, the rules return to reinforce the divisions, making Nita question whether she is or will ever be considered Rouhi’s equal.
As an embedded narrative that tells the dual stories of Nita and Darius, the tales of these characters are parallel to and reflect each other, despite the differences in contexts and timelines. Storytelling is a key trope in the story, not only in its reference to the setting of The Arabian Nights, but as a means of connection, memory, and intercultural transmissions. Like the master storyteller Scheherazade from The Arabian Nights who weaves stories every night to save her life, Nita also narrates the story of Darius, an Egyptian sailor who travels to India, to Rouhi, connecting both of their roots. Darius is Nita’s vehicle to express her thoughts, dilemmas, and feelings, “her stand-in, the narrator of her yearning” (198). The story becomes a bridge across which Nita and Rouhi move towards each other, leaping over “the chasm between them of employer-employee, wife-widow, citizen-migrant” and as in the original tale where the listener falls in love with the narrator, Rouhi and Nita’s relationship takes new dimensions (135).
The novel could not have had a more suitable title, as the word “outsiders” captures the essence of the story. Nita is treated as an outsider right from her childhood, bullied and sidelined by schoolmates, which extends to her adult life as well. Rouhi’s story is also similar, which draws them in with a desperation to bond.
Through Nita’s uprooting from Kerala’s humid air to Dubai’s scorching heat, Yesodharan portrays with ingenuity several instances of the isolation and remoteness that underlie Nita’s life as an immigrant. Nita is reminded of her second-class-citizen status by the hostility in Haroun’s eyes, the animosity of the housemaids who feel incensed at her touching things, the unkind glances from strangers, and Rouhi’s reluctance to treat her unlike a servant in front of others. The author gives us a stark picture of how Nita stands out in her “alien ordinariness”, her inexpensive clothes and skin colour branding her with an inferior status in a city where money flowed endlessly:
“She has been seeing the city in Rouhi’s wake. In her absence, the veil lifts a little and Nita glimpses a different side. The word for stranger in Arabic- gharib- is a chameleon, meaning both stranger and intruder, someone impoverished of friends and relatives. She feels that many shades of it in how these people see her” (36).
Although the story focuses on Nita’s immigrant experience, Rouhi is also an immigrant who had to leave behind her village and sense of belonging following her hurried marriage, to fit into the stifling etiquettes and rules of her Arab husband’s elite living. Ill-treated by both her father and her husband, Darius’ story and her relationship with Nita allow her to rediscover her buried self.
The language employed by the author is one of the things that makes the narrative an engaging read. It achieves the delicate balance between being accessible and carrying an elevated aura. Haroun’s character and the people in his world appear stereotypical and a bit clichéd, but their characterisation does not seem far-fetched. The author leaves her protagonist Nita and Nita her protagonist Darius on the verge of uncertainty, which reminds the reader that no story is ever complete and life is an unresolved knot of events. Yesodharan’s novel is a commendable addition to diaspora literature from India and deserves a spot on your 2025 reading list.
Also check out our review of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Roman Stories”, another recommended diasporic literature title from Penguin India!
This review was written by in exchange for a review copy from India.
