MEMOIR:INDIA DIARIES
Sideways on a Scooter by Miranda Kennedy
When Miranda Kennedy got antsy in her 20-something life in New York City, she left her friends, boyfriend and job as a reporter for public radio to set up shop as a freelance foreign correspondent in India.
In her memoir, “Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India,” (Random House) Kennedy explores India’s growing pains as globalization clashes with centuries of tradition in a country where women are allowed to join a male rider on a motor scooter, but only if they sit modestly sideways behind him. This tension comes alive in the stories of three women whom Kennedy befriends and chronicles: Geeta, a woman looking for a husband — and, in her early 30s, way past her prime in Indian eyes; Radha, a widowed single mother who is Kennedy’s maid; and Parvati, a loud- mouthed, hard-drinking journalist in an unorthodox relationship. These women become Kennedy’s confidants and cultural translators. Initially shocked by the difficulty of renting an apartment and navigating daily life as a foreign woman living alone, Kennedy eventually toughens up and learns to play by South Asia’s rules.
Kennedy’s emphasis on the personal over the political often leads to a powerful sense of intimacy, but occasionally she lets her own story get sidelined. The reader is left wanting to hear more from the heart and field notes of Super Reporter Girl, as she refers to herself — a subplot that gets overshadowed by what happens to her three friends.
