The Ayah's Tale: a novella of British Colonial India

by Sujata Massey

In 1952, Menakshi walks into a Penang library during the rainy season. She discovers a book written by Julian Winslett, a British war hero and writer, who was a young boy she cared for while working as a 16-year-old nanny in Bengal. His book is about those old days, and features the two of them as named characters. The 1920s British Raj was an era of expansive homes and gardens, elegant rail travel, and very strict divisions between Indians, Anglo-Indians and the British. For the rulers of India, it was a glorious period; but for Menakshi, it's a time she'd rather forget. She'd pushed away all her old feelings for Julian…but now they're back. As Menakshi reads Julian's book, she returns to a vanished world where luxury and deprivation co-exist in the same grand bungalow--and romance breaks all rules in the hills of Darjeeling and on the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. Menakshi's own recollections add suspense as his family heads toward rupture, and she is torn between loyalty toward the children and her own secret dreams. THE AYAH'S TALE is a 202-page novella by Sujata Massey, author of THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY, a longer novel set in British India that was published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. She is also the author of the contemporary Rei Shimura mystery novel series set in modern Japan, which starts with THE SALARYMAN'S WIFE.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, India, Asia, Short Stories

121 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2013

About the author

Sujata Massey is the author of historical and mystery fiction set in Asia. She is best known for the Perveen Mistry series published in the United States by Soho Press and in India by Penguin Random House India. In June, 2021, THE BOMBAY PRINCE, third book in the series, releases in the US/Canada and Australia/New Zealand; it will be published by Penguin India later the same month.

THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL, the first Perveen novel, was named a Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018 and also an Amazon Best Mystery/Thriller of 2018. Additionally, the book won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award, the Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery and the Mary Higgins Clark Award, all in 2019.

The second Perveen novel, THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE, won the Bruce Alexander Best Historical Mystery Award in 2020.

Sujata's other works include THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY (2013) and eleven Rei Shimura mysteries published from 1997-2014. For more about Sujata's books and a full events schedule, subscribe to her newsletter, http://sujatamassey.com/newsletter

Sujata lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her family and two dogs. In addition to writing, she loves to travel, read, cook, garden and walk.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earlier this week I got word about Sujata Massey's new book via an email from one of the bargain e-book sites I subscribe to. A new e-novella written by an award-winning mystery author whose first mainstream historical (The Sleeping Dictionary) was released last fall, The Ayah's Tale examines the plight of a 16-year-old Bengali girl, Menakshi Dutt, who takes a job as an ayah (nanny) to an English family in India in 1923-24. I love historical novels set in India, so of course I pounced right on it!

This short book contains elements that readers of other historical novels of pre-independence India will find familiar: the bored and neglected English society wife, her wealthy husband, and descriptions of the less privileged lives of their native Indian servants.

However, what increases the book's originality is Massey's decision to tell her story from the dual viewpoints of Menakshi and the second eldest son in her employers' family. Julian is a six-year-old boy who exhibits the typical self-absorption of a child whose every need is met, but he's also loving, generous, and observant. In his appealingly youthful voice, Julian reveals many unusual goings-on that readers will know how to decipher, but which he isn't old enough to understand fully.

Mrs. Millings, his mother, distracts herself from her dreary life by throwing parties while her high-profile husband, the Commissioner for Burdwan District, devotes himself to his work in the Indian Civil Service. This leaves primary responsibility for the couple's three older children with Menakshi – and so firm are the divisions between social classes that the children don't know her first name or even realize she has one. She is simply "Ayah."

There are early warning signs about Mrs. Millings, in particular her sharpness and pointed snobbery. She tells lies about Menakshi's perfectly respectable family to her socialite friends and fails to acknowledge that Menakshi is both educated and a Christian, just like her. All of the drama within the Millings family finally comes to a head during one fateful Christmas holiday.

Massey paints a convincing picture of the hypocrisy of society during the British Raj and the deliberate ignorance that keeps three groups – the British, Indians, and Anglo-Indians – separated even as young Indian women working as ayahs become mother figures to British children. I came away with a strong sense of Menakshi's horribly awkward position and the disrespect she has to endure. Although still young, she keeps her dignity and is wise enough to know which battles she can and cannot win. I empathized with her and cheered when a love interest appeared on her horizon.

The tale is framed by an episode set much later, on the island of Penang in Malaysia in 1952, as an older Menakshi comes across a novel written by the grown-up Julian in her small town library and realizes it was based on episodes from his childhood. The ending is very satisfying; it allows for some measure of closure for Menakshi, as she revisits feelings about the young charge she had come to care for deeply, and for the reader as well.

[Diana Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ayah's Tale manages to be complex, believable, compelling, and thoroughly complete, all within the length of a novella. Sujata Massey writes with confident ease. She includes wonderful detail without "trying too hard" so that the reader is never pulled out of their immersion in the narrative. I appreciate the depth of this novella, exploring themes of race relations and colonialism along with the more personal stories of the characters. A true window into another time and place. It is a keeper for certain!

[Richard Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found The Ayah’s Tale, by Sujata Massey to be entirely captivating. After what has been a dry patch of slightly disappointing books, here at last was another five star read.

The Ayah of the title actually relates two different tales. The frame is set in 1950s Malaya, where Menakshi is an adult with children of her own. Inside that we are transported to pre-independence India of the 1920s, where she is Ayah (guardian/governess) to the young children of a high ranking British family.

Part of my motivation to read this book was a desire to encounter India through fiction as well as through daily contact with team members at work. The Indian voices in the book – Menakshi herself, as an intelligent and emotionally perceptive young woman, her friend and supporter Ram, and others – were immediately familiar to me. In 1920s India these people were trapped within the constraints of a social system which denied them opportunities to reach anything like their potential. A few Indians were starting to cross the social divide in terms of wealth and access to resources, but the vast majority could not move out of the circumstances of their birth.

The British voices are diverse, blending the unthinking arrogance of some with the kindness and compassion of others. For the children Menakshi cares for in the household, there is a gradual dawning of awareness of the realities of their family life. Some passages make for very uncomfortable reading for a Brit, along with a sense of relief that the underlying attitudes of assumed superiority have been considerably eroded since those days. It is, after all, nearly a century since the experiences of Menakshi’s youth.

The tone and vocabulary of the book make this accessible to young people as well as adults. However, it would take a certain level of maturity to be interested in the story line, and sensitive to the inter-personal dynamics. For those many of us who have no personal memory of the period of British Empire, it is a useful and timely reminder of what our nation took away from other countries as well as gave to them. But the focus of the book is not really on the dark side of British rule, but rather on the Indian potential for growth, and the ability to face challenges and rise above them.

The final chapter, closing the 1950s frame, is a beautifully crafted piece which both tidies up the plot line and also leads you to rethink what has gone before. Sujata has given us a fine example of how to use this particular structural device to conclude a story. All in all, a great book which I have thoroughly enjoyed reading. In case there was any doubt… five stars from me.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sujata Massey, author of the wonderful The Sleeping Dictionary and the Rei Shimura series, has written a novella about the relationship between an Indian ayah and the English children under her care.

The role of a child care taker is a complicated one. During a few summers in college, I worked as a nanny taking care of my two cousins in Seattle. I also babysat extensively during high school and formed strong attachments to many of my charges. When I left my two cousins at aged 2 and 4 to go to Japan, I sobbed because I knew how much I would miss them. I had grown very attached to both of them.

My situation was different than Menakshi, who was forced to drop out of school and take up a job as an ayah (nanny) because of her father's death and her family's poverty. Although she had great potential, she had to give up her own dreams to help her family.

Even though the children in her care were privileged and spoiled, she becomes attached t to them and they to her. What the children (especially middle child, Julian) don't understand is the complication in this attachment. The children's mother, Marjorie, is snobbish and shallow, and disengaged from her children's lives and inner thoughts. She doesn't want to spend much time with her children, but she also feels resentful because of their attachment to Menakshi, their ayah. The children don't understand that Menakshi is paid to be with them: it's not her choice, and she has her own life.

I always enjoy reading stories that take place in locations where I've lived or visited. Menakshi's story starts and ends in Georgetown, Penang in Malaysia, a place I visited in 1988. Sujata Massey beautifully depicts the life of an Indian ayah and the complicated relationships that people in the employ of their colonial employers had to deal with--and in fact, still deal with in many countries.

Even though Menakshi endures great hardships in her life, she finds love in these pages and a more hopeful future than working as an unappreciated ayah. So even though her life improves, she feels some sense of loss as she misses these English children who came to love her.

I'm looking forward to Sujata Massey's next full-size novel. I prefer novels to short stories and novellas, although this was a fun one to read!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of The Sleeping Dictionary will undoubtedly enjoy returning to India with this e-novella. The tale is told in alternating chapters from two perspectives, that of the Ayah (Menakshi) and one of her charges (Julian). In both cases, their unique perspectives enhance the story overall and provide the reader with fresh voices. Most of the story (less the prologue and epilogue) is set between 1923 and 1925 in India, prior to gaining independence. Menakshi is hired to be Big Ayah to the children of an English family living in India, meaning she will care for the older children while Baby Ayah takes care of the little ones. Realistic historic details bring the characters and setting to life -- you'll feel like you're in 1920s India as the story unfolds. If you enjoy historical fiction told from fresh perspectives, add this e-book to your "to read" list today!

[Joedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite the fact there were a few edits/typo corrections that needed to be made to the e-book version. I would recommend this and will most certainly be reading additional work by this author...I was also surprised and delighted to learn that not only is she now living in the Washington, D.C. area, but that she also spent a good part of her youth growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota!

[Maria Lima · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED THIS!

I bought a long time ago, but for some reason, never got around to reading. I don't know why, because it's a wonderful story with awesome characters. This will go on my re-read shelf, for sure!

[Rajul · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's 1952. On a particularly rainy day, Menakshi walks into the local library in Penang without bothering about the city being flooded. Such is her love for the books. She is looking for a book to be able to read to Mrs. Abbott, who is possibly too old and infirm. This itself was a great start for a book lover like me.

Amongst the new books the local librarian points to her, is a book written by Julian Winslett. The stories written by him takes her almost 3 decades back when she was living in British ruled India, had to leave school because of her father's death and started working as a nanny to two boys and a girl in the Millings household.

The story about her poverty and yet living in borrowed luxury is enthralling. She is a well read person and the children take to her like fish to water. They are hungry for love being ignored by their parents and the Ayah fills the place quite nicely. She shields them from the world's harsh reality and in the process Julian falls in love with her properly. He has a rival though, an Anglo Indian ticket collector, Ramsey Hollander. Three different worlds merge somehow and become one.

It is always a joy to read Sujata Massey's books. This one seems a branch of The Sleeping Dictionary, which was also set in the pre Independence India and where the worlds of the British and native Indian merged.

[Moushumi Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always said that I don’t choose the books that I read, they choose me. And it is all the more true when it comes to this book. I’ve had ‘The Ayah’s Tale’ with me for some time now (Thank you Sujata!) but something or the other kept interfering with my reading. It is only in the past two days that I have devoured it.

Disclaimer: Spoilers ahead.
Disclosure: As you will find from my other reviews, I am big fan of Sujata Massey and she was kind enough to give me this one herself.

‘The Ayah’s Tale’ is a frame narrative of one English child and his Bengali ayah during the time of the British Raj. Sometime in the second decade of the past century, an English family hires a Bengali ayah or maid to look after their three oldest children. The middle child, sensitive Julian, is the one most affected by her. While rumours of the Indian freedom struggle swirl about in the humid air of Midnapore Menakshi Dutt, an English speaking Bengali Christian 17-year-old girl, steps into the Millings household. In doing so, she also steps into Julian’s heart. Menakshi to turn breadwinner to support her family since her father’s death. The ups and downs of such an arrangement is explored in the story.

As all good stories, it does not start at the beginning or the end, it starts somewhere in between with the now 40-year-old Menakshi walking in rain-soaked Penang to a library to get a book to read to Mrs. Abbot, a ninety-year-old British woman who had helped her when she first came to Malaysia. She discovers a book of short stories ‘The Ayah’s Tale’ by one J. Winslett, a former RAF pilot who now lives with his wife and 4 children in Dorset. J. Winslett turns out to be one of her charges who has now written a book about his ayah. As with all stories, it is only from one perspective. While Menakshi reads out the stories to Mrs.Abbot, she fills in the gaps with her own perspective, chapter by chapter. It is these interspersed narratives that we read as Massey’s novel.

One of the themes is the serious disconnection between the British and the local people. The children and later men and women had no idea how locals live. Julian says early in the story, ‘I knew all about native life was like from Mr. Kipling's stories.’ (Kindle Location 182). He needs Kipling to tell him about local life because of the insularity of his own upbringing and in spite of being surround by them.

Another theme is the extravagance of English life – Dutch tulips adorn the Millings home: ‘…a long cobbled drive leading up to it lined with pots of foreign flowers called tulips. The tulips could only survive in the cool seasons of autumn and winter—and to my amazement they were replaced every few weeks by new bulbs that grew as tall and red as the ones before. The bulbs had been coming by sea-mail from Holland for many years, the cost absorbed without question by whoever lived in the house.' that contrasts with the poverty of affection. Long silences at the breakfast table between Mr and Mrs Millings signal to Menakshi that this couple is far from happy. It becomes her job therefore to protect the children from their parents. Mrs Millings finds her solace in drink and affairs while stoic Mr Millings buries himself in work. Menakshi becomes a sort of surrogate mother to Julian whose own mother is preoccupied by a thousand concerns none of which include her children. In addition, the threat of boarding school forever looms in the horizon. English children aged 6 or 7 were sent off to public schools (Think ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’) to one day return as ‘masters’ of the local people.

Names or their lack thereof play an important role in the story. Menakshi is called the Big Ayah, in contrast to Baby Ayah, thereby stripping her off her identity. We never get to know the real name of Baby Ayah. Menakshi herself confronts the strangeness of her name when she introduces herself to Ram Hollander. Ramsay Hollander has shortened his name to Ram. Julian, Julian Millings and J. Winslett are the same person. While J. Winslett retains his name in the book, he changes the names of his family. Julian’s father is the Commissioner Saheb of Burdwan but all we know is that he is called Tubby. We know in passing that Mrs. Commissioner is Marji. In other words, no one is known by their real name in the story.

Another theme that is explored is the idea of Home, home and homelessness. Menakshi is far away from home while the Millingses are far away from Home. Julian pities Menakshi at one point in the book because she has no Home to go to. He says, ‘She had no chance to go to Home one day, because she had no home except for ours. She would always stay at our house, working and watching the river flow by.’ (Kindle Location 184-185). When Menakshi asks for leave to visit her home, he is shocked that she has a life outside the Millings household. This attitude later changes as Julian runs away from home twice – once with his older brother Nigel and the second time by hiding in Ram Hollander’s tonga. Menakshi’s mother loses the house that Menakshi considers her home. Somewhere in between home and Home, the Millings children and Menakshi manage to make a home of their own. She tells them stories and shares a bed too. However, this is not to last.

While reading the novella, I found a few literary echoes such as the trip to a nearby town Ghoom.'It all started with a marvelous surprise. Mrs. Millings called me to speak with her by the fire one morning. As she sipped her rum tea, she said that she and Mrs. Berryman and some others would make a trip the next day to a neighboring mountain town. Ghoom was famous for its beautiful views and Buddhist monasteries. (Kindle Locations 455-458).' It reminded me of another Raj-era novel, E.M Forster's ‘A Passage to India’ specifically when Dr. Aziz and the two English women take a trip to the caves.

Massey deftly plays with several strong threads in the story each of which gives in a certain heft to the story. She explores the relationship between parents and children, Indians and the British, upper and lower classes, home and homelessness, India and abroad, stories and reality. Read it to find out which one speaks to you the most.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how this book tugged at my heart!

It amazes me when authors are able to time travel to the past, to a period of so much pain and churn out stories that don’t necessarily villainise, but show us how colonisation hurt everyone involved. Some more than others, of course.

The premise, as you’ve probably read is solid. The author cleverly weaves Meenakshi’s stories into Julian’s while depicting the other characters in their lives.

To me, it’s so interesting how a century later, our behaviour as humans haven’t changed that much. Yes, we are no longer colonised, but wives are still ignored by their husbands and parents leave the job of parenting to almost strangers while children grow up having to fend for themselves.

It’s an experience many of us in Southeast Asia have as well, having a helper to come back to after school while both parents work.

I also adore her writing style. The sentences were crisp and to the point without being unnecessarily long winded.

I particularly enjoyed Master Julian’s side of it, it was refreshing to read about the innocence of a child and how much love he has to give.

This book is Sujata Massey at her best, I guarantee you’ll devour it in one sitting

[Gregory Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable little novella. Consider it a warm up to Massey's more advanced novels, although this story has more of a realism to it. Set in India in the 1920s, it exposes life as a servant in a colonial British household, complete with the arrogance carried by said British which they could never have practiced at home in Britain. Massey exposes that hypocrisy, but also the love an ayah has for her young charges. An unlikely ending, but very possible has the ayah standing up to the British matriarch, exposing her to many nefarious traits (at the cost of her job but tt the gain of her dignity. A good story and a good lesson.

[Chantal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Ayah's Tale is a lovely novella. Sujata Massey infuses so much detail into the plot and characters that I, as a reader, became easily and completely invested in this story.
In just over 100 pages, Massey brings the reader on a journey that intersects class and race and the different privileges and advantages each one represents. The characters are so well thought out and realistic, and the reader gets to know them intimately. The vivid imagery of India is so compelling, and the journey of Menakshi, the protagonist, is one that you will not regret taking.

[Kathryn Berge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding and moving illustration of a Christian Indian children’s nanny’s life in the time of Ghandi’s early ascendency

Massey writes an engaging, multi-faceted novella from the perspectives of herself and the older children. As always, she engages the reader from the heart of her characters’ historical perspective.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great beginning

The novel started off very nicely, kept my interest,however towards the end it fell apart, mr and mrs millingsly had a lot to say I am sure, but what they did seemed tragic for the family.

[MELISSA ABERLE-GRASSE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shallow characters, realistic plot

I enjoyed this one afternoon read, with believable setting and plot in midcentury india. But The characters are one dimensional and the plot not so interesting.

[Sparrowapril · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book told from two perspectives.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Told in alternating chapter points of view, this novella recounts the boyhood stories published as an adult (Julian) with the vivid memories of the ayah (Menakshi) recounted to her friend. It seamlessly flows between the two to present an engrossing account. The novel and flashback are framed by the much older ayah’s love of reading and sharing with her blind friend. Well-written, strong and interesting characters, a blatantly honest portrayal of the prejudices of Brits toward Indians before independence, and an authentic historic setting make this a very good read.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Indian Nursemaid

I bought this eBook after hearing the author on local radio this morning, promoting her novel The Sleeping Dictionary, set in India before independence. She talked about this shorter novella as though it were an outtake from the longer work, and indeed it feels intimate in scale and relatively undemanding, with something of the manner of a young-adult book. All the same, its characters are engaging and the story packs a punch.

The prologue is set in 1952. An older Indian woman named Menakshi, now living in Malaya, comes across a memoir by an Englishman named Julian Winslett about his childhood as the son of a colonial commissioner in India during the 1930s, and his affection for the Indian nursemaid or Ayah he had at the time. Menakshi realizes that she herself was that Ayah, but also knows that Julian could not possibly have understood the whole of her story. So their two voices alternate in the chapters that follow. Forced to leave the mission school while still in her teens to take work with the commisioner's family, Menakshi bears up with patience and grace, and soon comes to love the four children in her charge. Her nemesis is the children's mother, a snobbish, imperious, bored, and devious woman who cannot do without her but treats her like dirt. Julian's voice is more variable: wonderful when describing the Ayah or his siblings, but occasionally too knowing when the author requires him to report things about his mother that surely a six-year-old would not have picked up. The action moves quickly over a period of fifteen months to a Christmas climax that will change the lives of all the characters.

I was especially interested because my father was the son of just such a British official in colonial India, living there until sent to an English boarding school like Julian's elder brother, at the age of eight. I have photos of him with his own Ayah and the family's groom. I would like to think that my grandparents treated their employees with more understanding. But can I be sure?

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years down the road, Menakshi discovers a book written by one of the children she cared for in Bengal. The Ayah's Tale is her response to the different observations in Julian's book. Although growing up in an imperialistic society, Julian shows a degree of introspection unusual for a young child and an enormous amount of love for his nanny.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Massey is such a wonderful story teller. Her characters are engaging and she paints a vivid picture of Colonial India.

[Nerida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just loved this book. Have always loved Sujata's books but this one is a treasure

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 star read

[Alison]

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