Just in time for Mother's Day

Motherhood and a mother's love has a universal appeal.  SECRET DAUGHTER  by Shilpi Somaya

Gowda , ( William Morrow,978-0-06-192835-2) is an international best seller that is now available in trade paper and a heart tugging book to read.  It may bring a tear or two to your eyes.It is basically two parallel stories.

 It is the story of the upscale life of a doctor, Somer, in San Fransisco, who married her college sweetheart and fellow doctor, Krisnan (Kris)   Thakkar, who was from India.They seemed to lead an ideal life, but the pediatrician Somer is unable to have children.  The parallel story is set in India and concerns the life of a poor couple, Kavita and Jasu.  Kavita has just given birth to a baby girl and according to custom baby girls are abandoned  as they are economically unfeasible for poor families.But, Kavita will not allow her child to meet this fate and walks to an orphanage where she leaves her daughter named Usha.  And this is how the stories intersect.
After much soul searching, Somer and Kris decide to adopt and opt for a baby from India...The Thakkars are a wealthy and influential family in Mumbai and the adopting couple use an orphanage the family supports.  They adopt a baby girl and are told her name is Asha.  Asha is their much loved daughter and grows in to a typical California girl..  She is smart, pretty, and becoming an independent thinker. The American Thakkars life has changed when  they moved to the suburbs to accommodate family living and  Somer has a less satisfying position. And Asha is now a teenager and a rebellious one.  Her family would like her to study medicine in college,  but she prefers journalism.  She too is restless.  The family is fraying a bit.  Somer is unhappy with her life, with Kris. and everything in general.  Krisnan is a bit oblivious, but always goes to India to visit alo9ne,  This bother Asha somewhat. Asha wants to know about herself and her background.  This frightens  Somer because she feels that she, Somer, will then be totally isolated.
While all this is transpiring in California, Kavita and Jasu have moved to Mumbai to find a better life.  They have a  son now who provides them with extra living expenses.  Except their beloved and sacrificed for son is involved with some well paying but criminal activities.  Kavita still yearns to know what happened to her lost Ushi.
And Ashi (Ushi) is the conduit that brings the parallel stories together. 
Ashi take a year from college and goes to India as an intern on a newspaper and gets to know her grandparents and meet many relatives of her father and understand who she is and what her real heritage represents,  She also searches for her birth mother.
The story of how each family deals with adversity and change and what love of a child can cause a mother to do are poignantly shown to us.  Somer learns to look outside herself while looking within for strength.  Ashi learns that she is part of a larger whole and yet an intrinsic part of her adopted family.    .
The beautifully scripted book redefines motherhood and family in a heart warming a compelling story.
It is also a timely story.  Only the other day i was reading a report about the falling population of femal children in India and the consternation it was causing.  The high cost of some traditional doweries is one deterrent to keeping daughters.  The prevalence of determining the sex of the fetus has also upped the abortion rate. This is not a comfortable thought,
Gowda, while born and raised in Canada, is the daughter of parents who emigrated from  Bombay.  She is now living with her family in California. This is a real treat for mother's Day.

One copy is available from publisher to first who responds.