The parents of Vidya, the protagonist of Padma Venkatraman's new novel for young adults, Climbing the Stairs, are educated, broad-minded for their time, and Vidya's childhood offers her more freedom than most girls her age. This idyllic childhood comes abruptly to an end when tragedy strikes her family, who become totally dependant on relatives with different views and attitudes towards the way women live. Their traditional lifestyle keeps women and girls firmly below the status of men, where women are to be married, not educated.

Climbing the Stairs tells the story of fifteen year old Vidya, who dreams of going to college, an unusual aspiration for a girl living in British-occupied India in the years of World War II. Vidya's strength of character and upbringing give her the tenacity to find ways to continue her education despite the restrictions, making allies of the men in the household to help her to achieve her goal.

Several themes are cleverly intertwined throughout the story. Vidya's family are upper-caste (Brahmin), and the reader learns about the behaviours and traditions of a Brahmin family of the time, and how they interact with or regard other castes. Family relationships and friendships, male and female, are developed and explored as Vidya becomes more mature and has a greater understanding of the complexity of relationships. Religious convictions and feelings of guilt are a strong feature of her emotional turmoil. Venkatraman integrates these smoothly in the story, while providing thoughtful and helpful information for the teenage readership. The contrast between urban and rural life, seen through the eyes of a teenage girl are well described, and brought to life through events and celebrations.

The theme of the approach of World War II adds dramatic tension and drama to the unfolding story. The effect of world events on the closed attitudes within the family has serious repercussions for family life. The dramatic world changes brought about by the advancing armies are set in the context of internal Indian subservience to the British colonisers, forcing the main characters to look outside their national loyalties to the wider world and to reassess their values and beliefs.

This is Venkatraman's first work of fiction; the book has an educational feel to it at the beginning as the author teaches her readers about Indian customs. When Vidya says how she loves the story of Krishna, the text explains who Krishna is. Usually though, the author blends information with fiction more subtly by introducing cultural information through a premise of "I wondered for the umpteenth time about..."

Sometimes conversations between the main character and a friend are used to be instructive, although this can create unlikely social comments from a child. "Appa doesn't care that we're Brahmin, but periappa never forgets it, does he? He treats our servants like dirt just because they're a lower caste."

Climbing the Stairs is valuable in teaching teenagers about life in India at the beginning of the 20th Century, and to question the issue of social differences. This "instructive" feel may hinder the flow at times, and adds to the feel of a work written for a non-Indian audience. The behaviour of the extended family towards the heroin is shocking for any reader who has no experience of the hierarchies that exist within Indian families. It will appeal to a female audience in particular: there is a very strong message of female emancipation throughout.

There is a realistic and dramatic feel to the changing fortunes of the heroin. The private thoughts of the main character add a sense of reality and of time passing as she matures and broadens her understanding of the world and the relationships within the extended family.

The book offers support to any children experiencing a traumatic experience such as the main character, Vidya. She describes her feelings towards parents, adults and the boy she loves in a way that is accessible and realistic to the young reader. The author draws on characters from her own family history, giving power and emotion to the story as it unfolds. Climbing the Stairs is a successful social history at a child's level, but is also an interesting and increasingly gripping tale.

Graham Ranger
16 May 2010

Graham Ranger is Director of the British School in New Delhi.