The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I have been long contemplating picking this book because my last read was this amazing  novel and I could not bring myself to terms with the fact that there can be anything better out there. I got Kindle as mother's day gift but was unable to use it for the same reason. I didn't know a single book that would meet my new set of expectations, unrealistic, as I thought then! And then I, hesitatingly, ordered The Help and after reading 10 pages, I was kicking myself for not picking it up earlier!! Better late than never! The story is based in 1960 in Jackson, Mississippi. . Its a story of a white woman Skeeter Phelan, who is fresh out of college and wants to be a writer but is completely oblivious to the what's going on around her. A time of civil rights movement in America. She has been asked by a publishing house to write about what disturbs her. And currently she is intrigued by the absence of a black woman who used to be a servant in their home while she was growing up, with whom she developed a special bond and who used to write her letters when she was at college but when she came back home, that woman was gone and no one was ready to tell her the reason. When her best friend makes a political issue about the black women using toilets in their employer's homes while working as maids, as help to whites,  raising their kids, cooking their food, polishing their silver, Skeeter got determined to write a book comprising of experiences, with names changed, of these maids, The Help. Aibileen, who has raised 17 white children in different white homes and her friend Minny, who is big mouthed and has lost more jobs than we can count on our fingers for being so, they both sign up with Skeeter to tell about their experiences. 
              The author has written the book in narrative style where it goes back and forth between Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Though the book is not a thriller or a mystery it sure is a page turner. I was taken in by the author and while reading I felt to be physically there in Jackson, Mississippi. Kathryn's writing skills succeeded in conquering the physical distance and took me in those homes of white women who would indulge in pretentious extravagant galas and fundraisers for starving poor children in Africa while the blacks in their homes were not allowed to even use their toilets and be seen bare legs with no stockings even if its burning hot summer. I felt like being a catch 22 situation while reading this book, I wanted to know more and more but I didn't want the book to finish, ever. The Help is an  important novel that tackles major issues in a dark period of American history yet still manages to be entertaining, lively, affecting as well as moving.
                             Though the book is set in 1960s America, it did feel like talking about current times in India! The way we treat our help. I don't know if we would even call our maid as "help". Just like in the book, we don't like our help to make any eye contact with our guests, we cringe if they use our toilet when they come to work in our homes, we don't associate the word respect with them as if own a copyright on it, if something goes missing from our home, we reprimand them or we simply fire them and just like in the book, then we bad mouth them so they don't get any other job. We feel our kids should be our maid's first priority and we get upset when she is home taking care of her child, just like in the book. We expect them to be obligated to be working for us. Though we pay them for their work we expect them to be enslaved to our homes. While reading the book my mind kept on wandering in Jackson but somewhere it was lingering in the homes of India, the India of today.
I would highly recommend The Help and would not be surprised if it becomes a required reading for English literature courses. Also, I would love to see it becoming a movie!!