Breaking Out: An Indian Woman's American Journey

by Padma Desai

Padma Desai grew up in the 1930s in the provincial world of Surat, India, where she had a sheltered and strict upbringing in a traditional Gujarati Anavil Brahmin family. Her academic brilliance won her a scholarship to Bombay University, where the first heady taste of freedom in the big city led to tragic consequences -- seduction by a fellow student whom she was then compelled to marry. In a failed attempt to end this disastrous first marriage, she converted to Christianity.

A scholarship to America in 1955 launched her on her long journey to liberation from the burdens and constraints of her life in India. With a growing self-awareness and transformation at many levels, she made a new life for herself, met and married the celebrated economist Jagdish Bhagwati, became a mother, and rose to academic eminence at Harvard and Columbia.

How did she navigate the tumultuous road to assimilation in American society and culture? And what did she retain of her Indian upbringing in the process? This brave and moving memoir -- written with a novelist's skill at evoking personalities, places, and atmosphere, and a scholar's insights into culture and society, community, and family -- tells a compelling and thought-provoking human story that will resonate with readers everywhere.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2012

Reviews

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Padma Desai is not very well known in the country, despite being acknowledged as one of the world's experts on Soviet economics. The story of how an young girl from a small town in Gujarat went to Mumbai to study Economics, and then went to Harvard to do her PhD, before establishing herself as one of the leading economists of her time is fascinating. But that is not the sole reason to read her memoirs.
Breaking Out is also an extremely candid account of a woman who had a relationship with a fellow student before getting married to him. Of a woman breaking out of an abusive marriage, and subsequently marrying a man several years younger to her. She speaks of these taboo topics with startling honesty. Just as she talks of her somewhat strained relationship with her daughter without sugar coating it.
Padma Desai doesn't try to make herself loveable, which is exactly why the book is so powerful.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

so strangely enough, i realized upon reading the penultimate chapter that the daughter of this memoirist and my sister both served in the marines at around the same time and know each other through activist organization work they've completed... it's a small world!! LOL

[Hina Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many perks of being Mona’s sister-You get to read personally signed books from the likes of Jeffrey Archer and Vikram Seth.
“Breaking out” is one such signed copy of Padma Bhushan awardee Padma Desai. What an extraordinary life-completely deserving of a memoir! I loved every page about the remarkable journey of this supremely erudite and inspiring academician(from conservative India to Harvard and beyond) in a time and world that could only be considered a man’s!

[Kiranmai Bhamidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a reminder about how some people live bold lives well ahead of their times and gracefully win (hearts and accolades).

[Sylvia Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breaking Out, is the memoir of Padma Desai. A Harvard-educated development economist and a Padma Bhushan winner, Desai had a distinguished career as an academician at Columbia University. She served as the Director of the Center for Transition Economies at Columbia University. She was also the first Asian woman to get her PhD in Economics from Harvard back in 1959. Her professional success inspired many Indian women to follow her into the male-dominated field of economics.

In her memoir, Desai chronicles her journey from the conservative environs of Gujarat, India to the rarefied intellectual circles of Harvard and Columbia Universities in America. It is a poignant tale of a woman overcoming restrictive cultural mores to realize her professional ambition and personal independence. The author narrates her experience growing up in an orthodox family in Surat, winning an academic scholarship to US, finding love a second time with the eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati, and building an illustrious academic career. She discusses her challenges in balancing her professional priorities with personal commitment as any other working mother. She also mentions her efforts to carve a strong professional identity distinct from that of her famous husband.

Unlike most Indian memoirs that gloss over human imperfections and personal infractions to portray all round success, Breaking Out, stands out for its refreshing honesty. The author has shown remarkable candour in discussing sensitive episodes from her life - failed first marriage, legal obstacles to second marriage, unconventional choices of her daughter. These are seldom discussed by Indian women who are public figures. The author deserves much appreciation for her courage.

Padma Desai's life has lessons in overcoming personal tragedies, establishing personal moorings in an alien culture, and developing an independent identity! Recommended reading for those who want to know the woman behind the economist !!

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[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story of an Indian women who chose to pursue her dram: http://www.anureviews.com/breaking-ou...

[Alka Lohia]

Interesting book about the growth of an Indian woman..really enjoyed reading it.

[Geetanjali · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read in May 2012.