Pamela is a teenager born to a Bengali mother and American father. Pamela is also an overweight girl. It doesn’t help that she has a ‘thin family’ with parents and a sister who are slim. Apart from being slim, Pamelas’s Mother and Sister are a tad heartless and completely clueless about the turmoil she is going through because of her weight.
Being overweight is the reason that everyone Pamela meets and all that she sees is through a prism of self-doubt. With only a Father who seems concerned about her, though not as much she would like him to, Pamela finds solace in her soft toys whom she talks her heart out to and considers her family. Chimpu, Pookie, Pingu, Teddu, Ernie, Pumpkin and O’ Henry are the friends who pep her up, make her see reason and reprimand her if need be.
If the home front seems difficult Pamelas’s school front is no better. With popular ‘skinny girls’ like Reshmi and her sycophants who go out of their way to ridicule and hurt Pamela.
Outwardly Pamela may not be like other girls her age, but like her fellow teens she dreams of love, a boyfriend, of being popular and being called beautiful, an impossible dream as Pamela is made to realise every day in many cruel ways.
So what happens to Pamela? Does she lose weight? Does she find love? Buy Just Me, the Sink & the Pot by Sudesna Ghosh to find out.
We rarely think of what we don’t experience, and when we don’t experience something empathy cannot make place for it in our hearts. With ‘Just Me, the Sink & the Pot’ author Sudesna Ghosh attempts to change it , by shining the spotlight on body shaming. Pamela’s story makes you think of the insecurities and other negative emotions that seep into the psyche with being overweight. Sudesna’s writing is fluid, concise and refreshingly honest. Reading the book is like listening to your best friend pour her heart out to you. This book is literally a social message and a cry for understanding and to be understood.
If I had the power I would make Just Me, the Sink & the Pot by Sudesna Ghosh a compulsory reading in school, and for parents.
I received a copy of this book from The Book Club in return for an honest review, and here it is.
sounds like an interesting read! I will look out for it.. thank you for the review.. and love the name of your blog 🙂