I just finished reading ‘The Rape Trial’ by Bidisha Ghosal and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. When she reached out to me for review, I was a bit hesitant initially because I have not had good experiences taking on reviews but thank god I took up this one. And today, I’m going to talk to you about her book. One of my best feminist reads recently.

The Book

The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal

While you might think that the title is in itself a giveaway, let me tell you, you couldn’t be more wrong. I mean there is a trial but something entirely different from what you would have guessed. 

This is a book which puts into black and white a lot of the things that goes on in the minds of every girl and every woman I know when they read about the countless rapes happening all around us and the injustice that women, girls and even children, that is, the victims need to endure. This book gives voice to our fears, our apprehensions, our raw anger and our helplessness too. Bidisha binds all this angst together and gives us a plot, a part of which if you ask me I wish were a reality. What am I talking about? Well, if I give that away then how would you have the fun? Still, let me give you a peek.

Plot:

Rhea, Amruta and Hitaishi, were spending a night in their regular hangout, a room in Rhea’s backyard, when a sting operation on Rahul Satyabhagi, Rhea’s family friend, jolted them awake from their stupors. He was bragging on camera about raping Rhea’s childhood friend Avni and getting away with it thanks to his father’s clout in their city, Badrid Bay. Repulsed by his audacity of justifying his crime, they were dumbfounded at the conversation of raping her a second time around. The sheer injustice of the victim having to suffer a lifelong ordeal and mental trauma while this repugnant male goes scot-free seemed less and less palatable with every bit of news, article and op-ed they read. The question was when would it be enough?

When would justice be served or how? Was castration enough? Or, should rapists be hanged? Whatever they came up with fell short considering the lifelong mental trauma the victim and her family would have to endure. No, something else had to be done. These rapists needed to be physically and mentally scarred too, leaving them alive to inflict on their families the same kind of torture that those of the rape victims endure every single day.

Rhea, Amruta and Hitaishi, therefore take it on them to teach Rahul a lesson, a lesson which could perhaps be a deterrent to others when nothing else could. But in doing so they set up a chain of events they couldn’t have imagined.

What do they do? Do they get caught? Who goes on trial? And what happens to Rahul?

The answers, all in the book.

What I liked about the book:

I like the conversations. Bidisha uses dialogues brilliantly to progress the story. And at no point did I find those cumbersome. Every line that was spoken by a character helped in taking the story forward and I loved that.

The other aspect was the characters, each well developed. The girls, the police officers, the journalists, the lawyers, et al, had depth and were integral to the story. She had taken great care in building them up which always ensures a good read. She had also taken great care with the backstories and nothing was rushed which made it even better.

The Trial was another part of the book that was brilliantly written. She never seemed to be grasping for authenticity as a writer of courtroom scenes and that again makes this book a good read.

The story, the execution and yes, the poems and conversations around what women have to face on a daily basis hit home. The Rape Trial holds your attention and makes you think.

So, I loved it. I really did.

What Felt lacking

Honestly, I don’t think there was anything lacking in it. The only thing that kept gnawing at me at times was how easily the three girls executed their plans. Almost seemed unreal but then it’s fiction and it needs to be that way. Though, if you ask me, I really wish it was that easy to punish such perpetrators. They deserve it.

Some of my favourite quotes from The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal:

“Imagine a world where you can walk out and no one ogles you,” Hitaishi said. “You can go wherever you want no matter what time of day, wear what you want, let any part of your body jiggle and bounce and not think about that bloody bra strap.” 

“Rape isn’t just that one time of sexual violence; women have to live with it long after it’s done. Once you’re dead, it’s over. Murder, at least in my opinion, is not the best, not the most accurate response to rape.”

“It goes beyond the whole act, the orgasm isn’t even the point. The very fact that you can affect someone so much and have nearly every single person – friends, family, neighbours, strangers, the media, the cops, excuse you for it – that in itself is the high. The high of getting away with it, of knowing that people know you’ve done it but they excuse it, even like it, that even people who are unsure don’t want to be sure, they don’t care enough about the girl to want to know; and they actually turn on her for calling you out, for pointing a finger, because she’s the one making it difficult for them to just carry on with their lives. Whether it’s your parents who don’t want your future ruined or your friends who high-five you or your neighbours who won’t even question why you did it, nobody of any significance is taking a stand to stop you from doing it again.” 

“The repercussion for raping should be as continuous and as debilitating as the high you get from raping. Leave them so shattered they won’t think of sex again, much less rape.” 

“Any and every aspect of a woman’s agency is feminism,” 

The book is filled with sentences and passages such as these pregnant with meaning and which will tug at your hearts and make you wonder. So, while this is fiction, this is a very, very pertinent read in today’s times.

Do I recommend it?

Of course, I do. I recommend this book as a reader, a feminist, a woman, a mother and a human being. So, yes, you must pick it up, if you are up for a story set around something you read in the papers daily but can do nothing about.

You can find Bidisha here:

Note: This review is sponsored but the views and opinions are my own. This post has affiliate links. If you purchase using the link, I will earn a percentage at no additional cost to you. Thank You.