Thirst

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Synopsis

Minni lives with her family in the slums of Mumbai where access to water is limited to only a few hours a day. Lines at the community taps are long, so her mother must get in line early to fill the family’s buckets for the day, and the water must still be boiled for safety. This precious commodity is also threatened by reservoirs drying up and water thieves stealing it to enrich themselves. When Minni’s mother falls ill and Minni takes over her mother’s part-time job as a servant to a rich family, she discovers the high-rise where they live is more luxurious than she ever could have imagined. Clean water runs freely from the taps and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. However, Minni recognizes her new employer’s husband as one of the water mafia bosses, someone who poses a threat to her brother and his friend after they accidentally witnessed his gang stealing water. Minni wants to turn the man in to the police, but some are being bribed by the gangs. Can she find a way to get justice without further endangering her family’s lives?

Review

Thirst is a stand-alone, middle-grade novel that takes place in Mumbai, India. I don't think Minni's age was explicitly stated, but I extrapolated that she's about twelve or thirteen years old. She lives in the city's slums with her family. Her father runs a tea shop and works long hours, her mother is a part-time servant to a wealthy family while taking care of her own family, and her older brother, Sanjay, dreams of becoming a chef. Minni is a smart girl who attends a private school that was paid for by her mother's employer, and she hopes that an education will someday help her get a well-paying job. For now, though, the family barely gets by, and each day Minni's mother, like so many others in the neighborhood, must wait in line at the tap, sometimes for hours, to fill their buckets with water for the day. Even so, the water must still be boiled in order to be safe, which takes even more time. One evening, she and Sanjay go for a ride in a car that a friend's father drives for rich people and end up in a place where they accidentally witness thieves stealing water. They get a good enough look at their leader that Sanjay and his friend must leave town, fearing for their lives. Shortly after, Minni's mother falls ill and heads for her mother's house in the country where she'll have relatives to care for her. This leaves Minni alone with her father, and most of the chores her mother performed, as well as her mother's job, fall on Minni's small shoulders. It's a real challenge for her to keep up with all the work along with her studies, but it also gives her a greater appreciation of just how much her mom does for their family. While serving the family her mother worked for, Minni comes to realize that her employer's husband is actually the leader of the water thieves, which is how he became so wealthy. This leaves Minni desperately wanting to seek justice but not sure who she can trust with the information she now knows.

Lately I've been searching for more multicultural literature to add to my children's book collection for my grandkids, and Thirst ended up being a very good choice that definitely fits the bill. It gives a great look at the Indian culture and the lives of the people who live there, particularly in the city slums. I like that in spite of where Minni's family lives and all the hardships they have to endure, this isn't a gloomy book at all. The family is quite close and clearly love each other very much. Even though Minni has to take on a heavy burden when her mother and brother must leave town, she never complains. She just tries to do her best and works hard. I love how the women in the neighborhood support her, too. It's like all her neighbors are just one big, happy family. In fact, Minni thinks of all these women as her Aunties. I liked how the author contrasted Minni's life with that of Pinky, the daughter of the woman she works for who is the same age as Minni. Even though they have a great deal more from a material standpoint, they don't seem nearly as content as Minni and her family even though they're poor. I also liked that Minni is a very smart girl who uses her brain to problem solve. The biggest problem she runs into is finding out her employer's husband is a water mafia boss, and when she does, she takes her time to come up with a plan to try to get justice rather than running off with some half-baked idea. Another element I enjoyed was how the author made "thirst" a running theme with multiple meanings. It's not only the shortage of clean water that Minni and her neighbors face while other are getting rich off the commodity, but also how she and Sanjay "thirst" for a better life and are willing to work hard to get there. I didn't find anything that I thought could be objectionable to the middle-school audience at which it's aimed other than a brief mention of a teenage boy Minni and Sanjay knew being killed, most likely by the water thieves. Overall, Thirst is a book that I can definitely recommend for kids to learn more about what life is like for a child their own age in a different country and how many people in the world can't take clean water for granted. I also thought that Minni was a good role model for tweens, so I'll definitely be acquiring a copy of this book, which I borrowed from the library, for my keeper shelf.

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Varsha Bajaj