Laxmi Lall

Monsoon Woman Laxmi Lall

Monsoon Woman tells the story of Laxmi Lall, a self-made woman who escaped domestic violence and religious control to carve a new life. She educated herself and ascended the corporate ladder; her struggles with domestic and religious control were replaced by the triple whammy of sexism, racism, and ultimately, ageism. Lall recounts her story starting as a child of privilege, living in mansions with a retinue of household staff, with her father, a high-ranking army officer and her mother, a society lady. She persisted through two unhappy marriages and the cruel and unusual punishments they brought. She tells how she earned her experiences the hard way in corporate life. Lall won despite the systemic obstacles placed in her path directly and indirectly by an unreective patriarchy and the deep-rooted ethnocentrism of the mid- to late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. This memoir chronicles how Lall reinvented herself. She has found her passion working for women's rights as well while gaining the freedom to follow her dreams. While first, second, and third waves of feminism have blunted the voices of migrant women, she remains a feminist and is an advocate for diversity and equity for women and a campaigner to end domestic violence.