Review of The Lucky Ones by Zara Chowdhary

*The Lucky Ones* by Zara Chowdhary (2024). Published by Crown.

If you’re new here and found this blog through the mysterious powers of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I’m a dedicated reader and movie watcher who thought to turn this website into a little digital archive of sorts. I was watching and reading so much that I wanted to keep track of it all, so I began blogging as a way to keep these books as memories somewhat forever.

That said, I recently fell into a period of unemployment, and this blog was a solace for me. Not only was it a way to make a little bit of money when there was nothing else coming my way really, but I found, after getting my finances in order, that I enjoyed sitting down to write blog posts when I had nothing else to do in my day.

If you like this review in the end, feel free to click around. This is my digital home, so I’m happy to have you here.

One of the hobbies I’ve been doing every Saturday, while I’ve been in my funemployed era, is that I go to the library and look in all of the new books section for each genre. Fiction tends to be my happy place, as they get the most fiction books new out of anything, but sometimes I find a good book in nonfiction.

That said, I was in the nonfiction section when I found The Lucky Ones. It came at a strange time of my life. I had won a prestigious Fulbright, was expected to go to India, then was denied a visa for no reason at all. Then I read this right before the visa denial, which was an interesting saga of sorts.

It was the synopsis that drew me into this book in the end. I read through it fairly quickly, which means I was pretty invested in it.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

One woman recalls being a Muslim Indian during the Gujarat riots in 2002.

This is a memoir that is seeped in the current reality for so many. As stories about Indian Muslim journalists and writers being harassed and doxxed appear in international publications, the Indian government has increasingly turned to religious fanaticism and ostracized its minority Muslim population.

Anyways, Zara is our narrator, and in 2002 she is 16. She lives in the capital city of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and watches with her family members as religious violence takes hold in India. As the riots continue to intensify, her family is locked down inside of her apartment building, forced to spectate as people they know are also suffering.

There is some horrific violence described in this book, including some killings. This is a very personal story though, as Zara was a part of the community that was heavily impacted. Their home was not broken into, and some of her teachers are connected enough to bring the family food at times when they were beignning to suffer.

At the same time, Zara was unable to take her school exams. She describes how the chief minister, the notorious Narendra Modi, is said to have fueled the flames of hate in the region, leading to the religious violence that upended and destroyed so many lives.

Nowadays we know Modi as India’s Prime Minister, which makes the reflections in this book even more sinister. What happened in Gujarat, in this firsthand testimony, could easily happen on a nationwide scale if people aren’t being careful enough in the long run. It’s a trend we’re unfortunately seeing worldwide, even in countries like the United States.

As the violence outside is happening, there’s another element to this book as well: violence inside of the home. Violence against women and within families is yet another big problem in India, and Zara has a story to tell about the patriarchal dominated systems she grew up within.

Her own father is someone who enforces it in this way, showing how there are multiple hierarchies going on within Indian society just through this one household. Women are the core of this memoir, and it shows from how tenderly Choudhury writes about them.

All in all, this is a harrowing tale. It shows how easily democracies can crumble, destroying the rights of the minorities living inside of them, and how we have to make an conscious effort to uphold its pillars, lest we want to destroy something the country fought to create.

Overall Thoughts

I had never heard of this memoir before I plucked it off of the shelves of my library, but I’m so glad I read it. I devoured its prose; it was written in a way that I really admire.

It’s tender, but holds space for the grieving. It also lays down the laws of the land that Zara is living in; this is unfortunately the current reality for so many.

I truly believe this is a book that I will revisit in the near future. I don’t know if I could stomach it any time soon, especially considering with my own visa denial and refusal into India, but I’m grateful for the courage to write and publish books like these. It takes a lot of bravery, especially considering how it might be seen.

Definitely read this one if you’re interested. There’s so much to get out of this book.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.