The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta

Published in 1993, The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta was one of India’s earliest campus novels. Decades later, this much-acclaimed yet lesser-known masterpiece remains a sharp, funny and deeply honest portrait of youth, ambition and identity. As Alphonse Karr once said, ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same.’ Desertvadi in Rajasthan may be a retirees paradise, but for a young girl like Geetika, it is a claustrophobic trap. Academically gifted and sexually curious, she feels suffocated by small-town mediocrity and dreams of faraway lands and liberated lives—the kind that fill the pages of her beloved novels. When an opportunity to spend a few weeks in the big, bustling Lutyenabad presents itself, Geetika grabs it eagerly, desperate to escape her parents and the miasma of chronic boredom that envelops Desertvadi. Soon, cosmopolitan life begins to feel like a snug fit, especially when her new boyfriend—a famously fine catch—offers her the many luxuries of a conventional marriage. But life in a metro impacts her in ways she never expected. Her aspirations inflate, her tastes evolve and her ambitions solidify. As her boundaries expand uncontrollably and the daydreams she was escaping to inevitably shatter, Geetika is compelled to face some tough questions. She wants to feel, to want, to choose—and she refuses to apologize for it. Republished for a new generation, this is a bold and intimate coming-of-age tale—unafraid of its hunger and unashamed of its heat.