Sold

Before reading Sold, I knew about human trafficking, but I did not know the extent of it, like it described in this book. This book overall was very unsettling for me, yet I had the hardest time putting it down. It took me a total of three sittings to finish reading this book, which for me, is very quickly.

 

I’ll start off from the beginning describing my feelings and what went on in my head. I first found myself rereading what her and Ama put up with from her stepfather, in disbelief. Many times, Ama said that having a man in the house that gambled away all of their money was better than no man in the house at all. That to me was astonishing. I was so alarmed by how much they would do for him and the house, and he would continue to treat them with no respect, and say out loud to his friends that having a daughter did not mean anything. I did not know the severity of the male dominance in Nepal.

 

When Lakshmi needed to get sold away to help her family, she was told she was going to become a maid. Ama even helped her with all of that. She told her exactly what she needed to do and when to eat her meals. This now makes me wonder if Ama knew what Lakshmi was really going to be doing in India, or if she really thought she was going to become a maid. My research from Sunday said that the girls are rarely welcomed back to their families after being sold, so it makes me think Ama did know what was going to happen to her there, but just tried to calm her nerves.

 

It made me sick to my stomach with how the girls were treated there, let alone them being around 12 years old, and if they were not, they would lie and say they are because that is the prime age. My little sister is 12 years old, and I could never imagine something so horrific happening to her, any one of her friends, or any girls I know for that matter. The way Lakshmi described being locked in the room, and everything she felt in there, made my body hurt for her. How she said she knew hunger well enough to just tighten her waistband to last a few more days. No one should know that extent of hunger, and to get deprived of meals when they’re being “bad”.

 

It made me feel awful for her that she would sit and calculate when she was finally going to be able to get out of that house, but every time her calculations were somehow wrong to Mumtaz. As much as it made me feel awful for her most of the book, I found myself getting excited for her during her moments of happiness. As little as the things were, such as the David Beckham boy giving her a pencil, or Monica giving her the doll she slept with.

 

All in all, I am very glad to have read this book. It opened my eyes to be thankful for the little things in life, and to be so grateful nothing like that has happened to me or anyone I know. With that being said, it also makes me want to research more about it and see what little things I can do to help the matter.