The Illuminated

 There are two kinds of writers - the ones who spill flowery words on pages without any story to speak of, and then there is a type that writes some stories in the style you can relate to. Anindita Ghose's grand debut falls into the latter category. But then just because there is a story doesn't mean it is going to touch your heart. 

Sashi Mallick is the wife of Roby Mallick, a big-shot architect. Her son is doing good in the USA, and her daughter, a Sanskrit Scholar is studying in Mysore. All was well in Sashi's world till her husband dies suddenly of cardiac arrest.  The country is seeing itself slowly getting into the clutches of a regressive religious party, MahaLakshmi Seva Sangh, and then there is Sashi, yearning to discover herself all over. 

It would have been a really basic and boring book if it wasn't for Tara Mallick, a posh Delhi girl who chooses to study Sanskrit, of all the subjects in the world. When her father, Roby Mallick learned she has made it to an institute designed by her father, he instantly wished how he had constructed a girls ' hostel for his daughter, if he had known Tara wanted to study there. Yes, that's how privileged she was. 

She instantly falls for this controversial visiting professor called Amitabh Dhar, who she refers as AD. Now AD, more than twice her age, is an HoD in Chicago University, has written banworthy books, is rumored to have been dating Salma Hayek, and is twice divorcee. Rushdie vibe, anyone? The two start flaming fling that left Tara all broken. 

Tara sometimes reminds you of Shalini from The Farfield, except the latter was a rebel with a reason. For example, we are never told why Tara, a brat chooses to study Sanskrit at this age and era when are desperately pleading with authorities to not make it compulsory for students. Kudos to Ghose, ex Vouge editor for getting deeper into research and writing relevant Sanskrit couplets in the book to back Tara's interest. And yet you keep asking all the time, why Sanskrit. 

Ghose has taken different characters, mostly women, and tried to string them together. But there are many loose ends that make you wonder about the real purpose of the book. 

Was it about a woman who finds herself at 50 after her husband dies? Was it about a young girl who has an affair with her professor who had actually assaulted her on more than one occasion?  Was it about New India which is slowly losing her freedom to fundamentalists? Was it about all of the things mentioned? If yes, then why was it not structured that way? 

All in all, an entertaining read that doesn't leave you much to ponder about. 

 Manjiri Indukar is a writer from Jabalpur who has extensively written essays on mental health and It's all in your head, M is just the extension of what all she has written in the past. The book starts in a hospital where Manjiri is admitted because of Rotavirus infection. Her stomach is hurting and she is pooping nonstop. But wait. It is not just any other stomach infection. If you are as ignorant as I am about mental health issues, you would be surprised to know that there is a connection between stomach issues and depression. Manjiri's stomach reacted when the brain has had too much. Sounds weird? This is why we needed this book. 

She further speaks about her childhood issues that went unanswered and how they shaped her into the adult she is today. Her relationship with her boyfriend and her career and her writing were all the reflection of the relationship Indukar had with herself. 

But nothing could be done. Indukar or anybody for that had no idea why she had this constant nagging fear of dying or the constant itch to pluck her hair. But then happened this MA course in English literature that changed her life. Not only she discovered her love for reading and writing, but also a support group that was offering therapy to the students at a discounted rate. 

It was then she discovered the nameless feeling that did not let her live her life fully actually had a name. It was called depression. And the book is nothing but her life with depression. 

Indurkar had a childhood that could be anybody's childhood in a small town. Both her parents were working and got Indukar everything they could. And yet she was depressed. Now, someone who had never faced or is simply ignorant about mental illnesses would absolutely loath the book. And that's exactly why we need more books like that. 

Her breakup with her boyfriend further aggravated her condition and this is something we all can relate to. I don't remember any book that describes the layers of heartbreak the way this book does. 

Overall a triggering book but must read

As a budding writer myself, I could relate to the parts where she has written about the rise of her as a writer. I would recommend this book to those trying to publish a book or seek a career as essysists. 

Exciting times

 So, I read this very exciting book called exciting times, and I must tell you that even though I am not that kind of millennial, I haven't read anything in a long that had spoken to me the way this book did. So, Awa is a 22-year-old English teacher in Hong Kong. Her life is what you expect to be of any 22-year-old graduate in this economy. She shares an apartment with her roommate which is not exactly liveable. Her salary is low and her self-esteem is even lower. She is confused about her sexuality till she meets this wonderful girl who is everything she is not but aspires to be. She has a job that pays well and a self confidence that inspires Awa to be the better version of herself. But just because it inspires her, doesn't mean she actually makes any effort. 

She lives with an Oxford graduate who fucks her , but is nice enough to let her live in her flat. Now, this is something Awa's girlfriend doesn't like about her. And the rest of the novel is the tussle between the two and Awa's tussle with herself. 

The novel talks about class and power struggles in the most relatable way. Awa grew up poor and has certain kind of resentment against rich people. But then both her girlfriend and the man she lives with Julian are Oxford graduates. She finds that to be intimideting and fights hard to shut the noises in her head. 

The language is raw but incredibly funny. It seemed like the writer's aim was just to let her know her unadulratted thoughts and she does it well via Awa. 

Our Moon has blood clots

The year is 2007. I have borrowed this book ' The Kite Runner' by Afghani writer Khaled Hosseini from a small CD shop that also keeps books. Rs 20 for this one, double the usual amount because this one is new and in demand. I take the book and come back home. My parents are not at home and my sister and I have decided to order some Chinese for dinner. We watch a movie that we have never watched before and feast on the over-priced and greasy food. My sister goes to sleep and I walk into my room with the book. 

I am engrossed in the beautifully written chapters. I am imagining the Afghanistan Amir lives in. I picture children playing under the pomegranate trees. I can see Amir's cook buying them Kebab. I can see Amir getting cozy in his bed with a book. 

And then the family of two gets to know this house, this city, this country, no longer belongs to them. The city where his mother grew up and died is not safe for them. The house that had seen his joys and sufferings can be bombed any time now. So, they left. The pomegranate trees, the playground, the kebab shop, Amir's friends, none of these things matter now. This place is no longer their home. It is not safe. 

I finish the book quickly the next day and return it to the CD library owner, but then it never left me. I am not an avid reader and this is the first book to haunt me. I am sleeping and I dream. I dream that hundreds of Army men are marching on the roads that take me to my college, my favorite coffee shop, and the other places that matter to me. I see that the house next to me is bombed. That was Mrs. Guptas house, which she built with so much love. I can still taste the Kachori I ate at her grand housewarming party. She is inconsolable. She has nowhere to go. The house located at the end of the street is also bombed. Next could be ours. We pack our bags and leave. I am thinking what to take and what to leave. We can't afford to take loads of luggage. We don't know where are we going. I wake up with a strong jolt. Everything is okay. I am at home. My home. This was just a bad dream. 

This is the reoccurring dream. I sweat and cry in my sleep but then when I wake up, I always know it is just a bad dream. 

Sadly it is not so the case with Rahul Pandita, a journalist based out of Delhi who was one of the many Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to leave the valley in 1990. Our Moon has blood clots tells us the story of Kashmiri Pandit's exodus. Pandita was fourteen when his family of four had to leave the house that had 22 rooms to live in a small room in Jammu. 

 

The first few chapters unfold beautifully wherein he has written about his childhood days spent in Kashmir. There was trouble but then nobody would have thought that one day they would be leaving the place that had been their home for years. The pain and longing are evident. You would feel the pain. Then comes the second part in which he has written about the tribal invasion of 1947 from his uncle's point of view. Too much of history could put you off but then you anyways read it because you have read the first part which was so good. 

I think I need to read more about Kashmir issues but one thing I can say with the absolute conviction is that when so much filth going around on Social Media about the Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandit, it is advisable to read books by Kashmiris who had gone through it all. And this book should definitely be in your list. 

Girl in White Cotton : Unsettling tale of Mother-daughter duo.

I often wonder what it would be like for daughters to take care of mothers who were not quite there for them.  How do they feel about their mothers not playing the mom society wants them to? How do they react when they come to know that their mother is in trouble and needs them? 

I have read quite a number of books with the theme of the complex mother-daughter relationship this year, Actress by Anne Enright, Queenie by debut British author Candice Carty Williams and Red at the bone by Jacqleen Woodson to name a few. While Actress was about a writer whose mother was an actress in Ireland in 50s and 60s, in Queenie we learnt about the issues she faced when the protagonist's mother abandoned her for her boyfriend, and finally Red at the bone where we meet Iris, a teenage mother who believed there was more to life than being a mother. 

While all the books are quite different from each other showing us the different aspects of motherhood, I had a feeling that Actress will come close to what Girl in White cotton is. But then that feeling evaporated the moment I read the first line of the latter. 

I WOULD BE LYING IF I said my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure. I suffered at her hands as a child, and any pain she subsequently endured appeared to me to be a kind of redemption – a rebalancing of the universe, where the rational order of cause and effect aligned. 

I knew this book would be nothing like I have read before. I knew it would be something I was looking for. I knew I would be haunted by it, months after reading it. This one is after all longlisted for the Bookers after all. But then that feeling evaporated too. 

Antara was six when her mother left her husband's house along with her and went to a Baba's Ashram. She gives up on the life that was offered to her and slips into loose white cotton clothes. Hence the title ! Since the novel is set in Pune, we can easily guess who the Baba is! 

Her mother's name is Tara and we learn that Antara was actually named Un- Tara, the opposite of Tara. Tara was a rebel who used to smoke with tourists when she was a teenager in 70s, she once tried to pierce her nose and flunked school. Her parents married her to Antara's dad at 18 where she learned she was neither fit for marriage nor motherhood. 

The novel moves from flashbacks to the present time until the end. There are of course glimpse of pretty prosses and lyrical writing and then there is a story also, which saves the book from becoming the kinds where writers show us their impeccable language skils but fail to tell us the story. 

When Tara is somewhat tired of being a rebel, she comes to stay with her parents who help her bringing up Antara. Antara's father gets married soon and move to USA and doesn't keep in touch much. 

Tara is a rebel and hurt and doesn't shy away from inflicting pain upon her daughter. For instance, there is a scene where she called her daughter, ' Little fat bitch', in response Antara calls her whore. She laughs and repeats those words again. You would want to know why does she behave like that? But soon you realize, there is no answer to that. Not everyone can be fit into society's definition of wife, daughter, or woman. These women might make you uncomfortable but then you need to accept them. 

But then as the opening line suggests, the universe has its own way of dealing with things. Tara loses her memory and now lives with Antara and Dileep in their house. 

Dileep is an NRI who works in Pune and we never get to know what makes her fall for Antara, an artist. Their marriage has issues that all marriages have. He opens his house and arms for Tara without asking much. 

Avni Doshi was born in USA and now lives with her husband in Dubai. This is her debut novel. It is always good to read women writers who write the kind of books where we ourselves and our daily life. I liked how she depicted Pune city and the places where youngsters hang out. 

Debut women authors have been surprising us quite a bit with their work in the past. Last year's JCB prize winner, Madhuri Vijay stunned us with her brilliant book The Fairfield. Amrita Mahale, whose book was longlisted continues to win hearts with her ' Mumbai Book', Milk Teeth. And now, of course, the list gets longer with Avni Doshi's Girl in White Cotton. 

Read it for the beginning and read it for the end. 

The most likable thing about this novel is that there are no male characters in it. It's all women. Women deciding to leave their houses along with two young daughters to live on their own, to have a breast implement surgery, and to have a baby via science without any partner. 

I have been saying this for long that there is more to Japanese contemporary literature than Haruki Murakami. Before, Breasts and eggs, I read the International booker shortlisted The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, a dystopian novel set in an island where things go instinct one by one. And before that, I read Sayuka Murata's convenient store woman, which was all about a young woman searching her identity and wondering if it's okay if you don't want things that are considered 'normal'. 

I have also read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto and Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami. Both books helped me peek into Japanese culture and what it means to be a woman there.  Now coming to Breasts and Eggs by Meiko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd, the book is divided into two parts, in part one, Natsuku's sister Makiko, who is a single mother decides to go for a boob job. Now, this came as shock to Naatsuku considering the fact that Makiko's financial condition once made her contemplate applying for welfare allowance. Makiko's teenage daughter is not talking to her because of this decision. The part ends abruptly without telling us what happened in the end. The parts in which the mother-daughter duo lives in a dingy apartment with limited finance have been depicted well. There is so much of poverty but the author makes sure we become part of Makoki's and Natsuku's journey without feeling sorry for them. 

And then comes the second part. Here we see Natsuki with her book out. Her collection of short stories is a best seller and she is making a decent leaving by writing columns for different publications. She doesn't have a partner but she doesn't feel her life is incomplete. But as the novel progresses, we see her craving a child. 

But here's a thing. She can't have sex. She tried with her boyfriend in her early twenties and did not like it , hence concluding that it was something she could totally live without. Thankfully, in 2016, when she was 38, she had the option of artificial insemination. She frequents a website where she meets some people who were born by this process. They all are searching for their true identity ( biological father) wondering why they were even born. They ask themselves questions that probably nobody has answers to. Like ' Why are we even born ', ' Do people see their babies as humans or something they made? 

Natsuki ponders hard on these point but then she sees her editor's baby and her conviction to have a child of her own grew even stronger. 

The novel talks about womanhood, motherhood, and Autonomy in contemporary Japan. In a fast pace country, where the number of young people and babies is declining at an alarming rate, women have taken charge of their own lives and bodies. 

Natsuku is not your average woman but this world will be a better place if we have more like her. At times, you will find the novel unsettling but once you are done, your mind will raise an important question like, do we women really need men their lives ?  

Story of you, me and Kim Ji -Young

 Kim Ji-Young is a thirty-something woman in Korea. She had to give up on her job after her baby was born. The baby is now old enough to join a daycare center for a couple of hours now. Which means she can now look for a part-time job now. But that won't be easy in that economy and that society which still regards women second class,citizens.  This affects her mental health. 

Kim Ji-Young has been facing discrimination since the day she was born. Her mother had a sex-based abortion when she was pregnant with her third child. Her brother had toys and food to himself while she and her sister needed to share. When she grew up, her teacher told her the boy who teases her and makes her cry actually likes her leaving her wondering why would someone who liked her so much reduce her to tears! When she got her periods for the first time, she was told to hide it with all the might. When she was stalked by a boy, her father told her to wear decent clothes. 

When the sisters reached college, they were told to choose teaching as a career because it has fixed working hours which will not hinder their marriage and kids' lives. The job she quit did not come easy to her either. She really had to toil and work twice as hard as any man. 

I had always wanted to read something from Korea, the country with regressive beauty culture. As mentioned in the title, the protagonist, Kim Ji- Young is born in 1982. The book is divided into the parts that talk about her childhood, the time she went to school and college, her work , life, and finally her marriage. 

The country was going through massive economical and social changes in the 90s, the time Ji -Young went to school. In one incident, a bunch of girls from her class was arrested because they beat a flasher and got him arrested and then there is another wherein Ji-Young goes to an interview where she was asked what would she do if some groped her thigh in an official meeting. Even the answer ' I will leave the place and go to washroom,' could not get her job because the company was not at all interested in hiring women. 

Kim ji-Young, 1982 is a story of every woman who is fighting for her space in society in a hope that next-generation women do not face what they did.