Book Review: On Balance, An Autobiography

We are what we are because of the many women who opened doors and left them ajar for us. Leila Seth is one such woman. I knew she had been a practicing lawyer, the first female judge to be appointed to the Delhi High Court judge and the first woman to be the Chief Justice of a High Court. I also knew her as a woman who stood up for LGBTQ rights, and who wrote a beautiful book for children introducing them to the Constitution. I picked up "On Balance, An Autobiography" because I was curious to know the lady behind those accomplishments. And I was delighted.

In a lot of ways, Leila Seth reminds me of so many women of her generation that I know. Women like my mother and grandmother who kept perfect homes. Women like my grandmother who ran households which straddled joint family sensibilities with nuclear family constraints. Women who took the hard decision to send their children to boarding school so their studies would not be interrupted.

What makes Leila Seth extra special was that she did all of that and also was extremely successful professionally. How she landed up studying and practicing law seems almost serendipitous, but once she qualified, it was clearly her grit and knowledge that got her to scale the professional peaks that she did. Like many other women of her (and subsequent) generations, she followed her husband around, till they (like many other couples) took the decision to settle in a city of their choice. She did it with grace, even though it meant virtually starting afresh each time.

Reading the book through the prism of today, you notice the emotional burden she carried throughout her life. Despite her qualifications and her success, she is the one who silently does the things she would have been expected to do if she had not been working. The only time she speaks of that is in the poignant passage on her time as Chief Justice in the Shimla High Court where she says that for the first time ever she was living for herself. That passage more than anything else, sends out a strong message that this emotional burden is something that should be acknowledged, because only after acknowledging it can we work towards changing it.

As someone who grew up in small towns in Eastern India, I loved the description of her life in Darjeeling and her pen portrait of the many gardens she knew. Her account of her years in Calcutta brought back many pleasant memories. If my mother writes her memoirs, she can pick large chunks out of the book.

Leila Seth is also, as we know, the mother of Vikram Seth, and the protagonist of 'A Suitable Boy' is loosely based on her. A lot of people thought that Latha of the book could have married "better"- that the man she chose was not at all 'a suitable boy'. After reading this autobiography you understand exactly why Premo Seth and only Premo Seth was the "Suitable Boy" for the amazing Leila Seth.

If you like reading a well written autobiographies written in a slightly self deprecating tone; if you are a woman who wants to know and understand the women who paved the way for us; if you love "A Suitable Boy", then this book is for you.

Book Review: Rumble in a Village

[Book review of ‘Rumble in a Village’ by Jean Drèze and Luc Leruth]

Jean Dreze is person I deeply admire, so when I saw his name on a work of fiction with an eye-catching cover, I had to pick it up. I am glad I did. Though the book is written by two academicians, and the themes are heavy, the book is an absolute delight to read.

Imagine a village in the middle of nowhere, with a railway tracks cutting past the landscape. A village demarcated along rigid caste lines. The people knowing their place, yet, striving to improve their lives with limited or no opportunities.

Into this village comes an NRI, accompanied with vague memories of a trip to the village when he was three, and the notes which his father intended to covert into a work of non-fiction, but didn't. With no knowledge of how caste works, he bumbles through, thinking he is making a difference, but actually being played along by virtually everyone.

The author(s) employ self deprecating humour to make a point about casteism, misogyny and corruption. The book is full of harsh truths, but put forward in a way that neither preaches nor accuses.

Palampur can be any village, anywhere. The cast of characters too.

Book Review: Lahore (The Partition Trilogy #1)

It is hard to review a book that you have been waiting two years for. A book you had high expectations from both because of the subject matter and the author. A book you pre-ordered because you wanted to grab it as soon as you could. And a book which lived up to expectations, yet left you without words.

There have been many books written about the Partition. There are books that describe the high level political negotiations between the people who made history. And there are books written about the people who bore the brunt of Partition. Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s ‘Lahore (The Partition Trilogy, #1)’ does both.

In Delhi, Mountbatten, Patel and Nehru lay down their non-negotiables and engage in a game of give and take around it. In Lahore, till the very end, the coolie, Belli Ram, who was brought up by his friend Mehmood’s family refuses to accept Partition till be actually “sees” the line separating India and Pakistan.

In Lahore, the ‘mad woman’, Billo, is thrown out of her home when she predicts a rain of blood, and takes up residence on the branches of a tree. In Delhi, Edwina Mountbatten shivers when she sees the unseasonal blooming of the Laburnums because when death is imminent, trees bloom and set fruit in a last ditch attempt to secure progeny.

The stories of the people and events that make up history, alternate with those of the people who have to bear the consequences of those decisions. Many of those stories end at a climatic point, where you are forced to pause and process what you witnessed before you can move on.

And, of course, at the end, she had both threads meet, however briefly. A reminder that Partition, eventually, was about people. People who survived. People who didn't. Dreams that were crushed. Pieces that were picked up.

This book is particularly significant because it puts many events in their proper context. The British would have left behind two partitioned nations and 565 princely states. Today, people try to assign the blame for Partition on certain leaders, choosing to forget that it was they who stopped the Balkanisation.

You will love ‘Lahore (The Partition Trilogy, #1)’ if you are interested either in the history of the subcontinent or in reading stories rich in human emotions. Take a bow, Manreet, for yet another masterly book.

Book Review- Landscapes of Loss

 I picked up Kavitha Iyer's 'Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian drought' because someone I trust described it as "Superb reporting. Terrific writing". She was absolutely right. It is a brilliant book. One I wish everyone would read.

Kavitha concludes the book with ".... to introduce readers to real people, their very real everyday struggles, their occasional triumphs and their unremitting agitations requesting justice. The countryside has spoken. I hope urban India finds it in its heart to listen."

And doing so, she sets 'Landscapes of Loss', her detailed chronicle of ongoing struggles in drought prone Marathwada within the much larger context of the ongoing Farmers' Agitation in the country.

Marathwada is one of the most drought prone regions in the country, and most of us hear of it when there is a spate of farmer suicides which make it to the headlines. The book goes much beyond that.

It takes us through how the drought affects entire communities, how relief measures fall short of expectations. It breaks down caste dynamics, and looks at how women are affected even worse than men.

Importantly, the book looks at the reasons for the water crisis, and analyses how the proposed measures might only delay the crisis by a few years. She shows us how what is needed is not annual relief measures, but a systematic change in how we view water as a resource.

Above all, the book introduces us to the people of Marathwada- their distress, their successes, their hopes and their reality. Though their stories, she inspires us to do more. 'Landscapes of Loss' is a MUST read.

"Go forth and sin no more"

 I was 14. My grandfather was after me as usual, berating me for wasting my time reading science fiction when I could be reading the Classics.

"How do you know it's a waste of time unless you read it?", I asked defiantly.

He conceded the point I was trying to make. We made a pact.

I would read a play by G.B. Shaw and he would read an Asimov novel.

The deal was that we would each choose the work we wanted to read.

I picked "Mrs Warren's Profession". In retrospect, a terrible choice, because I couldn't make head or tail of it.

But something about the characters charmed me and I continued onto "Arms and the Man", and finished Nine Plays that Summer.

'Caves of Steel' was the book he chose. A murder mystery set in a future where mankind is forced to live in underground cities, completely cut off from the outdoors.

I was convinced he would hate it. I was preparing my arguments to defend the genre.

"It has Biblical undertones", he commented when I asked him how it was going. "It's a little confusing, but he seems a smart chap."

"It's not Dickens, but it is not bad", he pronounced when he was done.

The reference to Dickens confused me. I had never claimed the book was great literature. But I still asked him to explain.

It was the story of the adulterous woman that he was referring to. Of how the robot grasped some part of 'he who is without sin cast the first stone'.

His praise of a genre I didn't think he would like, and his stamp of approval on my reading choice made me internalise the message.

"Go forth and sin no more", was what I would use in my mind when I forgave people for hurting me.

"Let he who is without sin" remains my philosophy.

 

July 2014: Do They Read At All?

“I don’t let my kids read such disgusting stuff”, said a mother about the Captain Underpants books.

“Do they read at all?”, I asked.

She evaded the question. “I have bought them [blah, blah, blah books]”, she said.

Why was I not surprised that her children don’t read? The books she mentioned were good books- books that are morally edifying. But they are not books that engage a child. If you want them to read, you have to give children books they will like. Once they are addicted, they will voluntarily reach for the books you want them to read.

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2014: The Year That Was

June 2014 : Do Stories go on forever?

A what point does a narrative actually begin? Does it begin where the story starts, or did it start when the trigger that led to the chain of events went off. Did the story exist even before the point you call the trigger?

Where does it end? When the story actually gets over, or when you decide it is over. Can the story ever get over? Doesn't it stretch on, endlessly- affecting other stories that are happening. 

Is there ever a beginning, or an end? Or do stories just go on forever?

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2014: The Year That Was

When you are a Reader: day 39 of #100happydays

Life is hard when you are a reader. You can’t walk by a bookstore without being compelled to go in and check out the titles. When your favourite bookstore announces a sale, you cannot help but pick up a few absolute steals.

When you are a reader your ‘To Be Read’ pile increases in exponential proportion to the books you read- every book you love adds half a dozen others to the pile! You soon run out of space. You never have enough time to read all you want to read.

And that’s exactly how you want it to be.

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I picked up this book more than a year back- it was every bit as lovely as I hoped it would be.

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Characters you love: day 35 of #100happydays

I first met him when he chased down the Blue Carbuncle in a story in my English Reader. By the time we did the lesson in class, I had read all the other stories in ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. By the end of the year, I’d finished all the short stories, and most of the long ones.

And then came the re-reads, and the re-re-reads. I grabbed the spin-offs- loved the Seven Per-Cent Solution, hated the rest. It was with mixed feelings that I picked up the ‘authorized’ spin-off. It was decent, but not the Sherlock Holmes I love.

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Reading together: Day 27 of #100happydays

When I was young, I used to dream of living in a house made of books. Walls made of books, instead of bricks. Books stacked one over the other to form furniture. Books everywhere!

By the time I got a house of my own, I realized how impractical the dream was. Stacks of books have a tendency to fall over, and how do you pull out a book from the wall? The dream faded.

But now, I have something even better. I have a house of readers. Each of us happiest when lost in our own worlds- united by words!

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A Pair of old Socks- Day 11 of #100happy days

“I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks”, said Professor Dumbledore, when asked what he saw in the Mirror of Erised, sparking off kilobytes of speculation on what socks could actually symbolize.

Till the last book, one waited, but socks didn’t really do too much apart from freeing Dobby, the house elf.

But even if they didn’t end up playing as important a part in the Harry Potter series as one hoped, one has to admit Dubledore was right- there is something infinitely comforting about pulling on a pair of old, stripy socks, and re-reading a favourite book.

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