The Boy Who Loved Trains - Deepak Sapra

Non-Fiction

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I haven't read anything by Deepak Sapra, if he has written anything else, either. I thought this was a story and I liked the cover. It turned out to be something quite different.

This autobiographical book is about the author's career with Indian railways, from his training to much later in life. It's a good window into the life of those who work in the railways. I found out that the railways are just as bureaucratic as many other civil services.  I don't know anyone who works in the railways, nor have a read much, so this was fun to go through.

Sapra's conversational tone help the reader get into his anecdotes and keep reading. While it does drag a bit in certain places, I enjoyed this book. I am a firm fan of riding in trains, this helped me understand those who make that possible.

Read it!

~Becky~

Half a Million and Rising - Anirudha Dutta

Non-Fiction

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I haven't ready anything previously be Anirudh Dutta, but with a title and subject matter as this book has, I was very interested in what he has to say.

Violence against women, social attitudes, and change are big topics for any country. India is a country where these topics are bigger than most. But they need to be addressed on a continual basis and Dutta attempts to do just that.

Most people remember the Nirbhaya case that happened in 2012. It was horrific and happened right after I moved to India. That case has created a pre and post Nirbhaya environment in people's thinking about sexual assault, rape, and respecting women. One would think that with all the coverage this case got, people and the government would have been galvanized into action. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case. It has opened up awareness of a broad scale struggle between those who wish to drag India into a modern mindset, and those who continue to employ brutal methods to continue suppressing development, modernity and women.

Sexual assault and atrocities don't spring out of nowhere. Dutta gets to the heart of the matter by identifying some of the long-standing underpinning ideas that contribute to the negative attitudes and disrespect for women. Dutta sets out to understand if the condition of women is at all improving by measuring some metrics and connecting with both the young women in different settings and communities and their mothers to see what has changed.

I absolutely think that Dutta's objective is important, and needs to be done. Unless the social attitudes that have created such a dire circumstance for women change, they will continue to suffer. He also delves into some of the different NGO's that are involved with raising women and why they are necessary.

Dutta's thesis is hopeful. He does make a very good point that the social attitudes are indeed changing, and that the younger generation of women is indeed aiming higher and feeling freer than ever. However, it seems a bit too simplistic to me. I understand that this topic is huge, and to factor in every single metric for change would result in an epic no one would write, none the less read, I think this gives a false sense of hope and optimism.

The harsh truth, is that while life is changing for some women, and some women feel freer and more empowered, overall attitudes and the level of conservatism has not swung as far as Dutta would like to portray. Not only have assaults and sexual violations increased in visibility for the public in the last few years, the response to these events continues to be disgustingly lukewarm and ineffective. India has miles and miles to go in order just to stop these tragic events for women, leave alone see and treat them as equal to men.

Read this for it's hopeful tone. It's a well researched and written book, but don't be fooled by false hopes. 

~Becky~ 

Poonachi - Perumal Murugan

Fiction

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I believe I have already gushed about Perumal Murugan this month, so I will refrain from doing that in this post. But folks, Perumal Murugan. He's such a fun author.

Poonachi is a story about a goat named Poonachi. She is dropped with a goat herd when she is kitten sized by a giant who doesn't give any straight, useful answers. It's all very odd. But then the goatheard and his wife fall in love with Poonachi and decide to do whatever they can to raise her. 

Murugan's personification of Poonachi is most adorable. The thoughts portrayed from the goat are almost human, but goat enough that it's not dumb. 

Poonachi is never quite accepted by the other goats, nor their kids, but is happy with the goatherd's wife. She goes on adventures and has quite the satisfying childhood. When she reaches maturity, she is mated and conceives 7 kids, just as the giant predicted. As you can imagine, this is exhausting for both Poonachi and the goatherd and his wife as they try to keep all the kids alive. A mystical stranger comes along and buys all of the kids to Poonachi's distress. Poonachi even falls in love at one point, though no ones knows, cares, and she is not allowed to stay with that goat.

The author's portrayal of a paranoid, controlling government is hilarious and very much Kafka-esque. The government has a pre-occupation with piercing ears of both citizens and animals. I have to admit, if Murugan was alluding something else here, I must have completely missed it. 

The book ends with Poonachi's death. There simply isn't enough food for her body to support another pregnancy with so many kids as rain and drought has overtaken the land. 

It's a simple, but very touching book. Read it.

~Becky~

Jasoda - Kiran Nagarkar

 Fiction

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I've read a few other novels by Kiran Nagarkar and I am very much a fan. This novel was quite a bit shorter than God's Little Soldier (Whew!) and quite different in content than either of the other two novels I have read. The brilliance of this book is that the main character, Jasoda, could be any one of the millions of poor women in India with little choice in who they are married off to, making due with far too little, and having very few choices.

The book opens, strikingly, with Jasoda committing female infanticide. Its quite shocking. We learn later that family pressure is the major factor, but each time it happens, it is shocking. Jasoda is married to a do nothing man who is obsessed with toadying up to a local erstwhile prince in the hopes that someday it will pay off and he will be rewarded. This leaves Jasoda to manage the house, their sons, and her mother in law. As the water situation in their village becomes dire, Jasoda takes her 2 sons and mother in law and walk until they reach a train station, much like the rest of the village. They travel to Bombay to make a go of it. Being chased off by the pavement mafia and later raped by the "landlord" for their section of pavement, Jasoda learns how to be inventive and make a living for her and her sons. She finds herself pregnant again and her sons end up going out to work begging and sorting garbage. To say the least, Jasoda and her children do not have it easy.

One son finds a patron who helps him get educated, another son gets lost and never reappears, the third son comes and goes like the wind, the fourth son is born with disabilities due to a difficult deliver. The youngest child, the only daughter Jasoda allows to live, is pampered and spoiled and taken care of her whole life. Jasoda becomes successful running a snack cart and invents new dishes. 

After a while, she hears that people have started returning to the village and that development is under way. She also packs up the children who would come with her and heads back to the village. While they were gone, her husband murders the prince and takes his place and bizarrely becomes an oil baron. He re-marries in order to get a male heir. Jasoda's husband finds them a room in another village before disappearing once more. Jasoda again picks up the pieces and opens her own food cart. She becomes so successful that she opens a few restaurants. Jasoda's husband reappears randomly and declares that he is going to stay in their flat. She puts up with him for a while before arranging for him to have a fatal accident when he tries to sell the restaurants out from under her.

Jasoda's pluck, grit, and ingenuity is a tribute to women with shitty husbands everywhere who don't have anyone else to depend on. She's not an incredibly complex character, but readers are definitely able to identify with her. 

Read it!

~Becky~

Girls of Mumbaistan - Piyush Jha

Fiction

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I resisted this novel quite a few times (for no obvious reason that I can identify) when going to the bookshop, but then finally gave in. Piyush Jha takes you on a short, succinct tour of Mumbai and life for some average women. Really, they could be almost any woman.

The first novella is about a woman who gets taken in by a scam artist in order to try to save her husband's life. Jha does a fantastic job of unravelling the plot knot and the twist at the end was superb. I won't say much besides this so as not to spoil it, but I enjoyed this story immensely. The ending too, is extremely satisfying.

The second novella is a short vignette about a woman who works in a rich family's house as a housemaid. Gritty, realistic, and the unfortunate reality for many people, this story is short but powerful. Again, I won't say much more, but well worth the time.

The final story is about a transvestite police woman. Hijras are a part of society, but almost never accepted, included, or talked about. Jha turned this on it's ear. His character in this story is tough, inventive, and empathetic. Another flavor of suspense story, I very much liked this as well.

Overall, I don't think I've ready anything else besides Pyush Jha, if anything else is out there, but I would love to do so in the future.

Read it!

~Becky~

Slum Child - Bina Shah

Fiction

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I can't quite remember if I read this book previously or not. Usually I do remember. It was vaguely familiar but not so much that I could say for certain. Even if I did, I'm glad I read this a second time because I gathered so much more than I would have the first time.

Bina Shah has brought together a plethora of interesting things in this book. So many so that I found myself  fascinated. The main character, Laila, is a young Christian girl (1) who lives with her mother, sister, step father (2), and 3 younger step brothers. The family lives in Karachi Pakistan in a slum. Her step father is a Muslim (3). The story follows Laila as she wanders through a seemingly happy childhood with her family. Things take a darker turn when her sister develops tuberculousis and the family doesn't have enough money to have her treated and she passes away. Laila develops an unlikely friend with a drug addict (4) who later goes to rehab and gets his life together. After her sister's death, her mother sinks into a childlike, confused state (5) and stays there. As her mother was the sole bread winner, Laila is dismayed when she hears her father concede to sell her for money. She runs away (6) and finds an unlikely alliance in her drug addict friend and his bus driving cousin (7). She goes to her mother's old employer and begs for work. She is taken in and works as an ayah/househelp for a while. She discovers that she has lost her faith (8) and that she just cannot leave her helpless mother behind. She becomes close to the spoiled, rich children who she cared for (9) and they end up helping her when she is attacked by her father's friend when she goes home to get her mother. They kill him (10) and put her mother in a home. (11)

As you can see, there's a LOT going on there. The story of Punjabi Christians in a Muslim dominated country is a startling one. The author does justice to make sure the reader understands the suspicion and hatred that pops up between communities. She also addresses losses of faith, the heartless demeaning condition of slums, and how resentments are sometimes raised between financial classes even though there is no animosity. It's not a difficult book to read in terms of comprehension, but you will chew over the concepts for a while. Shah's main character is accessible - she's a little girl. The fights and responsibilities she is forced to take on age her, but as heartbreaking as they are, they are the fight of millions of young impoverished women.  Take the time to read this. It's an interesting look at a minority community.

~Becky~

Bhendi Bazaar - Vish Dhamija

Fiction

Meh

I picked up this book because I saw the movie adaptation of Bhendi Bazaar. I think that with very few exceptions, novels are better than movies.  I'm not quite sure if that is the case here. 

Let me clarify a bit. The story is good. Dhamija was able to keep the pace and mask the resolution right until the end - which was brilliant. However, his use of English is awkward to the point of being humorous. Perhaps it's just a language/translation problem - but from other data points in how he writes, I suspect not.  I'm not trying to discourage people from reading his work, but a good editor would have helped him out a lot. 

Bhendi Bazaar is a murder mystery. A serial killer who mutilates men to be specific. The story follows the DCP on the case - a woman to Dhamija's credit - as she fights to match wits and catch the killer. This is unusual on a few fronts. I'm not going to do a spoiler here, because the end is brilliant, but you won't see it coming, I guarantee that. And I love when an author is able to drop just enough hints to keep you restless for a resolution, but not enough that he or she assumes the reader is dumb and does too much forshadowing, leading to an easy guess.

As Dhamija himself writes in the forward, his main character is a good one. She has personality, flaws, and people can relate to her.  I wouldn't mind reading more of Dhamija's work with this character. One point I didn't much care for - and this is a common trap that writers fall for in order for their work to be accessible - is over explaining. There were way too many asides about India, police, and Mumbai. I get it - those points were important, but it would have been better if Dhamija worked them into the story in other ways. I also was left unimpressed by the romance. Sure, profilers/psychologists are useful in a case like this, but I didn't really get into the connection and transition. I think he could have either developed this or left it out all together,

Read it if you are in the mood for a Mumbai serial killer mystery and can get around the awkward writing - the story is good.

~Becky~

Moustache - S. Hareesh

Fiction

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S. Hareesh is a new author for me. I actually picked this up due to the cover - it's very nicely done. I've mentioned many times that authors from different places have different flavors. This is the first one I've read with a Keralite author and it was delightful. 

The novel is set in the backwaters of Kerala in small villages. By chance, an idle youth is pulled into a play in which he is made to wear a mustache and be a policeman. He plays his role so well, and scares quite a few audiences. When the play is done, he decides to keep it. The novel follows all of the antics and legends that build around this one normal person who grows an epic mustache. One cannot quite decide what is real and what is legend after a while. As lore often goes, people hear things about themselves that are absurd. But they rarely correct these ideas - as does our main character. He spends much of his time running from both law enforcement as well as unruly mobs who blame him for all manner of things. 

I truly felt sorry for the main character as he obviously has become enamored with his identity and likes it, though it keeps him from leading a normal life. He has a love interest, but is kept away from her tragically for a long time. 

S. Hareesh involves the reader to quite some detail on cast politics and social norms between them. While it's uncomfortable to read and shameful that such things happen, he doesn't pull punches and describes things just so. The author employs two very distinct and different tones. There are conversations between a father and son about the legends of the Mustach Man, and then there are the the exploits themselves. The author has done a masterful job of making them sound very different. 

I found myself getting slightly frustrated by the pace occasionally, but the author simply refuses to be rushed, and there's something to be said for that. Read this if you want some historical context on Kerala, caste, and of course legends. 

~Becky~

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights - Salman Rushdie

Fiction

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My love of Salman Rushdie novels is not really a secret. This was an extension of that appreciation. Unfortunately, it's a classic Rushdie - meaning there's a lot going on that is under the surface and I feel like I missed most of it. 

The story is easy to follow - it's a mythological type book with genies, and good and evil. It's also a very interesting love story in it's own way.  Ordinary people are called upon to settle a fight against evil forces - in the form of very real Djins. Rushdie enjoys himself setting up characteristics for both the good and evil djins, and makes them very accessible - they are almost human in their flaws. Rushdie cannot be rushed through the plot. His ponderous style takes a while to get used to, but one has to appreciate how methodical he is. 

I'm not going to say much more than this because you must read his novels to truly appreciate them, and anything else I say is just going to be noise at this point.

Read it!

~Becky~