The Greatest Kashmiri Stories ever Told- Neerja Mattoo

Fiction

Read it!

You guys probably already have understood that I love short stories, especially cuturally oriented ones. THis book is a part of a series of books with stories from different corners of India. They are fantastic to read. I forsee reading more of them in the future.

I won't get into each of the stories individually - unwrap them and savor as you'd like. The great thing about this series is that they stories capture the flavor of the place they are from. History sinks into a place and understanding that background makes you appreciate them even more. 

If you like short stories and culture of location, this is a good book for you.

Read it!

~Becky~

The Lost Man of Bombay - Vaseem Khan

 

Fiction

Read it!

This novel focuses on a strange chain of events that a forensic department unravels. A body is found with very small clues and is eventually tied to current events and people. I won't unravel the whole story for you as that would steal the joy of reading it, but it's worth the effort that a larger book and a longer story bring. 

I haven't read anyhting else by Vaseem Khan but I'd like to explore more of his work if there is anything. The novel embraces a old timey, gothic Bombay with some modern themes. The main love interest is white. Which surprised me a great deal. In a land still aching from British pillage, it's understandable why this wouldn't be embraced. 

The story telling and pacing are excellent. It's rare to not see the outcome before the end of the novel, but Vaseem Khan has achieved it. He leaves clues, but not tons and not obvious ones. He also ends on a practical note without resorting to extraordinary circumstances. Spoiler - it's never the butler in the pantry with an icepick. It's a good read but a large book.

Read it.

~Becky~

The Anatomy of Hate - Revati Laul

NonFiction

Read it

Revati Laul takes us through the riots in Gujarat in the form of shoft stories about people who were involved. It's less about the events and more about the sentiment and mentality behind them. To be sure, the Gujarat riots were a horrific occurence and one that left a big scar. The author's ability to make it personal for some of those involved can help to explain why mentalities and actions occured as they did.

Reading this made me deeply angry at how easy it is to manipulate simple people and how India was manipulated and fooled into the communal violence routine it readily embraces to this day. It's unnecesary and a shame. Like anywhere with uneducatied masses, creating enmity and communal identities results in mindsets that are difficult to change. As someone who grew up in the United states, watching the changes in socially accepted behaviors and mindsets from a mainly uneducated mass of people is hard to swallow. It's hard to swallow knowing that news media and politicians engineered this mindset - the same as India. 

The stories in this book aren't shocking or outrageous, they're just about ordinary people driven by their upbringing and mindset. They're not necessarily bad people, but they did bad things. It makes one wonder what we ourselves would do in such a situation  or even our neighbors should they be different from us. It's anathema - individualist thoughts in such a deeply community minded country. This is a definite read - it personalizes and gives accountability for the tragedy that happened.

Read it.

~Becky~

Quite Flows the River Jhelum - Jajabot

NonFiction

Verdict: Read it if Partition and Kashmir interest you

I picked this up because it appeared on one of my must read list. Now that I've finished it, I'm not sure I agree it should have been on there, but it's not my list, so. 

This book is non fiction and mostly revolves around Partition and the results on Kashmir. I've talked before about the bloody and difficult histoy Kashmir has had and of course this book is the same. 

I didn't care for the pro-army bent that was boldly in front through this book. I've discussed the issues with the Indian army in Kashmir before as well, but I've never seen such a pro-army discussion outright. There's a lot of history and event sequencing discussed in this book, perhaps too much, it reads like a documentary. Perhaps that was the point. It's not a long book - you can probably finish it within an hour or so. 

As with most books on Kashmir, this left me with a sad, disquieted feeling. If you're literate about the events in Kashmir, this book won't tell you anything different. If you're not, it's definitely slanted to make the army the hero, which is definitely isn't. 

~Becky~

Kali's Daughter - Raghav Chandra

Fiction

Read It!

This is the first novel I've seen from Raghav Chandra. I'm still on the fence on if I would like to see another one from him. 

The novel opens on an obviously sucessful woman looking back at an old photograph. She somehow cracked the Civil service exam in highschool and was accepted in to the Indian Foreign Service. The photo is from a training camp that all sucessful Civil Service candidates attend. 

We go back in time to learn about a deep dive into the main character's caste and background, including changing of name to avoid caste and certain caste assumptions. This was interesting to me because I never understood why people didn't try this more often - changing their name. I won't go into the details, but the author clearly outlines why it isn't all that effective. Most of the novel is her time at the training camp and the politics and relationship dynamics that result in a study of caste. The main character has earned her way in, not utilizing quotas for backward castes, and finds that her hard work and brilliance do not erase other's perceptions. 

As someone who has never had the experience of having a caste and has stayed away from the discussion altogether being married to an Indian, it was an uncomfortable book to read. It's very difficult to prevent ones self from making trite and unnecessary mental comments on something I know nothing about. Coming from a society that doesn't practice caste, the concept of one not having the same inherent value as another is difficult for me to understand and accept. In the end, the main character is wildly sucessful, well traveled, and comfortable financially. It doesn't go much into the outcome for her or her family, but very much delves into the idea of quota, names, caste, adn people's assumptions upon hearing names. I'm sure it would hit differently if an Indian were reading it, and different yet if it were an Indian who has faced similar struggles. Always good to expose yourself to experiences different from the ones you're comfortable with.

~Becky~ 

The Better Man - Anita Nair

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

I read this book some time back and somehow forgot to include it in my reviews. I like Anita Nair's writing. I've read a few before. This novel was along the same stylistic lines and I liked this one as well.

The main character, Mukundan, has returned to his village. He is determined to change both his surroundings and himself and begins restoring his old home. He ends up with a crazy sidekick who helps him and provides most of his social interaction. I'm not sure what it is about Indian lore, but the disorganiztion and chaos so often results in people in almost absurd situations that you wonder how they got there and why they just accept it. Just an observation - ahem. Anyhow. His side kick Bhasi sets about trying to improve Mukundan's unhappiness through a string of neutral to absurd ideas. Mukundan is patient with these attempts, but none of them really stick and he wanders here and there like a ghost himself, never really fulfiling his quest to change his house or himself.

THere's not much of a plot line through this book and most of what we see is Mukundan's maudlin thoughts to himself. He doesn't have much of a purpose, nor does he seem to have any passions or relationships in life. You feel sorry for him. Read it if you want a slow burn of hopelessness in a village setting.

~Becky~

A Burning - Megha Majumdar

Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

I'm sure its a coincidence, but 2 Majumdar authors in a row. The tone of this novel was worlds apart from the previous one I discussed. We start with a girl who has seen a horrific hate crime while happening to be in the vicinity. She criticises the police in a fit of adolescent rage. She is publicly blamed for being a spy, put in jail, and finally executed.

While you never find out if the main character was actually involved in terrorist activities, she is portrayed as young, innocent, and genuinely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The story line bounces around between her own experiences, the public perception, the perception of a teacher she once had, a transgender person whom the main character was teaching, and the media. In small and large ways, every one of these populations has betrayed her and contributed to her death in the end, though she was innocent. 

The public simply needed a scapegoat, her old teacher was after political power and the politicians requried her to be that scapegoat, the transgender person tried but valued her own life and career in the end, and the media used her and twisted her words for their own gain. It's a heavy read because you know she's innocent, yet somehow you know she will pay the price anyway in the end. It's a pretty heavy damnation of the mob mentality and personal gain mentality that can arrise in a overpopulated, competetive society. You learn that the main character was poor and oppressed growing up, has a father who can't work due to no fault of his own, and are left with the distinct impression that due to her poverty and previous opression, her fate is inevitable. God save me from the dark clouds hanging above Indian authors' heads! But after living here for so long....It's not impossible for chains of events to happen like this. 

There aren't many positive books with transgender folks, and I felt like the author tried to portray that character in a positive light, though they end up being a human and making a selfish choice. That person's ability to help was also probably impaired because of her identity as well. Difficult read but worth it.

~Becky~

The Scent of God - Saikat Majumdar

 Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

This is the first novel by Saikat Majumdar I'm ready. Again with the very pretty cover art that caught my attention.

The author takes us through a very specific period of a young monk apprentice's life. Mostly his relationship with a fellow student and some mentorship relationships are explored. I must say, there was a very Tarun Tejpal energy going on here - the kind that makes the reader deeply uncomfortable. 

This is also one of the few books I've read that acknowleges male homosexual relationships at all, not to mention in the neutral observational tone this book takes. It does wander into uncomfortable territory at how the main character's mentors may have engineered that relationship and encouraged it, but overall just has a boy discovering his sexuality in the way that most teenagers do. There's no judgement at all around the many flavors of masculinity that float through the book and I felt that most of them were not negative except for the very angry incarnation that surfaced briefly. I felt almost like an intruder into this bastion of testosterone, but not an unwelcome one. 

This novel left me contemplating masculinity, sexuality, relationships, and life choices at the end. It's rare for a novel to incorporate so many heavy themes in a positive, natural way. You may not agree with the main character's choices or how he comes into his relationship and sexuality, but you must appreciate how skillfully the author wove together his experiences.

Read it!

~Becky~

Nine Rupees an Hour: Aparna Karthikeyan

 Non Fiction

Verdict: Meh

I don't think I meant to pick up this type of book when I bought this, but such is trying your luck in the book store. I've never heard of the author before this book.

Aparna Karthikeyan brings us through a few traditional livelihoods in her home state of Tamil Nadu in the South of India. I won't mention all of them just for time sake. The book does a wild dance of how traditional and handicraft livelihoods are dying out and cannot support the person who would wish to do these, and how it's a damn shame. 

As I was reading this, I was a bit confused. The author does a fine job of outlining and setting a solid case for her premise - traditional and handicraft livelihoods do not support people. There are weak arguments about technology, people moving to the city, and rising costs. After she has made her case though, you almost can agree comfortably, that yes, it doesn't make sense to go into such jobs. Unfortunately, culture and nostalgia play very little part in what can sustain a person and their family. India in general is susceptible to this romantical, nostalgic mindset about moving back into a simpler time, living with less money, and valuing culture over making money. While one can identify with the yearning, it's a deeply impractical wish. 

One livelihood, which actually is needed and is a whole other white whale to chase, is farming. Unlike the impracticality of the other professions, farming is a very required profession. Unfortunately the deep society and structural challenges aren't likely to resolve soon, if ever. This was the only part of the book that didn't have me looking for patience. 

It's a typical poverty is bad book mixed with nostalgia about professions that are no longer valued. These types of books are a bit sad to read, but mostly because there's a sense of helplessness because of the inherent impracticality that has arisen from such persuits. I can't buy a new veena (I don't even play the veena!) every year to support small artisans even if I think it's an amazing skill to have. 

Read this for perspective. People from the West have a hard time understanding being tied or obligated into a family profession that no longer can support a person's family or is so difficult it takes a physical toll on health. 

~Becky~

Hyderabad - Manreet Sodhi Someshwar

 Fiction

Verdict: Meh

I picked up this novel because the cover art is decadent. And I'm a sucker for good cover art.  I didn't notice that this was a part of a trilogy until I started reading it. I'm sure that matters to some degree. The trilogy covers partition in India/Pakistan, but I don't think the characters are connected except for the historical non fiction ones as the locations change in each book. 

This novel was a bit of a let down after the previous book I read. The setting is Hydrabad during the nizam's time. I have a special fondness for Hyderabad which is another reason I wanted to read this. The book does a very awkward dance between historical Partition events, the nizam's palace, and a few smaller characters who add to the spy intrigue of the time. In my opinion, they don't really fit togther seamlessly and I struggled between the abrupt scene changes. Hyderabad is such a rich canvas to paint on that I was disappointed that the author only focused on Hussain Sagar and Charminar as a landmark. Yes, they are major landmarks, but they're also low hanging fruit. I also had a hard time identifying with and supporting the main characters. There were many characters involved and none of them were well developed. They all seemed superficial. 

The segments with historical discussions were extremely dry and more instructional/informational than adding to any of the existing story. It's like mashing a text book and a story book together and doing neither well. And the author broke the third wall in a few places bringing the reader back to the story line. Why we had to wander off into a historical conversation isn't really understood well. 

I get it that the point of the trilogy is probably to give a perspective from different locations on the finer points of partition - in this novel specifically - the Nizam's fight in Hyderabad to retain autonomy. Yet even that plot line was never really resolved in a satisfactory way even though we know that obviously automnomy was not retained. After all of these observations, I'm not very inclined to hunt down the other two parts of the series. It's very rare that I get bored reading a novel - and I did find myself wishing it would end already. There are plenty of other good reads that accomplish the same task in a much smoother way.

Read it if you have a large appetite for partition history and don't mind a mild masala with it.

~Becky~

The Paradise of Food - Khalid Jawed

Fiction

Verdict: Read it!

My forays into Urdu works thus far have largely been restricted to poetry. While this is delightful to indulge in, I feel I largely miss the important things. Delving into Urdu literature has been an interesting exercise and I look forward to exploring if other Urdu novels have the same flavor - because this one is odd.

I must say, the introduction to the book had me both hooked a little apprehensive about reading it because the person writing the introduction pointed out the author's obsession with tying together the kitchen, eating, and horror at the human condition. It sounded like the perfect formula for a quiet psychological horror fest. And that's exactly what I got. 

I'm not saying I didn't like the novel - on the other side, I quite did - but man was it a trip to read. The timeline begins with a classic hook of the author being dead. He goes back to his childhood home and gets metiphorically stuck in the mud as a ghost. We then move on to look back through his life. Most of the book is dedicated to his childhood and there are some left hooks that you may not expect. I won't give them away. There are many odd, obsessive themes that the main character has as a child as well that I would love to get to understand how they originated. The author was so smooht on this I can't understand if it's intentional as a main charachter trait, or if the author himself is similarly obsessed. It's worth reading more Khalid Jawed books if they exist. 

I would definitely recommend reading this novel just from the curiosity point of view. There are so many themes to explore and I found myself contemplating this book long after I was done with it.

Read it!

~Becky~