In the Name of Honor - Mukhtar Mai

 NonFiction

Verdict: Read It

I had hear of Mukhtar Mai before in name, but not in situation. I tend to like biographies/self biographies, so I picked this up.

The story is horrifying heard from her point of view. It also underlines a huge mindset and atrocity bomb that India and Pakistan continue to foster with an almost loving persistence. Class and gender wars are not a thing of the past unfortunately. 

Mukhtar Mai is gang raped as a "punishment" for her younger brother flirting with a powerful family's sister. In reality, it's an attempted land grab due to the inability of a rich powerful family to see "lower class" people hold land. It's heartbreaking and incredibly not that uncommon. 

What is uncommon however, is Mukhtar Mai's response to it. After taking time to process her trauma, she decided that she would stand for what she thought was right and say no. She takes us through the process of dealing with corrupt police and courts and in the end, still not getting justice. Again, incredibly common. Still bound and determined to rise, Mukhtar Mai opens a school with funds that came in from concerned parties. 

If you understand anything about Class and Gender wars in India and Pakistan, you understand how remarkable Mukhtar Mai's response is. It's unheard of, and it's phenomenal. She is an inspiration to many women, myself included, and has done her part to make the world one she wants to live in.

Mukhtar Mai isn't educated. She isn't a great story teller or writer and it's obvious that he words are filtered through writers. She circles back around often and jumps time lines telling her story, but with all she's suffered and achieved, she's entitled to tell her story however she wishes to.

Please read this book. It will give you a new perspective on feminism and basic human rights. It will inspire you that a woman discarded the typical reaction to a humiliation of this type (suicide in her part of the world) and rose far above that to help others and be a light. The only way to combat these type of horrifying incidents is to continue to promote awareness of it being unacceptable and punishable in society. The only way to deal with police taking advantage of uneducated, shamed women in an immoral manner is to keep bringing these instances to light and seeing through the punishments. The only way to deal with courts taking soft line stances on Class, Gender, and Economic wars are to shine a huge spotlight on them and continue pressuring the courts as well to step into the 21st century and stop pandering. The only way to ensure that women are not continuing to be trapped in darkness and illiteracy is to make education for girls a priority and a valued thing. Mukhtar Mai has led the way in however she could.

Read it!

~Becky~

Delhi: A Soliloquy - M. Mukundan

Fiction

Verdict: Read it

Delhi is a novel that I pickup up for a few reasons. The cover art is very nice, which always gets me. I also do not like Delhi as a city. It's one of the few places I've ever felt unsafe, even when accompanied by my partner. It's a reputation the city has earned with good reason. Yet people live breathe and move through their lives there because that's where they live for a multitude of reasons.

M. Mukundan brings us through the live on a Malayali man named Sahadevan. He has come fresh off the train to try to "Make his way" in the big city and earn for his family. He is supported by other Malayalis who live in Delhi and have chosen to make it their home. The author doesn't focus too much on Sahadevan in the beginning; he brings the audience into a wider focus of everything going on around him. As with many lives, Sahadevan has people fade in and out of his everyday life due to a variety of reasons. We see this happen through the novel, as well as his own personality changes as he ages. In general he is a responsible soul (though one is clear he would rather not be) and this care extends to anyone he comes across. He simply feels obliged to help. As a result, his own life goes on the back burner until he is too old to change some of his choices, such as his own marriage. 

Mukundan does a wonderful job of capturing the small things about being from Kerala in a northern city without beating it to death nor suggesting the audience wouldn't understand any of it thus overexplaining. He simply points out that a South Indian moving to a northern city and making a living as an outsider can be difficult. Which it definitely is, but people do and life moves on. 

Mukundan has also set his story in a time that was tumultuous for India, not to mention Delhi. . Some of the characters that he has brilliantly woven into the story as side characters help illustrate some of the horrific things that have happened. The story opens with accounts of 2 wars and how it affects the mentality of the citizens His friend's son gets forced sterilized in a Sanjay Gandhi sterilization camp initiative. One Sikh landlord and his wife and elder daughter are murdered when the reprisals came for Indira Gandhi's murder happened. The mindset just never seems to improve - Delhi is a city with a grinding, brutal past. Yet people move on and survive.

It's a dark novel to read, but history is history. As I knew before I started, this novel has just reinforced what I thought of Delhi before. I don't particularly ever want to even visit there again. I can't imagine living there.

Read it!

~Becky~