Everyone Loves a Good Drought - P. Sainath

Non-Fiction

Read It

Sorry for the long absence, I have been in the middle of a house-shifting and had a small surgery. It's been a long, stressful month and I'm ready to just run away to Bermuda permanently. I haven't had tons of time to read, but I have finished quite a few books recently. 

This is another one of those books that starts out with "I wasn't expecting it to be this....but I liked it anyways." I was expecting this to be stories, but they turned out to be articles. 

In the US, the poverty in India is seen as a caricature and is often stared at with morbid fascination and used to make people feel better about themselves. If they're aware of anything about India at all that is. 

Unfortunately, the tribal people of India are marginalized to a degree that is horrifying. Most people cannot fathom the actual level of poverty and government oversight and social disregard for people whom have no resources.  

As I mentioned, one of the reasons that the very poor here are disenfranchised, is that the very laws put into place to protect them are mostly ignored and or utilized to further take advantage of helpless people. The author has traveled to some of the poorest districts and investigates some of the reasons why certain marginalized populations will probably never come out of their current situation. India, due to size, population, and chaos level, takes an extraordinary amount of time to change. 

It's a depressing book once you realize that all of the factors mentioned in the book will probably never change, and even the worthwhile, good initiatives by government or NGO's probably will not change anything. That being said, being aware of the human condition of different people is crucial. 

It's not easy to read or understand, but read it anyhow.

~Becky~

The Fourth Peshwa - Ranjit Desai

Fiction

Meh

Historical Fictions are a guilty pleasure for me. I picked up this book thinking it would be fun. I have not read anything by Ranjit Desai before, so finding new authors is always fun as well.

The author takes us through the life of a Peshwa, one of the leaders of the earstwhile Maratha empire.  The novel does include details about life as a Maratha royal, and definitely includes warfare and strategy. 

Unfortunately, I found this book incredibly hard to follow - and not for good reasons. The author introduces too many characters in too rapid succession with absolutely no explanation about any of them. Most of the characters fell flat for me too. They seemed too 2-D and I couldn't relate to any of them as real people. Desai also missed his chance to develop a strong character for the Peshwa's wife. 

Overall, it was a disappointment. 

~Becky~

The Boy Who Loved Trains - Deepak Sapra

Non-Fiction

Read it

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

Read it

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

Read it!

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

Read it

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

Read it

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~