The Mountains Sing

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As a student of History, I’ve read about the Vietnam War extensively. But the Mountains Sing is the first literary piece I stumbled on and I am so happy to have read this one. It’s hard to believe that ‘The Mountains Sing’ is Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s debut novel. It’s such a beautifully structured book, that it not only lets one experience a family’s battle to survive the war but also provides a broad and clear picture of the War. Anyone who hasn’t read about the war in academic texts may look up to this book for a general understanding of the forces at play. The author successfully manages to switch in between the early days of the war to the 1950s when the nature of the war changes and takes a different turn with the conflict becoming an internal issue triggered by ideological differences i.e. Communism vs. non-communism.

The shift in timeline flows easily through two parallel narratives; one narrated by Huong aka Guava and the other by her Grandmother. Huong opens the story in the year 1972 when a bombing campaign was launched against the North Vietnamese.

Grandma’s narrative opens in the year 1930, taking us back to witness the power tussle in between the French and the Japanese (the former being the preceding rulers of Vietnam before the Japanese aggression)  and the activities of the Viet Minh (the organization that led the struggle for Vietnamese independence)  during the Japanese occupation. Both the narratives helps one understand the impact of war on commoners. It was extremely difficult for me to keep on reading about the struggle of Huoung’s grandmother to keep herself alive along with her children, after the merciless killings of her Uncle Cong, her mother, her husband, her father who was slaughtered to pieces in front of her eyes. She lived like a mendicant for quite some time waiting for the Land Reform laws to subside. “Land reform in North Vietnam was accomplished from 1954 to 1956 by confiscating and redistributing land owned by landlords to poor and landless peasants.”

The story covers the helplessness of Guava, waiting for her father to return from the War, her mother who went after him and came back with a deranged state of mind. But what I liked reading about were anecdotes of Guava’s family members. Uncle Dat, Aunt Hanh, each had different stories to tell which definitely developed courage and a positive attitude in me. Uncle Minh’s story takes us through the plight of people divided by the war, driven apart from their dear ones. The ending of the book simply left me overwhelmed by mixed emotions. I highly recommend this book.

The Loneliness of Hira Barua

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I had made it a point in the beginning of this year to explore as many stories I can, fictional and non-fictional accounts, oral narratives and folklore based on my region. My inquisitiveness took me to a number of libraries and bookshops to collect Assamese literary gems and I successfully got my hands on a number of books written in Assamese. Those books however lay unattended till date due to other commitments that came in the way. I’ll definitely catch up with my huge Assam pile before the year ends.TBH the size of the pile intimidates me. So I tried to divert myself from that huge TBR and picked up this relatively small collection of translated short stories which I finished in a few hours.
‘The Loneliness of Hira Barua’ the title of the book, is one of the 15 stories and happens to be my favourite of all. I’ll get back to that again. But let me just point out a few things I didn’t like about Patangia’s writing. There were two stories in particular that I didn’t like at all, which kind of read like traditional values slapping modernity in its face, misrepresenting women as perpetrators, criticising women for being non submissive, making independent choices and not adhering to norms. I wonder if that was the author’s intended style of writing but the tone of the message certainly determined my comprehension. I don’t think the translation is to be blamed. It would’ve read worse to me in Assamese.
If I disliked this about the author, I also appreciate her for incorporating the raw essence of Assamese culture in most of her stories.
The first 5 stories are clustered as ‘Her stories’, plainly women centric. All of them equally heart rending. The Girl with Long Hair was especially haunting, which vividly reflected the patterns of discrimination operating against women in society. The story of Surabhi Barua in particular showed how women’s independent thoughts are trivialized and condemned , how women are systematically subordinated, how they are targeted to be silenced if they dare voice out their opinions. Patangia also gives a voice to women trapped in conflict ridden regions.
There are stories of women being raped and tortured by forces in power. There are subtle references to the psychological impact of violence on women in ‘Ayengla of the Blue Hills’. Patangia also focused on the conditions of the Assamese middle class , shedding light on the ordinary everyday practices of Assamese people, reflecting the temporal pattern of life in general.
I’ve already mentioned my favourite short story. It made me cry like a baby all throughout. I wish I could hug Hira Barua’s dog Sonali, fondly called sonamoni. I am an overthinker and just like Hira Barua feared that her life was beginning to resemble a lonely Englishwoman’s, I worried if I end up like Hira Barua. On a lighter note, I’ve comforted myself with positive thoughts. Our situations are different, the choices at our disposal are different which changes the whole story, isn’t it?

Rumours of Spring

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Why should one read this book?
As I finished reading this memoir, I stopped a moment in gratitude. There are actually a countless number ofthings I am thankful for. Even when I look back to my childhood and see my younger self complaining about trivialities, I feel privileged for having the freedom to grumble about petty things. I’m grateful for my peaceful life. I’m grateful for not having to live under constant siege. I’m grateful for all the ordinary, mundane things I had and still have access to.
I was actually touched when I read the part where young Farah would go through the newspaper pages and see advertisements of life outside the valley, of things beautiful and comfortable, of pictures not stained with blood. I was down in the dumps picturing young Farah longing for an easy going ordinary life.
‘Rumours of Spring’ is Farah’s account of growing up in Kashmir and what it was like in the 90s when the valley was overshadowed with violence. The memoir is beautifully structured in 6 parts. With each painfulexperience and traumatic encounter that Farah shared, we get to see the horrendous side of the counter-insurgency forces stationed in Kashmir in the 90s.
She talks about the agonizing experiences she herself lived and witnessed and those of her near and dear ones too. My heart goes out to Bobeh, Farah’s asthmatic grandmother whose condition further deteriorated under confinement, with the uninvited and forceful infiltration of the harmful chemicals administered on innocents in the form of tear gas. The constant fear that lurked in the background like a monster, of the forces invading their personal spaces, in any ungodly hour, to humiliate, torture and punish them affected most of her girlhood.
We have only read about these crackdowns, curfews, bunkers, arrests and killings on paper. But Bashir’saccount reflects the lives of people who learnt to endure suffering and accepted life with its grim realities. We live in an age where the idea of our mental well being is given a little recognition which is better than nothing at all. We have actually come a long way. Imagine living like a Kashmiri, whose physical and mental health is jeopardized by the system. Imagine pulling your hair from the scalp andrepeating that vigorously till blood oozes out of the skin. That was just a coping strategy adopted by the author when all she needed was professional help. We can still avoid that right? I mean if we take our outlook on mental health into consideration. But imagine being food poisoned and not receiving any medical assistance, left at the mercy of home remedial measures. That’s what the author talks about in one of the chapters titled ‘Curfew as Poison’. I strongly urge you all to pick this book.

Hippie

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I would say that this book actually took me places. When I bought this book, I really had no idea that it’s partly Paulo’s autobiography. It was just the title that I found intriguing. I wondered why would Paulo write something on The Hippie culture? I was having a hard time imagining Paulo as a Hippie.

The Hippies represented a counter cultural movement that rejected the traditional and conventional ways of life that became quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Having read 10 books by the author previously, where most of his protagonists embark on a spiritually motivated journey, the book Hippie reveals his personal journey and experiences which certainly motivated the making of his fictional characters. Coelho, I believe is an exceptional man. I am sure most of you have read his books and I am not talking about his most hyped books like The Alchemist but some of his other books like Zahir, Veronika Decides to Die, Eleven Minutes and The Witch of Portobello, which reflects his exceptional perceptions on diverse themes ranging from faith and spirituality to mental health, love, sex and adultery.

This guy have seen it all, experienced it all and all of his personal experiences , I think, of unrequited love, drug addiction, capiophobia and even being sent to a mental institution three times helps him create the masterpieces he does.

In the first half of the book, before Paulo’s encounter with a Hippie woman named Karla, he attempts to nullify the basic stereotypes on Hippies who were looked down as a group of people wearing weird clothes, who doesn’t believe in the concept of personal hygiene, keeps their hair uncombed, mostly unemployed drug addicts who engage in immoral sexual activities defying societal norms. Paulo blasts these stereotypes one by one with contradictory references to the Hippie way of living. Their journey seeking the meaning of life can never be generalized. Where one may seek peace with the use of cocaine, LSD and other drugs at their disposal, another mightsimply resort to other spiritual and mystical means.

I really loved Karla. The woman in search of a purpose, a meaning of life who establishes a quirky mix of platonic and sexual love with Paulo and somehow makes him a part of her journey in a magical bus from Amsterdam to Kathmandu. The later part of the book took me by surprise. Some part of me really hoped seeing Paulo and Karla together but those two hippies were never meant to be. Their inner selves were crumbled in different ways and the answers they were looking for could never have been found in the same spiritual pursuit. The little part of the long journey that Paulo was a part of, introduced us both to new places and people. It was truly a refreshing expeience.

Undertow

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‘There had never been any of that soft mother –daughter business between them.’
I really enjoy reading stories of dysfunctional families with complicated characters and relationships. Be it an unusual mother daughter relationship lacking love and affection, as in Shashi Deshpande’s ‘The Dark holds no terrors’ and Jahnavi Barua’s ‘Undertow’; sibling rivalries like the one narrated in the recent short story I read-‘The Romance of Certain Old Clothes’; broken and irreparable father daughter relationship as depicted in ‘The Vegetarian’ and families torn apart by any tragedy. How do you think a literary creation would fare without drama? Taking the dynamics of human relationships into consideration, I think Undertow is a brilliant book which captures the effects of familial cruelties on a person with absolute candor.
The first part of Undertow, set in the year 1983, takes us through Rukmini’s tough struggle to choose in between her individual autonomy or surrendering as a prisoner to repressive social practices. Through various events of Rukmini’s life, we get to see how her mother got in the way of most of her choices. Being restricted to her hometown, enrolled in the Guwahati Medical College, she never got to explore career options of her choice. Usha was never available as a friendly mother for Rukmini to lay down her guards and share her feelings. So talking about the development of romantic feelings towards a Malayali Christian batch mate was out of the question. She knew it with certainty that her controlling mother would dismiss her feelings. Going against her mother, Rukmini married Alex, which resulted in her ostracization from the family. Usha was least affected with her daughter leaving the city foreverto settle in Bangalore. Her father, Torun who apparently had the choice of intervening, didn’t make an attempt to mend the situation.
In the second part of the book, we see Rukmini’sdaughter Loya standing in front of the same Yellow House her mother grew up in, looking for answers from her grandfather Torun. Loya’s narrative represents her lack of control over the environment she grew up in. The emotional trauma caused by the divorce of her parents, the cold shouldered attitude of her father’s family and Rukmini’s solitary confinement affected her all throughout. She blamed her mother’s family for casting away their only daughter, for no attempts on their part to reconcile and for all the associated crises. She was angry and wanted answers.
The author gives the Brahmaputra a special place in the book, making readers visualize it as a powerful entity of the region. The conversations between Torun and Loya were inclusive of discussions on the history of Assam, valiant war heroes, rich culture and heritage, socio political aspects of the region and events post Andolan. It’s really impressive that the author made sure to promote facts about the state which might be hitherto unknown to readers from different parts of the country and beyond. Being a resident of the same place the Yellow House is set in, I walked along with Loyathrough all the familiar lanes, by the river side, away from the noise and bustle of the city. It was an absolutely refreshing exercise for my mind. I just wish the ending was less melancholic.

The Glass Palace

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It took 5 years of the author’s time to finish this book and it stayed by my side for the longest from October ‘20 to May ’21.Its’s hard to get this huge chronicle out of my head now.
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‘The Glass Palace’ presents a dramatic story based on colonial subjugation and displacement. It begins with the British invasion of Burma and the eventual displacement of the royal family from their beautiful palace in Mandalay to Outram House in India. The compulsory exodus, the anguish of the family and their humiliated state is so well described. Ghosh did a wonderful job in presenting the image of the royal family’s helplessness, their impotent outrage towards the conquerors and how they never got used to their life in India in contrast to their daughters and the servants who accompanied them. They got accustomed to the new culture in India, learnt the language and familiarized with Hindustani.
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The book is quite comprehensive focusing on different geographical locations – Calcutta and Ratnagiri in India, Mandalay in Burma and British Malaya with diverse characters from different socio economic backgrounds, from the royal family to homeless mendicants. Most of the characters live through the whole book covering three generations. The story also brings to light the complexes associated with Diaspora; The circumstances which contributed to their unplanned exile, how natives react towards outsiders and displaced persons and the slurs faced by the refugees. There are a number of instances where Rajkumar, a refugee from India is mocked and put down for being a Bangali. Saya John, a half Chinese was treated the same. The story follows through the journey of these displaced persons rising up the economic ladder with the rise of timber and rubber plantations in Burma and how well they exploited the opportunities available.
In the 2nd part of the book titled Ratnagiri, we get to see how the British government dealt with the exiled family.
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The year 1905 introduces us to a new collector in Ratnagiri named Beni Prasad Dey who is accompanied by his wife Uma Dey. Uma is one of the primary characters of the story and we eventually read a lot of sub stories with different themes shaping out of Uma’s associations. She is initially seen befriending Dolly, one of King Thebaw’s servants. The friendship goes a long way and follows them to Burma again with Dolly marrying Rajkumar in Burma. It was quite paradoxical to see Uma, the widow of a British administrative officer, lead the national movement towards the later part of the book. The last two parts seemed a bit rushed and chaotic. However, there was no other way the author could’ve handled so many characters with war lurking in the background and the ingression of the Japanese forces.
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Since it was one of Ghosh’s books, I knew I had to bear with the death of certain characters and it was so painful to part with Amy. Arjun’s narrative was equally absorbing. It was such a poignant description of the moral predicament of Indian soldiers working for the British. We get a glimpse of the conditions of the Army in British India, how race played a determining role in one’s position in the hierarchy.

White as Milk and Rice

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India is home to the largest tribal population in the world. The Anthropological survey of India under the ‘People of India Project’ identifies 461 tribal communities in India. Among them, Nidhi Dugar Kundalia in her book “White as Milk and Rice” takes us through the lives of 6 isolated tribes of India- The Halakkis of Ankola, The Kanjars of Chambal, The Kurumbas of the Nilgiris, The Marias of Bastar, The Khasis of Shillong and The Konyaks of Nagaland.

Kundalia’s research presents before us the grim reality of oppression and alienation victimizing the tribes. The tribes are not only deprived of their socio-economic and educational rights, but discriminated to such an extent that it gets difficult to meet their basic requirements. The author points out the various forms of exploitation that happens in the name of development of the tribes with subtle criticisms of the slow developmental processes undertaken by governments from time to time as programmes and policies.

All the stories presented unique attempts by members of the researched tribes to contribute towards their development and protection of their respective identities.

In the first story, the author introduces us to Sukri, an old Hallaki woman,who went around different towns and cities singing their original songs with beautiful musical traits in the name of upholding their distinct culture. She received the Padma Shri for her contributions to the arts. The story beautifully portrays the conditions of the Hallaki women their perceptions on society and gender, as well as their conflicting economic roles. The cover photo of the book in fact features a Hallaki woman. Those beads are distinctive to their tribe. The Kanjars on the other hand were a community of dacoits, who were Rajputs originally. The author takes us through their confined lives in the forest, practicing various tactics of skillfully looting people, which of course was a life risking factor when actually practiced. The stories bring out various themes, from a community practicing sorcery, to a matrilineal society in Meghalaya and the difficulties associated with its functioning. The story of the head hunting community of Nagaland was quite novel to me. I loved reading the story of the Marias of Bastar. The tribe didn’t stigmatize pre marital sexual relations and allowed its members to address their desires instead of branding negativity to passion. I won’t go much into discussing every story in the book but it was really an enlightening experience to read about their rich customs, traditions, culture, language and their struggle to preserve their endangered identity most importantly.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

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“Partly autobiographical, this is first of the internationally acclaimed trilogy by Judith Kerr telling the unforgettable story of a Jewish family fleeing from Germany at the start of the Second World War”

This book targets a young age group from 9 to 14. We didn’t have such wonderful books in our school library unfortunately. So I’m making up for the lack of access in my late 20s.

Anna, a young Jewish girl, living a happy and comfortable life with her small family in Germany narrates her experiences of leaving behind everything after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. This little girl had just some wee idea about Hitler and knew that her father vehemently criticized this guy in his columns. That was all. Judith Kerr did a wonderful job of giving subtle references to the political scenario of that period to educate her young readers. Anna’s father soon came to the limelight for being vocal against the new regime. He sensed the dangers associated with their vulnerability and decides to leave Germany for Switzerland. Anna’s childlike narration was so sweet and agonizing at the same time. She was convinced that it was just a temporary relocation and agreed to leave behind her ‘pink rabbit’, a soft toy she treasured. This inspires the title “When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit”.

The narration of their journey to Switzerland kept me on the edge. I felt equally nervous of being discovered. What a relief it was to have landed safe in Switzerland.We get to read about the family’s struggle to meet their ends. It was so matured for a 9 year old, to understand that the family’s togetherness matteredthe most at that point. After their short stay in Switzerland, the family moved to France in search of better opportunities. Their finances soon depleted and her father struggled to sell his writings to publishers and agencies in a foreign land. Anna beautifully narrates her attempts to adjust in France, learn the language from scratch, understand their culture and make friends. There were little fights with her older brother who was equally frustrated with their new lifestyle but accepted life with a positive outlook despite their struggles. I really enjoyed their conversations, so full of humor that it instantly lightened my mood after one of their bad days in school. Certain episodes in Anna’s life were really heartbreaking. How she longed for her nanny Heimpi’s presence. How Onkel Julius couldn’t escape Hitler’s world. I am looking forward to read the 2nd book in the trilogy which probably follows the family’s experiences in England.

The Last Queen

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The first name that comes to my mind if someone asks about writers delivering the best books in mythological fiction is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. I think I’ll vouch for the same name in case of historical fiction now. Given a choice, I am more likely to pick up a historical fiction anytime. I wonder how difficult it must be for writers to put into use all of their research, brilliant perceptions, commitment and hard work to create a historical tale without misrepresenting the historically authentic aspects. I really admire Chitra Ma’am for all her writings. This time I am too much in awe of her for giving a voice to Rani Jindan, giving her the same recognition and consideration that Maharaja Ranjit Singh would’ve otherwise “conventionally” received in a book. I am sure we’ve come across a lot of books based on the “Lion of Punjab”. It was time someone introduced us to the Queen.

“The Last Queen” portrays the life of Jindan Kaur, the youngest and the last of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s wife. The story follows the rough and difficult journey of Jindan from being a naïve commoner to the level headed queen regent. In the first part of the book where we see an exceptionally intelligent Jindan growing up with extraordinary inquisitiveness, we also get to see the harsh and oppressive nature of the society Jindan lived in. She never got a chance to finish her formal education. A little girl who dreamt to move out of her confined village space to the beautiful city of Lahore was again restricted to her father’s quarter when she actually came to explore the city of her dreams. It’s remarkable that the author presented the established idea of a woman’s space, essentially domestic in nature. Following her betrothal to the king and her entry into the intricate court and harem poltics, Jindan courageously faces her opponents, both men and women. It was really satisfying to read about her patient and bold moves against all the conspiracies plotted by power hungry men in the state. Jindan’s character is unforgettable for her resilience and fearlessness, for not giving up even though she encountered novel challenges on her way.

It was heartbreaking to read the last two parts of the book. A mother separated from her son, a queen wrongfully exiled from her state, a prisoner harassed and forced to live an ignominious life, a refugee desperately waiting to come back home.  I can go on and on in praise of this book but I’m afraid my words won’t do justice. I strongly urge you all to read this amazing book.

My Dark Vanessa

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My Dark Vanessa is an intensely dark yet engaging read. I don’t know if an extremely sensitive person would want to experience a book which is sexually explicit in its descriptions. It was indeed emotionally exhausting. So when a friend asked me how I’m enjoying the book, I wasted no time to recommend the book. I was really excited at that moment but what needs to be taken into consideration before suggesting it to anyone is that not all readers might be able to psychologically withstand the impact of the subject matter. The book happens to be the debut novel of Kate Elizabeth Russell and she deserves all the praise for the amazing piece of work she created. The author made sure that the narrative grips the readers into the perpetually confined spaces of Vanessa’s mind. I can speak for myself to justify this experience. It felt so frustrating at times when Vanessa just wouldn’t want to see the way I wanted her to. I hated her for all the times she refused to make sense of the situation, that she wasn’t the problem, the abuser was.

The two timelines, the year 2000 and 2017 that the story is set in gives an account of Vanessa’s experiences as a 15 year old student at a residential school and a 32 year old woman who is still not freed from the demons of her past. The narrative opens in the year 2017, when the phrase Me too gained momentum to raise awareness of women who had been abused. Vanessa is the narrator who is shocked to see the name of her former teacher Jacob Strane pop up as an abuser all over social media. This event forces her to reconstruct her experiences with the then 42 year old teacher, their illegitimate affair, her first sexual encounter and the circumstances which contributed to her eventual termination from school.

The story tries to emphasize on the long term repercussions of abuse. The kind of impact an abuser may continue to have on a victim affecting his/her relationship with others. What we see in Vanessa’s story is how a child’s mind can be maneuvered to make them believe the way the abuser wants. The emotional manipulation, misrepresentation of love and the abuse of power were all together responsible for the state Vanessa was in. The rape she believed was an act of love. Vanessa never wanted to associate herself with a victim and struggled hard with the contradictory questions that arose in her mind. It was hard to read the book but I think it should be widely read to develop a better understanding of what this subject involves. We need to understand that child sexual abuse may include both touching and non touching conduct and not only the rape of a child.