Saturday, March 9, 2024

Sakina's Kiss

 

“Who knew what unsaid things deep inside found expression in a vote?” 

With the 2024 Indian general election in sight, reading Sakina’s Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag, translated from Kannada by Srinath Perur felt well-timed.

Venkat and Viji’s comfortable, rather ‘ordinary’ life as their college-going daughter Rekha calls it with disinterest, is ruffled up when Rekha goes missing when returning home from a visit to Venkat’s village. Her college mates (males) and local goons visiting her house, insisting they talk to her urgently prior to the news of her disappearance spikes worries. Rekha comes back home safe but Venkat, like us readers, has a lot to decode and mull about.

A crisp picture of today’s society, centered about an urban nuclear family, Sakina’s Kiss in the guise of a thriller touches upon many issues - moral righteousness, misogyny, patriarchy, insurmountable challenges of parenting, ‘women empowerment’ that is easier to preach but hard to practice, its interpretation that many women feel begins by taming the men at home.

For its myriad topics, it isn’t ‘ghachar ghochar’ (meaning messy) for it is well written (translated) and taut with the exception of the last two chapters where it felt languorous. Pegged between Venkat’s father who is annoyed when his wife’s younger brother writes all his letters addressed to her, ‘How will anyone know who Sundari is?’ he smirks and Venkat’s wife who openly threatens to leave him if he casts his vote for a misogynistic politician, the narrative flows revealing how times have changed, at least in some ways.

Sakina’s Kiss upset me with its characters. Venkat irked me, either with his complacence or cowardice. The only time he felt he reined in was during his honeymoon and this gave me creeps. Rekha is a wild child who believes anarchy is synonymous with freedom. Most daughters and mothers share a special bond but Viji, ganging up with Rekha & ousting Venkat every single time, felt toxic. Venkat elicits a little pity, then I remember it’s all his POV and doubt if my reaction is unwarranted. 

Important messages but tepid characters - that is my one line summary for the book.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Books Read in February 2024

 


My February reading began with a graphic novel, The Pig Flip by Joshy Benedict, translated from Malayalam by KK Muralidharan. An Indian graphic novel, translated from an Indian language makes it one of a kind. I added two more illustrated books, specially meant for young readers to my kitty - The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie Blackall and Paper Boat Paper Bird by David Almond, illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman. Also, added two more, very slim picture books- Shelter by Celine Claire, illustrated by Qin Leng and Olwen finds her wings by Nora Surojegin, illustrated by Pirkko Surojegin.

Other reads for the month include - 

Silk by Alessandro Baricco, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein

The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay, tr from French by Sheila Fischman (for February in France)

The Secret of the Blue Glass by Tomiko Inui, tr from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Under the Bakul Tree by Mrinal Kalita, tr from Assamese by Partha Pratim Goswami

The Patient in Bed Number 12 by Rajkamal Jha 

Eden Abandoned : The Story of Lilith by Shinie Antony

Postcard from the Lushai Brigade by Hannah Lalhlanpuii

And cannot end the month's reading without a collection of short stories - Stories for winter : and Nights by the Fire (British Library Women Writers)

A wholesome reading month where I earnestly set aside a lot of my time to read as much as possible, knowing fully well that March is exam time for kid at school , April and May, the summer holiday months will have really spare or nil reading too.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Eden Abandoned - The Story of Lilith

 


“I am Lilith. Made not with commonplace, pedestrian sperm and egg, but by God’s own hand. I am the very first woman, before even Eve’s time.” Eden Abandoned by Shinie Antony is the story of Lilith, the putative first wife of the first man on the Earth (Adam) who left Eden as curiosity was her biggest vice, her inability to nod ‘yes’, her biggest defect. 

Crafted by God himself, she asserted she came second but wasn’t secondary, she wasn’t going to take anything lying down. A fallen wife, an OG rebel, a seductress and stealer of sperms, a baby killer, if Lilith stood for unrestrained rage, desire and promiscuity, Eve who replaces her, crafted from Adam’s rib embodied prudery, piety. If Eve loved to walk in Adam’s shadow, Lilith loved to hold a mirror to Adam.

“In order to make one man unspecial, you must make many men special” and Lilith does everything egregious to rip Adam off her life, but does she manage to? She earns the tag of a historic villainess, she’s omitted from the Bible and Torah, neither the Aramaic nor the Tower of Babel mention her, can she be resurrected as a modern day heroine? Read this slim book, just about the size of a smartphone, and brainstorm!

In Eden Abandoned, the gravitas is in the words. Shinie Antony’s raw, unbridled power in writing fits Lilith well like a glove that you sit back and wonder who fuels who. For instance, Lilith's love for the colour red is beautifully conveyed in lines below - 

"Red was going to be my colour. The red of my times was different from yours. Our red came from stone sparking stone, from fireworks trapped in uncut rubies, from trees blossoming in menstrual hues, from the evening brocade the sun sews around Earth, from the last light of a dying star."

There are little nuggets of wisdom too - " A good partner I tell you is the yeast in your bread loaves". "Happiness is nowhere as melodramatic as dawning of sense, rebuilding yourself one sinew at a time. Happiness is so damn quiet that the happy often don’t know they are happy until they are unhappy." 

But this linguistic sleight of hand gets arduous at places, especially in the last few chapters where things slow down and we begin to ruminate if Lilith is weighed down by guilt, loneliness, repentance before it is proved we are entirely wrong in the last page of the book.

There is no denying that Eden Abandoned takes patriarchy head on but as with any ‘-ism’, it espouses rebelling just for the sake of rebelling, trashes contentment as a flaw and bashes those who don't align, as in this instance - “What a pathetic woman a wife is. Seeking shade in her husband’s shadow. Doomed to be in awe of him ..”

Women who have questioned/refused to bow to male agency have always had it tough. Their fiery independence is seen as heresy by many. Lilith’s journey is no different. From a person of flesh and blood to becoming a memory erased, as chapters countdown from 13 to 0, this mini firecracker of a book goes bang!, quite loud & clear.

Rating 3.75 stars - As a feminist mythological retelling of a character hitherto unknown to most of us, I liked reading this book. I would rate it 4 stars because I believe one needs to tread a middle path between supporting extremes -complete, unadulterated independence/anarchy and servility. The final rating falls shorter for the writing feels arduous at places to navigate despite being potent. 

(A copy of the book was obtained from the publisher in return for a honest review)

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Books read in January 2024

 


Below are the books/titles I read in January 2024 - 

For January in Japan, a hashtag, a beautiful initiative on Instagram, (I have been reading for the last few years), I read the four titles below this time -

Mountains, Radio Waves and a Love Letter- Days of Adventure on the Evergreen Ranch by Shinji Yoshikawa 

The Forest Brims Over by Maru Ayase, translated from Japanese by Haydn Trowell 

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, translated from Japanese by Alison Watts 

The Three Cornered World by Natsume Soseki, translated from Japanese by Alan Turney

Other novels read include -

I read a book translated from language Afrikaans for the first time - A Good Night for Shooting Zombies by Jaco Jacobs, translated by Obus Geldenhuys, illustrated by Jim Tierney. 

Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil left a deep impression. 

I cannot have a month without a fair share of short stories. I read a collection of stories, two short story singles available on Amazon Free Prime reading and four singles from Mint Lounge - lounge fiction special. 

Short Stories

A Fine Thread by B Jeyamohan, translated from Tamil by Jegadeesh Kumar 

Amazon Original Stories -

A Planned Occasion by Angie Kim 

Days Before Us by Sejal Badani 

From Mint Lounge - 

The Bleeding Flowers - Linthoi Chanu 

Paper Boat - Manoj Rupda, translated from Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Unni Nair and Sumathi by Manu Bhattathiri

Just Friends by Shastri Akella

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Maria, Just Maria

 




“It's not a question of belief, Appacha. It's a question of belonging. It's about being with people we know, in a place we are familiar with. A place where we belong because of who we are, no matter what we do in our lives”. For Maria who thinks real life is boring and madness might add a bit of interest to it, does such a place exist in real life or is it only in dreams?

Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil begins at a psychiatric hospital where Maria is being treated. From a sensitive, precocious & innocent child to an adult in 30s, struggling to live, Maria's journey unfolds in a non-linear fashion for the scatterbrain she is.

The youngest of four children, Maria is cast aside as an avoidable extra. She grows up at Kottarathil Veedu, her ancestral house. Geevarghese, her maternal grandfather (Appachan) who equals her in craziness is her best buddy. 

“What is the point in living without knowing the history of your own family and your ancestors?” says Appachan and we are regaled with stories of a plethora of colorful characters who sprawl like a banyan. Of ancestors, uncles and aunts, of an ancestor who was an outstanding magician, of Appachan's grandmother who aced prophesying, of Appachan's father whose temptation of finding a place in heaven superseded all other temptations, Appachan's own life story about his friends, his wife, his children and even of a saint who inspired his name, the stories here are aplenty. Chandi, the dog and Ammini, the parrot add an interesting anthropomorphic element.

Largely from Maria and her Appachan’s POV, through foibles of characters here, the author holds a mirror to our world that cannot think beyond binaries - haves & have nots, First world & Third world, normal-abnormal; a digital world that runs only on 0s & 1s, one that kneads, stretches and snips people to fit them into readymade moulds. Even though this sounds heavy, the author writes in an unshowy, funny manner balancing tragedy and comedy. If Maria's conversations with Karthav (Christ) are hilarious, her situation when she eventually moves in with her parents & siblings tears our heart asunder. The vast array of characters may leave us readers complaining, but the author makes sure that she enables our understanding of Maria, our becoming more tolerant to those who are widely different from us.

In a discussion between the author and the translator shared in the insights section at the end of the novel, the translator quotes Edith Grossman - “A translation can be faithful to tone and intention, to meaning. It can rarely be faithful to words or syntax, for these are peculiar to specific languages and are not transferable.” Jayasree Kalathil’s translation does this for there’s a little something that shifts in us at the end of the novel. Maria’s declension, her simple options for a happily ever after which feel hard to attain in this world moves us to tears. An activist-researcher in the field of mental health and human rights, author of ‘The Sackcloth Man’, there’s no one more fitting than Jayasree Kalathil who can translate this work. Fighting standard definitions of who’s a success and who’s a wastrel, or even wondering who discovered time is a thing to be used, this pretty unique novel instills in us, if not empathy, a restraint in terming someone struggling to live as mad. The cover design by Aashim Raj and the cover illustration by Nupur Panemangalore do complete justice to the story. 

Can't this world be a little more inclusive? This is the question we are left with at the end of this moving novel, the story of Maria who misplaced a few years of her life, or should we just say, the story of Maria, Just Maria.