Arshilata - Women's Fiction from India and Bangladesh
ed. Niaz Zaman, Published 2007 writers.ink, Bangladesh
God is good and every now and then, a brilliant book comes my way by accident. I have not been reading the book club books due to time, but this book had me.
This is a book of 20 short stories written by women from India and Bangladesh. Some were written in English, others are beautifully translated from their original Bangla, Urdu, Telegu, Marathi, Malayalam and Oriya. The nuances of language might have been lost in translation, but the impact is still the same.
The stories are about women and girls, in different circumstances and doing different things. One of my bookclub members from time to time says things like 'this is not true, this is incredible, this is not how people behave' but that is the importance of telling stories to share other truths and fantasies of the truths.
In Make-up Box, Mallika tries to bury her sister, a sex worker and moves from burial ground to burial ground. Under the Lemon Tree opens up about mental illness in families - and this piece, so relevant to how many of us in Guyana live
"What beauty does secrecy have? Ever since I was a child I've seen how secrecy weakens people, makes them small. Gives others the chance to sneer and jeer and taunt.That's why, no matter how shameful, sorrow and pain should be brought out into the daylight, to heal in the light and the air."Bitter Triumph is a take on infidelity and how a woman chooses to live with it. Many might object - the last line is how some people's marriages end up" Occasionally, our excursion to the garden coincides and on these rare days, we sit in adjacent chairs in companionable silence like two perfect strangers in a city park. Infidelity is often not talked about in many 'Indian' scenarios since the Indian family is always seen as a noble institution.
The care of elders, and aging in Aunty is told, the dilemma of caring when there are no caregivers and when the expectations of families are not met.
Saleha's Desire.. a woman dares to tell a man that she does not want to have sex with him.. and the villagers punish her but she says to her mother who asks her why didn't she die " Every morning when I get up from sleep I have this hope that from tomorrow good days will dawn. They don't. Even then I don't know why it is that I desire to live on"
Two women - infidelity again, the two women meeting up after 'their man' is dead.. a different kind, but similar to the cussing up reported on Facebook by a woman - betwen "childmudda" and "childrenmother "
Insy winsy spider is a bit strange.. but tells a story of generations changing. Giribala.. the pain of the trade in women. Transformation.. familiar to many of us when the revolutionaries also abandon their principles and then become those that they fought against. Parul's Motherhood - a woman tells her husband 'You are not my baby's father' . The black cat about marriage and abandonment. "The Vultures are everywhere" - about broken promises by politicians.. some of them also women in beautiful saris- "who spoke of their leader and said what a wonderful person he was"
Yellow is the colour of longing - forbidden love and communicable diseases. Parakrousis - a woman fantasises about killing the child, women and man who oppresses her.. this was difficult to read. Where did she belong - about a girl who was found as a baby halfway between a mosque and a temple, and whose 'mother' sold her to whoever would pay. The story is told during the time of partition in India.
Pratibha Ray's The Other God is my favourite.. a satire, but perhaps not a satire on God and seeking God; and about the foreigners and the Bhartiyas and how they see God or do not see God.
Green Chillies - about a young bride who would not be demure. Ayoni - derived from ayonija like Mother Sita, not born of the womb, ayoni.. not having a vagina and womb, .. a powerful brutal story dedicated to a girl called Sveta and the other children who are sexually abused. Mariam and the miser - another story told by a mother to a daughter - with no happy ending or no ending really - but the daughter listening to the story wondering whether this was her mother telling her about survival.
This collection is highly recommended. For those of us whose ancestors left India a long time ago, some of the stories show a different imagination of women.. different from the tales we are shown in Bollywood or selectively told from some of the ancient scriptures. These stories follow no script and some of them are familiar, while others give insights which we would never have into lives across the world.
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