Forty-eighth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. In India, we are taught about our freedom struggle for almost 5 years as part of the high school curriculum. But the study is just a brief overview of the entire movement and does very little justice to this major event in the history of the sub-continent. It involved millions of people and had several leaders that spanned many generations. While writing textbooks for high school history, the authors tend to concentrate on a few of […]
A mammoth account of India’s story over the last 50 years!
Forty-sixth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. The history of India in the last 50 years is something that we don’t get to read about. Indians love to live in their past; reminiscing about the glory days of the ancient civilizations that thrived on the sub-continent. We love to boast about how three of the world’s major religions started in here and that at least one, found a major foothold. We are a civilization that accepted foreigners with open arms and our hospitality […]
A gorgeous series of novellas on the clash between old and new India
This collection of three novellas by, arguably, the greatest living Indian writer was a revelation for me. I have never read Desai’s works before and was blown away by the gorgeous tapestry of colors, smells, textures and sights she evoke with her writing. In this collection, she draws on the same themes of art and culture clash to draw out different but overlapping messages about change and stagnation, without necessarily championing one over the other. In the novella of the title, we are introduced […]
I Think I Need Some Tums
This is a novel that feels more like a movie script with lots of amazing food descriptions—some mouthwatering and some stomach-turning (depending on how you feel about certain types of French food). There are interesting elements here and the text goes down easily but it ultimately felt a bit unsatisfying to me. Richard Morais’s novel tells the story of Hassan Haji, who travels from the kitchen of his father’s Indian restaurant to a career as an acclaimed French chef. Hassan’s early memories are of his […]
The wise old economist speaks
Thirty-fifth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Amartya Sen is the benevolent, wise and knowledgeable grandpa that I never had. He talks of some of the stickiest issues and suggests solutions that sound beguilingly simple, mainly because he explains them in that tone of a wise old man. He talks of secularism, poverty, hunger, gender inequality, the nuclear arms race, the identity of India and the idea of Indian culture. These are quite drab topics to write about, and indeed, to read about. […]
Giving Rebirth is Not For the Weak
There are no harmless, compassionate ways to remake oneself. We murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams. Even 25 years after it was first published, the themes of this novel remain relevant: the immigrant experience of trying to assimilate into US culture and the particular experience of a young Hindu woman who chooses to defy traditional expectations and dares to remake herself. Violence, including murder, is a part not just of Jasmine’s personal story but of other women, […]