Thursday 8 March 2018

#femmeMarch – Indian YA Books and the Class Divide

A couple of years ago, I happened to listen to Andaleeb Wajid (at St. Joseph’s College where I was teaching then) talk about her books and the writing process. I hadn’t yet read any of her books - her first, Kite Strings, was published in 2009 – but was very impressed by the author herself -  warm, articulate and approachable. Dressed in a black abaya, a pastel hijab and an amused smile, she described how she managed to fit her writing into her busy life, and still have time for social media and friends. She explained that she focuses on the teen reader, for whom there aren’t too many options, and that her characters were invariably Muslim. That interested me for most Indian books for teenagers hardly ever featured Muslim or Christian or Buddhist characters, except as sidekicks.

In the last nine years, Andaleeb has published fifteen books (that’s right!) with the latest, titled Twenty Nine Going On Thirty out this month. Most of them are written for the Young Adult reader (14-24 years) and feature romance and food. Lately, she has experimented with the horror genre, which she says she enjoys reading. She works with several different publishers including Juggernaut Books who are changing the way people read (For the first time ever, I read a book on my phone with the Juggernaut app 😊). A single publisher probably wouldn't be able to keep up with her amazing output.

That afternoon, I went away telling myself I would soon read a book by Andaleeb but I didn’t (My bad). Not until this week, that is. As part of my #femmeMarch reading, I was keeping an eye out for women writers – global, local, writing for adults, teens or children. And that’s how I finally picked up Andaleeb’s Asmara’s Summer and kept my promise to myself 😊.

Asmara, the protagonist and the first-person narrator, is a pampered teenager who has had a privileged upbringing. To her absolute mortification, she is expected to spend a month of her summer holidays with her grandparents who live in an area perceived as shabby, down-market and conservative. All these years, she has not even let on to her best friends that her grandparents live there! Asmara dreads her ‘summer from hell’ with no air-conditioning, no cool stuff to do, and no Wi-Fi. But, no worries, for it’s a romance, and so good things loom ahead, including a new BFF and a neighbor who is a handsome hunk.

The best part of the book for me is that it looks at class issues in the face, at how we resort to stereotypes about ‘those’ people and ‘their style’ of dressing and the food ‘they’ like to eat. Asmara moves to Tannery Road with all these narrow labels firmly in place and even sets up a new Instagram account to bitch about ‘the bling’ and the ‘loud glitzy colours’ used by people living ‘there’. But luckily, Asmara is a thinking person, and soon, uses her critical faculties to understand others and herself better.

What did not work for me is that the narrative doesn’t take the critical gaze far enough – while Asmara makes friends in the neighbourhood, she doesn’t dwell on what underlying social structures set this area apart from posher areas in Bangalore. How do they manage with intermittent water supply? Why are the schools and college in the neighbourhood not great places to study in? Why do the Tannery Road residents have to be helped by someone from a posh part of the city? The book is a quick and easy read and contents itself by merely scratching the surface of the classist times we live in.  


Tuesday 6 March 2018

It’s #femmeMarch! Have you read a book by a woman today?



March isn't only about the madness of the March hare, or exam fever. It's #femmemarch month and a time to celebrate women writers. And so, I spent this afternoon reading two very interesting books on Storyweaver. Not only are they written by women, they are about women too.

StoryWeaver is this amazing platform where at last count, 7313 stories have been published online in 109 languages! It is an offshoot of Pratham Books and seeks to ensure that every child in India can read a story in the language of her choice. The stories are not controlled by copyright, and children, teachers, parents and librarians anywhere in the world can read them online, download them, print them, make copies and circulate them. StoryWeaver allows you to contribute in terms of creating new stories, contributing artwork, translating or re-levelling existing stories. I cannot think of a more noble, wonderful, or applause-worthy venture.

The two books I read were Anna’s Extraordinary Experiments with Weather by Nandita Jayaraj and illustrated by the extraordinary Priya Kurian, and The Cottonwool Doctor by Michelle Mathews and illustrated by Jean de Wet. The first is a Level 3 book and the second is a Level 2 book. Level 2 books deal with simple concepts and have upto 600 words, while Level 3 books make use of longer sentences and can be upto 1500 words long. Both books are biographies, based on real people and describe women’s accomplishments in the field of science and technology.



Anna’s Extraordinary Experiments is about Dr. Anna Mani, an Indian physicist and meteorologist who built almost a hundred weather gadgets. As a child, Anna loved books and spent all her free time reading. She cried when she was gifted diamonds on her birthday as she would have preferred to receive books. 



The Cottonwool Doctor traces the life of Margaret Bulkly who lived in the nineteenth century. Her parents spent all their money on their son’s education (sounds familiar?) and had nothing left for their daughter. With help from her uncle and a family friend, she dressed like a boy, changed her name and enrolled in medical school. 

Henceforth, she was known as Dr. James Barry and travelled all over the world with no one realizing that she was a woman until AFTER she DIED. What an amazing life this brave and determined woman must have led!

Do check out StoryWeaver.org.in for some interesting children’s books.