Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography.

Moon, Vasant. Growing Up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography. Gail Omvedt (Trans from Marathi). New Dehi: Vistaar Pubications, 2001.

Contents:
Introduction. 1. The neighborhood. 2. Fearless. 3. Callousness and clouds. 4. Heat and rain. 5. Dev master’s curse fails. 6. Religious hymns. 7. Shooting star. 8. Chickpeas and parched rice. 9. The unconquered. 10. Parade of lions and tigers. 11. Foreshadowing. 12. Holy victory. 13. Robust and rollicking. 14. Sports and study. 15. Politics and pigeons. 16. Climax. 17. Wrath. 18. Cultural transformation. 19. An unspoiled picture. 20. The welfare of the world. 21. For what? For books. 22. I begin to write. 23. The end of Omar Khayyam. 24. Rising moon. 25. The vows of religion. 26. Falling star. 27. Tying the knot. 28. The spinning top. 29. Summing up. Chronology. Glossary. Biographical notes. Bibliography. Index.

Moon has dedicated this autobiography to his mother Purnabai whose "cracks in her feet disappeared only with death." The beginning describes the Basti or the slum in which Moon was born. It is not a sentimental description of poverty or struggle alone. It is about the crammed way in which life places the Mahars in the Basti and the strange way in which peace is still got out of these inhuman circumstances. The tar road becomes the space of socialising and sometimes even star gazing for the growing up boy.

The text is also about growing up male in a Dalit basti. The models in front of him are the wrestlers who fight amongst themselves and then join hands at a later stage, the thief Nagya who was known all over Maharashtra and who bequeths his skills to his son, men who tease the beautiful Champa, wife of an old man etc.

Gertrude and Alice

Souhami, Daina. Gertrude and Alice. London: Pheonix Press, 1991.

Gertrude Stein met Alice B Toklas in 1907 and they were together till Stein's death in 1946. This book is about their love story, and their personalities. But what is most striking is the relationship between the two. Stein played the husband and Toklas was always the wife. She was completely overshadowed by Stein. Toklas felt her own capacity as an intellectual was limited. With Stein, she felt she was in the presence of genius. She dedicated her life to Stein's ambition and became "Your Darling" to Stein's "Darling, Darling." Even in her Memoirs she speaks about her life with a genius and projects Stein's point of view. She is buried with Stein, but the inscription is also a shadow of Stein's inscription.

This is not quite a remarkable achievement for a woman, who is taught to obiterate herself and not have any direct ambition. It is strange that the same patriarchal models of power reflect even in lesbian relationships.

My Name is Red

Pamuk, Orhan. My Name is Red. Erdag M Goknar (Trans. from Turkish). New York: Vintage International, 2001.

This is set in medieval Istanbul. The sultan has commissioned the illustration of a book. The novel is from the differing points of view of many characters and revolves around a murder. The setting is 16th century Ottomon empire in Turkey. Most of the characters are the minaturists of the Sultan. Using the minature art as a sign of art and representation, the novel speaks about the problems of the impossibility of authorship.
In the novel, a corpse speaks to the reader first. He describes the competition among the illustrators that led to his murder. Then Black, the traveller speaks. He is exiled from Istanbul by his uncle, an illustrater, for his forbidden passion for Shekure, the uncle's daughter. He is coming back after 12 years and is aware of Shekure's presence behind the walls. Then the dog of the murderer, who is also a thief, speaks. Then comes the murderer himself. Like this the story unfolds in the character of minature art itself, with extreme care to depict details, but no deapth.
The contest between human beings only reflect a more serious contest between two world veiws - the western and the islamic. the islamic world view, represented in its pristine form by the followers of Hoja, a wandering mystic, believes in the impossibility of realism. whereas, the Frankish masters who paint portraits in Venice, and whom the master illustrater, Enishte Effendi (Black's uncle) had seen, portrays each of their subjects realistically as well as giving separate individual characterestics for each portrait. This style is completely different from the Islamic style where individualism is forbidden. The first minuatarist, Elegant Effendi was murdered precisely because he wanted to betray the group to Hoja's followers. But,when the murderer confessed his doings to Enishte Effendi, he did not get any sympathy. So, he murders him as well.
Parallaly woven is the story of Shekure and Black. While Black seems to be idealizing Shekure and in love with her idealized image, Shekure herself is a scheming woman trying to exist within the constraints posed to her by a tough patriarchy. For her, both Hasan, her brother-in-law as well as Black are equally usable, though she feels a kind of attraction towards Black.
Following the style of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, the novel weaves through the different possiblities of who the murderer could be focussing on the three master minaturists - Stork, Olive and Butterfly. Finally, when the mystery is solved, we understand that the murderer has committed the crime to prevent the demise of Islamic art, but is seduced by the possibilities of individualism himself. He steals the final portrait of the Sultan and and has painted his own portrait there instead.
Read another review here.