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Plan India’s Because I Am A Girl is a non-fiction anthology which hopes to tell the varied stories of women in India.
Book review of Plan India's non-fiction anthology Because I'm A Girl
Review by Unmana Datta
Because I Am A Girl is a small book of non-fiction stories by different authors published in collaboration with Plan India a child development organization, as part of its global campaign to fight gender inequality. It is actually shorter than it seems from the page count (178) because the font size is large. Is it meant for children then? Probably not: only two of the seven protagonists are actually young girls, and the first story contains descriptions of child prostitution.
The reason I’m not fond of anthologies in general is that they’re usually too uneven. The problem is compounded in this book because only two of the authors are (professionally, or arguably, in any other sense) writers.
The editors wisely kept the best up first: Anjum Hasan’s Walking the Line is an interesting exploration of prostitution, and is at once shudder-inducing and full of hope. Mina was pimped out by her father when she was a little girl and later worked as a bar dancer in Mumbai. Today she lives with her husband, Mahendar, and daughter, Abhilasha, in a village in Rajasthan and runs a small store. Yet it’s emphasized that Mina’s is the rare happy ending.
Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s profile of Radha is almost as interesting. As a teenager still in college who lives in the slums and is proud of her office job, Radha is both a success story and someone we can cheer for. While there’s a looming prospect of her being married off to her uncle, she seems confident she can resist the pressure. The only letdown in this story is the long page and a half of explanation on how the author’s life is different from the character’s, and “how we take everything we’re blessed with for granted.” What kind of unfeeling person did they expect to be reading the book to need this spelled out? Or is this just a devious call to support Plan India? (All the stories in the book are about women or girls who were helped by Plan India.)
But Madhavan’s story is the only other one remotely worth reading. The others reveal not just the deficiency of writing skills in the authors, but also, in one case, a stunning display of privilege and arrogance. Shahana Goswami writes proudly of condescending to talk to a fellow commuter in a Mumbai train, asks her probing personal questions, asks to be invited to her home, and exults in her opportunity to understand how “an average Indian woman leads her life.” She doesn’t even ask this young woman for her name until after she’s done visiting her house and prying into her private life for her voyeuristic pleasure.
The lack of editing weighs heavily on this book. A skilled editor could easily have moulded some of these stories into more interesting, nuanced ones, since the protagonists themselves are interesting, but the authors (barring the first two mentioned above, who do this admirably) seem to find it difficult to get over themselves and actually learn about the people who are ostensibly at the centre of the story. Also left in are sad errors like “the Sharma’s building” and “Maggie noodles”.
Govind Nihalani’s introduction is superfluous and full of spoilers, and contains a brief synopsis of every story that follows.
If you are interested in gender issues, the first story by Anjum Hasan is well worth reading: but probably not worth the price of the entire book.
Publishers: Random House
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Unmana is interested in gender, literature and relationships, and writes about everything she's interested in. She lives in, and loves, Bombay. read more...
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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