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Sagarika Chakraborty’s A Calendar Too Crowded has its ups and downs; nevertheless it stands by womanhood and speaks out unflinchingly.
Review by Anne John
A Calendar Too Crowded has an interesting and unique theme. It is a collection of short stories and poems around notable days of the calendar that are dedicated to women or women’s issues. Thus we have a poem on gender selection for the Anti-Selective-Abortion Day which falls on October 25th, a story about oppression against widows for the International Widows Day on February 2nd and so on.
The characters in each story are nameless because according to the author, “No name would justify a voice which represents millions.” The stories touch upon the lives of women from various walks of life, regardless of economic or social disparity. This highlights the fact, that all women, regardless of money, education, upbringing or looks are connected with one another, by the common problems that they have to face every day.
This aspect is beautifully depicted in the story for World Breast-Feeding Day (August 1st), where a blue collar labourer and a white collar worker, both worry about being able to provide enough nourishment to their respective babies, while juggling work. While each might have different reasons to go back to work and differing support systems (or lack thereof), the story still manages to bring out the angst of every new mother at the end of her maternity leave.
Most of the stories ring true, because as women, most of us would have had similar experiences or atleast heard about such incidents. For instance, reading the June story for Anti-Eve-Teasing/Molestation Day, ‘Naked’, gives one a sense of déjà vu, as it is strikingly similar to the controversy surrounding the recent Kolkata rape victim and people’s reactions to it.
But not all stories portray women as victims. The November story for Anti-Dowry Day, ‘Living by the Double-Edged Sword’ shows us both sides of the coin of a woman’s relationship with her marital home, with its belief that, “Mothers-in-law can never be mothers. Daughters-in-law can never be daughters.”
On the other hand, I felt that the September story, ‘Knowledge Beyond The Printed Letters’, showcases a woman who is the epitome of the humble-calm-composed-ever-loving-all-satisfying-over-achieving-homemaker-and-career-woman-all-rounder superwoman stereotype! The protagonist in this story, looks after the needs of her husband, kids, in-laws with great attention to detail, yet is not ‘just a boring housewife’. She has several accomplishments to her name, but never boasts or even talks about it unless forced to. And after a long and an eventful day, she ensures that she is a dutiful wife, mother and bahu as, “…She packed his bags, ensuring that he had all that was essential for a comfortable trip, checked on her children and lovingly doted on her mother-in-law…”It made me want to roll my eyes!
Additionally I could not totally grasp the ‘An Equal Friendship’ story, which unfolds as a letter from Panchali to Krishna. Although I am aware of the broad story of the Mahabharata, I am not too familiar with the nitty-gritty of it. Therefore when Panchali compares the events of her own life to the state of women’s equality today, I could not completely comprehend though I did get the basic essence of the story.
The book uses simple and easily readable language that is at times, quite thought provoking, as in, “She asked me whether I have ever wondered why a prostitute is ashamed of what she does all her life, but the society is never ashamed of what it has done to her?” Having said that, Sagarika’s prose reads better than her poetry. The verses almost appear like lines of prose that have been forced to rhyme!
A Calendar Too Crowded is a good attempt for a debut novel. Despite having a few flaws, it indeed seems to be a promising start.
Publishers: Niyogi books
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Anne John loves to play with words and calls herself a reader, writer, explorer & dreamer. She has a wide range of interests and has recently jumped onto the Mommy Vlogger bandwagon! read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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