Category: Books

Fantastic To Be A Female

· 1 Comment ·

Imparting a wealth of information through a collection of anecdotes, Jacqueline Shannon’s book for girls gives a boost to their ego. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Far away from the madding crowd of the saas-bahu serials, tears and indulging in self-pity, Why It’s Great To Be A Girl: 50 Awesome Reasons Why We Rule! is a perfect treat for all girls entering adolescence, giving them a brushing up on girl power and the need to recognise their hidden potential.

Women have done better things in life than just be known for being talkative. Not only do they speak more number of words, they are also good listeners. Girls are better at communicating their thoughts with instant messaging and they even have longer attention spans than boys do. Jacqueline Shannon has in an interesting way gives many anecdotes from all walks of life to prove her point.

There is probably a point in the brain pattern and the way women think, but history has witnessed women as change-managers and intruders who entered prohibited areas and came out with flying colours. Otherwise, we would have had only men as doctors and engineers.

Shannon wrote the book based on her daughter Madeline’s pre-school experiences – the gender bias that she encountered when she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up to which she answered “a doctor” being just one instance.

Shannon is fair in her observations and without being prejudiced has tried to knit both the positive and negative aspects to her reasoning. Hence, though “the bad news is that women run fewer than 2 per cent of Fortune 500 companies…. the good news is that the number of woman-founded businesses continues to rise every year.” She takes pride in the fact that girls drive better than boys do.

Moving from its original version, Why It’s Great to Be a Girl: 50 Things You Can Tell Your Daughter To Increase Her Pride in Being Female (1994), the latest book is updated and expanded with the help of Madeline, who is now in college. In the process she has attempted to go global with her anecdotes to reach out to an international audience. Still, most of her anecdotes cater to American readers.

A wealth of information, a collection of anecdotes, Why It’s Great To Be A Girl: 50 Awesome Reasons Why We Rule! doesn’t promise to be a guide but is an attempt to boost your self-esteem. “The choice is ours, and even the sky is no longer the limit. That’s why now, more than at any other time in history, it’s great to be a girl, wonderful to be a woman, fantastic to be a female.”

Published in May 2008, btw of Chitralekha Group

Book Review – Trust Me

· Leave a comment ·





Trust Me

by Rajashree,

Rupa, Rs 95



Filmi Fundas

Trust Me by Rajashree is a typical film-narrative – an action-cut of love, lust, deceit and romance. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Life in a metro has never been easy for a newcomer. Dreams and aspirations are unlimited but in their pursuit one often slips from reality. Trust Me by Rajashree is a book of emotions and situations that many individuals get caught in. Woven together are the characters in a clear plot that flows with the situation. The concept of “trust” runs right through the plot with the characters defining and redefining the term.

Written in a typical Hindi filmi style, Rajashree’s characters easily remind one of the actors performing for the screen. The first person narrative goes on to evolve, making every small situation appear important. As the story unwinds, a reader can predict what will happen next after the ‘cut’. Indeed, the reader can visualise everything from the perspective of the lead character from a small town.

Parvati, a young girl, comes to Mumbai from Amravati to become a set designer after convincing her widowed mother and saving from her scholarship. After three months of waiting she finds herself with an advertising firm. Gradually she picks on the city’s way of life. Her brush with reality begins at the ad film company and continues to the film industry.

Unrequited love, heartbreak, an abortion, a bad boss, resignation, a new job and a fresh lease of life, the 22-year-old learns her lesson. The point to ponder is, “One good thing about Bombay is that one can always lose oneself in crowd.” She moves on undeterred, older and smarter, but still not having a control over her heart. Her job as an assistant director of a film gives her a real taste of life behind the camera.

Director Jambuwant, ‘Jumbo’ as he likes to be addressed, the struggling actor Rahul who tries to woo her, the debutant actor Mrignayani, blotted egos of the industrywallahs, unsystematic working patterns, the casting couch, statements like “subzi made by two women never tastes exactly the same as is with Hindi films” will appear familiar to movie buffs. Also to make the plot and character’s realistic, Rajashree uses explicit language in which slang and four-letter words abound.

Paro, as Parvati is fondly called, represents many such women who are yearning to make it big. The story, like a set in Film City, appears as picture-book depiction right from its colourful cover. Its filmy depiction morphs into real life situation. As Rahul says, “People do speak melodramatically in real life too.” The plot is entertaining but predictable and pedestrian. Yet, the complexity and indecisiveness of women, philandering, lust vs. love, “it’s a man’s world”, everything is given equal weightage. Meant as a light read, Trust Me is enjoyable with little drama and no suspense.

Rajashree is innovative in adapting a film-narrative into a novel. Her debut novel is truly a reflection of her love for Hindi cinema as well as an insider’s view being a film director. Rajashree, who is a National Award winner for her short film Rebel (1996), says, “I always want to try to figure out the rebellious side of my lead character but at the same time I feel films and books should work as emotional healers, like Munnabhai did recently.”

Published in BTW, Chitralekha Group, August 2007

Book Review – Hushed Voices

· Leave a comment ·

Looking Glass Self

Munmun Ghosh’s 39 voices emerge in flesh and blood and the characters are intricately linked to each other by both technique and plot. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar


“Waiting for the 6.10 local,” a typical conversation that most of the Mumbaikars share at the railway station while waiting for the train that’ll take them home. Delve a little into the minds of these people and you find small time migrants who came to the city with dreams but are still struggling. The lifeline of Mumbai, these trains have become the part of every life. Constantly on move, the locomotive becomes a metaphor and like its travellers who are on the move come what may, takes them along with it. This is a chance encounter with people from different strata of society, whether it is the figure conscious college going girl or a suspicious housewife. So was it for Munmun Ghosh who found a novel way of addressing these mundane journeys as looking glass self of many a lives through her first novel Hushed Voices.

Sita, who is undergoing treatment for infertility, firmly believes in Nature’s rule that there’s nothing more important for a woman than bearing children. Kalakaar boards a long distance train with the desire to pursue his passion of writing lyrics. The voices include that of Vaishali, whose nubile, mentally challenged daughter Sonali has suddenly turned violent; a gangster’s new recruit nervous about executing his first professional murder; the domestic help who visits a baba to seek blessing for her husband but ends up praying for her mistress’s mute daughter Manisha; twice married yet a destitute, the woman who turns to prostitution and still dreams of marriage; and an aged, ailing father Jankibabu, who is rejected by his children and aspires to make his home in a hospital.

They are not alone. One gets a glimpse into the lives of those belonging largely to the underprivileged section of society who are chasing their dreams and innermost desires, trying to make it big in the city. Of course the journey is not as rosy as depicted in films or as smooth as it reflects from the lives of the corporate and the privileged few. It’s the story of the commoners, their deep anguish and pain, their strengths and underlying optimism that keeps them on the periphery. Interestingly, Munmun’s linear chain of monologues comes full circle with the first speaker, Sita, reappearing with the last voice. Along with the train, the hospital also shares an equal role.

Unlike RK Laxman’s famous silent spectator, the Common Man, Munmun’s 39 voices emerge in flesh and blood and the characters are intricately linked to each other by both technique and plot. The book moves forward through chains of stories leading to a definitive climax. The first person narrative makes the character more authentic. Also, the writer has taken into account the various scenarios in Mumbai’s life – the red light area, people waiting for water supply, the riots and a woman who was robbed while being pushed out of the running train. As if reading short stories from the little nuances of life, Munmun as a storyteller reminds one of Jhumpa Lahri and her Pulitzer winning fictional work the Interpreter Of Maladies. Though her characters were not interlinked, everybody had a story to tell. Munmun, on the other hand, is “inescapable, interlocking of human destinies,” which form the basis of human compassion. To quote her character Kalakaar, “I grasp my pen and gaze at the anonymous knots of people forming and disappearing like bubbles in front of me.”

Hushed Voices make an interesting read as most of us can associate to a couple of characters who we may have come across at some point of life, struggling to find a space for themselves and fighting with their insecurities and helplessness. Indeed “Life was full of unexpected, magical spins…”

Published in BTW, Chitralekha Group, June 2007