SHORT TAKES
Variegated tales of women
Reviewed by
Randeep Wadehra
Faces in the Water
by Ranjit Lal.
Puffin.
Pages 202. Rs 199. VARIOUS
surveys reveal that daughters are least welcome in the educated
upper-class families. As Surinder Aunty, nicknamed ‘The Warthog,’
says in this novel for young adults, "Let others have them
...!"
However, this is not
a didactic piece of work preaching the evils of female foeticide/infanticide.
On the contrary, it is an extremely entertaining narrative. The rich
Diwanchand family lives in Delhi and also owns a farmhouse on the
capital’s periphery. One day, the Diwanchands send their only son
Gurmi to the farmhouse for a few days with strict instructions not to
go near the well located there, which, Gurmi discovers, ‘houses’
his three sisters – Mohini, Nandini and Baby – and four female
cousins. They become his friends and decide to teach the Diwanchands a
lesson.
The story’s most interesting feature is the lack of malice
among the murdered girls’ ‘ghosts’ towards their parents and
plenty of thrills, chills and crushes. The author uses "Real
Virtuality" as a device to seamlessly weave in scenarios
depicting possible happiness in the family had Gurmi’s sisters been
allowed to live.
Ranjit Lal deserves a
literary award for coming up with this thought-provoking thriller.
Voices in the Back
Courtyard
Trans. Narinder Jit Kaur.
Rupa.
Pages XII+170. Rs 150.
This anthology has
translations of Punjabi stories written by 15 women. Barring a few,
most of these have women as protagonists, displaying resignation,
resilience and rebellion vis-`E0-vis variegated situations, viz.,
love, tragedy, separation, sexploitation and incestuous rape.
Unrequited love is
the leitmotif of stories like The Unfitting Cardigan and Trails
of the Bare Feet, while love triumphs in The Purchased Woman.
Wait explores the dark side of human nature: on the road
passing by a slum a mentally challenged boy is run over by a car,
providing opportunity for the slum dwellers to extort money from
motorists passing by. The stories Face in the Mirror and
Sparks in the Ashes dwell upon suppressed sexuality while
resilience is the essence of Seven Maidens and The
Survivors. Spook is a touching story of a selfless woman
who is treated cruelly by an ungratefulsociety, while in Too Close
too Distant it is an ungrateful son who realises his mother’s
sacrifices too late. Trembling Shadow features a
self-respecting woman, who walks out on a husband who bullies her.
However, it is the last story Agony of a Daughter that stirs
one up. As a "settlement" in a murder dispute two teenage
daughters are given away in marriage to two men old enough to be their
fathers. The story ends with one of the girls, Heena, walking out of
the marriage when her father dies.
If the translation had
been less stiff and the editing and proofreading done with diligence ,
the reading pleasure would have been greater.
Handbook on
Wildlife Law Enforcement in India
by Samir Sinha Natraj.
Pages 198. Rs 495.
Wildlife
forms one of the vital sustainers of this planet’s
environment. Unfortunately, crass commercialism and human greed
have been annihilating a large number of flora and fauna,
including marine life, around the world at alarming rates. In
order to protect the surviving species, it is important to have
relevant information, which this handbook provides by collating
and tabulating data on the poaching of rare plants and animals
and the trade in their body parts.
Herbs and other medicinal
plants, tigers, musk deer, pangolins, tortoises, turtles,
reptiles, live birds etc have become lucrative items in
international smuggling. Some of the photographs, like that of a
live rhino with wrenched off horn and raw wound, are spine
chilling.
A valuable reference book for
environmentalists, researchers, government agencies and the
common man.
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