Oh, well, this was like a Hollywood movie. It starts with Michael playing with Gina’s hair as he recounts how he ended up owing fifty thousand dollars to her father, a wealthy man who runs a mine. Gina has been showered with everything she’s wanted. She works at a nearby store to earn herself some time from her obnoxious father, who is tough, controlling and what not. He brags about his contract wins at dinner,... continue reading→
This story is again about immigrants but of a different kind. It is not over-qualified Pakistanis looking for their American Dreams Read: Foreign Returned. This story is about immigrants who cross borders to save their lives and then wonder if they could have had a better life had they stayed. A woman walks across the border to save herself and her son from the sure death they would have faced had they not left. On... continue reading→
It has been long since I read any nonfiction on the theory of feminism. Where ‘We should all be feminists’ was a very basic few pages introduction to feminism, Bell Hookes here has jotted down for us different ways and different spheres of lives that require one to be feminists. Hookes has been manoeuvred to write a guide to feminism by those who think feminism teaches women to hate men. Hookes has tried to dispel... continue reading→
This particular story, like The size of Things by Samantha Schweblin, is also about child abuse but of a different kind. Recently divorced, Mrs Bowman comes to fetch her son from the school to go on a joyride. She enters the classroom and creates a scene until the teacher has to let go of the child. There are instances when the child is actually wishing her mother everything bad. She embarrasses him. Why did his... continue reading→
This one is officially one of my favorites in the anthology. I don’t say it because it’s translated from Gujarati, but because it really is that good. In spite of having spent my entire childhood in Gujarat, I did not get a chance to read Gujarati literature. I didn’t care much about it, but now I might rethink my stand. This story is of a woman who’s in her deathbed, looking at the Neem tree... continue reading→
Thanks to social media we are now much closer to authors than ever before. While some still choose to not be seen on social media, some are actively advocating matters they feel strongly about. I first read about Khulud’s work on social media and have been following her ever since. She is a fierce advocate of feminism, equality and peace. When she posted on her Instagram about two stories that she’s willing to send to... continue reading→