Book Reviews – Soul Kadi

February 23, 2020

Ants Among Elephants – A Memoir of an Untouchable Family

The lessons of discrimination and caste prejudices were as carefully taught to us as they would, the life lessons, to a child. Growing up in a very orthodox and conservative Brahmin family in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, we were introduced to caste discrimination and status at a very young age. The instructions were so important to follow that when I think back, I don’t particularly remember being taught any other life skill or talent by the elders in the family as seriously as they have instilled in us the importance of being a Brahmin. It is ingrained into our psyche that it is only after several menial births that one would be born a Brahmin. We are told that we should be really thankful that we are born into one this time as it is very noble and sacred to be born a Brahmin.

So when the first time I went (without taking my grandparents’ permission) to a ‘non-brahmin’ friend’s house in my 8^th std for her birthday lunch, I was shocked to know that their food smelled and tasted so good. And her parents were such warm people and more importantly, nothing happened to me when I sat on their couch or shared a meal with them. It dawned on me and my sister that maybe what we are being told was not true. This was the beginning of so many more revelations about caste discrimination that my family strictly followed.

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The memories painfully came alive when I started reading the memoir of Sujata Gidla ‘Ants Among Elephants’. Sujata Gidla’s memoir is one of its kind. It is not only a personal narrative, it is also a record of the long history of class conflicts, discrimination and untouchability that is rampant in India and specifically in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. She takes us through the last few years of India’s freedom struggle followed by attainment of Independence, Christian missionary work in Andhra Pradesh, Reorganisation of States under the helm of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Nizam rule, the rise of Communism in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the birth of Peoples War Group, the trends in Telugu Literature, and many more political, social and literary currents in the Telugu land. After a decade-long labour, research, interviews with family, friends, fellow untouchables, she finally came out with the book in 2017.

Now living in New York and working as a conductor on the New York City Subway, Sujata traces the painful history of her family starting with her great grandfather, who belonged to a nomadic clan devoid of any caste affiliation. So when they were forced to give up their nomadic life and settle in a village, they were naturally shun to the bottom of the hierarchy, that of an untouchable. Sujata is very candid in attributing her education and employment opportunities, and her arrival in United States of American in the 1990s, to the Christian missionaries. The converts were educated in missionary schools established all over Andhra. It was her grandfather Prasanna Rao Kambham, who first converted into Christianity which subsequently opened doors for the successive generations in the family like herself to reap the benefits of the opportunities.

People’s History: Indian history is silent on the condition of economically deprived, marginalised sections of the society and especially Dalits. History text books glorify the stories of a few leaders and their political power and administration, ignoring hundreds of others who have been marginalised. In the contemporary times, there has been a shift in the reading of history, and ‘History from Below’ or ‘People’s History’ is being emphasised to understand the impact of socio-economic and political changes of a country. Mass movements, political conflicts, peasant movements etc. are all being read and understood from the grassroots level. The hegemonic groups, power politics of a few power-hungry politicians etc are being questioned. Personal narratives thus bring out the saga of a common man, his trials and tribulations. At a time when personal histories are gaining importance, ‘Ants among Elephants’ brings about a paradigm shift in the way Indian history and politics is understood. Though many social scientists, economists, historians have documented the historical and political dynamics of India, they have failed to document the lived history of the Dalits.

Through the story of her maternal uncle K G Satya Murthy, Sujata recounts the history of the untouchables. The memoir is a biography of his life from a shy boy to a spirited youth participating in the Indian freedom struggle, an ambitious youth leader to co-founder of the People’s War Group in the 1970s. Her account is a historiography of the age that was indifferent to the voices of the marginalised, an age which was preoccupied and was busy building a new India, and an age where more than half the country woke up to the see that they don’t have a share of the upper caste ‘Nationalism’. So Sujata writes her own history documenting names of various untouchable castes, their traditional occupations, voluntary conversions of many Dalits into Christianity, the double marginalisation of the converted Dalits in the Hindu dominated society, festive and family gatherings with their customs, rituals and cuisine, recording the life of the community she belongs to.

Sujata’s mother Manjula is an active witness to her brother Satyam’s life and ideology. She grew up in the shadow of her brother imbibing the lessons of self-esteem, importance of education which she passed down to her own children. Her story runs parallel to that of Satyam’s in the memoir, adding a woman’s perspective through her struggles as a girl growing up with very powerful brothers, Satyam and Carey. Her role in the family was that of any other girl in the Indian society, grappling with the male-centred customs and expectations of the society.

Candid and forthright, the memoir is one of the most powerful stories of modern India.

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019

Age of Frenzy – Reconstruction of a Historical Catastrophe

“The ones who erected the cross and the ones who sought to destroy it were guided by high moral and principles. Each man believed that what he was doing was for his religion, for his God. Perhaps both sides were right. Or maybe, both were wrong. This mighty confusion had been created by that demon that goes by the name of religion. It draws people from God, and breeds injustice and cruelty as a result of that power. God, Himself, was the author of this confusion, perhaps.”

(107, Age of Frenzy)

These lines are the essence of the novel ‘Age of Frenzy’ or ‘Yug Sanvar’ (2007) in Konkani written by the Goan author Mahabaleshwar Sail. The author, in his narrative, reconstructs the details of Goa Inquisition (1560-1820), the people of those times, prevailing customs and practices, their fears and veneration to their respective Gods and the inherent faults of a Hindu caste system. Goa Inquisition is a period which is seldom discussed by Goans. Mahabaleshwar Sail is one of the few writers who has brought Portuguese Goa into his novel and reconstructed the age that has witnessed violence, cruelty and abject misery. Vidya Pai, who has translated the novel into English has done a commendable job is carrying the ethos of the saga across cultural and literary barriers.

A small state which has witnessed colonial rule for over 450 years, Goa has experienced a religious and cultural transmutation that has today given a unique flavour to its language and its people. While the advent of the Portuguese to Goa in 1510 was initially for the purpose of trade, the opportunity to establish their religion in the new land soon led to religious conversions of the natives. As the Portuguese gained their foothold in Goa, a proposal was made to establish Inquisition, to deal with the newly converted Hindus, Muslims, Bene Israelis and New Christians who didn’t identify themselves with the new religion. The voracious religious zeal of the crusaders triggered a reign of terror that saw seizure of lands, confinement of the heathens in prisons, torture and death at the stake. Goa Inquisition has left an indelible mark on the religious, cultural, social and linguistic fabric of the Goans and its effect is visible even today. Historians like A. K. Priolkar, Felipe Nery Xavier etc. have documented the events after years of study. Their research has created a framework for Goan writers like Mahabaleshwar Sail to recreate and reminisce the times that are today distant and almost obsolete.

The author takes a stern stance identifying the inadequacies and inconsistencies of both the faiths. He blames the Hindu caste system for encouraging the colonists to look down up on the local faiths as being superstitious and blind. Age of Frenzy is a story steeped in controversial history and the author had done immense research on the subject to do justice to the gargantuan task that he had ahead of him.

The novel opens in 1510 in a fictitious village Adolshi when the Portuguese first put their foot in Goa. The reader is taken through the Goan landscape, the people and their traditions, religious customs and the caste hierarchy that is strictly followed in those times. As the novel opens, we see a young man, eighteen to twenty years of age, enter the village, tired and hungry and searching for his aunt. He identifies himself as Ganaba, Lakhu Naik’s son from Divade village. He breaks down and sobs in front of the villagers and tells them that he is driven out of his village for helping the white soldiers with directions to wherever they wanted to go and accepting bread and soaked fruit they have offered him in return. He wails that his own parents have expelled him from home and the village, blaming him that since he has eaten meat and bread that the ‘white devils’ have offered him, he has become impure and now belonged to the other faith. They threw stones at him and drove him out of the village. He has been to several villages but no one has taken him. But unfortunately the people of Adolshi prove to be just the same and they too drive him out of their village. With no home to go to, Ganaba commits suicide by drowning in the village tank. The incident perturbs the villagers, not for ill-treating a young man into committing suicide but for letting him ‘pollute’ the water by drowning himself. They worry that during the next temple festival, the Lord cannot be given a sacred bath in the village tank. The novel brings out several incidents like these where the callousness and insensitivity of the natives is highlighted especially at a time when the land is occupied by a foreigner and there was an imminent threat to their lives. A Hindu caste hierarchy which already had divisions, further divided because of the blind customs and superstitions related to food habits and occupation. No one is exempted from this discrimination and families and friends were heartlessly and callously expelled from the community. This fact didn’t go unnoticed by the oppressor and they exploited it to their advantage.

“You are the ones who drive people to our faith. If someone eats something we offer, you disown him. He is cast out of his home, he can no longer practise your religion so he comes to us.” (12, Age of Frenzy)

Thus Sukhdo Nayak became Salvodor Dias, Molu Nayak was renamed Manuel Dias and his wife Gopika now was called Isabel, Ramkushta Nayak was now Pedro Dias and his wife Parvati was named Fatima(89). If there were orphans in the community, they were converted immediately and given new names too. The new converts were given four cruzados, lands and protection under the Portuguese empire. During the conversions in the colonial Goa, the newly converted upper caste Hindus retained their Bammon and Chaddors status, introducing caste system into Christianity.

As the novel progresses, the conflict of cultures, customs and religions increase with the natives resisting the oppressors. Soon, inquisition was established and several converts and non-converts were either imprisoned, or burnt at stake. Gripped with fear, anger, helplessness, and borne with an unpredictable future, the natives were forced to either succumb to the colonist or uproot themselves to escape to a new land carrying their few belongings and their village idols.

The fertility and abundance of natural resources in the Konkan coast, has, since the ancient times, established a harmonious man – nature relationship. The communidade (in Portuguese) or gaonkari system of village administration which makes each village an independent unit with its own area of land, makes a Goan feel an inseparable relationship with his village and the village deity. Even today, a Goan anywhere in the world has a deep sense of belongingness to his own village. Hence, when the conversions and later Inquisition was established, the lives of the natives were thrown off balance and their loyalty to their land and Gods was shaken.

The novel has multiple number of characters and each of the stories entwining these characters are, in the larger picture, individual stories. The author, himself born in agrarian family, describes the folk lore, agricultural practices and the psyche of the people whose lives depended on land that they inherited from their ancestors. Of the multitude of characters that he created, the best portraiture probably was that of Padre Simao Peres, a priest who arrived in Goa on the orders of the Pope. He was disliked by the Viceroy and the clerics who were appointed by the King of Portugal, who were impatient and hasty in carrying on their religious orders and convert as many people as possible. His character is a foil to the cruel promoters of Inquisition whose barbaric acts towards the natives pains Padre Simao Peres. Though he was sent to Goa for religious conversions, his approach was that of piety and he believed in converting the natives through love. He is an epitome of empathy and kindness and is symbolic of Jesus Christ. He carries the true Christian spirit and tries to spread the words of Jesus Christ and thus gains the confidence of the villagers rather than brutally forcing them to adopt the foreign faith. Unfortunately, as Peres embarks on a religious mission, the viceroy gets him arrested for going against inquisition and imposes a rigorous imprisonment. Just as Jesus was crucified, Simao Peres was finally burned at stake.

Sail takes a firm stance as he narrates the harrowing tale of Inquisition. In several interviews and discussions, he was very emphatic in his opinions about God and religion.

“I believe that there are two sides to any conflict, and no one side can be totally right. I believe in God but not in any organised religion; by confining God within the framework of organised religion we breed intolerance of other faiths. So, my God, who is present in the whole universe, does not need temples or rituals or priests.”

The tenets of every religion advocate love, empathy, honesty, humility and trust. But inquisition is a glaring example of what greed and fanaticism can do to humanity. Sail’s narrative subtly seems to draw our attention to the contemporary religious politics of the world. Today we have crossed several scientific and intellectual boundaries but it is a sad irony that we have not been able to overcome our mindless adulation for our religion. As Karl Marx quotes,

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

June 12, 2019June 14, 2019

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Love, Lust and Beyond

There was a discussion recently on a Facebook chat about the top 10 books that we liked. I made my list quickly but then one of the books happened to be “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” by D H Lawrence. This initiated a conversation about my reasons for picking a controversial and supposedly erotic novel of the yesteryears.

An early 20^th century sensation, this book drew a lot of attention for its sexually explicit subject matter and supposed endorsement/validation of illegitimate relationships. The book was published in 1928 in Italy and 1929 in France and Australia. The uncensored text had not come out in England till 1960 when it won the obscenity trial for its profanity and sexually explicit scenes.

Living in the 21^st century, censoring or censuring of anything sexually controversial is thought and viewed differently. Today ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ has not lost its previous notoriety. I read the book a few years back and the first thing that impressed me was certainly not sex and obscenity; in fact I was aroused by its progressive thoughts and bold plot especially since the setting is a conservative and capitalist generation of England and the world.

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The story is about Constance (Connie) Reid, a young intellectual born into an upper-middle class family who, along with her sister Hilda, is exposed to intellectual and cultural ideas of the age. At 23 she gets married to Clifford Chatterley, a descendant of an aristocratic family. After their marriage and honeymoon, he is sent to the war and gets paralyzed hip down during the war. The couple soon move to Wragby, a mining country where the Chatterley family house is situated and start a new life. Soon Constance or Lady Chatterley as she is called now, finds herself empty with a huge house, grim and unwelcoming house staff and the old and desolate mansion. Clifford becomes a popular writer and with a constant stream of intellectual men who visit Wragby Hall, Connie tries to find her bearings. Her attempts in getting involved in their ‘enlightening’ conversations fail as she finds their discussions shallow and boring. Her loneliness deepens as she finds herself devoid of any physical or emotional attachment with her husband owing to his passionless attitude and paralyzed condition. Amidst her desolate life, one day she meets the gamekeeper of Clifford’s estate, Oliver Mellors to whom Constance slowly gets drawn. Initially a little hesitant and conscious of their social status, they soon start an intense sexual affair which eventually unites them emotionally. Oliver is previously married to Bertha with who he gets separated and chooses to live away from any contact with people. As the book progresses, Connie gets pregnant and she leaves with her sister to spend her time away from Wragby. Oliver is taken off his job and he starts working on a farm. The novel ends with Connie confronting Clifford and confessing to him about her pregnancy and Oliver waiting for his divorce from his ex-wife and with a hope of getting married to Connie one day.

The opening lines of the book sum up the author’s perspective of the age.

‘Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work : there is now no smooth road into the future : but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.’

It is rather disappointing that we fail to notice and understand the optimism with which he begins the book. Ninety years down the line, the book still carries with it the impression it created in those times with the mere mention of the title. That is perhaps because of the stir the subject matter created in those times. But one needs to look beyond the obvious and realize that the book has come a long way from just sex and illicit relationships. The author’s use of raunchy vocabulary and language in certain scenes, along with the fact that the story is woven around an illicit affair of an upper class intellectual with a working class gamekeeper set in a capitalist English society, had been a major reason for controversy. The book highlights a very glaring class disparity between Connie and Mellors but as the novel progresses, we see Constance’s evolving personality and self-realization that for a relationship to thrive, the involvement of mind alone is not enough but it is the unification of both mind and body that makes a fruitful relationship.

That aside, Constance’s characterization is commendable as she makes a good antithesis for Clifford’s personality. Her affair with Mellors is an extension of her perceptions about class, gender and economic status. While Clifford is cold and passionless, she on the other hand is sensuous, vibrant and full of life. He, in spite of being a successful writer and in a position of authority, is condescending and arrogant about his fame and noble birth and she is socially progressive and empathetic towards the colliers and their miserable lives. There are many instances where she argues with Clifford for leaving the miners to their destiny but Clifford, raised with capitalistic ideas, believes that the misery of the colliers is their own fate and that they depend on him for their livelihood. She tries to reach out to the colliers by befriending a few of them and making visits to soot-filled, desolate miner’s village, Tevershall. She argues with Clifford about relieving the colliers of their poverty but the latter believes that he is doing them a great justice by employing them in his mines.

“I can live without the pits. They can’t. They will starve if there are no pits.”

Connie tries to reason with Clifford saying that if the miners are not cared for by the employers and the economic disparity is not lessened, there will be discontent and jealousy which will soon destroy the rich. Clifford is smug believing that men who own and run industries are naturally born to do so and it is nature’s way of choosing rich and the poor.

“Why is the star Jupiter bigger than the star Neptune? You can’t start altering the make-up of things!”

The novel is autobiographical and the author’s experiences growing up in a coal mining town forms a strong background to many of his novels. Like many of his other works, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ brings out dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization and evils it has thrown at the world.

April 17, 2019May 2, 2019

My Companion for Life – Chandamāma

My father is a voracious reader and collected thousands of books from Jiddu Krishna Murthy to Dennis the Menace, Winston Churchill to Ken Follet and owned an entire cupboard of the Reader’s Digest magazines right from 1960s. Unable to keep track of so many books, he has recently gifted the extended family many of them, donated boxes of books to a good neighbourhood library, kept a few favourites for his himself and parcelled the rest to my sister and me. Excited and happy, as I opened the cartons surveying the books carefully, out popped several bound copies of our most favourite magazine from our school and college days, the Chandamāma.

If you were in school in Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s or before and have never heard of Chandamāma, then you were probably not somebody who cared for reading much. It was a monthly children’s magazine started in 1947 by the popular director/producer and screenplay writer duo from Telugu filmdom, B. Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani. Chandamāma quickly became popular with children and adults alike and eventually the magazine was published in English and 13 Indian languages. Each issue brought out stories with simple morals and life truths that were woven around simple folk. Mythological stories, parables, folklore, fairy tales abound in each issue all of which made a lasting impression on generations of Telugu readers. Surprisingly, though most of the stories were set in rural backdrop, many who lived in towns and cities like us could read, enjoy and relate to them. The magazine which ran for 60 years apparently was published till 2008, with many changes made for the contemporary reader and society. What remains today are the kindle version of digital copies right from the first issue in 1947. I am now the proud owner of copies from the 1980s and 90s but with a few missing.

Growing up in the 1980s in Vijayawada, (an important commercial city from South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh), Chandamāma was so much part of our lives. Our pocket money every month was invariably spent on Chandamāma, and another popular Telugu children’s magazine called Bāla Jyoti. Our frequent visits to my maternal grandparent’s village, Godavarru, on the banks of river Krishna, formed a strong foundation for my love for bucolic life. Chandamāma had practically been a huge part of our formative years and influential in our learning process. Each story, written in simple Telugu, was both entertaining and educational. While the writing style was didactic, the themes of the narratives were never dogmatic and preachy. Virtues like honesty, charity, discipline, hard work, humility were all taught through simple characters. So in the story Kodi Khareedu (The Price of the Hen), when the village smith Perayya was cheated of his money by the landlord of the village Kotayya, in the end the latter was made to realise his mistake and was punished severely for his greed (July 1983). Amulyamaina Aasthi (Priceless Possession) is about Saambu, a poor village goatherd and flutist who was given a job in the court of King Vikramasena as the keeper of the Treasury. In the wake of rumours of the King’s favouritism towards Saambu, the courtiers blame him for fraud and deceit. Saambu proves to the court that his flute and his ragged outfit are far more precious and priceless than material wealth. Young readers were gently taught that greed, jealously, indolence, deceit will not only make their life miserable and unhappy, but will also not make them successful. The magazine also published folklore and stories from other countries like the Armenian folklore “Bangaaru gulaabeelu” (The Golden Roses). The story is about two honest farmers who were gifted with a rose plant with golden flowers. The plant disappears every time the greedy Prince wanted to pluck its flowers. The story ends with the moral that we should not covet what others possess and earned through hard work (November, 1983).

Copies of Bala Jyoti, another favourite children’s magazine

The magazine also carried fantasy serials like Mugguru Maantrikulu (The Three Sorcerers) and Betaala Kathalu which was adapted from the famous ‘Betaal Pacchisi’ written nearly 2,500 years ago by Somdev Bhatt.

The Telugu writer and revolutionary, Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao, popularly known as Ko Ku, edited the magazine for 28 years (1952-1980). Neither the writers nor the editors ever advocated any caste, class, religious, racial or gender discrimination. The mythological stories were written and edited by Kutumbarao in a style which was easy for children to understand.

The popularity of the magazine also came from its colourful illustrations which attracted the young minds to reading and learning. Each issue came with unique and vivid cover design and the tales captivated the readers with their life-like pictures making the characters and settings come alive. Famous artists like M. T. V. Acharya, Vaddadi Papiah (Vapa), Kesava Rao (Kesava), M. Gokhale, T. Veera Raghavan (Chithra) and several others were associated with these memorable illustrations.

Holding these copies of old Chandamāmas in my hand, I felt really glad that we were prudent enough to save a few of these gems for posterity. Flipping the pages, I almost felt I heard a few voices from the book talking to me and I quickly got engrossed in the stories, reconnecting back with my long-lost companions.

January 26, 2019May 2, 2019

A Feminist Manifesto

“The knowledge of cooking does not come pre-installed in a vagina. Cooking is learned. Cooking is a life skill that men and women should both ideally have.”

These are the words of the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her book “Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”. The book was born when a friend asked Adichie for her advice on how to raise her baby girl, Chizalum, a feminist. Adichie puts together a simple list of invaluable suggestions for every woman and every girl to become more empowered and independent. She highlights some very basic choices that a woman makes in her life, some out of ignorance and some because of societal norms and pressures. Decades of conditioning has made the society assign lopsided roles for both men and women in domestic as well as workplace scenario. Adichie’s list is a gentle reminder that gender roles restrict to only biological necessities like giving birth or breastfeeding a baby and all the other duties and responsibilities are necessarily not just a woman’s.

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I can relate to several instances that she brings up in the book well as many African traditions, customs and social norms match those of Indian. While in Indian context there has been a massive change in the last couple of decades, there is still a large part of the country both in urban as well as rural areas where the subtle gender expectations still exist.

I remember some years ago, when an aunt and uncle were discussing ‘prospective’ brides for their son, they approved of girls from certain districts of Andhra Pradesh but not from certain others. The reason for disapproving girls from those areas was that girls who came from so and so district were very ‘powerful’. A little research revealed that people from these districts were landholders and were hence well educated and women usually owned properties and they were very good with financial decisions at home. Hence there was an imminent threat that they would ‘overpower’ their husbands hence making them ‘hen-pecked’. But if you ask me, these are characteristics of an excellent, skilled and talented woman who, if given an opportunity, would take care of the family successfully. The couple would raise their sons and daughters with equal status. But conditioning makes us feel uncomfortable around any woman who is strong.

I have witnessed over the years similar family conversations that surround the son ‘allowing her daughter-in-law to work’ or ‘We gave our daughter basic education. After her marriage, it is up to the husband to let her continue or not’ or ‘Oh! My son is a very busy doctor. He wants a wife who can take care of home and children’ and the like.

When we were growing up, somebody or the other in the family would advise my mother, “Don’t let your girls choose whatever they want. Some decisions are for parents to make.” Well, if it is only about choosing a school or picking which movie you want to go, it is not dangerous. But if the choice is about who you want to marry or what career you want to choose or whether you want to work or not, the choice HAS to be yours. And thankfully our parents seldom interfered in our lives.

Adichie’s manifesto throws up many such instances which are from a domestic setting and workplace, prejudices expressed through vocabulary, cultural connotations, gender manifestations etc. Her advice to her friend (and all of us with daughters and sons) ranges from personal choices women should make for themselves to the necessity of financial freedom, respecting culture and traditions selectively and teaching her daughter the importance of reading books.

Adichie’s style is very unpretentious, assertive, gentle and evocative. The language is simple and straightforward and the book opens up a series of thoughts and experiences from your own life. Her advice is simple and does not encourage, suggest or express authority or control in the name of gender but simply reminds every one that we are human beings and everyone is entitled to his/her freedom.

December 11, 2018January 14, 2019

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Conversations related to the inevitability and permanence of death are considered ominous and are often avoided, postponed or in many cases, ignored. We pretend that old age and death are non-existent and even a mild reference to them upset us. People are generally reluctant about writing a will, saving up for unforeseen illnesses or even letting go of things.

In “Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant”, Rosalind “Roz” Chast recounts her personal experiences with her elderly parents while taking care of them during the last few years of their life. Roz Chast, a New York journalist and cartoonist, narrates vividly her observations and her experiences taking care of her parents in Brooklyn. Her Jewish parents migrated to United States at the turn of the 19^th century. George Chast, her father, was a high school Spanish and French teacher and her mother, Elizabeth was an assistant principal in an elementary school. They worked hard and lived a very humble, frugal life. Chast, their only daughter, after she moved out of her parents’ house, withdrew from any involvement with her parents for several years, till one day she dropped in their apartment for a casual visit. Her visit throws her in to a sequence of unavoidable responsibilities that she doesn’t expect and draws her into the life of her parents who are by then well into their old age. Chast’s memoir takes you through her bitter-sweet journey with her parents, especially during the last decade of their lives.

The memoir starts with Chast’s concerns about her parent’s future and the conversations she has with them which they tactfully avoid answering. Chast puts this into perspective and draws the title of her book from the general reluctance that people exhibit with subjects like death, old age and even religion. Chast sums it up in the “Introduction’ with a statement “Maybe they believe that if they just held on to each other really tightly for eternity, nothing would ever change”.

What is refreshingly different is Chast’s perspective about eldercare. In a world where taking care of one’s parents is highly romanticised, Chast’s very straightforward narration puts you off balance. The first two pages set the subject matter in place and then what follows is a sequence of events that unfold in each page, through her vividly descriptive cartoons, sketches, notes and photographs. Each cartoon abounds with visual as well as verbal expression and as she fills the pages with her humorous and descriptive details of her life with her aging parents, you are left with sketches and images of your own similar experiences with your parents or a member of your extended family. It is hard to judge Chast for her tempers, her occasional outbursts and her reluctance once in a while dealing with her parents. Moments of frustration are soon washed over by her extreme love for them and concern for their well-being. The memoir takes you back and forth between the present episodes and her childhood recollections. Chast is very candid in her descriptions of some embarrassing moments during her teenage years growing up with her parents, the shabbiness of their house, her mother’s tantrums and her father’s anxieties. She doesn’t mince her words when she describes her helplessness whenever she found it too frustrating dealing with her parents. She takes her readers down the memory lane, from revealing her life as a shy introverted kid to being an unhappy teenager, growing up in Brooklyn. She describes her parents as hardworking, loving and very humble about their living conditions. As parents who have seen the Great Depression, they instilled in her the lessons of frugality. But what Roz remembers the most was her parents’ indifference towards her needs and emotions. Her mother, throughout the memoir, is shown as a having ‘fearsome temper’ which she called ‘blasts from Chast’. In the book she describes her father as ‘tentative and gentle’; her mother as ‘critical and uncompromising’. While her mother made all the decisions at home, including those of Roz’s personal choices, her father merely accepted his wife’s decisions and succumbed to them. It was always a gruelling task to persuade her mother to see a doctor, even in case of a medical emergency as she had an aversion to doctors and hospitals. She was often heard saying, “I am built like a peasant”. She refused to give up on life and kept her husband afloat too as she battled with her aging body and the ticking time. Her grit and determination to fight death was phenomenal and it is very easy to see how the couple was perfect for each other – Elizabeth, strong and determined; George, frail and submissive. But Roz Chast is very candid about her parent’s feelings for their only daughter and their own love for each other.

Roz’s memoir is interspersed with emotions, positive and negative, which well up in her as she takes care of her aging parents. Living in Connecticut, she would make frequent trips to Brooklyn to either spend time with her parents or rush them to the hospital whenever there was a mishap or emergency. The latter increased as the years pass by, which persuaded her to make a decision to keep her parents in assisted living facilities. She soon realised that convincing them to live in such homes was not easy either as her parents found them a ‘hell hole’ and detested the fact that they were not called ‘residents’ but referred to as ‘inmates’. With myriads of complaints and inconveniences, accompanied with rapidly dwindling finances(a fact that her parents were happily unaware of), Chast and her parents swim through their days, assisted by hospice care, nurses and the staff of ‘the Place’.

With senility at its peak, dementia, aging bodies and dwindling mental faculties, George and Elizabeth stand for their ilk, who take things in their stride, with the will to live on their own and a hope to survive against all odds.