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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 8th 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.

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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 19th 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.