Skip to main content

She: Ekla Cholo Re


Book Review

info@hoffen.in
Identity quest is one of the classical themes in literature.  However, gender identity quest is relatively new.  It is also one of the most painful quests, perhaps, because not belonging to either of the most natural genders can be an excruciating experience psychologically.  The agony is aggravated by the attitudes of the ignorant and insensitive general society towards transgender people. 

The authors of the book under review approach the theme in the simplest manner possible: by presenting a trans-woman and her problems.  Kusum was born a male who was very uncomfortable with that gender.  It’s only the body that is masculine.  The spirit is feminine.  The father is unable to accept that reality.  Hence the offspring is abandoned.  But (s)he is happy to get the support of a friend who eventually becomes a surgeon and will perform the sex-changing surgery.  The love between Kusum and her doctor-friend was not merely friendship.  The emotions had something sexual about them.  The doctor is able to sustain his passion for his friend who is now a woman though not capable of reproduction.  The doctor’s father is a thoroughly practical man who tells his son how he would be ruining his life and career if he marries such a woman. 

The relationship is broken.  Kusum carries the scar in her heart.  Eventually another doctor, a psychologist whom she admires, will extend his friendship to her.  How does she respond to this new friendship?

The book can’t be called a novel.  It is a novella at best.  The whole book is just 58 pages out of which only 40 pages are devoted to the story itself.  If you are an experienced reader you can read it in about half an hour.  The narrative is extremely simple and straightforward.  The intention of the authors seems to be to highlight the problem of transgender people and evoke empathy in the reader. 

But the claim on the cover that it is “a story meant to motivate all and sundry irrespective of their circumstances” is not misplaced.  The “ekla cholo re” motif, borrowed from Rabindranath Tagore, recurs reminding the reader about the basic loneliness that all of us have to go through irrespective of our gender identity or any other identity.  The going gets tough at times whoever we may be.  When the going is really tough and you need the support of people, people are quite sure to abandon you.  Then we must acquire the courage to ekla cholo, go alone.


I’m grateful to Santosh Avvannavar, one of the authors, for inviting me to review the book. 

Comments

  1. I've reviewed it as well...a decent endeavour towards a controversial issue, trans-gender...:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The issue deserves better understanding and the authors have made an effort in that direction.

      Delete
  2. It's good initiative for making awareness in society and evoking empathy towards the transgenders with a motivational tone.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The narrative looks very interesting and it has been covered in a novella span that makes it all the more tempting. Shall pick this one, i think...

    ReplyDelete
  4. As long as the book is written nicely, I don't mind giving it a read even though it is a novella. The book deals with an issue which is relevant socially and such books usually gather few readers. That is a pity, isn't. Good effort from your side for spreading the word.
    I am happy to be here after so long. When I disappeared from blogosphere, you were tending to a fracture, I remember. I hope you are healthy and healed now. And I see that you have been blogging consistently. Kudos to you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm fine, thanks for remembering my fracture :) And glad you are back.

      Delete
  5. The narrative, as given by your review, appears interesting. Actually, I find the title very compelling. When I started reading the post, I thought 'She' is about a woman and her struggles, about how 'she' fights it out alone. But turned out it is different. By the way, have you read Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't read Blue Boy. In fact, transgender-related themes and works don't interest me at all. I read this book merely because it was sent to me with a request for review.

      Perhaps, this book under review is no comparison with Blue Boy.

      Delete
    2. I cannot compare the book without having read it. But I would suggest you read Blue Boy. It is different. It would be nice to have your views on it.

      Delete
  6. the entire theme looks so compelling. I will suggest Rituparno Ghosh Strred Chitrangada, the crowning wish. The song "Ekla cholo re" is my favorite and has pulled me through some times. Jodi tor daak shune keu na chole tahole ekla cholo re..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Datta Ghosh, "Jodi..." the book has quoted a few lines of that song including this one. Since the English translation is given, I could understand it :) though I was familiar with the phrase "Ekla cholo re".

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...

Dine in Eden

If you want to have a typical nonvegetarian Malayali lunch or dinner in a serene village in Kerala, here is the Garden of Eden all set for you at Ramapuram [literally ‘Abode of Rama’] in central Kerala. The place has a temple each for Rama and his three brothers: Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. It is believed that Rama meditated in this place during his exile and also that his brothers joined him for a while. Right in the heart of the small town is a Catholic church which is an imposing structure that makes an eloquent assertion of religious identity. Quite close to all these religious places is the Garden of Eden, Eden Thoppu in Malayalam, a toddy shop with a difference. Toddy is palm wine, a mild alcoholic drink collected from palm trees. In my childhood, toddy was really natural; i.e., collected from palm trees including coconut trees which are ubiquitous in Kerala. My next-door neighbours, two brothers who lived in the same house, were toddy-tappers. Toddy was a health...