Celebration of womanhood

Book Review

Tina Sequeira’s debut collection of short stories is, as the Dedication proclaims, “an ode to the spirit of womanhood”.  Being a woman particularly in India is no easy job. The Indian culture idealises and idolises womanhood as pativrata, the devoted wife. India boasts about its goddesses who are mighty to the extent of being the invincible Durga. The country’s ancient, classical texts like the Kamasutra celebrate sexuality giving equality to the female half of the process. Even lesbian relationships find their dignified place in some of our temple sculptures.

   The reality has always been a far cry, however. Who were the target readers of the Kamasutra, for instance? Who were privileged enough to enter temple complexes like the Khajuraho? Were the majority of women in India ruled by more inhuman rubrics and rituals like the Sati system and female infanticide? The Yajur Veda clearly viewed the girl child as a burden and recommended rejection of the girl child: “Tasmat striyam jatam parasyanti ut pumamsam haranti." [Hence they reject a female child when born, and take up a male.] Manu asked a man of 30 to marry a maiden of 12 to “please” him. Pleasing the man was the primary purpose of a woman’s existence. Pativrata!

   We still find vestiges of those ancient cultural attitudes rampant in our own times. The new custodians of morality who emerged to wield incredible power in the last four years particularly in the BJP-governed states give us glimpses into what the much vaunted ancient culture really was like.

   Tina Sequeira’s short stories in her anthology titled Bhumi raises some very fascinating questions about the position of woman in contemporary India. Each story brings to the foreground a pertinent issue related to women though, ironically, the first one ‘Amma’ is about a man who successfully plays the role of the mother to his motherless daughter. The author takes penetrating looks at how the Indian women have to go the extra mile if they want to enjoy the same liberties as their male counterparts in the country.

 

Tina Sequeira

   Tina probes the meaning of marriage, live-in relationships, love marriage versus arranged marriage, feminism, female rebellion, female sexuality, social hypocrisy, patriotism, and so on. Each of the 26 stories in this collection deals with a unique theme. Each story is a sincere attempt on the part of a woman to understand a quintessentially feminist issue.

   Tina’s characters fascinate us. They are very real. They belong to our own time, to our own social milieus. Some of the characters are quite ruthless in raising their questions. The protagonist of ‘Lioness’ Share’, for instance, protests: “A Parsi man could be fucking prostitutes and the wife could never divorce him on those grounds solely. The Parsi men could marry outside their community and their offspring would be warmly welcomed into the community. No questions asked. But the offspring of Parsi women (who marry outside) were pariah.”

   Tina understands the dangers of hard-core feminism as well. ‘Juxtaposition’, for example, presents Dr Shikha the feminist who realises at the age of 94 that the secret of her success was the same as men’s: “Projecting their weakness and inadequacy onto the other gender, trumpeting the cause of self-empowerment while joining the male force in their oppression of the poor and underprivileged to usurp and maintain their power status quo.” Dr Shikha is one of the most complex characters created by Tina.

   Tina has drawn characters from diverse backgrounds. There are divorcees enjoying themselves on a beach, a prostitute who empowers herself by selling her adopted daughter, the mother of a little girl raped and killed by a bunch of neo-patriots, women who outwit each other, a young girl who dresses up as a boy in order to survive in the boy’s world, and an honest journalist killed by the right wing fascists. It’s a wide spectrum that deserves to be looked at.

   The book is indeed a tribute to Indian womanhood. The title story, ‘Bhumi’, is highly metaphorical. It throws eminent light upon the woman as the eternal self-sacrifice, like the earth. The book deserves to be read for what it is: a sincere look at the aspirations of the Indian women.

PS. Tina’s book can be downloaded here.