Book Review
Title: Heart Lamp:
Selected Stories
Author: Banu Mushtaq
Translator: Deepa Bhasthi
Publisher: Penguin Books, 2025
Pages: 216
The short stories in this slim volume
that won the International Booker Prize 2025 present the voice of the voiceless
women among the Muslims of Karnataka. The essential beauty of these stories
lies in the way the inner rage of the women-characters is presented: quietly.
The rage never becomes a blazing flame; it remains there within the character as
a fraught flicker – as a yearning in some stories, helplessness in some others,
and painful empathy in a few.
Gender and patriarchy in
conservative Muslim families, the tensions between restrictive tradition and
personal freedom, and the complex emotional landscapes of women who are caught
in a socio-religious system that may horrify people who are not acquainted with
it – these are the themes in general.
Every single character in
these twelve stories is as real as the person you may meet next door. The
ultimate beauty of Mushtaq’s storytelling lies in that realism. The title
story, ‘Heart Lamp’ which is placed right in the middle of the collection, presents
the central symbol of the book. The lamp continues to burn in the women’s hearts
despite the horrors inflicted on it by the men.
Mehrun, the protagonist of
that story, leaves her husband’s house and returns to her own parents because
her husband is now living with another woman since Mehrun’s rigidly
conservative Muslim upbringing has made her incapable of doing certain things
that her husband demands of her. However, her father and brothers won’t accept
her back. It is the wife’s duty to be subservient to her husband. If “he has
stamped on some slush, … he will wash it off where there is water and then come
back inside. There is no stain that will stick to him.” That is Mehrun’s mother’s
counsel.
The man is always right in
this social system which is created by Allah Himself. No one can question God’s
commandments, least of all a woman. The irony is that Mehrun didn’t want to
marry as young as she was forced to, in the first place. She wanted to study
further and become as independent as she possibly could. But the system wouldn’t
ever let her do that. Woman and independence? No way!
Women can be as brutal as
men sometimes, as in ‘The Shroud’. Shaziya who goes on Hajj doesn’t have any
idea of what a pilgrimage is. The Hajj is little more than a shopping spree for
her. Her scandalising insensitivity that borders on heartlessness is what generates
this story at the end of which Shaziya learns the essential lesson of life: the
heart is the only thing that really matters in the end.
There is also much humour
that froths in these sad stories. A young and very religious Arabic teacher’s craze
for Gobi Manchurian drives him to cruelty towards his wife who doesn’t know how
to cook that dish which she has no idea about. The solution to the problem,
arrived at by the lawyer-narrator of the story, will produce a wry smile though
the story isn’t really funny at all. Equally amusing and saddening at the same
time is an old woman’s craze for Pepsi which she believes is Aab-e-kausar, the drink
in heaven.
The last story in the
volume, ‘Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!’, is almost an indictment of God Himself.
The story is a kind of prayer by a woman to her God. A monologue, if you wish
to look at it that way. Most prayers are monologues, after all.
In this story, the
protagonist is convinced that God is biased in favour of men. The woman is a
mere maidservant to man. Her body is his playground and her heart a toy in his
hand. When the narrator-protagonist’s mother dies in an accident while she is
bringing all the money she could collect by selling her possessions to satisfy
the greed of the narrator’s husband, the narrator says that if the doctor who
performed her autopsy cuts into her heart, he would find not a blood-clot but “a
clotted soul.”
Clotted souls are what this
religio-social system makes of its women. And this collection tells the stories
of those women. Tells it effectively, grippingly, and, most of all, as simply
as only a genius can.
PS. This post is part of
the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile
Good review. Read it a few days back and agree with your analysis. I also believe that shades of tales woven in the book exist all over India irrespective of caste/class.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right. I live in Kerala where people tend to be a little more liberal in their dealings with women. I'm not sure. But my limited experience says that. But the Muslim women in Kerala are still covered up in hijab and even niqab in a few places. On the other hand, hijab-wearing girls were aplenty in my classrooms and many of them were preparing for medical entrance exams. Someone wrote the other day that the Muslim girls are going far beyond the boys. Good sign, perhaps.
DeleteIt's always the oppression of women. Don't get me started.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's not just in Islam. Even my India's very own Hinduism was no better. But Hinduism has reformed itself to a large extent. Christianity has too.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteFor reasons we'll just have to grit teeth over, this post only arrived my reader a day late...
Thank you for this review and the book is added to my wishlist. Oh, and one only has to look to what's going on for women's rights over their bodies in the US to know that "Christianity" can be equally heartless. Then there is the so-called 'manosphere'.. the subjugation of women is straight out masculine egoism, and wrapping it up in scriptural tenets of any description is yet again to do diservice to each of those denominations. YAM xx
One advantage of living in Kerala is that its high literacy and political consciousness have emancipated women considerably.
DeleteIt's sad that inspite of so much of education and economic prosperity, many societies are still reeling under patriarchal attitudes.
ReplyDeleteToo many, in fact.
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I am yet to read the book, though I have downloaded it on my Kindle. I have been hearing such disparate reviews from the writers about this book, that I do need to start it soon!
ReplyDeleteSuch an wonderful review of the book. Like Harshita said, I have read such polar opposite views around the book - mostly I think because it won a prize. We judge prize-winning books more harshly after all. Your review was a great slice into what to expect from the book. I'm not sure though if I'd be able to stomach it so I may put my reading of the book on hold for a bit.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of sad stories. Most of the times Booker Prize loves these stories and in the Indian context, we see so much of this that it becomes difficult to read more and more. Am happy to read your review, because I might not read the book.
ReplyDeleteI had been eagerly waiting for a book review of this book and going by your sharp commentary on this book's premise , I feel it was Booker worthy.So many women authors and filmmakers are now raising voices against oppression and patriarchy.We even have news of young women murdering their husbands ... it seems society is in turmoil , the cauldron is boiling , what comes out of it ... time will tell.
ReplyDeleteI read this one a few months back and I agree with your review. I loved that the rebellion Mushtaq portrays is very real because it remains subdued rather than over the top. The story Heart Lamp absolutely broke my heart.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a difficult book to read! Given the general grimness in the world, I’m rather loath to read hard hitting books these days. Still, I’m adding this one to the list…if I’m ever in the mood for something gritty and real, I will give this one a go.
ReplyDeleteI am yet to read the book! I was actually on the bench after reading some of the reviews but with this post, I am definitely reading it.
ReplyDeleteHeart Lamp sounds deeply moving—those quiet flickers of emotion and everyday realism really draw you in. Banu Mushtaq's stories seem powerful yet subtle, thanks for spotlighting this one which seems more on my reading preference than your general recommendations :)
ReplyDeleteI recently completed this book and I loved the book. Some were hit some missed. But it was overall a moving read!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you mentioned the humor woven through these sad stories - it takes real skill to balance tragedy with those moments of wry observation. The image of the Arabic teacher's obsession with Gobi Manchurian is both absurd and deeply human.
ReplyDeleteI have been putting off the book for quite a while but after reading your review I have noticed a difference between the genric reviews I have been listening about the stories are about women's condition in the society
ReplyDeleteI'm currently four stories into the book and while I do appreciate their themes, I feel I have read better renditions of female issues by other writers. Let's see how the book progresses and if I change my mind.
ReplyDeleteNoor Anand Chawla
I read the book a few weeks back. As is usual with short story collections, some made an impact and some didn't. Overall, I have mixed feelings about it. Enjoyed reading your review and all said, the book is worth a read.
ReplyDelete