A Contraband of Radiance on the Printed Page
Bhashwati Sengupta
WOMEN WHO WEAR ONLY THEMSELVES: CONVERSATIONS WITH FOUR TRAVELLERS ON SACRED JOURNEYS by By Arundhathi Subramaniam Speaking Tiger Books, 2023, 176 pp., INR 350.00
September 2024, volume 48, No 9

Sahitya Akademi winner, author, curator and anthologist Arundhati Subramaniam says that the motive behind the book under review, her thirteenth, was a desire to have conversations with contemporary women who have quietly embarked upon spiritual journeys. More specifically it is a desire to know about their journeys. In a society that instils, especially in women, the notion that self-doubt and self-erasure are virtues, how did these seekers hailing from conventional backgrounds find the courage to listen to their own voice and follow it with courage and conviction?

But even as I meander
let my trail be the thread
that completes the circle
I long to make around you.

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