Further, set at the turn of the twentieth century, the novel also captures well the many questions and anxieties that haunt the middle-class consciousness of the country in the contemporary period of economic and social restructurings.
Comprising as does Subramaniam’s anthology of the voices of 56 women saints, the question then is whether they all speak in like manner, like a chorus of women saints? Rather, breaking all expectations of homogeneity that labels tend to entail, Arundhati’s compilation showcases the diversity inherent under the label ‘saint’ thereby prodding the reader gently to not experience life through accustomed wisdom but rather live for herself as a seeker after her own truth making herself the architect of her own path, with her own body, and in this material world.
Several challenge ideas that love is but a current coin for transgressivewomen or that learning and fine aesthetic sensibility are domains in which only the well-to-do are proficient. Many poems, particularly those by transgressive women affirm the significance of looking beautiful, the relevance of accoutrements, cosmetics, graceful mannerisms and many while asserting the importance of their composers’ selfhoods are also confessional without a trace of embarrassment or shame.
Between her musings and observations, Lakshmi Kannan has a finely attuned sense of the subtle changes in Indian society: the joys, the dangers, the desires, the loss of control; her poems serve to remind us of poetry’s role in recovery, healing and moving on. These poems tell stories of resilience and endurance and in doing so showcase a sutradhar, a storyteller for our times.
Jha had built up an enviable reputation as an administrator. Sarojini Naidu once called him ‘the Grand Moghul of the University’. There was enough justification for such a remark, for no external authority could interfere in the administration of the University and he was the monarch of all he surveyed.
The fourth and final section of the book attempts to set up a dialogue between the two characters in the children’s book story, school books and trade books, by seeing if the latter can comfortably and self-assuredly accompany the former to teach and educate the children who are after all the target audience for both.