Tag Archives: Gender

There is a nightmare haunting each and every one of us—young and old—the fear of contracting the dreaded Coronavirus. Life has turned upside down ever since the pandemic made its presence felt, and the struggle to embrace ‘the new normal’ has taken a terrible toll on us. The risk of contracting the disease is grave indeed, but equally alarming are the mental health issues that are spreading as rapidly as the virus itself. Children have been severely impacted by this situation. With their regular routine completely disrupted, and talk of the dreaded virus blasting them from all corners, they feel bewildered and insecure, many are quite traumatized. Their need for assurance and understanding from the adults in their lives has grown immensely during the pandemic…

Susruta Patil is just another kid—but not quite so. He loves sketching, but is terrible at football. He is a great friend, but suffers at the hands of bullies. He loves poetry, but cannot punctuate. His name does not make it any easier, especially when he wets his bed!SP, as his friend Lobo calls him, sinks into the deep hole of depression. He feels the world is against him, and that he cannot catch a break. However, Lobo, and Kuhu, the best footballer around, help him see better. He opens up and shares his world with them, and suddenly the hole isn’t so deep and dark after all…

‘After all, a story survives only a few minutes…Who doesn’t know that most newspapers are waste in the afternoon?’ This is Ramayan Prasad, a journalist, working for one of the leading national newspapers in India. For past many years, he has swiftly and skillfully worked on some really troublesome reports; he follows the cases, files his copies and moves on. But something has changed since he started working on a case of a gang rape in the national capital…

If the children of India dream, let them dream of India.’Anant PaiOn Anant Pai’s 90th birth anniversary, it is fitting for Rajessh M Iyer to have penned a homage to the life and work of the father of Indian comics in his biography Uncle Pai: The Man Behind the Iconic Amar Chitra Katha. From the Author’s Note to the Epilogue, the biography pays glowing tributes to Anant Pai, his vision and dream, in such a way that some readers may even term it a hagiography.In terms of including criticism of Pai’s work, there do exist fleeting indications of ‘baseless criticism’ (p. 316), a passing reference to Pai’s anger and a brief section entitled ‘Objections’ describing Valmiki Sabha’s objection to Valmiki being portrayed as a thief, leading to Pai’s effigies being burnt…

This is the first time I have encountered a movie adapted to a book. It is based on an adivasi boy called Oonga and his story. The author has created a brilliant atmosphere around the whole plot. The book is an eyeopener for me. The words come alive right from the first few lines. The characters in the story are also so unique, they are brought to life in the story. The story woven is realistically displayed with all the flaws in life, in the system, in different people…

A well-written book with extensive vocabulary, Teji Grover’s Mann Mein Khushi Paida Karne Wale Rang is full of memories, stories, haikus and appealing art. Divided into fourteen chapters, the author reminisces about some of her childhood memories and describes them in detail. Each of the fourteen chapters tells a different story. Readers are able to vividly imagine the incidents, some of which include the rescue of a cat on Deepavali, the life story of the author’s friend Alan or the recollection of her visits to countries. She also writes about the art she made in her childhood, the use of natural colours and their importance…

Little America is the story of Sharif Barkati, a boy from the slums of Karachi who aspires for more—he wants love, he wants to be free. He achieves this by creating his own little haven of ‘freedom’, first in his school, then in his father’s car and then in a few ramshackle buildings with his friend in the city. He himself does not indulge in any of the freedoms he offers others—a space to drink, smoke, dress, speak and love as they want to; his exhilaration comes from their joy at expressing themselves unrestrained by society outside. And the space he creates is for everybody…

Everyone is a work in progress.’Go back and read that sentence, again and again. Andaleeb Wajid focuses on teaching us how to love ourselves while dealing with many problems in and around us. Although Mirror, Mirror is a young adult book, anyone can read it. It may seem like a young romance novel, but it is so much more than that. It deals with issues like fat-shaming, adult pregnancy, societal expectations, and first loves.Most importantly, it raises the issue that most teenagers face, ‘choosing the subjects/stream for their future’ and ‘deciding what they want to do in life…

Bringing Back Grandpa by Madhuri Kamat, a sequel to Flying with Grandpa is a realistic portrayal of the life of a single child in an urban, middle class Indian family of today. The child’s character is coloured with loneliness and control. This review begins with a brief summary of the story, which is followed by some observational comments. Finally, the reviewer poses a few questions on the current state of childhood in India and what role children’s literature can play to address children’s needs.The story appears as a page from the life of a single, privileged male child, Xerxes. He is quite close to his grandpa, who is his only friend and also his saviour. All of a sudden his grandpa falls ill. Before Xerxes could make sense of the situation at home, he finds himself being bullied by his classmates…

In March 2020, the world was told to shut themselves in. The much-condemned mobile phone became the center of our lives. Children who till February 2020 were told by WHO that screen time was evil and they should play vigorously outdoors at least 60 minutes every day, were forced to stare at screens for study, and stopped from playing outside. In short, everything turned upside down, or rather, to make a bad pun, outside in. They do say, though, that every cloud has a silver lining. Well, this little book is part of the silver lining. I have carefully mentioned the cover pages, because the front cover sets the tone, while the inside front cover and the back cover also have little gems tucked into them…

The book under review comprises twelve chapters, with eye catching illustrations, and easy to relate style of prose, that act as nothing less than a Bible for young adolescent girls. It beautifully explains the transition from hoops of puberty to fabulous adulthood. Young girls often tend to become self-conscious owing to the changes that occur during puberty. A proper guide, the right information and knowledge is what is needed to battle the dilemmas of adolescence like: their first period, picking up their first bra, encountering pubic hair, relationships, boys, developing pimples, gaining weight, periods hacks, menstrual hygiene, etc. This book is a good pick for that…

Sami is a young adult; a ‘girl’ who felt more at ease in carrying herself in a way that’s conventionally attributed to ‘boys’ only. This was often met with a wide range of inconsiderate, harassing (and vulgar) remarks and humiliating questions… Are you a boy or a girl? Her parents were thoughtful and sensitive enough, but that did not mean an escape from the occasional, You know you’re not a boy, right? Why don’t you make an effort to look more like the other girls?Sami soon discovers that she is gay and seems to be accepting and willing to explore her sexuality. As she is about to start exploring this newfound realization, a major shift comes in; she has to move to Chandsarai with her mother, a small village in the hills. Being away from her father, Nisha (her best friend) and the place she felt so connected to wasn’t easy…

Childhood, that precious time of intense loves and hates and hopes and disappointments, has been marvellously captured by Divya Anand in her story for children I Hate my Curly Hair, a story, beautifully illustrated by Rujuta Thakurdesai, that is reminiscent of the illustrated stories by that wonderful writer for children, Dr Seuss.The primary objective of any literature be it for children or adults is to entertain and give pleasure.  I Hate my Curly Hair does this  amply by using a rhyme pattern that would delight any young reader by the way it trips and slips off one’s tongue with its tizzy and frizzy and giggles and squiggles…

ll Time Favourites (For Children) celebrates Ruskin Bond’s writing with stories that are always loved equally by children and adults and can now be enjoyed in a single collectible volume consisting of 25 enjoyable stories. Curated by India’s most loved children’s writer, this collection brings together some of the most evocative episodes from the author’s life. Heart-warming, funny and spirited, this is a must have on every bookshelf!‘Goldfish Don’t Bark’ is a delightful story of Koki and the goldfish, which is kept in a glass jar and is constantly admired by the little girl who is visiting her grandmother, living on the other side of the hill. She is happy to notice that the goldfish do not make noises like dogs, donkeys or the birds…

Tara Kaushal set out on a journalistic journey, interviewing nine men accused of rape and gang rape to analyse the psychological temperament of the rapist. The book is the roller coaster of emotions and a mentally intertwined journey on ‘Why Men Rape’. The commonly evident documentation of patriarchy…

Courting Desire: Litigating for Love in North India is a book that attempts very successfully to capture the nuances of change and contestations in Haryana through the lens of youthful desire and love that transgresses caste/gotra/religion and courts the legal process to gain societal acceptance and legitimacy…

In contemporary Indian and Pakistani societies, the question of the role of the woman in the nationalist scenario remains a vexed one. Ann McClintock observes about the role of the woman in the developing world, ‘Excluded from direct action as national citizens, women are subsumed symbolically into the national body politic as its boundary and metaphoric limit.’

Amartya Sen’s ‘Capability Approach’ and ‘Development as Freedom’ continues to intrigue, interest and push scholars to explore what emerges when these are applied in the concrete, on the ground, to specific sectors, and, categories of people within these sectors…

(Hi)Stories of Desire is set to be a landmark publication on culture in modern India. It maps this via the route of sexualities and draws upon a diverse set of disciplinary locations and research to do so. In addition to a very comprehensive introductory chapter co-authored…

Patriarchy and the Pangolin: A Field Guide to Indian Men and Other Species is a book about two environmentalists who are women as well as researchers. It is important at the outset to state their gender identities, as the premise of the book is based on this shared…