Words championing rights - Review of the book
"political stories" by
Volga
In a generation which
boasts itself of its richness and when a social distinction is meted out with
uncanny parallels of the society, it is the youth who should speak aggressively
of being progressive. I always wanted to be one in that group. This liking for
feminism started when I read "Swetcha" novel of
Volga. That was the first Feminist novel I've read in my life. The author ends
the novel in such a dilemma and makes space for the readers to think on.
I too picked up the same
technique for my writing. I don't want to teach people values through my pen. I
just want to present the society and most of my stories too to end with either
a question or dilemma. It makes the readers think of the issue for a while. I
believe it surely has a great impact rather than it'll have when we wrap it up
with some moral rendering.
When I read a book,
I spoil it all with my underlining, highlighting, and what not all that is
needed to April spoil the paper. Later when I open the book with the highlights
of bookmarks I get nostalgic of its understanding then but the stories of Volga
make me think for days for a solution which leads me to read more on the issue
and this book "political stories" was beyond doubt which left me on a
room of thirst questions to be quenched.
It's too late that I read
this book. I feel so progressive when I speak of gender sensitization in this
2020 but Volga's book "political stories" was nothing but pieces of
her stories published in dailies and magazines during the 1980s. That's why I
need to reiterate that I read this book very late...of the progressive ideology
professed then!
Progressive ideology
was meant to bring some progression in society. It cannot be done overnight but
it's been decades, the issues talked about in this book haven't been solved at
and the change we call is the tip of an iceberg.
We read that Harappan civilization
has worshipped an idol of a female genital. I don't understand how this
situation turned out where the abuses in any language surround coin from the
secondary sexual characters of women or on their sexuality. There were days
where I stand with my friends where they used to screen every girl going on the
street and go on to describe their sexual parts and get erotic. When I retorted
that this is bad they used to be like "Aren't you make??? Behave
masculine"
This gender
sensitization is deep-rooted in the Indian culture that attributes are given to
every gender and anybody who breaks out were called eunuchs. This book of Volga
breaks out the myths of gender sensitization in particular the bodies of women.
The author tells us how
every part of the women's body turns out to be a label of oppression. The
naming of the stories is with the body parts like - eyes, nose stud, Stony
breasts...
The author creates a
situation in every story where the protagonist female tries to tear the web of
gender sensitization and what would be the consequences. There is a situation
where in the story, Stony breasts: the protagonist feels relieved when she was
said that her breasts need to be cut off due to cancer. That story portrays the
heights of the pain of oppression. Most astonishing thing is that the writer
was such a keen liberal that she speaks of live-in-relationship during the
1980s which I see so rarely in Telugu literature.
I wonder such
stories made their space in Telugu magazines long back and it shows us the
hollow space formed in the society due to the lack of the torchbearer.
Somewhere there's a feeling for me that the translation wasn't up to the mark
that the translator at some points failed to capture the punch of Volga weaving
of words.
The
author doesn't only lament on each issue but also tells 'what should be done
through the story 'What should be done'. That story's character Shoba was
such natural that I felt she is a person living next door. As said before,
Volga shows her mark of leaving the stories either with a question mark or
dilemma but the last story ends with the hope and I end with last lines of the
book
"Prompted by their enthusiasm, the night appeared eager
for the morning as lighting illuminated the dark sky"
- Reviewed by
Pity Parker
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ReplyDeleteHappy reading!
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