A fine balance by James Lamont
Shepard grew up in a tri-cultural household in the US. Her Jewish grandmother Rachel Jacobs was born near Bombay, and converted to Islam when she married; Shepard’s Muslim mother and Christian father helped create an identity there for the unpicking. Shepard is the ultimate global Indian – and she wants to know her roots.
Her journey back to the Bombay of her grandmother is just one experience in a larger story – of Jewish migration by the Bene Israel 2,000 years ago; of Indians forced out of their homes by partition in 1947, when Pakistan was carved out of British-ruled India; of emigration to the US.
Written in diary style over the course of a year, this is a fast read about a young American woman’s self-discovery as she celebrates India in its many guises. “I want to make myself understood in Hindi,” she writes. “I want to fit in, to live here and feel at home. I want to like myself in this place. Some days those goals feel within reach. Other days, they’re more elusive than ever.”
Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from IndiaEdited by Negar AkhaviVintage £8.99, 352 pagesFT Bookshop price: £7.19
Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature and CultureBy Amit ChaudhuriPeter Lang £12.99, 330 pagesFT Bookshop price: £10.39
Footpaths in the Painted City: An Indian JourneyBy Sadia ShepardAtlantic £12.99, 272 pagesFT Bookshop price: £10.39
Imagining India: Ideas for the New CenturyBy Nandan NilekaniPenguin £22/$29.95, 528 pagesFT Bookshop price: £17.60
Her journey back to the Bombay of her grandmother is just one experience in a larger story – of Jewish migration by the Bene Israel 2,000 years ago; of Indians forced out of their homes by partition in 1947, when Pakistan was carved out of British-ruled India; of emigration to the US.
Written in diary style over the course of a year, this is a fast read about a young American woman’s self-discovery as she celebrates India in its many guises. “I want to make myself understood in Hindi,” she writes. “I want to fit in, to live here and feel at home. I want to like myself in this place. Some days those goals feel within reach. Other days, they’re more elusive than ever.”
Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from IndiaEdited by Negar AkhaviVintage £8.99, 352 pagesFT Bookshop price: £7.19
Clearing a Space: Reflections on India, Literature and CultureBy Amit ChaudhuriPeter Lang £12.99, 330 pagesFT Bookshop price: £10.39
Footpaths in the Painted City: An Indian JourneyBy Sadia ShepardAtlantic £12.99, 272 pagesFT Bookshop price: £10.39
Imagining India: Ideas for the New CenturyBy Nandan NilekaniPenguin £22/$29.95, 528 pagesFT Bookshop price: £17.60
posted by temporal at 3/21/2009
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