Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives – Sudha Murty
Two decades ago, when Sudha Murty approached a group of devadasis for the first time, determined to make a difference to their lives, they threw a chappal at her.
Undeterred, she went back, telling herself she must talk to the devadasis about the dangers of AIDS. This time, they threw tomatoes.
But she refused to give up. The Infosys Foundation worked hard to make the devadasis self-reliant, to help educate their children, and to rid the label of the social stigma that had become attached to it.
Today, there are no temple prostitutes left in the state of Karnataka. This is the powerful, inspirational story of that change initiative that has transformed thousands of lives.
The Lost River: On The Trail of the Sarasvati – Michel Danino
The Lost River explores the geography, history, and mythology, of the Sarasvati river, drawing from various sources like folklore, the Vedas, archaeology, local practices, history, geology, and meteorology. The book explains that the river, its very existence, and its course have been discussed and speculated over for years. The magnificence of the Sarasvati has been detailed in scriptures like the Rig Veda. Historians and archaeologists could not understand how it mysteriously ceased to exist. Some of the even deem the river a myth.
This book attempts the deduce facts from fable and makes a strong case for the existence of the river. It goes over the upheavals that the Indian subcontinent went through thousands of years ago, explaining the dry weather, erosion, and tectonic events that changed the terrain, altered river courses, and may have made the Sarasvati disappear. The book then chronicles explorations into the river started, which began around the early nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered by British officials doing topographic explorations.
The book also explains the culture around that time, shedding light on the Indus valley civilisation and the rich and flourishing culture of Harappa. The book goes on the show the results of explorations into the river’s origins and course using modern technology like satellite imagery and isotope analysis. The author has also used his proof of the existence of the river to bolster his theory that Aryans were indigenous to India and not foreign invaders.
After doing a similar post for Singapore, on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, I had to do one for the city of my birth, my beloved Mumbai.
A Mumbai resident is known as a Mumbaikar, though when it used to be Bombay, we called ourselves Bombayites. I guess the change from Bombay to Mumbai meant that the word also changed and became the Marathi Mumbaikar where kar is the Marathi word for a resident.
It is said, Mumbai is a city while Bombay is an emotion. Mumbai is full of dreamers and the place where people’s dreams are realised and extinguished. It is said that if one has lived in Bombay and has travelled in the local trains then one can survive in any other city. Officially Mumbai, Bombay is still used interchangeably by many locals.
Mumbaikars live a very fast-paced life and why not, given that the bulk of the population spends a few hours daily just on their commute, whether for school, college or work. I know of friends and colleagues who would spend a minimum of two hours each way on the trains to get to their destination. And speaking of trains, the Mumbai local is the lifeline of the city and if for some reason, trains shut down, the city comes to a standstill. The life of a Mumbaikar, especially one who needs the train to get to work or school revolves around train timings. So their conversations are peppered with train timings and what time to reach the station. And within the train is something that is uniquely Mumbai – the train friends. So what are these train friends? Train friends are those who invariably take the same train as you do daily. Over time, these people become friends. And this is a category of friends who may move outside the train or remain within the train itself.
A Mumbaikar is a perfect amalgamation of pan India. A blend of the North and South and to this is added the Eastern and the Western parts of India which it is already a part of. If you ask a Mumbaikar for directions, you will not be told of the direction in kilometres, but rather the time it will take you to get there. It’s very common to travel long distances to get from one place to the other because unlike other cities, Mumbai is set up in a north-south alignment so this means that long distances are inevitable and this does not faze a Mumbaikar.
Mumbai has one of the highest literacy rates in India, 94.7% which is significantly higher than the country’s average. Though the official state language is Marathi; 16 other major languages are spoken in the city including English. The city is the commercial and entertainment capital of India as well as its most populous city. With a high number of migrants and diverse religious groups, Mumbai is truly a melting pot of cultures. Mumbai can be called the true and first cosmopolitan city of India because this is a city that brings together people of different communities, religions and customs and the city is known for its diversity which can be hard to find elsewhere in India. In any building society, it’s quite easy to see people from many Indian states who live together and celebrate all festivals. The inhabitants of the city can be called a microcosm of India’s population.
The Bambaiya Hindi which is maligned in Bollywood films is a blend of Hindi, Marathi and English. While this brand of Hindi. While the Hindi may not be as pure as what is spoken in Delhi and the northern parts of India, it’s not too bad. What is shown in television and films is an exaggerated version spoken. Neither I nor my family, friends or acquaintances have spoken like this daily.
But at the end of the day, Mumbai has a heart of gold. I have written previously about how the city comes together to help during a calamity or crisis and that is what is important.
A Mumbaikar loves Mumbai, plain and simple and once they identify themselves as a Mumbaikar, they remain one till the end of their lives. I may not travel to Mumbai now as often as I want to, but you can take Mumbai out of my life, but you can’t take the Mumbaikar out of me.
To end this post, an old song which beautifully captures the spirit of Mumbai, though it was Bombay then. This song is from the old classic C.I.D which was released in 1956 and starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in the leading roles. And this shows you how Bombay was in the fifties, with trams running and wide, uncrowded roads.
Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire – Ira Mukhoty
In 1526 a Timurid warrior-scholar rides into Delhi to build an empire. With him ride his wives, his sisters, his daughters, his aunts and his distant female relatives.
Unhindered by a relatively recent conversion to Islam, these women will help found a culture of such magnificence and beauty that it will become a by-word for opulence in the world. These Mughal women of Hindustan — unmarried daughters, eccentric sisters, fiery milk-mothers and beautiful wives, will contribute to the great syncretic culture of the Mughals by writing biographies, building monuments, engaging in diplomacy, and patronizing the arts.
And even as the zenana changes from the earlier nomadic, tented spaces to the later more sequestered grandeur within the high stone walls of mighty qilas, the influence of the women remains visible and unquestioned. This book looks at the lives of these Mughal women, and the enigma of their disappearance, except as objects of curiosity, from our collective memory.
Partition Voices: Untold British Stories – Kavita Puri
Dotted across homes in Britain are people who were witnesses to one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. Yet their memory of India’s partition has been shrouded in silence. Kavita Puri’s father was twelve when he found himself one of the millions of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims caught up in the devastating aftermath of a hastily drawn border. For seventy years he remained silent – like so many – about the horrors he had seen.
When her father finally spoke out, opening up a forgotten part of Puri’s family history, she was compelled to seek out the stories of South Asians who were once subjects of the British Raj, and are now British citizens. Determined to preserve these accounts – of the end of Empire and the difficult birth of two nations – here Puri records a series of remarkable first-hand testimonies, as well as those of their children and grandchildren whose lives are shaped by partition’s legacy. With empathy, nuance and humanity, Puri weaves a breathtaking tapestry of human experience over a period of seven decades that trembles with life; an epic of ruptured families and friendships, extraordinary journeys and daring rescue missions that reverberates with pain, loss and compassion.
The division of the Indian subcontinent happened far away, but it is also a very British story. Many of those affected by partition are now part of the fabric of British contemporary life, but their lives continue to be touched by this traumatic event. Partition Voices breaks the silence and confronts the difficult truths at the heart of Britain’s shared history with South Asia.
Memories and Such 
