To reveal oneself in a book for the world to read is a daring labour of the self. It's an effort to share your experiences and discover yourself thoroghly through the medium of writing. You look at the world from the author's point of view and get a chance to understand experiences of identies that different than yours. These five memoirs will take you on a journey to understand aspects of lives that dwell into caste, gender, childhood, trauma and hidden histories.
The Water in a Broken Pot by Yogesh Maitreya
In this incredibly moving personal account, Maitrya peals the layers of the experiences of pain, loneliness, depravation, alienation, and the political consciousness of his caste identity and growing up in workin-class family. Having hopped from gig to gig to make ends meet, he writes of his eventual discovery of the written word and Ambedhkarite legacy.
Homeless by K. Vaishali
After discovering she’s lesbian and dyslexic at 20, Vaishali begins to untangle her anxieties around reading and writing. It marks as a raw and honest personal account as doubly marginalised person that covers aspects of extreme isolation, abuse by family, and discrimination, all underlined by the perpetual search for love.
Raw Umber by Sara Rai
Sara Rai pens down her memoir of living in multilingual space with her family. Being the grandaughter of the popular writer Premchand, she had the undeniable force of his legacy on her writing. A document of Rai’s family, the book deals with the large political events that tided over the mundane everydayness of life in early 20th-century Allahabad.
Unknown by Indrani Mukerjea
After spending more than six years in jail on the charges of murdering her daughter, former media executive Indrani Mukerjea has come out with a striking memoir, in which she claims that her daughter, Sheena Bora, is “alive and out there”. She strips the layers of politics that surrounded around the murder of Bora and reveals her story in this memoir.
Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh
Described as a travelogue, memoir and economical history book at the same time, Smoke and Ashes, traces the hegemonic tussle between Britain and China as early as the 17th century and the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as on the world at large.
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Date 05.09.2023