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Daddyji
DADDYJI is Ved Mehta's autobiography dealing primarily with his father, Amolak Ram Mehta, senior member of the clan and a British-trained physician. "The picture of Amolak Ram that emerges from this memoir is that of a remarkable man, one possessed of great courage and virtue. The book's value lies in the fact that Ved Mehta translates an individual experience into one that is universal." (Saturday Review) "Delightful...conceived as a series of cameos of village and urban family life from the end of the last century to the end of the first 40 years of this, DADDYJI is intimate, personal, as well as a history of modern India in the making." (The Times, London)
195 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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About the author
Ved Mehta
77 books49 followersIndian-American journalist Ved Parkash Mehta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ved_Mehta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ved_Mehta
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 22, 2021
dis b sum oprah book of da month shiit 4 all dem white guilt n****z; dis aint no india fool – mimic man daddy be sneering subaltern boiie – GOOD SHOW OLD MAN hindutva valuz uncle tom booshiit at da CLUB. DA CLUB!!!1!!! rolfy muh waffle trouser man; head bobbin under imperial pantaloon cuz u think u sum role modelz?? f8k dat; yo swami g now hook me 2 apple piez n a small fry i gots to practice muh service. SERFS UPPPP!!!!!!111!!
January 14, 2024
Ved Mehta, who was for many years a staff writer at the New Yorker, is an amazing writer. Daddyji is the story of Mehta's father's life in Lahore, then India, now Pakistan, and how his father's family rose from being very small village landowners to members of the professional classes in the Punjab.
Daddyji's father, Lalaji, was the driving force that brought his family out of the village, what Mehta describes as the banyan tree and iron skullcap. He found a job as a minor provincial bureaucrat which allowed him to send first his younger brothers and then his children, starting with Daddyj, to school. Lalaji himself only received a village education from a local Muslim religious leader who taught him to read and write Urdu and do elementary mathematics.
The book tells of the family's struggles and successes, their feuds and reconciliations. When Daddyji, driven by the ambition that seemed to propel nearly all his family, went to London to study medicine, the reader learns about life in the UK for Indian students (known as "colonials,"). Possibly Mehta and his father softpeddled the racism of the British, but life seemed to be okay for Daddyji.
Mehta had a phenomenal memory. He is able to reconstruct conversations forty years later, and keep all the large Mehta family and their many houses straight. at least I think he did. Since I wasn't there, I don't know. But if you are interested in life in India in the early 20th Century, you should definitely read this book.
Daddyji's father, Lalaji, was the driving force that brought his family out of the village, what Mehta describes as the banyan tree and iron skullcap. He found a job as a minor provincial bureaucrat which allowed him to send first his younger brothers and then his children, starting with Daddyj, to school. Lalaji himself only received a village education from a local Muslim religious leader who taught him to read and write Urdu and do elementary mathematics.
The book tells of the family's struggles and successes, their feuds and reconciliations. When Daddyji, driven by the ambition that seemed to propel nearly all his family, went to London to study medicine, the reader learns about life in the UK for Indian students (known as "colonials,"). Possibly Mehta and his father softpeddled the racism of the British, but life seemed to be okay for Daddyji.
Mehta had a phenomenal memory. He is able to reconstruct conversations forty years later, and keep all the large Mehta family and their many houses straight. at least I think he did. Since I wasn't there, I don't know. But if you are interested in life in India in the early 20th Century, you should definitely read this book.
November 3, 2021
My first impression was of the book's title, Daddyji, which evoked in me a feeling of sentimentality: "ji" being a suffix added to names to convey respect in Indian culture, and "daddy" being the affectionate Anglican name for one's father.
Some will say the story is remarkable for its author, who despite being blind since the age of 4 writes prose that is deeply vivid. Others will say the story functions primarily as a historical snapshot of life in Lahore. I would argue that Daddyji is ultimately a story of social mobility in a rapidly globalizing world. The rise of Amolak Ram Mehta (AKA Daddyji) from the son of a village tax collector ("patwari") to heights (including but not limited to education at University College London, LSHTM, and Johns Hopkins, and public health work in India aimed at the control of malaria and TB) is driven partly by Amolak's personal strengths, but also significantly by happenstance. It is clear from the narrative that without a series of opportune encounters, timing, and connections, Amolak would not have been able to accomplish all that he did. This is realized during the book's two most poignant chapters, the first of which details the fate of Amolak's youngest brother, and the second of which details the events that lead to the author becoming blind.
Some will say the story is remarkable for its author, who despite being blind since the age of 4 writes prose that is deeply vivid. Others will say the story functions primarily as a historical snapshot of life in Lahore. I would argue that Daddyji is ultimately a story of social mobility in a rapidly globalizing world. The rise of Amolak Ram Mehta (AKA Daddyji) from the son of a village tax collector ("patwari") to heights (including but not limited to education at University College London, LSHTM, and Johns Hopkins, and public health work in India aimed at the control of malaria and TB) is driven partly by Amolak's personal strengths, but also significantly by happenstance. It is clear from the narrative that without a series of opportune encounters, timing, and connections, Amolak would not have been able to accomplish all that he did. This is realized during the book's two most poignant chapters, the first of which details the fate of Amolak's youngest brother, and the second of which details the events that lead to the author becoming blind.
December 2, 2023
I first read this fifty years ago when it appeared in The New Yorker, and I had very fond memories of it. It's the first in Mehta's 12 part autobiography Continents of Exile and focuses on his father and his father's childhood, his medical training and career, and his marriage in India during the first half of the last century. It ends when Ved is four years old. Eager to reread book two, Mamaji.
August 14, 2020
Sketch portrait of the author’s father and the often harsh milieu he rose from.
November 2, 2008
Interesting to learn more about Ved Mehta's life, and the upward mobility of an Indian MD during the late Raj years, and an aranged marriage based on lies by the woman's parents, but overall not quite enough to work with.
April 1, 2014
I could listen to Ved Mehta forever. I heard him at Jaipur Lit Festival and I felt he was the only one talking sense in a panel. But this book did not grab me. His writing is solid but he doesn't make things come alive on the page. He writes as if he is holding something back.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews