Slate of Life

by Laura Kalpakian, Kali for Women

   This sequel to Truth Tales contains ten stories by ten of the most renowned and inventive writers of India, translated from nine different languages. Rich in regional flavor, each story offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of Indian women, from the passionate political commitment of a freedom fighter to the struggle of a temple sweeper to survive with dignity. Because India is a huge and higly diverse ccountry, the lives and experiences of these women are vastly different, separated by geography, class, and background. The authors included are Meena Alexander, K. Saraswathi Amma, Bani Basu, Ajeet Cour, Indira Goswami, Binapani Mohanty, Dhiruben Patel, Chudamani Raghavan, Rajee Seth, and Wajida Tabassum.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, India

163 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Nick]

This anthology is a broad slice of women writers from across the broad spectrum of Indian cultures, each from a different language. It includes work translated not just from Hindi and Bengali (as well as a non-translation in English) but as far afield as Oriya, Assamese and Punjabi, and a Muslim story originally in Urdu. Taken as a whole, the stories represent a broad and effective indictment of Indian society; no outsider could be anywhere near as angrily incisive on such issues as arranged marriage ("Counting the Flowers", from the language Tamil), of religion as a means of oppression ("The Subordinate", from Mayalayam), the caste system, the rigid economics and the endemic poverty, which many of these stories link to the upper class, and most devastating, the culture of rape that has recently been in the news ("Lata", from the Oirya). Curiously, the stories that leave the traditional society behind for the modern culture of cities seem less focused, more diffuse in their criticism. But, it whitewashes nothing, while remaining powerfully human.

[Radhika]

Translated from different stories from famous authors from India. It was an interesting look into the lives of women