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Indians do not write autobiographies or for that matter good History. The ability to reflect on the fleeting moments of time which constitute our lives and seize that moment even as it dissolves, is the stuff of History and autobiographers choose to locate their puny little lives against the grand events that unfold before their eyes, trying to find meaning for their existence. The Indian tradition of both autobiography and History is the katha, the oral narrative, a story. Sashi Despande has caught this peculiarity of Indian psyche by calling her autobiography, Listen to Me.
Sashi Deshpandeis the daughter of the well known Kannada writer and playwright, Shriranga. and she carries the burden of her father's astounding literary legacy rather lightly. Belonging to an educated Deshasta family from Karnataka with her family on maternal side having ties with Pune.
Her father was a teacher of Sanskrit in a well known college in Dhrawad where she was born and educated. It appears that her father had some vague sympathy for the fashionable leftist causes and hence lost his job and family suffered considerable humiliation as a consequences. Living on the handouts of well off relatives is not a pleasant experience and Sashi's early childhood memories are marred with such slights. Her sister studied medicine and her brother went on to get a Ph D in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. However tragedy was snapping at the heels and her brother lost his mind and died in NIMHANS, Bangalore. She writes about the events in her life with a sense of detachment and even candour. However, her autobiography reads like an extended Curriculum Vitae dwelling on her external life-- the books she has written, the awards she received, the famous people she encountered and the literary impact she made in the field of Indians Writing in English. There is little about her personal life and the only character whom she allows us to meet from her life is her father. She even mentions that in a letter discovered after his death, her father wanted his children to stand on their own legs, a statement she promptly dissects using the categories of gender so popular today.
Being the wife of a successful doctor meant travel and she did not have to earn her livelihood and after the birth of her two sons she decided to dedicate herself entirely to writing. She penned 11 novels and a large number of short stories and she won the Sahitya Academy Award for her book, the Dark Holds no Terror. And this brings us to her latest incarnation as an Awars Wapsi.
Sashi Deshpande is quite forceful in her denunciation of the Emergency and she also states that Rajiv Gandhi was to be blamed for the Sikh Riots that killed 5000 Sikhs in the national capital after his mother was shot dead. These confessions are welcome as it established a certain authenticity in her work. However, as in the case of other Award Wapsi heroes her decision to return the Sahitya Academy Award was motivated by personal ties with Professor M M Kalburgi who was killed by unknown assailants. A tendency to blame the Right Wing for all unfortunate events has become the credo of the so called Indian Intellectual. She rushed to return her award and was, of course , hailed as a great conscience keeper of the Loony Left
In spite of such unthinking forays into the public realm, this book is an interesting read. At least it is readable and there are occasional flashes of insight. While she does reflect on the plight of brahmins in India she does not denounce the discrimination that shadows them.
Indians do not write autobiographies or for that matter good History. The ability to reflect on the fleeting moments of time which constitute our lives and seize that moment even as it dissolves, is the stuff of History and autobiographers choose to locate their puny little lives against the grand events that unfold before their eyes, trying to find meaning for their existence. The Indian tradition of both autobiography and History is the katha, the oral narrative, a story. Sashi Despande has caught this peculiarity of Indian psyche by calling her autobiography, Listen to Me.
Sashi Deshpandeis the daughter of the well known Kannada writer and playwright, Shriranga. and she carries the burden of her father's astounding literary legacy rather lightly. Belonging to an educated Deshasta family from Karnataka with her family on maternal side having ties with Pune.
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Being the wife of a successful doctor meant travel and she did not have to earn her livelihood and after the birth of her two sons she decided to dedicate herself entirely to writing. She penned 11 novels and a large number of short stories and she won the Sahitya Academy Award for her book, the Dark Holds no Terror. And this brings us to her latest incarnation as an Awars Wapsi.
Sashi Deshpande is quite forceful in her denunciation of the Emergency and she also states that Rajiv Gandhi was to be blamed for the Sikh Riots that killed 5000 Sikhs in the national capital after his mother was shot dead. These confessions are welcome as it established a certain authenticity in her work. However, as in the case of other Award Wapsi heroes her decision to return the Sahitya Academy Award was motivated by personal ties with Professor M M Kalburgi who was killed by unknown assailants. A tendency to blame the Right Wing for all unfortunate events has become the credo of the so called Indian Intellectual. She rushed to return her award and was, of course , hailed as a great conscience keeper of the Loony Left
In spite of such unthinking forays into the public realm, this book is an interesting read. At least it is readable and there are occasional flashes of insight. While she does reflect on the plight of brahmins in India she does not denounce the discrimination that shadows them.
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