2021 - March
Dear Reader,
If you’re new here, then - Hello!
If you’re someone who decided to stay, then – Welcome back!
Whether you’ve just signed up or been a constant, I am happy and grateful to have you here.
(Be prepared to read these lines in every newsletter. I am a huge believer of extending gratitude.)
I know March’s newsletter comes a bit late, but hey! This is digital snail mail. Remember? (Yes, I still know that sounds a bit ironic.)
March was an exciting month for me, to say the least! It’s honestly the happiest and most fulfilling month I’ve had till now in 2021. (Hopefully, I’m not jinxing this again.)
Remember I told you about that internship I got? Well, good news: I’ve really been enjoying it! And I’m getting to learn a lot. I’m not sure if I can still say that this is my true calling but I do love the work that I do. And, that isn’t something I’ve really been able to say about any of the other jobs I’ve had. This doesn’t mean that I never enjoyed my previous work, but; I’ve never quite felt the satisfaction that I feel now, you know?
Though, I’m not exactly making too many plans anymore. And if you know me well enough, then you know that’s quite a feat for me.
In other news, I also got selected as a fiction reader for Carve magazine this month!
Image Courtesy: Carve
Carve is a U.S. based literary magazine that’s been around for two decades now. It’s been named after Raymond Carver, an American short story writer and poet who is also considered to be one of the greatest writers of his time from his country. The magazine features their signature Honest Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Interviews and more. Carve also runs two annual contests for writers all around the world:
The Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, which runs from April to mid May every year. (That’s right. Applications are now open!) Winners get their work published in Carve’s fall issue along with cash prizes. Not to mention that winning pieces get a chance to be read by literary agents as well. This contest is specifically for literary fiction. This year their guest judge is Leesa Cross-Smith. She’s an award-winning writer who Roxanne Gay has called “a consummate storyteller”. You may know Cross-Smith from her most recent book: This Close To Okay, which has been getting some interesting reviews.
Image Courtesy: Carve
The Prose & Poetry Contest, which runs from October to mid November every year. Winners get their work published in Carve’s spring issue along with cash prizes. This contest seeks the best fiction, non-fiction and poetry and they have a guest judge for each category.
On that note, the 2021 spring issue is out! You can read the winning pieces from the 2020 Prose & Poetry Contest in the magazine as well as on Carve’s website.
I’ve also been able to catch up on some T.V. this month. I found this show called The Bold Type on Netflix and I absolutely loved it! This show traces the journey of three millennial women who work at a fictional global publication called Scarlet in New York City. Initially, I thought this would be pure popcorn television and it is that to a degree; but the show does a fairly good job at addressing issues like gender equality, toxic masculinity, LGBTQ+ issues, sexual assault, breast cancer and more. Don’t worry. It’s not a heavy show. It’s quite entertaining and great if you want to watch something to wind down after a long day’s work or if you just want to binge watch something. It’s also extremely refreshing to see female friendships portrayed in a positive light.
Fun fact: I believe this show is inspired from the life and career of Joanna Coles, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. She also happens to be an executive producer of the series.
Continuing on (somewhat) related lines, I read some really interesting books this month. When I sat down to write this part, I realized that they were all based on women. Then again, March was Women’s History Month. So, in hindsight, this seemed fairly ideal.
We Should All Be Feminists, is written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and published by HarperCollins. This book is a great introduction to what feminism is. If you’re someone who’s on the fence about feminism due to its negative connotations, I highly recommend this book. Based on Adichie’s 2012 TedXTalk, this book addresses the basics of feminism and how culture and society play a role in the same. It’s great if you want to attempt to understand what feminism means in present times.
Dear Ijeawale: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions makes for an impactful follow up to We Should All Be Feminists. Again, written by Adichie and published by HarperCollins, this book is based on a letter Chimamanda wrote as reply to a friend who asked how she could raise a feminist daughter (though in my opinion – most, if not all the points she makes in this book can be integrated for raising sons as well). Adichie addresses topics such as identity, individuality, gender roles, beauty standards and sex education to name a few. She uses real life situations and anecdotes to explain all her points. Honestly, I think this is a book all parents should read. Especially, new age parents and partners looking to start a family. I for one definitely see myself going back to this book whenever I do choose to have children.
Girl in White Cotton, better known as Burnt Sugar has been written by Avni Doshi and originally published by 4th Estate. This book talks about the volatile relationship of a mother-daughter duo and the implications of generational trauma. The story is told from the perspective of Antara who now has to take care of her mother Tara who’s forgetting everything. Though Tara seems to be suffering from Alzheimer’s; Antara can’t seem to stop suspecting if her mother’s condition is real or if she’s just playing a charade. No one is really a ‘protagonist’ in this story. In fact, our main characters seem to have lived complicated lives and have antagonistic qualities. Antara blames her mother for her torturous childhood; be it when Tara chooses to leave her husband (whom she was never really interested in marrying) and live at an ashram as Baba’s ‘consort’, begging outside a posh club in Pune or having Antara sent to a seemingly dystopian boarding school. But Antara also has her fair share of rebellion - leaving Pune against her mother’s wishes; she heads to Bombay for art school only to reject the admission and roam around the city as an urban nomad. From a scandalous love affair to thoughts of leaving her own husband and child or intentionally worsening Tara’s condition on the pretext of saving her now ‘normal’ life; Antara doesn’t seem very different from her mother.
Even the secondary characters have their fair share of quirks. Anatara’s husband Dilip seems to be the most optimistic person in the story but also seems to have chauvinistic undertones; and her friend Purvi who seems to have the ‘perfect’ marriage but might really just be living in a closet. However, my favourite character is Anatara’s Nani (maternal grandmother). There’s a scene in the book where Antara tries to communicate Tara’s condition to Nani; after which Nani touches her daughter’s cheek and says – “She’s become so fat, your mother. Her knuckles are swollen to double of what they were. How will we pry the jewellery off her hands when she dies?”
I love the way Avni Doshi’s written this book! As a writer, I couldn’t stop admiring some of her passages and one-liners that were so impactful. It’s not a surprise that this book was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize and now longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Fun fact: Avni won the Tibor Jones Prize in 2013 for this story but rewrote it 8 times over 7 years till she finally published it.
Singarevva And The Palace is a Kannada fiction book written by Chandrashekhara Kambara. The edition I read has been translated into English by Lakshmi Chandrashekhar (who is a renowned actress in Kannada theatre and media), and published by Katha. Described as a Gothic novel, this story traces the journey of Singarevva through the voice of her faithful companion Sheeningava. The book actually switches between two voices: One, of a man looking to write the story of the palace that Singarevva lived in and the other of Sheeningava who narrates this history to this man. Singarevva who is born into a wealthy Gowda family seems to face despair from the beginning. Her shrewd father leaves no opportunity to use his daughter as a pawn to increase his wealth: be it from initially marrying her off to a corpse, to then getting her married to an impotent prince. Singarevva bears the brunt of all the deeds of the men around her. If her father and husband(s) weren’t enough, she also has a ‘righteous’ stalker and a lecherous saint vying for her attention. Yet, Singarevva manages to get some relief (or seemingly so) at a few points in the story. I believe Kambara’s original really tortures our protagonist without giving her much of a voice, whereas the translator for this edition has managed to make it a bit feminist by giving Singarevva some agency. Interestingly, Lakshmi Chandrashekar adapted this story as play first, which she has performed. It was only after that the story got a translated book version. I got to listen to the translator in a book club meeting where she spoke about how the translation that got published was actually reworked by the editors and publishers. Hence, it can’t completely be called her translation. She’s also translated Singarevva And The Palace for another publisher, which she says is closer to what she had originally written. The edition I read has a lot of ethnification of text, which isn’t bad if you understand the context. But it probably would be a difficult read for someone who has little to no understanding of Indian (specifically Kannada) culture.
Chandrashekhara Kambara is a prominent Indian poet, playwright, folklorist and filmmaker in the Kannada language. He has published around 25 plays, 11 collections of poems, 5 novels and 16 research books on folklore, theatre, literature and education. He has also directed a number of films based on his own scripted plays and contributed to creating documentaries for the Government of Karnataka and the Government of India. Kambara is considered to be a genius and living legend in Indian literature and has won numerous awards (including the Padma Shri in 2001.) Born in 1937 in Belgaum, Karnataka; he did his schooling in Gokak and went on to get a M.A. and then PhD from Karnataka University, Dharwad. His doctoral thesis was on “The Folk Theatre Of North Karnataka”. Kambara also served as Founder and Vice-chancellor of Kannada University, Hampi and also as President of the Sahitya Akademi, India’s premier literary institution. He has presented papers on Indian Folklore and Theatre in the University of Chicago, American Oriental Centre (New York), International Theatre Institute (Berlin & Moscow), Jade: Akita Japan and many more universities and organisations. Many of his works have been translated into English and several Indian languages. Some of his famous works are as follows:
Plays - Jokumaraswamy, Jayasidnayaka, Kadu Kudure, Nayi Kathe, Mahamayi, Harakeya Kuri and Sirisampige (won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1991)
Novels – Karimaayi, G.K.Maastarara Pranaya Prasanga and Shikhara Soorya.
Research – Sangya Balya, Kannada Folklore Dictionary (2 volumes), Bedara Huduga Mattu Gilli (won the State Academy of Literature Award in 1989), An Anthology of Modern Indian Plays for the National School of Drama and Desheeya Chintana (collection of articles on culture and literature)
Fun fact: His film “Sangeeta” won the Best Feature Film State Award in the year 1981.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t familiar with Kambara and his work till I read Singarevva And The Palace. I’m now curious to read more of his work and I think I’ll be picking up Shikhara Soorya next from his collection. If any of you are familiar with the author’s work, then I’d love to hear if you have any thoughts and recommendations about his writing :)
And, with that, we have now come towards the end of this month’s newsletter!
I really hope you enjoyed reading it. As you know, I’m always open to feedback and constructive criticism.
Meanwhile, how did March go for you? You can write back or let me know in the comments section.
Till next time!
Love & Light,
Sangeetha
a.k.a. The Moody Marshmallow
P.S. – This month I’m signing off with songs from Strings, a famous Pakistani band that disbanded towards the end of March after a 22-year ride (though media reports 33 years, but that’s a different story altogether in my opinion). I was indeed heartbroken. Here are my recommendations: Duur, Sajni, Dhaani and Pyaar Ka Rog.