Sunday 19 January 2020

Weekend Reads: What My Sister and I are Reading This Weekend.


Hello! 

I hope your weekend is off to a good start. 

My plans for this weekend are to cook delicious meals and read good books. 

Here's What I am Reading/// 

Baluta by Daya Pawar, Translated by Jerry Pinto: I have been meaning to get to this book forever. One of the first ever Dalit autobiographies, this book is set in the 1950s and 60s Mumbai and parts of it in the author's village. Dealing with his childhood, caste, discrimination and family, this book is a powerful and sadly still just as relevant and needed. It's horrifying that even 50 years later not much has changed when it comes to our (India's) cruelty and caste bias. A book that is in parts hard to read but so important. 

Plot Summary: Baluta caused a sensation when it first appeared, in Marathi, in 1978. It quickly acquired the status of a classic of modern Indian literature and was also a bestseller in Hindi and other major languages. This is the first time that it has been translated into English. Set in Mumbai and rural Maharashtra of the 1940s and ’50s, it describes in shocking detail the practice of untouchability and caste violence. But it also speaks of the pride and courage of the Dalit community that often fought back for dignity. Most unusually, Baluta is also a frank account of the author’s own failings and contradictions—his passions, prejudices and betrayals—as also those of some leading lights of the Dalit movement. In addition, it is a rare record of life in Maharashtra’s villages and in the slums, chawls and gambling dens of Mumbai.

Publisher: Speaking Tiger 

My Sister is Reading///

Paper Moon by Rehana Munir: I read this back in November and really enjoyed it and have been bugging her to read this as well. So she finally picked it up on Friday and is nearly done with it. And she liked it just as much. 

Plot Summary: BOOKS. BOMBAY. ROMANCE. 
When her estranged father passes away, Fiza, fresh out of college, discovers that he has left her a tidy sum in the hope that she will open a bookshop... Overnight, Fiza's placid life is thrown into a whirl of decor decisions and book-buying sprees, unconventional staff and colourful patrons, small pleasures and little heartbreaks, as the store - Paper Moon - begins to take shape in a charming, old Bandra mansion. To top it all, she is being wooed by Iqbal, a mysterious customer who frequents the shop, and Dhruv, her ex-boyfriend, her feelings for whom are still confused. Can Fiza take charge of her life, reconcile with the past, and reach for everything that is hers?

I've already done a full review for this book and you can read it HERE. 

Publisher: Harper Collins India. 

Other plans for the weekend include, watching Bala and maybe some kind of scary film. 
And drink lots of Masala Chai. 
:) 

Have a good one guys. 

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