Book Review: Ma is Scared and Other Stories by Anjali Kajal, Translation by Kavita Bhanot.

 

Book: Ma is Scared and Other Stories 

Author: Anjali Kajal 

Translator: Kavita Bhanot 

Publisher: Penguin India 

Pages: 208 

How Long it Took me to Read: 2 days 

Plot Summary: An anxious mother waits for her daughter to return from work, while deflecting comments from judgmental neighbours. A chance encounter with an old college friend triggers the memory of a cruel trap once set for a young student, just because of her caste. In the middle of a lecture on the legacies of sexual abuse, a woman feels the weight of a whole lifetime suddenly pressing down on her. The stories in Anjali Kajal’s debut collection draw us into the lives of ordinary women in Northern India, making us realise quite how rarely we witness these experiences from Dalit points of view. Whether combating the caste-based disdain of colleagues at work or in the classroom or enduring the new blows that the pandemic landed on Dalit communities, Anjali’s characters find a resilience and a dignity that we can all learn from.

Review: I love short stories, they are such a great way  to sample a new-to-you author and they are the perfect sort of things to pick up on busy days or stressful times. I picked up this book last week when I needed something that I could jump in and out of, these stories set predominantly in North India both took me out of my mind and placed me firmly in a world I know of and realities I dread. They were short, crisp and moving and all too familiar. Being a woman in this country, well in this world at large is fraught with a million stresses  and these stories do such a good job at capturing this all too familiar fear all women live with. If you are a woman the themes and anxieties of these stories will strike a chord in your soul. It did with me. Ma is Scared is a universal phenomenon. I know my own mother didn't relax till we (her daughters) came back home, safe and sound. This book and its writing does a fantastic job of capturing what being a woman feels like. 

I also really appreciated that several stories are from Dalit perspectives. We see how Reservations affects those it's supposed to help, the scorn and ridicule and judgment follows them and how this 'othering' makes them feel. 

Powerful and moving and nicely written, this collection of short stories was a relevant and important read. 

Rating: 4/5