To be a woman, more than once

Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp: Selected Stories, is the first short story collection to win the International Booker Prize, an award given to the English translation of book written in another language. The prize recognizes “the vital work of translation” – Deepa Bhasthi is the first Indian translator to win this prize.

An activist and a lawyer, Mushtaq has been writing since the1970s, one of the few women authors in a progressive movement for Kannada literature. The movement encouraged women and others not often given a voice to tell their stories in their native language.

On the inspiration for this collection of twelve stories, Mushtaq has said,

“My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates. The daily incidents reported in media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering, and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me, compelling me to write.”

It was chilling to learn that Heart Lamp, the title story, has a scene taken from the author’s own experience,

“With a matchbox in my hand and ready to strike, it was my husband, who I had married for love, who clung to me and kept our three-month old daughter at my feet, telling me to stop.”

In the story, Mehrun’s husband has moved in with another woman. Mehrun wants to leave him but her family has no sympathy – it must be her own fault, a “decent woman” leaves her marital home only when she dies. Defiant, Mehrun says she’ll set herself on fire if they force her to go back, which they do. She hears her brother’s words during the ride home.

“Those who want to die don’t walk around talking about it. But if you had any concern for this family’s honour then you would have done that instead of coming here.”

In Black Cobras, Aashraf is seeking justice for her hungry children – her husband left after a third daughter was born. Zulekha Begum, her wealthy employer who reads books all day, is surprised to hear Aashraf’s story of woe and has suggestions. I pictured the Wizard of Oz behind his curtain, replaced by this snobbish woman handing out advice – do this, the Prophet doesn’t say that, women have rights, file a complaint. But, she doesn’t get off her rich you-know-what to actually help.

In A Decision of the Heart Yusuf, has two homes. To keep the peace, he built a wall which divided his house, and himself, in two. He spends evenings in his mother’s house and has lunch in his wife’s home. If Yusuf is the ‘mama’s boy’ of the century, his wife has taken jealousy to new heights, calling her mother-in-law a “co-wife” – and worse. Even in the most over-the-top Indian ‘saas-bahu’ TV serials a daughter-in-law wouldn’t call her mother-in-law such things. As in most of Heart Lamp’s stories, like an old pressure cooker, there’s a lot of hissing and rattling until the top finally blows. Usually, not much changes – for the women.

I felt a need to ‘like’ the award-winning Heart Lamp, be in awe, even. The stories (mostly) held my attention. Some were told in the first-person (my preference); most included much conversation, dialogue (also preferred). The writing, the translation brought scenes to life – I could picture rooms, streets, the contorted faces of characters, even the High-Heeled Shoe (one of the stories). But, the collection felt repetitive – partway through, I wanted to read about men who weren’t lazy, selfish and abusive; women who didn’t have four or more hungry children; men of god who actually practiced their faith. Mushtaq says the stories were inspired by women she helped as a lawyer. Maybe some of those stories ended, if not happily, with some kind of just outcome – for the woman?

In one of the ‘lighter’ stories, The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri, our hero is obsessed with the Indo-Chinese dish Gobi Manchurian. The girl he marries must know how to cook it. Parents of daughters wonder if he’s mentally stable – what kind of demand is this?

Perhaps if he had demanded biriyani, kurma sukha, pulao or other similar dishes, the girl’s family would have accepted happily. But this vegetarian whatever-it’s-called, this gube manchali, this weird gobi manchuri…

Politics, religion, religious politics, class differences – these are woven efficiently into the stories. A passage in The Shroud – another less-intense story, stuck with me. An old woman has one wish, that Shaziya, the rich woman for whom she has worked, bring back a holy shroud from Mecca. When the old woman hands over the money she has so carefully saved, Shaziya thinks,

Money from the pockets of poor people was, just like them, broken, shattered, crumpled, wrinkly, diminished in essence and form….even if the poor were given crisp notes, the money would turn into something strange and ugly…

I liked the last story, Be A Woman Once, Oh Lord! After a somewhat long recounting of her life, from carefree childhood to prison-like married life with a man who’s used and abused her body and mind, an unnamed woman has some advice for the creator:

“If you were to build the world again, to create males and females again, do not be like an inexperienced potter. Come to the earth as a woman, Prabhu. Be a woman once, oh Lord!”

I read the translator’s ‘story’ first, before those in this collection. The passion and affection Deepa Bhasthi has for the “delightful mix” of languages in Heart Lamp won me over, so I end with her words.

Kannada, like several other Indian languages, is a language filled with expressions, sayings and phrases that not only sound poetic but also give a wonderful sense of theatre to everyday speech. Here, speech is as much a physical, almost musical performance, where a word’s meaning depends on haava-bhaava – gestures and expression – on tone, etc., as much as it does on the information it expresses.

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