BOOKWORM
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF THE RAJ
Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan, Random House, $32. As India celebrates 75 years of Independence and with a whole slate of books like Ian Patel’s We Are Here Because You Were There presenting the Indian perspective on the Raj, Women of the Raj is a fascinating look at the world of the women who, as Margaret MacMillan tells us, were forced onto a stage in India. They had the leading roles in the imperial pageant.
They treated India and Indians largely with a mix of disdain and fear, arising from their perception of their superiority of position and an awareness of just how few of their countrymen ruled over a vast nation like India.
Fear of being overwhelmed both by might and by Indian ways informed much of their attitude. “To bundle them all up, however, into the stock figure of the memsahib is to do to them what they did to the Indians,” writes MacMillan in her introduction. “British women in India certainly behaved badly; they also behaved well.”
To paint this intimate portrait of what is often dismissed as the “Koi hai?” culture, MacMillan presents stories about an astonishing array of women. From those one expects to find – such as Rumer Godden, M M Kaye and Annette Susannah Beverridge who translated the Babur Nama and founded a school for Hindu girls and who, on a side note, had thirty-nine servants. Madeleine Slade who became Mirabehn, a devoted disciple of Gandhi and Margaret Noble, who became Sister Nivedita. But there are a host of others, too, women we’ve never heard of, who followed their men to distant shores.
Men weigh in, too. Rudyard Kipling, of course, Paul Scott, and EM Forster, who was of the view that “most sahibs and memsahibs were smug, shallow, and philistine”.
MacMillan also brings to the narrative personal family history.
“My grandmother, who had been a very reluctant memsahib, told us stories of snakes in the bathtubs and scorpions under the beds and boredom at the Clubs. My Indian-born mother, who had much fonder memories from her childhood, talked about the colours and the clash of bangles on the arms of her beloved Indian nurse.”
British society in India was governed by rigid etiquette. Everything from who could visit whom and when to what was to be served for dinner – or at picnic, for that matter – was determined by those who had arrived earlier and also by actual published guides.
Were the memsahibs racist? Certainly they often sounded so. It is dangerous, however, to judge the words of earlier generations by the standards of today, MacMillan cautions.
Against a backdrop of the political and social drama that was playing out, MacMillan brings to life the heat and dust and minor domestic quibbles. Such as having to keep track of dusters that routinely disappeared to reappear as a baby’s shirt of an ayah’s scarf.
Today they tend to be remembered as dim, comic figures or as vicious harridans who poisoned relations between the Indians and the British. Neither memory does them justice.
Fun fact 1: Along with other words that have moved from Indian languages to English is chit, derived from chithi, or letter!
Fun fact 2: A butler, the most expensive househlep in the 1890s, cost 20 rupees a month and a sweeper, half that.
BLOOMING GOOD
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly, Gallery Books, $24.99. Though set in a fictitious garden, the book transports readers to the gardenscapes maintained by the National Trust in England.
It’s a poignant tale of five women connected across time by one very special garden.
Talented and ambitious Venetia Smith, entrusted with the task of creating a garden at Highbury House in 1907.
Diana Symonds in 1944, the widowed mistress of Highbury, clinging to her pre-war life. Land girl Beth Pedley searching for a place to call home and cook Stela Adderton, looking for a way out.
And in present day, Emma Lovell, devoted to restoring historical gardens.
There’s evocative imagery and down-to-earth details of what designing – and maintaining a garden entails.
Quickly, I pulled free a detail of the long border next, showing him how tall columns of clematis would tower over roses, Echinops, campanulas, allium, and delphiniums in soft pinks, whites, silvers, and purples.
And, Normally, she’d only dig down about a foot and plant out the shrubs, but the surrounding roots were so dense she was digging down further to give the hydrangeas a fighting chance. Twice already she’d had to pull out the handsaw to get through a dense thicket of roots, and she’d already shed her jumper.
In her author’s note, Julia Kelly writes that she learned to love gardens as a little girl digging in the dirt alongside her father
I believe that, much like books, gardens are organic, unpredictable things, revealing their beauty how and when they choose. It is up to us to remember to pause and enjoy that beauty every day.
A deeply satisfying book for both gardeners and those interested in historical fiction.
Fun detail: Emma’s crew includes a man called Vishal!
I AM WOMAN
The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende, Ballantine Books, $29.99. A childhood spent watching her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without resources or voice, gave rise to a fierce determination in the young Isabel Allende to raise and fight for women’s issues.
My anger against machismo started in those childhood years of seeing my mother and the housemaids as victims... I became obsessed with justice.
What feeds the soul of women? To be safe, to be valued, to live in peace, to have their own resources, to be connected, to have control over their bodies and lives, and above all, to be loved, she writes, in this account laced with personal history and lessons learned.
She also makes a timely case for refugees.
Refugees live on memories and nostalgia; they have their eyes in the past and they dream of going back home, but the average time they will spend away is between seventeen and twenty-five years. Most will never return; they will always be foreigners.
And she concludes by writing that her daughter who passed away a long time ago would have been very happy to see “today’s new wave of young feminists, who are defiant, creative, and have a sense of humour”.
Her daughter would have been proud of her mother, too
IN THEIR STRIDE
Beneath My Feet – Writers on Walking, introduced and edited by Duncan Minshull, Notting Hill Editions, $14.95. You’ll hear footsteps across the pages of this collection of writings by novelists, poets and philosophers: Virginia Woolf, George Sand, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Dickens, Franz Kafka, Robert Louis Stevenson and dozens more. Beneath My Feet rounds up the most memorable walker-writers from the 1300s to the present day, all of whom explore the reasons why one should put one foot in front of the other and find the rhythm in our lives and lines.
Frank Tatchell: Keep a Regular Stride, rising on the balls of the toes and not turning the toes out too much: Rodin’s statue of St John, in the Luxembourg, shows the correct way to have the feet. How few people know how to walk well. (From The Happy Traveller, 1925).
Petrarch: It was a long day, the air fine. We enjoyed the advantages of vigour of mind and strength and agility of body, and everything else essential to those engaged in such an undertaking. (From The Ascent of Mount Ventoux, 1336).
George Trevelyan: I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.
ALL THAT GLITTERS
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, Penguin, $36. Spanning two continents, two coasts, and four epochs, Gold Diggers expertly balances social satire and magical realism in a classic striver story that skewers the model minority narrative and asks what a community must do to achieve the American dream.
Sathian captures what it is to grow up as a member of a family, of a diaspora, and of the American meritocracy.
Good old desi immigrant reality with a magical sprinkling of gold dust!
ROARR!
Little Tiger Rescue by Rachel Delahaye, Tiger Tales, $19.99. After a birthday party at a new jungle-themed play centre, Callie dreams that she is in a rain forest.
And that a tiny abandoned tiger cub needs to be reunited with his family. She names him Taj and sets out on an adventure.
TEEN REVIEW
By BELICIA RAJKUMAR
The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith, Margaret K. McElderry Books, $17.99. This book follows the life of a girl named Eden who is raped in high school.
Her rapist, her brother’s best friend, says that no one would believe her if she said anything and she believes him. Not telling anyone harms her in many ways.
The book touches on many real topics such as rape, first love, betrayal and the teenage experience. Teens are exposed to so many new things such as drugs, alcohol, relationships, sex, jobs, and trying to figure out what they want to do in future. Abuse and rape can harm a teenager’s mind during these crucial developing years. This is what happened to Eden; she was scared and confused and did not know what to do. She turns to bad coping methods such as alcohol and sex to deal with it.
It was hard to read that no matter how much someone helps you, you will not heal until you take the journey yourself. I loved that this story took place over four years of high school and we can see how Eden changed over the course of the book.
I recommend this book for people who are over 14 and can read mature content. In many schools, students are required to read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I would also recommend this book to those who enjoyed that book.
• Belicia Rajkumar is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.