The person commenting on the last post mentioned being complimented on having Indian mannerisms. This happened to me for the first time last weekend. My boyfriend and I went with some friends to an Indian restaurant and I was eating, as I always do, by mixing a curry with some rice and picking it up with pieces of bread instead of utensils. One of the restaurant staff came by to say, "I like the way you are eating. That is how we eat in India."
I will be writing some posts soon based on thoughts and passages from a book I've been reading. It's called Marrying Anita and it is about a woman of Indian origin who grew up in America, but went back to India to look for a husband.
I also wanted to tell you that one of the reasons I started this blog was to help me get hold of an idea for my own book. I am a fiction writer and I've written a couple of books and for my next project I came up with the idea of an American girl of Indian origin who is not all that interested in her family and roots until her mother falls ill (and her father has been supposedly dead for all of her life). She decides to be a dutiful Indian daughter and move her mother into her place, but when she's packing up and going through her mother's things she discovers that her mother isn't Indian at all. She is a white woman, who at a very early age took an interest in Indian culture. Frustrated by feeling that she could never quite fit in, she went to drastic measures and pretended to be Indian all of her life, even adopting an Indian daughter. So it would explore issues like the ones here, about culture, and roots, and what makes us who we are. I haven't quite figured out how to structure the plot yet, though.
Something else happening today that I'm sure I'll want to tell you all about is the first book club meeting of the Hindi speaking group. We've read White Tiger, and we're going to be discussing it in Hindi!
So, more posts soon!
Your blog is a very interesting read. It is interesting to me because being born as a hindu in india - this identity comes naturally to me . But it seems it is challenging to you. and i can very well understand why. The blog gives me quite an interesting perspective.
ReplyDeleteyour idea of the plot is excellent.
there is a famous bengali novel with some what similar theme. rabindranath thakur's gora is a novel which deals with this issue of identity and roots . the hero gaurmohan is a staunch hindu and indian nationalist. all through the book his world view is directly and indirectly challenged by his mother who is liberal, by his best friend who fell in love with a bramho girl and by his own admiration of another bramho girl. at the end he finds that he himself was born as an irish and adopted by the hindu family. he is neither an indian nor a hindu by birth - of the two identities which is so aggressively proud about.
- T
The plot of your story is absolutely fascinating and I found myself wanting to go out and buy this book NOW... so please hurry up and write it! ;)
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are writing this blog.. we have many similar interests and frustrations! Such is the trouble with being born into the wrong place, eh?
Lol. I'm glad people are interested in the plot for my book. That desire to read is what fulfills a writer! I'll go out and find the "Gora" book, that sounds very interesting.
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