HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a book that looks at Delhi’s incredible avian life, a courtesan’s memoir narrated to her son with candour and grace, and a scholarly work that looks at history and myth to provide insights into the way women and men still interact with each other today
More than just an identification guide
Delhi, a true haven for bird lovers, is home to an astonishing array of over 470 captivating bird species. Sudhir Vyas’s delightful guidebook is the ultimate guide to unlocking the secrets of these feathered wonders.
With over 50 years of bird watching experience, Vyas, a former career diplomat, possesses an intimate understanding of Delhi’s avian inhabitants. He is also the author of a monograph featured in the scholarly journal Indian Birds. More than just an identification guide, Vyas delves into the broader aspects of birdlife, unraveling their habitats, and distribution, and contextualizing their presence in Delhi. This comprehensive book reflects our current knowledge of bird status, including changes observed over decades. An invaluable resource for bird watchers in Delhi and beyond, it explores the diverse avifauna of the region.
Vyas’s words are accompanied by the photographs of Amit Sharma, a master wildlife and bird photographer. Sharma has documented 377 avian species in Haryana and over a thousand globally. His remarkable work can be found in renowned books such as Birds of Haryana and 100 Best Birdwatching Sites in India, as well as in prominent national newspapers. His lens has captured the rarest gems of Delhi’s birdlife.*
Dodging guns, goons and Ghalib’s ghazals
The 1993 Bow Bazaar bomb blast in Calcutta brought an end to the kothas in the busy commercial district. Over the next few years, as dance bars and disco music replaced the old-world charm of mujras, kathak and thumri, the tawaifs began to abandon the profession. Rekhabai, a courtesan, found herself at a crossroads, facing an uncertain future. Where should she go? What should she do next?
Originally from the Kanjarbhat tribe, Rekhabai was sold and trained as a tawaif while she was still a child. In the 1980s, when kothas were no longer recognized as centres for aesthetics, and society disapproved of the tawaif’s art, as they felt it was sex work in the guise of adakari (performance), Rekhabai made a name for herself in Calcutta and Bombay as a singing-dancing star. It was an era when she had to dodge guns, goons and Ghalib’s ghazals to carve out her own destiny, provide for her large family and raise her son in an English-medium boarding school.
In this poignant memoir, she narrates the unbelievable story of her survival to her son with candour, grace and humour, never missing a beat and always full of heart.*
Power, Powerlessness and the Female Body
The female body has been admired, used and abused throughout history. Despite the symbiotic relationship between the sexes, men have had more power than women, and the female anatomy seems to lie at the root of this inequality. Mineke Schipper’s riveting cultural world history examines how men everywhere have had mixed feelings about the female body. Delight has gone hand in hand with insecurity, and power with feelings of impotence. Mythology is permeated with threats and fear: vaginas with teeth, snakes in women’s abdomens, witches with multiple breasts. Male fear almost always turns into aggression, which is why violence against women — and the suppression of their own stories about themselves — is perennial.
Schipper travels all over the world and through antiquity, analysing stories about sexuality, pregnancy and birth — stories of immaculate conception, erotic lactation, virginal bleeding, contraception, chastity and instruments of torture designed for use on women. She explores male anxieties such as the dread of hymens and menstrual blood, and the fear of dependency on mothers and wives.
Drawing from ancient Mesopotamia and modern Turkey; medieval European art and contemporary fashion; Indian, Greek and Japanese myths; and tales from the Igbo of Nigeria, the Vikings, the Xhosa, and the Ming Dynasty, Hills of Paradise is an extraordinary work. This deeply researched, powerful and sometimes hilarious account offers not only clear insights into the past, but also into the way women and men still interact with each other today.*
*All copy from book flap.
