Ibsen and Feminism – A perspective on the long standing debate

So let’s travel to the lovely land of Norway! I’ve just finished reading a collection of Henrik Ibsen’s four great plays – A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder. All four plays revolve around the Norwegian middle class family struggles and the role of women in such circumstances. While the plays could be considered a tad morbid, they make for a fascinating read – I highly recommend the book. 🙂

So what are the plays about? In ‘A Doll’s House’, the protagonist takes on a loan in order to save her husband’s life, without him knowing of the true source of the money. What unfolds when he finds out, leads to the unravelling of a certain strength in the lady’s character, which was perhaps so unexpected, that she ends up surprising herself too.

In ‘The Wild Duck’, the protagonists are ostensibly two men, Gregers Werle and Ekdal, but the story actually goes on to bring out the sacrifices made by Gina, Ekdal’s wife, resulting in much of the comfort and benefit in the life the two lead.

‘Hedda Gabler’ is a study on the mind games the protagonist can play, manipulating those around her with cold precision. Her motives for doing so seem sadistic, and yet the reader does feel a sense of pity for her – for someone who seemingly has everything, and yet has nothing.

And finally, ‘The Master Builder’ portrays the heights and depths to which a man can rise and fall – all shown through the actions of the male lead, when goaded by his wife and conversely, by his muse.

All four plays are masterfully written, with events unfolding at a quick pace. While the debate rages on about whether Ibsen was a feminist or not, I’m going to put in my two cents and say that he was. In all four plays, the women take decisions that affect the families in either extremely beneficial or catastrophic ways. The women also display a strength of character that was unheard of in the times when the plays were written. But perhaps Ibsen was clairvoyant enough to know the potential of women in a way that they themselves didn’t. And while we have made tremendous progress since those times, I wonder if we need more Ibsens today who can nudge us towards maximising our own potential.

A glimpse of literary India

And, I’m back. It’s been done before – the blogger goes missing and the blog-sphere either heaves a sigh of relief or wonders at the mystery of the disappearance, fervently wishing for a comeback. In my case, I’m hoping the former didn’t happen. I don’t think the latter happened either but anyway this is the comeback, and whether the blog-sphere likes it or not remains to be seen. 😀

So what’s in the comeback post? (Now that I’m here, this is my chance to inflict something on unsuspecting readers). Well, we’re back on the trail. Except that it’s not restricted to a place alone and in fact, spans the country. I figured I would make something I haven’t seen in a while – a tiny map of India. Not the usual kind, I see that everywhere. I wanted to create a tiny glimpse of what literary India looks like. What do you think it looks like? I thought of the literary greats, but also of the contemporary favourites and the ones who may be wonderful but perhaps not universally loved. And I wanted to show it all! But, this is just a glimpse (and perhaps my graphic skills also can’t take me too far). So, here goes, a tiny map of what’s special about literary India. Tell me what you think!

Tagore explores the themes of melancholy and separation

The cover says it all, a woman with her back turned on us. “One who goes away, leaving everything empty, leaves the imprint of his living heart even on lifeless objects”, says Tagore in ‘The Lost Jewels’, a story in his anthology ‘Broken ties and Other Stories”. The scene is of a husband waiting for his departed wife to appear in a room filled with her things. Tagore evokes a palpable pain in his writing of the impact the departed leave on the living. The anthology, published by Projapoti Books, has eight stories, each talking about the impact a woman’s absence has on the men in her life.

The copy I bought unfortunately had a few pages missing in the first and longest story – Broken Ties. Alas, I couldn’t finish it. As I went on to read the other stories, I noted that each story described the loss of a wife, daughter, or consort and the inevitable sadness following the loss. This is not necessarily death, sometimes the woman exerts her independence and simply chooses to leave. This seems strange, as in another story, the woman chooses ‘Sati’, a practice now banned in India. The characters are described in detail, every thought painstakingly enunciated. It’s hard not to feel the ensuing sadness as the stories progress and yet, Tagore manages to leave us with a feeling of hope and not utter despair. he lets us believe that all is not lost, and redemption might just be at hand. The characters choose to salvage something from the past, and help the reader come to terms with the fact that all is not lost. Tagore’s writings are vivid, pulling us into his world, with us feeling every emotion as the Bengali landscape looms before us and we revel in its beauty.

The best story in the anthology is ‘The Lost Jewels’, which ends with a twist, not unlike Agatha Christie’s writings. I would definitely  recommend this anthology, even without the first story being complete. If you want to indulge in some serious thought about life, any one of these stories can probably give you the starting argument. Not for nothing was Tagore the nobel laureate for literature! Here’s the Amazon link to the book. Happy reading!

Novel prescription: Deal with life’s issues vicariously

Have you ever felt that being in another’s shoes is easier said than done? Well, fear not. Welcome to bibliotherapy – where you deal with your life’s issues by ‘watching’ characters in a novel do the same thing, perhaps approaching the matter differently.

Bibliotherapy is a way to cope with whatever’s mentally ailing us by reading a novel, where the protagonist or any of the other characters face and manage situations similar to ours.

If you googled bibliotherapy, you would probably come across The School of Life in the UK, which runs a programme on the topic, helping participants relieve stress in their lives by reading the books ‘prescribed’ by the school’s bibliotherapists.

Closer home, there are such bibliotherapy services and programmes for children conducted by Hippocampus in Bangalore and Mindframes in Mumbai. In case you want to test the waters first, read the Indian version of ‘The Novel Cure‘, co-authored by Indrajit Hazra. It prescribes cures for ailments as varied as constipation and the fear of dogs.

And finally, if you would rather do this free of cost, join this online course on bibliotherapy, beginning in September. I will be there too!

While we don’t really need another reason to read, here’s to reading more novels and therefore, leading a stress-free life. We can now say, ‘A few pages a day, keep the psychotherapists at bay’. 🙂

KiKi’s in Kodai

It’s a warm and bright Sunday morning when we find ourselves outside Kiki’s, a tiny little bookstore in Kodaikanal, an idyllic town in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The owner, Paul Raj, is busy stacking books inside and when we walk in, turns around and greets us with a cheery ‘Good morning’.

We tell him that we want to cover the store for a website and he promptly asks me how much he has to pay for it. When we say zilch, he lifts an eyebrow in apparent surprise – are they really doing this for free? Um, yes. Interested now, he opens up with his story and tells us how his love for books was kindled during his tenure as a salesman at the Christian Literary Society in Chennai. He spent 10 years selling religious and other books and was amazed by the impact they made in the lives of the patrons.

From CLS, he moved on to work at Kodai International School (KIS), where his wife, Gandhimathi, also took up the position of Librarian. For Gandhimathi, a diminutive woman with a sunny disposition, this was passion meeting profession. It is a joy meeting Gandhimathi – her smiling face and obvious happiness with life as it is, is infectious. She told us that they were so fortunate that we came looking for them. She actually said, and I quote, “I’m so happy to meet you!” Now, that just made our day. 🙂

The owners: Paul Raj and Gandhimathi

Continuing the story, she said that in November 2011, the couple retired from KIS, and in January 2012, Kiki’s was born. Kiki’s is named after their first daughter, Karen, who’s called Kiki at home. Interestingly, all three kids of the couple are named with the alphabet ‘K’. Karan Johar would be impressed – these are people after his own heart. Paul Raj and Gandhimathi set up shop in the current location after taking the premises on rent from a Tibetan who had been selling Tibetan shawls and other oriental trinkets. While renting the store to them, he also bequeathed a few of the shawls, which are now on sale in the store.

Kiki’s has all kinds of books, and the couple have also built relationships with several schools for their book supplies. Due to their past association with KIS, which follows international education standards and therefore has most students from other countries, Kiki’s is a frequent recipient of books from patrons coming from as far off as Israel and Spain. It also sells different kinds of cheese – provided by a Dutch friend. The store’s USP is the fact that they never turn away a customer, even if they don’t have the book in stock – they ensure that they get the book eventually and send it to the customer.

So what did we get from there? Three books, including an autobiography of Diego Maradona, sent in by a loyal Latino patron. 🙂

Tell us what you think – If you’re ever in Kodai – would you visit the store?