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fathima_ashab 's review for:
Small Days and Nights
by Tishani Doshi
"The noise comes from the centre of her, and I feel it pulling something out of me -- unreasonable and insistent".
This is a story of two sisters. One with Down's syndrome and the other who is trying not to drown herself in her failing marriage. Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and there she comes to know that her mother has left behind a property on the beaches of Madras and a sister named Lucy with Down's syndrome for her.
On that property, she finds a new life for her and her sister. It wasn't easy following a routine with someone like that but she wants to do it and make herself worthy of something in this fleeting life. Thereby, she comes to know some secrets of her mother and the life her parents had led without her knowing.
This literary fiction of Grace was lyrical, poetic and heart wrenching. It left me wondering so many things and moved me immensely. It kind of made me feel grateful for all the things I have in my life which I have never noticed before. This is not just an another story to be read. It has to be read again and again to grasp it's meaning and the power it has within the words.
She talks about death : "I am angry too, because there's such easy acceptance of death. The cheapness of it. Those beautiful animals gone. And we chatter here about things I don't comprehend but am somehow part of".
She talks about oppression of women: "You could trace a line from the present all the way back to Mohenjo-daro and there would be women with lots in the curve of their hips, waiting to collect water".
And she talks about feeling you can't name it: "All that had made me feel was that there was a ladder inside me - climbing, conquering, descending, dwindling. But I wanted to explain how sometimes what you wanted was not a ladder but a lake. Something that spread all around you".
She talks about every single thing that is bottled up inside her right from loneliness, happiness, about broken marriage, culture, freedom, and literally everything. I would highly recommend it. Go and read it asap.
This is a story of two sisters. One with Down's syndrome and the other who is trying not to drown herself in her failing marriage. Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and there she comes to know that her mother has left behind a property on the beaches of Madras and a sister named Lucy with Down's syndrome for her.
On that property, she finds a new life for her and her sister. It wasn't easy following a routine with someone like that but she wants to do it and make herself worthy of something in this fleeting life. Thereby, she comes to know some secrets of her mother and the life her parents had led without her knowing.
This literary fiction of Grace was lyrical, poetic and heart wrenching. It left me wondering so many things and moved me immensely. It kind of made me feel grateful for all the things I have in my life which I have never noticed before. This is not just an another story to be read. It has to be read again and again to grasp it's meaning and the power it has within the words.
She talks about death : "I am angry too, because there's such easy acceptance of death. The cheapness of it. Those beautiful animals gone. And we chatter here about things I don't comprehend but am somehow part of".
She talks about oppression of women: "You could trace a line from the present all the way back to Mohenjo-daro and there would be women with lots in the curve of their hips, waiting to collect water".
And she talks about feeling you can't name it: "All that had made me feel was that there was a ladder inside me - climbing, conquering, descending, dwindling. But I wanted to explain how sometimes what you wanted was not a ladder but a lake. Something that spread all around you".
She talks about every single thing that is bottled up inside her right from loneliness, happiness, about broken marriage, culture, freedom, and literally everything. I would highly recommend it. Go and read it asap.