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Book Review
MALAYALAM
Profiles in courage
B.R.P. BHASKAR
PORUTHIVALARNNA EZHUTHUKARIKAL: K. P. Vijayan, Mathrubhumi Books, MM Press, Cherootty Road, Kozhikode-1. Rs. 120.
THIS BOOK is a collection of 14 essays, each of which traces the life and times of a remarkable woman who fought and triumphed against odds. Most of the women featured in the volume are writers. K. P. Vijayan introduces them with descriptions that compel attention. Thus Ismat Chugtai is presented as the Chengiz Khan of fiction, Amrita Pritam as a one-woman army, Mahaswetadevi as the mother of the downtrodden, Qarratul Haider as a river that flowed through cities, and Taslima Nazreen as a burning torch.
The other writers whose work is discussed include Arundhati Roy, Godavari Parulekar, Indira Goswami and Shobha De. Kamala Suraiya comes up for mention in the introduction and in the essays, but does not figure as a subject of study.
Kiran Bedi, the high-profile IPS officer, and journalists Vimla Patil and Anita Pratap are among the other women whom Vijayan profiles. The one quality that every woman in this study possesses is courage. It is this quality that has earned the little known Susmita Bandopadhyaya of Kolkata a place in the book. She had shown great courage in following her lover to Afghanistan while the Taliban held sway there. Vijayan tells the story of these remarkable women, drawing profusely from their own accounts. That invests his accounts with authenticity and adds an inspirational element to them.
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