Skip to main content

The Gurkha's Daughter by Prajwal Parajuly





India has a wide cultural diversity with its population of 1.24 billion across its 21 states and 7 union territories, with its 21 major spoken languages, eight major religions, hundreds of regional festivals and thousands of flavours of local cuisine and arts. With this much load of diversity in one nation, it is very likely that one being an Indian is not aware of everything around the nation. But it is really hard to believe that how much little we know about the north eastern states of our own country. Beyond knowing their capitals (because teachers made you remember it), I doubt if any one of us knows about their culture, their beliefs, their traditions, or their political struggle. 

Recently a north-eastern friend recommended me a book called ‘The Gurkha’s Daughter’ by Prajwal Parajuly which according to her was an eye-opening picture of the experiences faced by the people whose culture and language is Nepalese but who are dispersed to Bhutan, India and beyond. The book unfolds with a series of short stories based on various experiences of these people due to the political and cultural history they share. Protagonist in each story is a representative of their societal status implications and each story reveals the cultural nuances and their impact on protagonist’s human sentiments, sensitivity and emotional connect.

This book has not only introduced me to the culture, traditions and struggle of the fellow countrymen from Far East states of my own country but also has made me more curious about the struggle of ethnicity and societal belongingness on an individual’s life.

 Goodreads rating for the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16031091-the-gurkha-s-daughter

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan

So here is the plot. A beautiful, elegant girl with a little hold-back attitude, placed right in the heart of the Sophisticated (!) Delhi. A girl whose parents believe that someday she will come out of her shell and take on the world; who has four sisters and each with a different quirk; who lives with a cheating uncle, a dramatic aunt & a not-so-smart but caring cousin. Along comes a turn of events that shakes her life. Witouht knowing, she becomes a part of politically influenced content on mass media communication that influenced so many life. Placed at the time when newly independent India was slowly waking up from the long nap of british raj and getting a grip of the opportunities and hardships came along with the Independence. A 400 page book (failry long, but justified with the content) for that purely romantic side of you. Grab this book and get ready to go back in the 80s to spend some time around  a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi's posh Hailey Road with...
Post a Comment
Read more

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

A woman transcends through various roles and learnings in life. As a daughter, she learns to be a person responsible towards well-being of her family and society. As she grows, she gets into role of friend and learns to be a part of unit, a role of girlfriend/wife and learns to care for someone more than herself and ultimately as a mother she learns to live for someone else. But only sometimes she realizes that she has a responsibility of one more important person and that's her. She often forgets herself and becomes what her family, friends, colleagues or society wants her to be. Only a few realize that they need to embark on a search for who they really are and what do they really want from this wonderful gift from god i.e. The life. Elizabeth Gilroy was also educated, had a wonderful house that she and her husband together built into a home and a successful career as a writer. But by the age of 32, she realized that there was still some...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan

Are you  bored of reading practical, meaningful and life-enriching stuff from the ‘Must-read book list’ that you have forced on yourself?  I guess the answer is ‘Yes’ cause you are still reading this post. Then please answer the next question. Are you a fan of a romantic novel with a dramatic, bollywood style storyline with a beautiful, passionate heroin and a handsome, adamant hero who happen to be thrown in her life and after multiple conflicts they finally reach their happily ever after. If your answer is still ‘Yes’ then wait no more. You are in for a ride with emotions, confusions, confessions and most of all, the ‘Aww’ moments. Anuja Chauhan had done a stupendous job in giving us that getaway from all practical realities to spend some time with an unbelievably lucky girl and an I-don’t-believe-in-luck-factor guy and a story of these two leading to a decisive moment for Indian Cricket team. Yah, u read it right. The story involves cricket and ,as a matter...
Post a Comment
Read more