HYDERABAD: While the world walks on a certain set of rules, each set unique to its geography, there has been one commonality since time immemorial among different communities – the treatment of women at the hands of everyone in its immediate society. No one was spared; not even Goddess Sita, who had to face unfair judgment even at the hands of her husband, Lord Ram, who the epics call ‘Maryada Purushottam’. Sita, daughter of Mother Earth, descends again to see how women in modern India are doing, to see whether things have gotten better since she was here.
Charu Walikhanna’s nonfiction book, ‘Sita Returns: Modern India Through Her Eyes’ sees Sita walk and talk in today’s world. As she sees the plight and state of women even today, she tells us what she learns and reminisces about how things were back then when she roamed the Earth. She collects a lot of information and statistics from across the country relating to women’s issues and lays bare before us her feelings about them, be it anger, disgust, pride, joy, sorrow, or heartbreak.
The book starts off with an introduction of Sita, how she is still seen as a part of the men in her life and not as a woman of her own stead. She has always been known as Ram’s wife, Janak’s daughter (also called Janaki), mother to Luv and Kush, and daughter-in-law to Dashrath. A lot of her personality is overlooked and this book mentions so many other parts of it that we probably didn’t realise sooner. Her emotional strength as she withstands every injustice doled out to her is heartening to read, and these bits are scattered throughout the book.
Charu Walikhanna’s writing style is brilliant in the parts where she talks about facts and statistics. Her writing doesn’t come across as caustic. Instead, she is matter-of-fact and gets across the message so well that the emotion behind each sentence manifests itself in your eyes as part of Sita’s heart. You can imagine Sita’s eyes welling up with tears, Sita holding up her head with pride, and Sita smiling at the strength that a girl/woman has showed while dealing with injustice.
There is just one reason behind the plight of women across the country – across the world, even. Patriarchy. The male gender was believed to be better than the female and it is still so in many places, though things are improving by a percent of a percent. Even so, society is such that even women are conditioned to believe that men are better and that they are made just to cook and clean and have men’s babies. Any deviation from this and there comes the judgment, the punishment, the “disgrace”.
Charu Walikhanna puts forth all the statistics related to these topics – rape, female foeticide, stalking, menstruation, prostitution, sexuality, marriage, child marriage, dowry, domestic violence, widowhood, trafficking, voyeurism, disrobing, and so much more. The book will make you highly uncomfortable, though it is a much needed discomfort in a time when you really need things to be moving in the right direction. If you don’t become uncomfortable, then you don’t see what is wrong with whatever is going on. It is as simple as that.
However, ‘Sita Returns’ has its own little flaws. First, the narration of parts of the Ramayana in the author’s words seem a little too pretentious. Such an overload of flowery language sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the otherwise wonderful narrative. Second, Sita is from a different time. The concept that she arrives in modern India and automatically knows how to read English is a little too convenient. This we can ignore, though, given that Sita is a goddess.
Third and last, some words are used out of context. For example, girls are socialised to believe that men are better. I believe the correct word is ‘conditioned’. Trivial, but it has a huge impact when it is occurs throughout the book.All in all, ‘Sita Returns’ is a book that talks about how Sita sees modern society – its flaws and the disgust it evokes, but also the improvements that we have made in so many millennia. Brilliantly written, and an absolute must read!
Publisher: Niyogi BooksPrice: `495