Welcome to Litsy!

When Bimila is encouraged by her husband Nikhil to exercise more freedom than is usual for a woman of her status in Bengal in the first decade of the 20th century, she comes under the influence of Nikhil's friend Sandip, a charismatic radical nationalist.

Although I found it a bit heavy-going at times, especially in the more rhetorical passages, I kept reading, fascinated to see how events would play out.

🤨

#coffeeandabook

Called “Ghare Baire” in Bengali, this book is a symbolic representation of India‘s relationship with herself & her colonisers, told through the relationship of the protagonist Bimala with her husband Nikhil and a friend, Sandeep.

I found the book very poignant - capturing the internal conflict of identity that I & millions of other Indians even today experience in our relationship with our country and our place in the world.

#adventrecommends

'What I really feel is this, that those who cannot find food for their enthusiasm in a knowledge of their country as it actually is, (...) who needs must shout and deify their country in order to keep up their excitement - those love excitement more than their country.'

I remember I once told him: "Women's minds are so petty, so crooked!" "Like the feet of Chinese women," he replied. "Has not the pressure of society cramped them into pettiness and crookedness?"

for we women are not only the deities of the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself.
Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World

Narrated by Deepti Gupta
#audible #rabindranathtagore #storytel #audiobook

#rabindranathtagore

This is a novel about India's struggle for independence, shown to the reader by two of the three main characters: Nikhil (conservative) and Sandip (revolutionary). Nikhil's wife Bimala is torn between the traditional culture she was raised in and a future, shown to her by Sandip, who teaches her about the Swadeshi-movement. This movement is aimed at reaching self-sufficiency for India and thus being independent from Europe. #1001books

Not what I would call my usual holiday read, but riveting nonetheless.
"Sandip is such an adept in setting music to his chant of praise that I cannot argue; I lose my power of seeing truth; my sight is clouded over like an opium-eater's eyes."
This is not going to end well...pg 149/203 #holidayreading

Sunday morning coffee break - time for the next chapter of Bimala's story.

Time for a readalong with Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses & Prejudices.