Book review: Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar

Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar. HarperCollins.

We meet Jasoda the eponymous hero/heroine/protagonist of Kiran Nagarkar`s novel as she takes a quick break from working the family`s barren field to deliver a child. The moment she sees it’s a girl, she quickly puts it between her thighs and squeezes till the little girl is still.

Because Jasoda cannot afford to take home a daughter, not if she wants to stay alive. And then we read her story and marvel at the very many ways she adapts to time and circumstances to stay alive; to do better than that, to actually flourish despite very many odds stacked against her.

I was blown away, far far away,  by Nagarkar`s Cuckold (2001) but the books  that followed, though they were undoubtedly good reads , did not transport me. This one took 20 years to complete so there is some dissonance in the narrative but in parts, Nagarkar is back to Cuckold form. The stark lack of sentimentalism cannot but impact the reader. Jasoda the character is a true-blue hero who fights poverty and patriarchy and wins over both these blights. Jasoda the book is a paean to an unconscious grassroots feminism.