Samira Gupta's debut book is the story of many women, told through the voice of one
Samira Gupta's debut book is the story of many women, told through the voice of one
When someone tells you of something that happened to them, you inevitably cast your mind back to your own experiences to find a parallel that you can share in turn. The experience of others is easier understood through the veneer of one's own life.
Samira Gupta's debut novel Fifty Seven By Eight charts a personal history of sorts, in language that is as brief as it is uncomplicated. It's a book of black and white photos, each with a short caption bringing to life a story most of us would be able to relate to.
The story is in the voice of a young woman remembering her growing up years, the promise of youth and what happened after. In that sense, it's formula. The difference would be in the more personal elements, yet even these are universal. Gupta worked hard to ensure that if this was going to be the story of a woman, it should be of any woman, not just any one woman. She spoke with people across ages to get the voices and experiences that would give her story a broader scope.
So the women of the household wait long hours for the grandfather the oldest patriarch to return home from work and have dinner, so that they can eat too. The girl spies upon houses in the neighbourhood that seem lived-in, except no one has ever seen the residents. The keys u2013 the most important ones hang off the grandmother's kamar, not that of the mother's. The mother, easiest to find as she is always in the kitchen, refuses to pass on the ladle to her daughter. Visits from friends are discouraged as girls should not be heard.
One could write a social commentary based on these experiences. Certainly, while talking about the book, Gupta sounds serious: "The main issue of the book is patriarchy. Parents send us to English medium schools where we read Milton, Chaucer, feminists... but at home, you can't be open with your family. This is producing two kinds of women aggreesive-independent and subservient, with no voice of their own."
For the book, Gupta's tone is light. It's not a highly stylised book u2013 that is not the emphasis. It feels more like the diary of a young girl. And so the confusion that any young girl feels when trying to make sense of all the lines drawn around her is stark. Gupta was studying at Shrishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore when she did the book as a project. It was a way of dealing with her own life.
She was always interested in the visual field u2013 she is a graphic designer with Green Goose in Delhi now so she chose to tell a photo-story.
Some images are fresh, others pulled out from black-leafed albums. She brought the collection to life with collected artifacts from her personal past movie tickets, her weight on a stub, a poem she wrote in school, a bill from her first visit to the beauty parlour and so on. Some of these are her own while others have been recreated for this book.
Gupta showed her book at an exhibition a while ago, and says women of different ages said to her, that this could well have been their story too. One can't think of a better validation.
Fifty Seven By Eight is published by Tranquebar Press, Rs 350
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