[Reader-list] No Onions Nor Garlic

[Shivam Vij]

Just the sort of stuff we need.
Shivam

--

Courtesy, The Bindhu

Srividya has produced one of the finest fictional critiques of caste society.

By S. Anand
http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060925&fname=Booksb&sid=1


NO ONIONS NOR GARLIC
by Srividya Natarajan
Penguin
Pages: 336; Rs 295


In which debutant Srividya Natarajan pays her tribute to Shakespeare
by arranging a cast of characters of various castes, sexualities and
shapes; which is set in the English Department of Chennai University
where professors invite a dead Foucault to a conference; where
atrocities are committed on Brahmins (the up-trodden who suffer
trodditude) by acts such as the pedestalisation of a bronze Ambedkar
reading Annihilation of Caste; in which Students for Democracy are
pitted against TamBrahmAss whose members have curd rice in their
dental cavities and lemon/mango pickle under their fingernails; in
which everyone is constantly referring to reportage in The Bindhu,
plugging into e-prarthana.com for spiritual solace, or seeking
post-menopausal bliss in the groping hands of triple-blessed swamis
prefixed with Sri Sri Sri; in which Shakespeare's injunction to actors
'no onions nor garlic', interpreted via Manu, becomes a Tam-Brahm's
way of life.

The reader, if she enjoys comedy and satire, and can stomach
caricatures of Tam-Brahms and their lifestyle, can laugh as loudly as
some characters in this novel fart. The way the novel wears its comic
heart on its sleeve is deceptive; Srividya has produced one of the
finest fictional critiques of caste society.