All set to spend a serious weekend? We have got some good news for you. Shilpa Raj’s debut work The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter is going to be launched on 28th of July 2017. This is the first ever memoir by any woman from the untouchable community in India. And naturally, the work is serious by all the means! Shilpa has written this memoir in around seven years by connecting the dots to dots and collecting the recollections of her father, mother, grandfather, grandmother and many others. The book is mostly written in a first person narrative and Shilpa is present from the beginning to the end amid happiness, sorrows, loss, gain, death, life and so much…
The book tells about the two lives of Shilpa Raj and how she managed to strike a balance between the two. Shilpa writers about her education in Shanti Bhavan and her school breaks which used to be so adventurous in those days when she used to spend time with her sister Kavya. Those childish days and those days to being young are fully painted with animated descriptions that Shilpa offers to the readers. However, there are also many serious issues raised in the book along side the usual memoir thing. The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter, Shilpa Raj, makes herself a symbolic daughter who represents all the girls who are not allowed to study, who have to face the bully in the family, on the streets and almost every where in life. Her mother, her grandmother, and Shilpa herself are the examples used in the book.
Other than the issues related to women, The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter also explores the issues related to discrimination based on caste and community. The author herself belongs to a lower class of the society which she has denoted as ‘unholy untouchables’ in her memoir. She digs deeper and deeper through the memories of her father, mother, grandfather and grandmother. Shilpa brings to light the facts which are better in darkness for us because we have become so much insensitive to those. She pinches the conscious of the readers; she asks questions; she reveals the bitter side of the world…
This memoir, which is already available on Amazon for purchase, will be a sure landmark in the Indian Dalit writing because unlike other works, Shilpa’s memoir does not compromise with the substance of her writing. She calls spade a spade and does not shy away from revealing the tiniest secrets. Below is the link to the work which you can either download in the Kindle format or buy a hard copy.
http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/8129147696/
story by Ravi for LN
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