Abstract
Paro Anand’s The Other: Stories of Difference (2018) underscores the present-day predicament and challenges that impinge on the lives of Indian teenagers, a theme that is approached cautiously by the author for the benefit of her young adult readers. The narratives, however, are daring in the sense that they focus sharply on the hidden or suppressed, and under-represented, crises faced by youngsters, underlining the urgency of addressing these issues in a society that is still largely ignorant or apathetic. Yet, the literary representation of social malaise, psychological trauma, emotional wretchedness, and physical harm in texts intended primarily for young readers is never an easy task as there is a risk of such texts becoming overtly didactic in their desire to inform and educate. Whether Anand steers clear of this trap – for the stories need to work as stories – is one of the concerns of this essay. Another task of the writer is to depict teenagers as not entirely independent of adults and yet also as not bereft of agency. The essay examines the stories in the collection in relation to the identity formation of the young adult characters, who have to grasp as well as grapple with the complexities – along the axes of gender, class, caste, and disability – of what it means to be growing up in India.
Highlights
Paro Anand’s The Other: Stories of Difference (2018) underscores the present-day predicament and challenges that impinge on the lives of Indian teenagers, a theme that is approached cautiously by the author for the benefit of her young adult readers
If Narayan and Bond showed young adults the changing seasons, Anand warns them of climate change
The scholar Emer O’Sullivan considers children’s literature as “a body of literature that belongs simultaneously to the field of literature and the field of education” (191), a thesis which may be applied to young adult literature as well
Summary
Paro Anand’s The Other: Stories of Difference (2018) underscores the present-day predicament and challenges that impinge on the lives of Indian teenagers, a theme that is approached cautiously by the author for the benefit of her young adult readers. In stories such as “Learning to Love Again,” “Walk the Straight Line,” and “Going Off Grid,” the young adult characters come to the realisation that they need the help of their parents, teachers and doctors, and the refuge of home, school, and hospital.
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