The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs by Urmila Pawar, Maya Pandit

Abstract

her best work and provides a testa ment to the power of her voice. Zeron's poetry is free verse in a variety of lengths. She effectively uses repetition and makes good use of rhythm. Although the collection at times brings in women's voices as if the narrative is searching for some light, some "truth" that is not reached, and despite moments of rebellion ("I'm better without you"), the voice does not dwell on mis ery and disenchantment but finds comfort in the search itself: "May brought me new flowers. . . ." The moving forces behind this collection include love permeated by eroti cism, motherhood, justice, faith, and race, as in the poem "Watercolor of a People." These topics complement a single idea, a witness to the forma tion or reshaping of a single perspec tive emerging from different angles. The collection includes one of the most celebrated poems in Zeron's whole body of work: "A Great Country." The poem, com posed of only six lines, denounces the social situation of, one assumes, her own country, but the theme is universal. With three of the six lines single words, the poetic voice subverts the meaning of the title and, full of irony, protests not only the social but the educational and economic state of a people. After "A Great Country," the topic of social justice quickly veers to the various other realms, all woven together through a powerful use of language and poetic technique. In "Purple Butterflies," for exam ple, the poet makes a philosophi cal approach to individual existence (especially of women) and builds her theme through the repetition of the word "and," as if the poetic voice keeps adding blocks to a building. "Desolation" presents a duel on the concept of blind faith. Although it does not question the existence of God, it questions the blindness and even ignorance of the individual, including the narrative voice: "and I a blind mirror unable to reflect you." In "Women," Zer?n addresses the ways in which societies try to come to terms with thousands of years of the oppression of women; she rejects and ridicules the idea of "El dia internacional de la mujer," which celebrates women every March. Lina Zer?n speaks to moth erhood in "From My Trunk, the Branch," which approaches the con cept of freedom in the raising of children. She pushes the children to "quit the nest, take flight, soar high" while acknowledging the dangers of life and reminding them, "I have plenty of branches to cradle you if you fall." Jos? Juan Colin University of Oklahoma MISCELLANEOUS Urmila Pa war. The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs. Maya Pandit tr. Wandana Sonalkar, foreword. New York. Columbia University Press. 2009. xxviii + 283 pages + 6 plates. $35. isbn 978-0-231-14900-6 The awakening of Dalit awareness of selfhood may be traced to the Marathi literature of the 1970s in India. The popularity of autobiog raphies of Dalit writers in Marathi influenced the writers of the neigh boring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Daya Pawar's Baluta, the first Dalit auto biography, was followed by a num ber of others, like Bama's Karuk ku (Tamil), Siddhalingaiah's Uru Keri (Kannada), and so on. Urmila ; * Wj~s Lovs and a rene aGrace Schulman a d -- o - a - f rc Ss c lm an Firstrup L ove ad oter adveturbyte an winerofth Aie Talo Awadf Seattle Times . G *ran Sonn M r T e YalUnve s Pes Th -is En ls pra sainfrmS e i of Sonv' threet book of ves been d sibe by Roan Ware as "a masv poem thtbek ams vr WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW Pawar's The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs belongs to the genre of autobiography, which is rarely practiced by Indians as com pared to that of poetry and fiction. It problematizes the major issues of class, caste, and gender in the Indi an context. Apart from recording a woman's discovery of selfhood and assertion of identity, it also offers a background picture of the Indian (especially Maharashtrian) culture, including interpersonal and inter communal relations, clashes, and...