Friday, September 17, 2010

Dance O Peacock- by Aruna Jethwani

                                                                       

                                                                Author's Note
During the year 1988, immediately after the Sati (self immolation on husband's pyre) incident in Rajasthan, two of the students from St. Mira's College, Pune, visited the place. They were a part of an investigative team. Their horrifying account made me think. Years later, on my visit to Udaipur, I came across an acquaintance, who was thrown out of her husband's house because she was unable to bear a child. Empowering herself with education, she secured a good job, and found an excellent man for a husband. By facing the challenges, she had regained her social status. With these two incidents etched, novel is written, partially feminist, and partially translating the ethos of a Rajput way of life. A gender based society is slow to tranform. A woman has to take up the challenge, and break the barriers to realise her true identity.

Dance O Peacock is not only Neelam's story; perhaps it is the story of many of us, who inspite of orthodox upbringing yearn to bloom.



Language: English
ISBN: 9788122311136
Pages: 190
Price: Rs. 175.00

2 comments:

  1. “The novel opens up uncomfortable questions about the biological and social, lack and love and reform and rebellion–to which there are no easy answers. Dance O’ Peacock is a truly engaging account of a woman’s search for love, meaning and calling a search for herself.”
    – Dr. Sharmila Rege, Director, KSP Women’s Studies Centre, University of Poona, Pune

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  2. “Dance O’ Peacock is the story of Neelam, an intelligent and independent woman. She struggles hard to get rid of the oppressing tradition of taboos. To find solace and to build up inner strength, she puts relationships at stake and rigorously strives for emotional and intellectual freedom; where she can have every right to nurture the weltanschauung of her own. Neelam’s voice against the tradition and history, that have thrown her into such a predicament, could be termed feminist.”
    – Dr. Khursheed Alam, Urdu writer

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