Father May Be an Elephant, and Mother Only a Small Basket, But... - Paperback

by Gogu Shyamala (Author), Diia Rajan (Translator), A. Sunnetha (Translator)

Dalit feminist stories of a south Indian village that dissolve the borders of realism, allegory and political fable. A young girl is sent away to school to save her from being declared the sexual property of the village's upper-caste men. The village water tank laments to a passing child. A Brahmin boy is considered 'polluted' by the touch of a Dalit girl - the same action that saved his life. Rendered with idiomatic vitality, humour and lightness, these stories revel in rural childhood without nostalgia or romanticism, forcing the reader to question their expectation of violence in the representation of certain lives, and of what the short story can be and do. Shifts in tone and perspective reveal relationships - between the different castes that make up a village, between an individual and the wider community, between identities and the seasonal rhythms of the land. Imbued throughout with a Dalit feminist philosophy that is above all a philosophy of life, to be lived with wit, ingenuity, and defiance.

Author Biography

Born in 1969 in Peddemul village, Gogu Shyamala is a philosopher, poet and prolific story writer working in the Telugu language. Hailed as a landmark in Telangana Dalit literature, Father May Be An Elephant... is her first collection, and has also been published in German translation. She has alsoedited a collection of Telangana Madiga poetry, and works on biographies of significant Dalit female political leaders. Translated by: Diia Rajan, Sashi Kumar, A. Suneetha, N. Manohar Reddy, R. Srivatsan, Gita Ramaswamy, Uma Bhrugubanda, P. Pavana, and Duggirala Vasanta