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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
The story of Padma & Lalli revealed something more terrible still -- that an Indian's woman first challenge was surviving her own home.
This book reminded me of why I read. I read to understand the stories that feel so alien to my lived experience.
The Constitution had existed for only decades while Hindu religious beliefs dated back thousands of years, said one father who was accused of killing his daughter.
Veere's only daughter-in-law was so strictly regulated that her neighbors couldn't say for sure what she looked like.
If it wasn't for her daughter, Siya Devi would have no one to talk to.
Rekha (random girl in village we don't hear from again) was only six when her mother died of cancer, and she was pulled out of school to cook and clean for her family of four. A disability prevented one of her brothers from walking, so the task of looking after him also fell to Rekha. ... The span of childhood was in the hands of fate.
Who Padma and Lalli were, and what had happened to them, was already less important than what their disappearance meant to the status of the people left behind.
Sohan Lal didn't react to the abuse. It was all one could expect from the police. They treated the poor like insects to be squashed under their shoes.
Siya Devi (Lalli's mother): My girl is hanging. Why? What did she do? She didn't do anything. She didn't go anywhere. She only used to graze the goats. Is she worth nothing? Do our children mean nothing?
Women sitting under the trees: When they cannot control us, they kill us.
Studies found that rural India made up only .23 per cent of the news.
The police were useless. They couldn't be trusted to solve the disappearance of a goat.
The Shakya family demonstrated their keen understanding of how India functions. The wheels of justice move only under pressure from the powerful.
India's often fabulously rich politicians were far removed from the poor people they represented.
The only time the politician [who represents Katra] made the news was for harbouring a fugitive wanted for kidnap and murder. "He ran into my house," he had told the police, expecting them to believe him.
Every woman in the village worked on the land but not a single one owned a piece of it.
The best place to look for a groom was a wedding. (Padma's father scouring strangers for her husband. He's restricting her life, won't even let her see Lalli....)
Nazru being nosy and catching them in field with Pappu ends their lives .... They commit suicide?
Rather than fixing problems, governments had quietly declared the situation beyond help. Since they couldn't control crime, they controlled the number of reported crimes.
(Politicians openly give victims money -- often for the cameras! Instead of trying to fix issues!)
Unbelievable court rulings blaming victims for crimes
Did Padma and Lalli's case change anything? Doesn't seem like it!
Modi: nationalist, no reformer (all talk, no action)
One somewhat competent investigating unit gets all the cases (CBI)
This book reminded me of why I read. I read to understand the stories that feel so alien to my lived experience.
The Constitution had existed for only decades while Hindu religious beliefs dated back thousands of years, said one father who was accused of killing his daughter.
Veere's only daughter-in-law was so strictly regulated that her neighbors couldn't say for sure what she looked like.
If it wasn't for her daughter, Siya Devi would have no one to talk to.
Rekha (random girl in village we don't hear from again) was only six when her mother died of cancer, and she was pulled out of school to cook and clean for her family of four. A disability prevented one of her brothers from walking, so the task of looking after him also fell to Rekha. ... The span of childhood was in the hands of fate.
Who Padma and Lalli were, and what had happened to them, was already less important than what their disappearance meant to the status of the people left behind.
Sohan Lal didn't react to the abuse. It was all one could expect from the police. They treated the poor like insects to be squashed under their shoes.
Siya Devi (Lalli's mother): My girl is hanging. Why? What did she do? She didn't do anything. She didn't go anywhere. She only used to graze the goats. Is she worth nothing? Do our children mean nothing?
Women sitting under the trees: When they cannot control us, they kill us.
Studies found that rural India made up only .23 per cent of the news.
The police were useless. They couldn't be trusted to solve the disappearance of a goat.
The Shakya family demonstrated their keen understanding of how India functions. The wheels of justice move only under pressure from the powerful.
India's often fabulously rich politicians were far removed from the poor people they represented.
The only time the politician [who represents Katra] made the news was for harbouring a fugitive wanted for kidnap and murder. "He ran into my house," he had told the police, expecting them to believe him.
Every woman in the village worked on the land but not a single one owned a piece of it.
The best place to look for a groom was a wedding. (Padma's father scouring strangers for her husband. He's restricting her life, won't even let her see Lalli....)
Nazru being nosy and catching them in field with Pappu ends their lives .... They commit suicide?
Rather than fixing problems, governments had quietly declared the situation beyond help. Since they couldn't control crime, they controlled the number of reported crimes.
(Politicians openly give victims money -- often for the cameras! Instead of trying to fix issues!)
Unbelievable court rulings blaming victims for crimes
Did Padma and Lalli's case change anything? Doesn't seem like it!
Modi: nationalist, no reformer (all talk, no action)
One somewhat competent investigating unit gets all the cases (CBI)
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
I have some conflicting thoughts on this book. I did really enjoy it. It was incredibly worthwhile and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who's interested. It's a really close look at rape in India, how it affects women's lives and how it's dealt with politically in the broader system as well as individually.
It's really heartwrenching to take a deep dive into this case of two girls who are found dead, and whose deaths mobilize the country in protests (again) for the safety of women. Faleiro takes you through the girls' childhoods, their final days, their deaths, the aftermath in their families, and the aftermath in the country as a whole, while discussing rape and violence against women as a larger issue. It was fascinating to read.
But I was never excited to pick this book. Despite enjoying it quite a bit, I didn't love it. Mostly, it felt a little basic in terms of structure. Like fantastic information, but it wasn't structured very well as a narrative. It did read as rather dry at points, and lacked a connection with the events of the story.
I also think there was too much information for the book to handle. Not only is Faleiro tackling this entire years long case of the girls deaths, but she also discusses a number of other cases of violence against women, sometimes in a great deal of depth. And she really wants to give the reader every single detail of the case, even when it's not overly important. All of this, in what amounts to about 280 pages of actual story (because a fair amount of time at the end is spent on notes/references/etc). It's just too much for this book to hold. It comes across feeling like an onslaught of information.
One thing that also bothered me was in the author's note at the end, Faleiro discusses her desire for objectivity in this book. Nothing bothered me until she said that because objectivity isn't possible in journalism, and especially not here. There's so much bias that goes into the decisions of what to research, and how to research, and who to talk to and trust, that objectivity isn't a realistic goal (which is fine, there's still plenty of room for worthwhile and trustworthy journalism). Especially in this case, by the time you get to the end, people have come to so many different conclusions and everyone has spent so much time lying, that what you think happened comes down to who you believe is telling the truth. Saying her goal was absolute objectivity just makes me feel like she's not confronting her own biases and judgments, and that makes me trust her a little less. Again, had zero issues with that until I got to her final note, and it kind of had me reflecting on my experience again.
But I would recommend this. I think it was an incredibly close look at violence against women in India, and a heartwrenching account of what appened to these two young girls who died because of it.
It's really heartwrenching to take a deep dive into this case of two girls who are found dead, and whose deaths mobilize the country in protests (again) for the safety of women. Faleiro takes you through the girls' childhoods, their final days, their deaths, the aftermath in their families, and the aftermath in the country as a whole, while discussing rape and violence against women as a larger issue. It was fascinating to read.
But I was never excited to pick this book. Despite enjoying it quite a bit, I didn't love it. Mostly, it felt a little basic in terms of structure. Like fantastic information, but it wasn't structured very well as a narrative. It did read as rather dry at points, and lacked a connection with the events of the story.
I also think there was too much information for the book to handle. Not only is Faleiro tackling this entire years long case of the girls deaths, but she also discusses a number of other cases of violence against women, sometimes in a great deal of depth. And she really wants to give the reader every single detail of the case, even when it's not overly important. All of this, in what amounts to about 280 pages of actual story (because a fair amount of time at the end is spent on notes/references/etc). It's just too much for this book to hold. It comes across feeling like an onslaught of information.
One thing that also bothered me was in the author's note at the end, Faleiro discusses her desire for objectivity in this book. Nothing bothered me until she said that because objectivity isn't possible in journalism, and especially not here. There's so much bias that goes into the decisions of what to research, and how to research, and who to talk to and trust, that objectivity isn't a realistic goal (which is fine, there's still plenty of room for worthwhile and trustworthy journalism). Especially in this case, by the time you get to the end, people have come to so many different conclusions and everyone has spent so much time lying, that what you think happened comes down to who you believe is telling the truth. Saying her goal was absolute objectivity just makes me feel like she's not confronting her own biases and judgments, and that makes me trust her a little less. Again, had zero issues with that until I got to her final note, and it kind of had me reflecting on my experience again.
But I would recommend this. I think it was an incredibly close look at violence against women in India, and a heartwrenching account of what appened to these two young girls who died because of it.