Book Review Not Like Most Young Girls

Book Review

Not Like Most Young Girls

Lending words to ineffable emotions can be hard. Even harder would be to listen to those emotions unfold through real stories of real human beings. But a bunch of young people have managed to accomplish just that — they bore witness to the lives of those who the society often considers the ‘others’. Not Like Most Young Girls is a compilation of 18 short stories about the lives of sex workers in the Maximum City who are part of Aastha Parivaar. These are true stories, from the urban underbelly, of bruised bodies, crushed souls and hurt hearts. But none of them are victims. Yes, their tales elicit shock and sympathy, but pity is the last thing they look for. Hope, in fact, is the underlying force in their undaunting spirits, as they crusade against ancient notions, trying to empower spirits in a dystopian world of broken self-esteem. What strikes you as you flip the pages is the maturity with which the stories are told. The writers were previously selected by a panel of judges at a short-story writing competition. Last year, the organisation had conducted a competition, along with three Mumbai-based educational institutions, Xavier’s Institute of Communication, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Wilson College. The stories in the book are drawn from conversations the students had with the people from the sex-worker community. Treating an issue such as this with sensitivity is of utmost importance. And it is palpable that the writers spent quality time with the storytellers. The stories reflect regrets, desires, hopes, confessions but are all very matter of fact. Take the first short story, The Bus Stop, for instance. The twist in the tale is akin to Ruskin Bond’s famous endings. The protagonist narrates her experience without a hint of self-pity. And that’s where perhaps is a lesson to learn. Kudos to the 21-year-old writer Arnesh Ghose for spinning the story that follows a linear outline with an emotional outcome, only in the last sentence. But there’s also the odd objective (but emotionally disconnected) story Ali(ce)x in Wonderland by Harpreet Bhullar who subconsciously intellectualizes the situation of a sex worker by introducing Foucault and Carollian philosophies. Utter disappointment. The point of any good short story, as Guy Maupassant has shown us through his tales, is to make an impact deep within — not to lead you astray in a bubble of confusion. The impressive ones outnumber the mediocre writing in the compilation though. Dear Taslima Apa is heart wrenching, as Shobhaa De sums it up in the foreword. A Bedtime Story gives a glimpse of refreshingly good writing. Trauma is the undercurrent in all these stories, but hope somehow peeps out in the end, whether through a mother-daughter hug, a lover’s embrace, or walking out into the open, taking life head on. The book has succeeded in that it manages to bring living humans, made of flesh and blood, out of the shadows with deserving dignity.