Victory Song by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was my 70th of 2021. It is about lives of Indian Women, narrated through Neela. The setting is near Calcutta (Kolkata, now) in 1939, as India's independence struggle heats up and WWII is starting in Europe. In a small village, a relatively successful farmer's daughter's wedding is interrupted by nationalist bandits who "ask" for donations. The younger daughter of the family, is moved by their romantic self-sacrifice and donates a gold chain her mother has just given her, not knowing it represents a big part of her future dowry. She's marrying the freedom struggle, get it?! Anyway, the next day her father tells Neela that he is going to Calcutta to participate in what is supposed to be a peaceful protest led by Gandhiji. But he doesn't come back. Eventually, Neela disguises herself and sets off to try and find him, while her mother struggles alone with their unplanted rice paddies. What happens on her journey is what the rest of the story is all about. The "Victory Song" in question is a Bengali song called "Vande Mataram"
Twelve-year-old Neela Sen knows their mother will be looking for a husband for Neela. But Neela's heart is stirred more by the fiery talk she overhears about India's freedom struggle than it is by talk of marriage. Neela's father goes to Calcutta to learn more about the fight for independence from Britain. He had told Neela not to tell her mother. When she hears that hundreds were imprisoned or killed she sets of with the support of her friend Samar, whom she had helped to find her father. Neela saves her father from being killed, and how a girl that helped Neela wanted to help get her father back. Neela goes there as a boy and when he finds her father, she paints her fathers face with makeup, and made his face look like he had chicken pox. He was sent to jail.
No comments:
Post a Comment