What We Know About Her by Krupa Ge

Published by: Context/Westland Publications

Fiction: LiteraryFiction

Book summary:

Yamuna is adrift. A long-term relationship has come to an end. Her mother and she are at loggerheads about their ancestral home in Chingleput, which she loves and lives in. Even her PhD on early twentieth-century music in Tamil Nadu seems to be going nowhere—until it leads her to an unexpected puzzle from the past.

During her research, she comes to be fascinated by her enigmatic grandaunt, Lalitha, who rose to prominence as a Carnatic musician at a time when thirteen-year-old brides were the norm. And then she chances upon a letter written by her own grandmother to her grandfather that opens up another window into Lalitha's life. She wants to know more. Only, the more questions she asks, the closer her family draws its secrets. No one will talk to her about this long-dead ancestor's life or death.

What lies beneath the stories they are willing to tell? Beyond the letters that Yamuna manages to purloin from her beloved grandfather's papers when she visits him in Banaras? What did this family do to Lalitha? Krupa Ge's debut novel is an absorbing tale of an angsty young woman who must unravel the secrets of her family before she can untangle her own life.

About the Author:

Krupa Ge is a writer based in Madras. Her reportage and writings have appeared in The Hindu, Firstpost amongst many others. She won the Laadli Ward for a weekly column on women in Cinema (2017). She was awarded the Toto Sangam Residency in 2016 and was shortlisted for a Toto Prize in Creative Writing the same year.

*My Review:

*Thank you Westland Publications for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

What we Know About Her by Krupa Ge is about the many ways in which defiance plays out: in relationships, in the domestic and public sphere and in one's political equilibrium. You begin reading this book for domestic friction, difficult ties, memories of hurt and the baggage of resentments. But you get more than just the domestic sphere, you get carried by the flow of the narrative that takes you to a load more than you expected and you feel yourself opening up to the characters and the situations they are placed in, the actions they take and the fall out later.

The author uses two different timelines: the present shifts back and forth between Benares and Madras which also features in the segments set in the early 1940s through recollections and letters from the time. That the author sticks to Madras when the narrative is set in contemporary times is her defiance to the way a place has severed from its socio political roots with a changed name but stays alive in the minds and imagination of millions in its original flavour and name. It is a delicious addition to the way the writing flows, subtly pulling in many more strands that focus on defiance.

And so, you have the main protagonist's family, a motley bunch spread across different places and different journeys: a grandfather who rebelled against his orthodox family and took up creative arts and then becomes a Communist but who embraces faith and uproots himself to Benares after he loses his wife in his later years, a grand mother who gives love and affection to another family member but who gets carried away by what she thinks is best and hence, calls back the abusive husband; a grand aunt who had a stellar singing oeuvre but who had to marry early, face domestic abuse and then find her way to herself and her art and some semblance of happiness.

The passages on the discovery of Madras, going beyond its geography to its history in the cultural and social sphere, the music scene, the social ties that bind that are familiar yet unique, all of it keeps you wanting to know just where the story plays out. Each of the characters, their stories and the positions they take in life are real: you like them in parts, you can't figure them out at times but they come across as real people you want to know. Then, there is the generational angst; with the central protagonist questioning the past and what for her is a battle of wills with her mother. Everything plays out over less than 200 pages: the self discoveries, the realization that defiance is a common thread in the lives and decisions of each family member, the subtle political flavour in the past and the present, the personal equations, the difference and similarities between the political protests of the older generational and the new, the debates over meritocracy and reservation, all of this weave in not screaming for attention but so seamlessly and naturally that makes the writing stand out. Recommended.

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