From my bookshelf: Radical Spirits
Now that I think about it, this series is not akin to traditional book reviews. It is more about my sojourn with a book--I could meander into aspects that have very little to do with the book itself, and more to do with my thoughts on some of the themes the books is based on. I intentionally write it this way. If you're looking for a crisp, to-the-point review, I also do those on Goodreads. Do connect with me! https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/63617026-prashanthi-kadambi
Title: Radical Spirits: India's First Woman Doctor and Her American Champions
Author: Nandini Patwardhan
Genre: Biography
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51071687-radical-spirits?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FUvbWhA5wb&rank=2
Sometimes, I despair at the sheer number of books on my to-read list, a number that keeps on increasing. For me to pick up a book from that list, I usually rely on an external impetus: Someone could recommend it to me, or I could be binge-reading that author, or I find the book mentioned in some other book in a very compelling way. The possibilities are quite a few. However, several books remain on my list for years, and I never pick them up. It is this I despair at. How many beautiful, poignant books am I missing out on, I wonder. It is in this context that I look back fondly at Radical Spirits, because this book found its way to me. And I'm so glad it did.
My journey started around 6 months ago. I, along with a group of women, wondered why there were so few biographies on Indian women scientists. I wondered why I could recall Marie Curie with so much ease but struggled to name an Indian woman scientist. In this process, I stumbled upon several interesting things. One was an organization that my group introduced to me, called Life of Science. It is founded and led by two women Nandita and Aashima, who were science writers. These were people who asked similar questions to the ones we had pondered upon, and they had gone a step further and tried to do something about it through Life of science. Excerpting a couple of compelling lines from their website:
"We worked together at a science magazine and talked often about rigid notions that hold back science. One of them is the popular image of the scientist as a bearded man in a dusty laboratory shaking test tubes. The lack of female role models in public visibility has been feeding stereotypes for both ‘scientist’ and ‘Indian woman’. We wondered if there was anything we could do as science communicators to hasten gender equality in India. This science media + feminist project The Life of Science was born out of these discussions."
Title: Radical Spirits: India's First Woman Doctor and Her American Champions
Author: Nandini Patwardhan
Genre: Biography
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51071687-radical-spirits?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=FUvbWhA5wb&rank=2
Sometimes, I despair at the sheer number of books on my to-read list, a number that keeps on increasing. For me to pick up a book from that list, I usually rely on an external impetus: Someone could recommend it to me, or I could be binge-reading that author, or I find the book mentioned in some other book in a very compelling way. The possibilities are quite a few. However, several books remain on my list for years, and I never pick them up. It is this I despair at. How many beautiful, poignant books am I missing out on, I wonder. It is in this context that I look back fondly at Radical Spirits, because this book found its way to me. And I'm so glad it did.
My journey started around 6 months ago. I, along with a group of women, wondered why there were so few biographies on Indian women scientists. I wondered why I could recall Marie Curie with so much ease but struggled to name an Indian woman scientist. In this process, I stumbled upon several interesting things. One was an organization that my group introduced to me, called Life of Science. It is founded and led by two women Nandita and Aashima, who were science writers. These were people who asked similar questions to the ones we had pondered upon, and they had gone a step further and tried to do something about it through Life of science. Excerpting a couple of compelling lines from their website:
"We worked together at a science magazine and talked often about rigid notions that hold back science. One of them is the popular image of the scientist as a bearded man in a dusty laboratory shaking test tubes. The lack of female role models in public visibility has been feeding stereotypes for both ‘scientist’ and ‘Indian woman’. We wondered if there was anything we could do as science communicators to hasten gender equality in India. This science media + feminist project The Life of Science was born out of these discussions."
I also did some digging of my own, and my second finding was a collection of mini-biographies called Daughters of Lilavati. It was in this book that I read the story of Anandi, the first woman doctor in India. Among the many other stories that I found, this one stood out very prominently for me. It was a story that I'd never forget, and one that I wanted to introduce others to. I wrote about this story on my blog: Anandi. But at the time, I could not find a fuller, detailed biography of Anandi easily. I was appalled by this, because I'd expected to find at least a dozen, given the trailblazing path of her life.
Months later, I found another well-written article which reinforced the importance of women's biographies: Why Women’s Stories Matter by Nandini Patwardhan. I noticed that this article mentioned a biography of Anandi that the author herself had written, and I made a mental note to look it up, but forgot. A few days later, remarkably enough, the author of this post and of the biography, read my blog post and commented that I would probably like to read her book.(What are the odds?) I was amazed by this coincidence, and that was how Radical Spirits found its way to me. What a serendipitous journey!
Now, coming to the book itself. This was a remarkably well researched book, I must say. I'd wanted to know so many details from Anandi's life, and this book had it all. Letters, conversations, speeches, so much of it captured and laid out for the reader. The research did not end here though. It also captured the political, social and religious sentiments of he time very accurately and intricately, without which this story would not get its full context. This book meant a great deal to me--I am so grateful that I got to see glimpses into the lives of one of the most inspiring and iconoclastic women of her times.
I want to be part of this movement too, I muse. I want to write stories of inspiring women, to lift them from obscurity and make them a household name. Maybe I can't write a biography at this point. But there's something I can do, and that is to spread word of this beautiful story. Do read it, and if you do, let me know what you think of it! :)
Months later, I found another well-written article which reinforced the importance of women's biographies: Why Women’s Stories Matter by Nandini Patwardhan. I noticed that this article mentioned a biography of Anandi that the author herself had written, and I made a mental note to look it up, but forgot. A few days later, remarkably enough, the author of this post and of the biography, read my blog post and commented that I would probably like to read her book.(What are the odds?) I was amazed by this coincidence, and that was how Radical Spirits found its way to me. What a serendipitous journey!
Now, coming to the book itself. This was a remarkably well researched book, I must say. I'd wanted to know so many details from Anandi's life, and this book had it all. Letters, conversations, speeches, so much of it captured and laid out for the reader. The research did not end here though. It also captured the political, social and religious sentiments of he time very accurately and intricately, without which this story would not get its full context. This book meant a great deal to me--I am so grateful that I got to see glimpses into the lives of one of the most inspiring and iconoclastic women of her times.
I want to be part of this movement too, I muse. I want to write stories of inspiring women, to lift them from obscurity and make them a household name. Maybe I can't write a biography at this point. But there's something I can do, and that is to spread word of this beautiful story. Do read it, and if you do, let me know what you think of it! :)
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