Pandora's box. Review on Goma Hansti Hai - Maitreyi Pushpa

The curve of her lip

defies her sorrows

the sparkle in her eye

defines her spirit

Goma hansti hai….

and yes, she’s the center of the world.

Easily, the most attractive quality in a person is their smile. When you add feminity, innocence, naivete, worldly wisdom, a bit of spite, a devious mind and whatnot, you end up with that mystery called Goma.

The book

Who is Goma? you may ask.

- For us city dwellers, Goma is that poor farmer’s scheming wife who has managed to enlist the neighbor’s huge farm land for her unborn son.

• Or maybe she is that nearby dhobi’s daughter, entrapped in dreams of a glamorous lifestyle with a roaming gypsy.

  
  




• Maybe she’s that widow who has to fend for her and her son’s life against against her husband’s family.

  
  




• The daughter of the village schoolmaster who has dared to love a harijan classmate

  
  




• Or is she the village sarpanch’s wife, manipulated into standing for election against a dalit ?What is common between all these women ?

  
  

The common thread running through the stories is Maitreyi Pushpa’s rich sense of humor – her understanding of the restrictions and afflictions of a woman’s life. Her account of their actions is neither judgmental nor tragic but tells the reality, bitter as it may be.

Her heroines have not just survived but lived and laughed.Maitreyi comes across as no burn the bra feminist but a woman with a firm grip on reality, a startling honesty and a fine sense of the ironic.

About the book…

Goma hansti hai is a Pandora’s box of short stories. The language is rich & rustic, the setting rural. The book remains one of my favorite re-reads, waiting to be discovered all over anew.

In an era when we don’t hear of Indian authors till the make the Booker’s list, this remains a quiet but prized possession in my little library. In a society where social writing often digresses into depressing monologues, this book offers a rare insightful chuckle into reality.

At the end…

Who is Goma you ask again ?

Goma is every woman – rich or poor, old or young, ancient or modern, near or far, village belle or city girl.Over the ages, Goma remains Goma.