My Family - Hardcover

Ruth Vanita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670095907 ISBN 13: 9780670095902

Publisher: India Hamish Hamilton, 2021

Synopsis

MY FAMILY is a collection of pen portraits on a few of the many animals with whom Mahadevi Varma chose to spend her life. Set in a time when human and non-human worlds were still permeable, the book describes the singular personalities of Mahadevi's adoptive animals and the unique relationships she enjoyed with each of them. There is Gillu the frisky squirrel, Neelkanth the gorgeous caring peacock, Sona the affectionate doe with liquid eyes, Neelu the imperious yet loyal mountain dog, and others whom Mahadevi magically brings to life on the page. Brilliantly translated by Ruth Vanita and peppered with Mahadevi's sparkling wit, these sketches depict a memorable life lived with a special chosen family. In her erudite introduction, Vanita analyses various dimensions of Mahadevi's life and work, illuminates her historical and literary legacy, and reviews the myriad debates on humans' coexistence with animals.

About this title

About the Authors

Mahadevi Varma (1907-1987) is the greatest woman poet to have written in Hindi in the twentieth century. She did an MA in Sanskrit from Allahabad University and became residential principal (later, vice chancellor) of the pioneering women's institution, Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth. She worked in the Gandhi-led movement for independence, and edited several journals, most notably the women's magazine Chand. She was one of the four pillars of the Chhayavad movement in Hindi poetry and the author of several collections of poems, such as Nihar (1930), Rashmi (1932), Nirja (1933), Yama (1939), and Deepshikha (1942). She wrote several prose works, including reminiscences, pen portraits, essays on women's predicament, and works of literary criticism, such as Sahityakar ki Astha (1962). She translated numerous works from Sanskrit to Hindi.


Mahadevi founded a trust to support writers in need. In 1979, she was the first woman to be made a fellow of the Sahitya Akademi. Among other awards, she received the Jnanpith in 1982, the Padma Bhushan in 1956, and the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 1988.

Ruth Vanita is the author of many books, most recently The Broken Rainbow: Poems and Translations (2023); the novel Memory of Light (Penguin, 2022), which she translated into Hindi as Pariyon ke Beech (Rajkamal); The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna and Species (Oxford University Press, 2022); Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India (Penguin, 2005; updated edition 2022). She has translated several works from Hindi to English, including Mahadevi Varma’s My Family (Penguin, 2021). She co-edited the path-breaking Same-Sex Love in India, and edited and translated On the Edge: A Hundred Years of Hindi Fiction on Same-Sex Desire (Penguin, 2023).

Edition details

• Publisher: India Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670095907
• ISBN 13: 9780670095902
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 168