OBOC - Bangladesh

Taslima Nasrin was the obvious choice for Bangladesh, but I didn't pick her and chose "A golden age" by Tahmima Anam and it was a great choice!

A Golden Age is the story of a mother who will go to any lengths for the sake of her children – isn’t that the story of any mother? Well it is and it is not. Set in Bangladesh in 1975 as the country tried to free itself from the oppression of Pakistan and preserve its identity and culture, the mother, Rehana, is a widow who once had to lose her kids to relatives in Pakistan after her husband’s death due to financial reasons. With great struggle and “borrowed” capital she builds a second home – Shona (which is almost another character in the novel), rents it out and finances her way to Lahore to win her kids back. Having been through that experience once she was not going to lose them again to Pakistan, a country which despite her religion and her predominantly Urdu tongue was slowly becoming alien to her. In the process, she metamorphosis from the quiet mother to a reluctant nationalist as she harbors guerilas (and in fact falls in love with one of them) shelters their guns and their wounded, clothes, feeds and nurses the refugees, rescues terrorized victims – all to stay involved in her adult children’s lives and understand their aspirations , while at the same time learning to let go of her children as that is the only sure-fire way of holding onto them.

For anyone familiar with the history of the sub-continent and the painful birth of Bangladesh, the book offers a great glimpse into the war as witnessed by average Bangladeshis. The ban on Bengali and even on Tagore only fueled the separatist movement as the cultural difference between Pakistanis and Bangladeshis was as wide as the Indian sub-continent that separated them. As someone from South India, I had no idea until a few Bengali friends of mine enlightened me how similar they were culturally to the people of Bangladesh. No wonder Calcutta plays a pivotal part both in this story and in the history of Bangladesh.

A Golden Age has all the elements for a great movie – drama, love, suspense, action, human misery, and triumph of the spirit – despite that there was something missing although I am not able to put my finger on it. Amam is certainly an author to watch and I will await her sequel to this book