Book Review: Sunitha Krishnan’s autobiography is a life story of varying moods
'I Am What I Am: A Memoir' not only captures the trials and tribulations of a middle-class girl but also traces the Prajwala founder's five-decade-long journey as a social activist
Hyderabad: What do you look for in an autobiography? The alternatives are aplenty: the heart, the head, the context, the milieu, the persona… A good autobiography is a sensual or assumable work about a good (inspiring?) life. Sometimes, it is simply an engrossing story. In short, which is also a question between is it the story or the storyteller.
‘I Am What I Am’ – the autobiography of social activist contains most of these. There are times the story takes a condescending approach to those who do not understand the nuanced sensitivities of the space of her specialised work.
Generally however, the 280-page autobiography is about a lady who was born in a middle-class family in the India of the 1970s; the trials and tribulations of a middle-class girl sometimes cocooned in the domesticity of middle class. Sometimes inoculated by its morality, sometimes wildly exposed to the bad bad world, she moves often rudderless but always focused and with tremendous grit and determination.
In fact, she says, “I have not yet figured out the right way to navigate this matter in my sector. I have often been asked why I play the victim card.” This, obviously, is a modest moment in a life story of varying moods. In fact, her success story is not only awe-inspiring but is clear that she has mastered the survival techniques ‘to navigate’ in her sector. She starts off stating that she has hesitant with the English language.
However, there is no evidence of the same. The language is far from flamboyant. Like the persona and the space of work, it is bereft of gloss, matter of fact, yet always accurate.
The autobiography is intricately connected with a vote of thanks to all the co-travellers. The prologue has a Rajesh Touchriver touch. It starts in a dramatic style and deals with a major rescue operation of a 4-year-old who survived to tell a story of a gory rape, who survived not only a gang rape but over 32 stitches.
However, very often the story steers clear of needless drama. It sticks to a narrative from the heart often soaked in flesh and blood. The only initiative at the age of 17, her fight against the beauty pageant by ABCL.
Packeted with greater gloss and zeal (and arguably through more kaleidoscopic windows) would surely have got her many more global eyeballs. This is not to suggest by a mind that this autobiography is lacking anywhere. In contrast, it’s a slice of an extraordinary life told simply.
One almost discerns an effort to tear down the achievements. She also cuts out many tempting frills to ensure that the real-life incidents do not get a dramatic feel. Be it the horrifying experience that she had to undergo personally that somewhere ensured her the line in the sector she works or the multiple rescue operations or the victim rehabilitations. Each of the stories leave a lasting impression.
Her personal life, her deep-rooted friendship with her mentor brother Verghes, her love life and marriage with avant-garde National Award-winning filmmaker Rajesh Touchriver all make for more than interesting a story that makes the women from the girls.
“Every survivor is not a leader,” Sunitha says. Surely so. Obviously, the world would have had less fresh trade and fewer victims if we had more Sunithas. The autobiography also places in perspective her unabashed stand on controversial angles to dealing with victims of sex trade. Make no mistake she is a lead player who knows the stink of the underbelly than the armchair critique. She is not just walked the road, she has taken the beating — literally.
Obviously, in a world where rape and sexual exploitation are intricately connected with the myth of male superiority the challenges come in baskets. The author could have fleshed some nightmares to impact the reader. Her arguable defence could be that the intent of the exercise was to tell her life, and not use it as a platform to garner currency for the work she does.
It’s a linear record of what happened with a little girl who started life fighting for gender protection on the streets of Bangalore in the 1970s and who, now, with the steer dint of commitment, is an institution like her own ‘Prajwala’.
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Title: I Am What I Am: A Memoir
Author: Sunitha Krishnan
Genre: Autobiography, Memoir
Publisher: Westland Books
Pages: 294 (hardcover); 280 (paperback)
Price: Rs 699 (hardcover)
