I read Moms in two sittings. Couldn’t put it down. It came to me without the drumroll that seems to accompany so many books these days (many of which disappoint). But while I was reading Shivani Sibal’s Moms, I could think of little else.
Radhika is a woman who has silenced her screams for so long that even she can no longer hear them.
Raised to be obedient and unquestioning, the good daughter, good wife, good mother, Radhika lives in a sprawling South Delhi home while taking up so little space in her own life that it makes you breathless. Her husband weighs her routinely and punishes minor transgressions in order, he says, to “bring out the best in her”.
Devoted mother, envied neighbour, member of every elite Delhi club, Radhika’s life glitters beautifully from the outside. And nobody quite fathoms the truth of it. Perhaps not even Radhika herself.
Sibal writes her characters with terrific precision- the entitled lawyer husband, the grasping policeman trying to improve his circumstances through extortion, the upper-crust Delhi friends living elaborately performative lives, the self-absorbed mother, the precocious tween.
Moms is dark, uncomfortable and socially exact. I particularly loved how well she understands the distance between having a large life and being allowed very little room inside it.
I read Moms in two sittings. Couldn’t put it down. It came to me without the drumroll that seems to accompany so many books these days (many of which disappoint). But while I was reading Shivani Sibal’s Moms, I could think of little else.
Radhika is a woman who has silenced her screams for so long that even she can no longer hear them.
Raised to be obedient and unquestioning, the good daughter, good wife, good mother, Radhika lives in a sprawling South Delhi home while taking up so little space in her own life that it makes you breathless. Her husband weighs her routinely and punishes minor transgressions in order, he says, to “bring out the best in her”.
Devoted mother, envied neighbour, member of every elite Delhi club, Radhika’s life glitters beautifully from the outside. And nobody quite fathoms the truth of it. Perhaps not even Radhika herself.
Sibal writes her characters with terrific precision- the entitled lawyer husband, the grasping policeman trying to improve his circumstances through extortion, the upper-crust Delhi friends living elaborately performative lives, the self-absorbed mother, the precocious tween.
Moms is dark, uncomfortable and socially exact. I particularly loved how well she understands the distance between having a large life and being allowed very little room inside it.
What has Delhi become ? An overly aggressive city, polarised, buildings collapsing like a house of cards, terrible traffic, crumbling infrastructure. India’s capital is unliveable
Today is #CleanAirDay - here is an interview with @CBhattacharji on my hope for better air quality in India and the region in the years to come.
https://t.co/0zUB1BjMhk
हमारे देश में सब कुछ फोटोबाज़ी और प्रचार तक सीमित होता है। यहां ��ंसान की जान की कोई कीमत नहीं है और जानलेवा लापरवाही के लिए किसी की कोई जवाबदेही नहीं है, चाहे टूटी सड़क ��ो या धंसती बिल्डिंग। दिल्ली में आज का हादसा इसी की एक मिसाल है।
FIR, Interrogation after being accosted during a morning walk - all over tweets by a former IAS official? Surprising that Sardar Patel's "Steel Frame of India" is not protesting this treatment of civil servants.
RIP Gloria Steinhem. What a life. I don't think many people know she lived in India for a couple of years in the late 1950s (I believe she studied at Miranda House?)
This heart-wrenching story of 15-year-old Tanvi who died after waiting for 13 years for a surgery at AIIMS.
13 freaking years. The ordeal of the girl and her family should be documented and taught in schools.
My advice to News Anchors. You will sometime be in situation where the guest u invited turns out to be knowledgeable. And questions government with facts, data, logic u can’t counter. At that moment, just stop the guest and ask “Can u sing six Stanzas of Vande Mataram”
Subhash Garg has punctured the government’s tall claims of 7.8% GDP growth, arguing that India’s real GDP growth is closer to 2.6%.
His contention is even more damning: the previous year’s GDP growth was revised downward, making this year’s growth rate look stronger by comparison.
His assessment seems far closer to the lived reality of ordinary Indians — rising prices, falling purchasing power, shrinking disposable incomes and savings, stagnant job opportunities, and rising household debt.
These claims cannot simply be dismissed. They come from someone who served as Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary of the Government of India under Modi between 2017 and 2019.
The government now owes the country a clear explanation:
Why were last year’s GDP numbers revised downward? Why is it fudging numbers? What is the real GDP growth?