Namitha

This book was an extremely slow read for me. Especially the first part because of everything that Frankl went through in his time at the concentration camps. This book has a lot of wisdom packed into its very few pages. I'm sure I will keep coming back to this whenever I feel utterly disappointed with life for I have highlighted many a lines in this that will help me find some hope and help me in not giving up.

This was my second read by Elif Shafak after The bastard of Istanbul, I love how she makes a living character out of Istanbul in both the book set hundreds of years apart.

As an architect myself, Elif taught me many a things through the words of master Sinan which I will hold dear to myself. The characters that she has created purely out of fiction, Jahan and chota, the white elephant and the bond they shared will stay with me for a long time.

The way she manages to narrate a story that took place over a period of hundred years with many characters ranging from the Sultans to the gypsies with ease is praiseworthy.

This is the very first work of Ambedkar's that I have read. I picked this up being too sceptical about it but I'm so glad that I did. The version that I have also has 2 other works of his namely - ‘Castes in India : Their mechanism, Genesis and Development.' and ‘Ranade, Gandhi and Jinnah' . The other two works especially the former when read along with ‘Annihilation of caste' gives an in-depth idea of what caste system is.

‘Annihilation of caste' was supposed to be a speech delivered at the annual conference of ‘Jat-Pat Todak Mandal' (Society for the break up of caste system) in 1936 at Lahore. Ironically they never let him deliver the speech and canceled the conference and Ambedkar ended up publishing the speech bearing the expenses himself. The exchange of the letters between him and the Mandal are included prior to the speech in print for the reader to be the judge of why the delivery of speech was canceled. The whole speech is based on research and evidences. He criticises Hinduism for its biased treatment based on the Hindu scriptures and makes one realise how deep rooted in religion the caste system is.

‘Castes in India : Their mechanism, Genesis and Development.' was a paper read by him at an anthropological seminar of in New York on 9 May 1916. As the title says, Ambedkar explains everything about caste which was often dismissed as being “unexplainable”. He says it has only been “un-understood” and presents his paper. I was personally shocked to understand how male domination helped shape the rituals that help the caste system prevail.

Each page can be quoted and highlighted but it's best if everyone reads and interprets it in their own way. We have conveniently skipped the reformist side of Ambedkar in our textbooks and have introduced him as nothing but the architect of our constitution. I'm so glad that I picked this up book for it helped me unlearn and relearn a lot of things. I highly recommend that everyone does so too.