Heart lamp - A booker review

Banu Mushtaq

Heart lamp is literally and literarily lights your heart and mind with the stories. Each story unique with underlying feminine voices silently rebelling against the patriarchy and prejudiced religious beliefs. 

The beauty of local colloquy makes the characters and settings richer. The characters with no names but tiles like Muttawali, Maulvi, give folksy touch to the stories like it could happen anywhere in the world. A fictional world based in the innards of a multi lingual Karnataka, where kanadda is as fluently spoken as Urdu or Arabic. Where Quran is as frequently quoted as Ramayana. Writing about religious patriarchy or traditions as a silent observer rather than a mirror of right or wrong. 

She talks about religious practices from multi narrators’ perspective. So one doesn’t really judge as different view points get their voice and expression. A son wanting to get his mother remarried, a curcumcision ceremony, four wives, divorce, toll of multiple births on women’s lives. Each theme a strong reflection of our society. 

Feminism is an important topic for me and such stories deeply impact me, making me proud to see them finding a platform. A booker prize means it reaches a larger, international, English speaking crowd. Coming from exactly opposite background I could associate with the hearts of women in these stories. The blessed and cursed both in their prisons of rules and misfortunes. 

The final story, Be a woman once, Oh Lord. The monologue with God is everything a woman would ask the day they meet their maker. Then why doesn’t the world change? Is a woman really free? The question continues to bother me and that is why these stories must be written to ask the questions first. Only then answers can come. 

Thank you Banu for some powerful writing. You have shown a woman with a pen is most powerful and can bring change one story a time!