On identity belonging

BY RON BAROOAH

Ayoung lawyer in Sydney discovers a mysterious clue in her father’s old papers. This tantalizing discovery rekindles memories long buried, and takes the protagonist to a journey through the land of their birth, India.

Sydney writer Meena Mahanty Kumar’s debut novel The Peripheral threads its way through cultures, nations, and time.

Readers who share the immigrant journey to Australia will find several tugs of nostalgia.

The author Meena Mahanty Kumar moved to Australia in 1999, and has now lived half her life in this country. She has drawn on her personal experience to make the Australian and Indian cultures and practices come to life for the reader.

Yet, this book is not a walk through two cultures alone. It raises crucial questions about identity and belonging, and significantly, about otherness. It does this in two ways: in a lighthearted manner, through everyday ordinary things and experiences; and then, quite dramatically, by bringing us up close with the lives of kinnars (transgenders, previously known as hijras), who live on the periphery of mainstream Indian life.

The final result is a sensitive portrayal of difference – and its consequent human anguish. Some of the scenes in the transgender ghettos are striking - tense and confronting.

Kumar does not shy away from representing the reality of existence for kinnars.

In doing so, she brings to the surface quite effectively, the basic human desire to fit in, be accepted, and have meaningful and rewarding social connections. To not feel membership, can be crushing at many different levels.

Overall, though, the book is an easy read and will appeal to a wide range of people from young to adult readers. Migrants will see a reflection of their lives and experiences in those of the protagonist, Rene. Be prepared for a bewildering array of India through a Sydneysider’s lens.

I found the personal touches delightful as well as provocative. I loved the references to familiar food outlets in Delhi; I also had to stop reading several times to allow the rush of emotions to subside.

To me the narrative felt like an extensive

How the migrant experience in australia shone a light on a sensitive issue in India

thali (assorted food platter) rather than a single course meal. You’ll find a range of images, individuals, emotions. Some you will enjoy and wish there was more, some you may just taste before moving on.

The book retains enough optimism to help the reader through the narrative. The author appears to seek refuge in the artists’ freedom to create perfection, rather than leave the reader with the dull taste of reality alone.

With Sydney currently hosting WorldPride 2023, the book could not have come at a better time: experiences of the kinnar community in India shed a light on the challenges of not fitting in with the social norms, anywhere in the world. At some time or the other, we have all been peripherals.

Adeeply personal journey

On trying to belong in contemporary australia, as a person of colour

Sarah Malik’s first book Desi Girl, released last year, is a collection of personal essays written in her characteristic understated and subtle style but delivering a sharp, journalistic examination of these very issues. It calls out, articulates and gives shape to the nuanced experiences of living and trying to belong in contemporary Australia, as a person of colour, a first or second generation immigrant with all the small and large struggles, inequities, indignities and inequalities that it entails.

I first encountered Sarah Malik's writing in 2019 through her article How the long commute from Sydney's western suburbs shaped me, where she wrote about the West to East commute that many Sydneysiders undertake every day to access their places of work or study from places they can afford to live in. For many, this actual journey also symbolises the greater metaphorical journey of traversing divisions of class, race, financial mobility and being part of what counts as mainstream Australia every single day.

Desi Girl (UQP Books) is a courageous book in the way it reveals so much of Sarah's own deeply personal journey of navigating gender, faith, race, class, modelling for anyone else on a similar path, ways of being and becoming and belonging. It accurately captures the outrage felt by a whole generation who have been brought up on the premise that Australia is their home but may not feel that they are truly seen or that they truly belong. The book inspires in the way it captures the courage, fight and determination in the constant navigation of these issues to assert oneself, find your authentic self and claim your rightful place under the Australian sun. Highly recommended for reading and rereading.

Aparna Jacob

Gulal, tick. Guest list, tick. Clean up backyard so you can mess it up big time, tick.

Are you Holi ready? Almost! You’ve still got to sort out the menu. You might think the food is not as important as the coloured powder on Holi. But with all the mucking up, the running around, the dancing, you’ll need to keep a well-stocked table. Festive favourites at this time are gujiya and thandai, but here’s something else you could be adding to your usual spread. One of these is traditional, and the other is, um, not so traditional, but perfectly suited to the spirit of the occasion. Holi hai!