Meet the Editor. Part Two.
Refusing to hide and showing immense courage, the women who lay their stories bare in Walking Towards Ourselves shed light on the challenges and obstacles, as well as the rewards and joys, involved in being a woman in India today — all in a deeply personal, candid and intimate way.
Walking Towards Ourselves represents the culmination of Mitchell’s intense love of India and her deep interest in the issues faced by India’s women — issues which have resonance with women’s experiences everywhere.
This second part in a three part series gives you access to Mitchell’s world and the path she has walked in creating Walking Towards Ourselves.
I didn’t want to return as a tourist, however. Having worked for writers festivals for years by that point, I applied for an Asialink arts management grant, with the idea of researching India’s contemporary authors. I wanted to find out what their writing was like, and what subjects they specialised in, in order to create a comprehensive programming guide for Australian literature festivals.
My application was successful. Instead of feeling elated, I think I actually wailed. Spending twelve weeks in Delhi sounded more daunting than anything I’d undertaken before.
The decision to go would be the best I ever made.
My selection of authors was guided by the co-director of Jaipur Literature Festival, Namita Gokhale, who shared pots of chai and Indian sweets while we sat on an upright sofa in her south Delhi home, discussing the authors most relevant for my purposes.
What struck me most forcefully was that each of these writers was writing about India. I couldn’t imagine any other country in the world where local authors would be focusing exclusively on local stories. The reasons for it were clear though. In India, compelling stories were everywhere. I had never encountered a diverse culture like this, with such wild extremes, such exuberance, such suffering, kindness, depravity, spiritual celebration, corruption, expression of creativity.
There couldn’t have been a more interesting way for a lover of literature to learn about the place of her adolescent obsession. My research exposed me not only to some of the most interesting literature coming out in English, but to fascinating life-experiences of my own.
One morning I interviewed an Indian-born Tibetan rebel poet who told me about life in a Chinese prison. He had gone to Tibet in the hope of ‘liberating his people’ in some way, and been thrown immediately into prison on crossing the border. A rickshaw ride across town later, I found myself at the gargantuan home of the author of socially conscious women’s novels. We sat in her shady garden, and were served strawberry lassi by a uniformed servant on a polished silver tray, while she explained that 110 staff lived on site with their families, in order to cater to her and her husband’s needs.
India, I thought: it’s like life, only more so.
Walking Towards Ourselves published by Hardie Grant Books is available at all good bookstores now. Read more about the book here
