Sketches from My Past: Encounters with India’s Oppressed

"In this dramatically powerful collection of real-life portraits of oppressed women and other deprived members of Indian society, Mahadevi Varma weaves her memoirs around other peoples’ lives rather than her own. Her intimate and affectionate sketches of women, men and children she personally knew, reveal her compassion for the desperate plight of the disinherited poor in India, as well as her intense rage at those who exploit women and the dispossessed. Whether it is Binda, the lonely orphan girl victimised by her step-mother; Bhabi the emotionally and physically abused child widow barred from any contact with the outside world; or Sabiya the poor sweeper woman deserted by her husband shortly before the birth of their child, the subjects of Mahadevi’s memoir convey her universalist vision to resurrect the inner dignity of "these wounded and mauled lives". Her compelling memoir transcends the borders of culture and time."