Be a woman once

Sudhirendar Sharma

Sudhirendar Sharma

Writing is an intellectual pursuit, but it’s also creative labor and a social and political statement. In doing so, one becomes a witness to one’s own self, which gets revealed in parts. The advocate in Banu Mushtaq slips into the shoes of an activist to bring alive the lived reality in the Muslim households and to narrate the eerie calm that pervades inside those four walls.

Many shades of male dominance and female submission are reflected in Mushtaq’s vast oeuvre of short stories, a dozen out of which have been translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi to critical acclaim, winning the English PEN and landing a spot on this year’s International Booker shortlist.

Heart lamb

The 12 stories in Heart Lamp exquisitely capture the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities. Originally published between 1990 and 2023, these stories are portraits of family and community tensions that are precursors to all forms of caste and religious outbursts.

In calling out patriarchy and questioning traditions prevalent amongst predominantly traditional households, Mushtaq emerges as a tireless champion of women’s rights. For its style which is intensely observant and colloquially reflective, ‘after laying the egg of light at dawn, the black hen of ignorance exited, rushing into the darkness to peck at grain’, the collection of stories is sure to sustain readers’ interest.

Each of the 12 stories does bring the incessant human pain and misery to the surface. However, the final story, Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord! is one that serves to linger. It is not an apt closing to the collection but a touchy beginning, an open letter that dares God to be a woman once to address their plight. Written like a letter addressed to Allah, it seeks respite from male domination: ‘if you were to build the world again, do not be like an inexperienced potter. Come to earth as a woman instead!’ Either it is too naïve to understand what women endure or too cruel to acknowledge their plight.

Deepa Bhasthi’s translation has introduced Mushtaq’s progressive stories far and wide. Bhasthi has done her best in retaining the linguistic sense wherever possible. Translation of a text, according to the translator, is more than merely an act of replacing words in one language with equivalent words in another.

Heart Lamp is linguistically rich, giving the reader a different feeling. The long list of individuals has stretched support in making this book achieve the distinction that it deserves.

Heart Lamp

by Banu Mushtaq

translated by Deepa Bhasthi

Penguin Books, New Delhi.

Extent: 216, Price: Rs. 399.

(Dr. Sudhirendar Sharma is a writer and researcher specializing in development issues. He is based in New Delhi, India)

First published in New Indian Express on May 18, 2025.