Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents

I've waited far too long to post this, perhaps because I had another identity crisis when I sat down to write it. I've written a few "reviews" of writing projects on this blog, all of which have been positive. And I realize that when you are writing 100% positive reviews, you are not so much a reviewer or a critic and more of a promoter.And when I read back through previous Amazon reviews, I see that I am no critic. That's probably because when I love a book enough to write about it, I am not critical. I am in love. I loved Drew Banks's first two novel's and MJ Hahn's amazing podcast. I wrote about them and called what I wrote reviews.But they are not reviews; they are love letters! The Sexy Grammarian is not a critic. She is a teacher. And a lover.So, I now sit with pen in hand (yes, I do draft most of my blog posts in ink) to write a well-deserved love letter to the incredible and beautiful book, Leaving India by Minal Hajratwala.Every family should have a Minal, a member who records the family story with involved passion that can only come from the inside of a family but also sits back and observes, to give us a journalistic, even critical view. She tells the story of her extended family and its scattering of people and how that fits into the greater diaspora from India to all over the world.Minal's writing lilts and then reports, questions and then critiques. She is a historian, a romance writer, a gossip, an academic, and a researcher, all at once. Perhaps that's why her book has been nominated for both a Lambda Literary Award and a California Book Award.At one point there were four copies of this book on my shelf:o one for my cousin, a writer who has plans to write about our familyo one for my mother, who loves to study our family's geneologyo one for my wife, who kept stealing my own copy before I'd finished ito my own treasured copy, purchased from and signed by the author--her inscription encouraged my own writing.But it's the copy on my shelf reserved for my mother that worried me. Before I picked up my copy of Leaving India, I heard that there was some controversy about the "sexy chapter," that critics had complained that Minal snuck some lesbian sex into the pages of her otherwise serious, journalistic endeavor.In spite of my disgust with a literary world that thinks sexy = not serious, I worried about my mother reading the chapter about Minal, the sexy chapter. "Here is a book about family history, Mom. Oh and watch out for the lesbian sex toward the end." But when I read it I knew this story would not be new to Mom. This chapter of lesbian love, laid out like a collection of tiny, precious poems, tells the tale of heartbroken parents with papers in their hands--papers that told them, your daughter has become something you fear.And that story would not isolate my mother but bond her even more deeply to the whole picture of this amazing book. She's been through that, even if she hasn't been exposed to this particular picture of diaspora, of family, and of change.Incidentally, I post this love letter to Leaving India just as Minal prepares to help launch Indivisible, the first anthology of South Asian American poetry. You can catch her tomorrow night, reading poetry from the book at The Green Arcade, 1680 Market Street @Gough, San Francisco. (415) 431-6800.This review has been cross-posted to my blog and GoodReads.

Minal Hajratwala has written a sweeping yet personable history of her extended family's migration from India to points all over the world.She tells stories about her family members' journeys to Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. She gives their histories, starting over a hundred years ago, and sets them in the context of the culture and politics of their new homes. Like most of the best history, we see the big picture by starting with the details and the individuals, their struggles and successes.What makes this history unusual is that the characters are the author's own family members, many of whom she visited and interviewed. The book is very thoroughly researched but is written in a conversational style, the way a person would write about their own family.I feel like I know Minal, at least a little, even though I've never met her, and even better, I feel like I've met many members of her broad and interesting family. I'm grateful for her contribution to history and thankful to have read her book.(A brief disclosure. I worked for a short time with the author's brother several years ago and I came to know about the book through him. I have not met the author.)

A wonderful, very well written book. The story of the author's family's dispersion from 5 nearby villages in India to far-flung curves of the globe (Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, US, Canada, UK, South Africa -- that I recall) is great material. But the way she compiled and interwove the stories is what makes the book so worth reading. The author is a journalist (or former journalist) who did a great deal of research to verify the stories she was told (or heard about or read) and to place them in historical, social, and geographical context, and the book is replete with end-notes and bibliography. Her discussion of the Indian diaspora brims with thoughtful observations. Many of her insights apply equally to other ethnic diasporas (e.g., Jews, Chaldeans, Greeks). Still, there are many aspects of the Indian diaspora that would be unusual for other ethnic groups. For example, I recently met a very modern South African professional woman who speaks Hindi, though she is four generations removed from India. Had I not read this book, I would not have appreciated how distinctively Indian this is.

Product as described

Thought it was lengthy in spots but understood why in places. Gave me a better perspective of Indian culture and their layers.

I liked this book so much I blogged about it.[...]This is a wonderful piece of first person writing! It's one thing to be told that there are Indians in every part of the world, and another to find out how they got there. Hajratwala set out to find her relatives (of which she has scores) and record their stories, and she did it with verve and openness. She's the kind of person you would like to sit next to on a long, boring train ride.

Very informative. Have a similar family history in Suriname.

The people in this story are not the neighbors you would want to come to your neighborhood. I found them and the book tedious. So they left, so what.