Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Daughter of the East

When I started this blog, I had all intentions of posting every review of the book I read. Too idealistic it sounds for me now. So I have rephrased my goal as “ atleast 1 post a month”.
But first things first. If at all something prompted me to get back here, it is the Just books Library that has come up next door. This is Justbooks first entry into Mumbai and first outlet outside Bangalore.
My first pick from Mumbai’s Justbooks: “ Daughter of the East”


Daughter of the East is an autobiography of Benazir Bhutto. I haven’t read Goodbye Shahzadi by Shyam Bhatia, which I believe has become more popular after Benazir’s demise. DoE is a good pick especially for the language and analogies reflected.

The opening lines in the preface say “I didn’t choose this life, it chose me. If these lines sound, a little pessimistic, in immediate succession follows a clarification “I do not wish to take the place of any other woman in history”. The book goes on to describe a number of analogies from happy childhood to a challenging adulthood. Daughter of the East maps the transformation of Pinkie to Begum which in her own words is a journey of trials, tragedies and triumphs.
The autobiography doesn’t speak of Benazir alone. Substantial emphasis is laid on the tribulations faced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the formation of People’s Party of Pakistan, her mother’s sacrifices then subsequently focusing on her own efforts towards sustenance of PPP.

Highlights of the book:

Benazir’s mainden speech at Oxford
Benazir’s meeting with PM Indira Gandhi at the Simla Accord
Comparison of her childhood with life under house arrest at Al Muratza (her home)

Final Line: Not to be missed!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I subscribed to your blog using google reader, and I was suggested another feed, vyo's world of appreciation, which I looked up, and liked and subscribed to as well. However, when I went to the blog from the link in reader, I was taken to this page, http://vyosworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/daughter-of-east.html

and a message that the blog didn't exist and that the vyosworld name was available to register. When I tried taking the "s" off, I was brought back here. Wondering if there is an error in the feed settings that you may want to fix. The feeds display perfectly in reader, though.

Now that is out of the way, wonderful range of subjects that you have reviewed. Maybe material for a suggested reading list post?

Viyoma said...

Thank You so much,for taking pains to go through my articles.

Ok,let me tell you what has happened. Earlier i had 2 Blogs,
1. Vyoworld.blogspot.com
2.Vyosworld.blogspot.com ( with an "S")

The 2nd one, was purely on Book Appreciation. Later i found it tedious to handle 2 blogs, and hence merged them into 1 (this one)

VyoWorld is a personal blog which includes Book Appreciation - A separate label called Book Appreciation will lead you to only BA related posts.

Hope this helps.