Soul Chutney: Review: Her Resurrection

Her Resurrection
A Survivor's Journey of Emancipation, Reclamation and Redemption
-By Soumyadeep Koley

(A special thanks to the author for the review copy)

Plot:

In a small town of Maharashtra, begins the story of a girl born and brought up amidst domestic violence and her father hatred for being a girl, a burden. In the journey of fulfilling her dreams of pursuing higher education, she was gang raped. As if it was not enough, her father was killed and her mother was being jailed and she was left alone struggling on the roads of Mumbai with only her High School Mark-Sheet in her hand.

Life for Maya takes an entirely different turn when she was sitting on the bus stop of Mumbai. The whole day till the evening and the dark night, she was a lonely, innocent girl fighting with the shocks she had faced in some days, but as the sun rose, she got transformed into a prostitute.

What worst can happen with Maya after that day?

Will she be able to recover from this deep and dark pit of prostitution?

Will she ever be able to meet her mother after what she had undergone since the time she was being jailed?

Sail through this emotional ride of bravery and resurrection to treasure the wonders that lies in it for you.

My Opinion:

Positives:

Binding readers’ emotions till the very ending, the author has kept the narration simple but an excellent use of Literature has created a visual appeal, which, somewhere deep down in reader’s heart create respect for the girls who face such situations in life. The boldness and decency in writing he has shown in this book is commendable which is generally not seen in the works of debut authors. The story is unpredictable till the ending and will keep its readers imbibed in it till they finish it off. Besides this, his way of transitioning from one scene to another was good too.

Above everything mentioned in the positives, highest marks will be given to the title and name of the book as they will compel you to pick up this book and read it till the ending to know what lies there in surprise.

Some of the dialogues are wonderfully written which actually touched my heart. One of my favorite from the story is when Sadia says, “We are the scapegoats of the vagaries of men’s desires. When a man is here having sex with us, you know, somewhere in the city, a girl is saved from being raped. We are a bunch of women-soldiers of the country, who give up their lives for the cause of the nation.”

The book clearly shows Soumyo’s vision of a country which respect for its women and their dreams. Also, the respect he has in his heart is reflected the way he has portrayed the character of Maya.

Shortcomings:

Finding negatives from a story that has touched and instigated your soul against this society (who don’t respect women) was one of the most difficult task for me. But still there is some point which I would like to mention. Although, the author has done perfect justice to his story, he could have justified the characters especially Sidhdharth and Shittuppam could have given a proper ending and justice for the ditch and sins they have committed. All these characters lost in between the book under the shadow of Maya and the destitution's she faced.

My take on the book:

Penning the emotional trauma, bravery and dreams of Maya all in a book of 260 pages, Soumyadeep has done a fabulous job in narrating this story, Her Resurrection. It is really commendable that he has chosen such an outrageous topic for his debut novel.

We live in a country where women are worshiped in the form of ‘Devis’, but they are cursed when they take birth in their homes in the form of their daughters. Dealing with one of the most trending and significant topics of women rights, this book will connect with you deeply with Maya’s hardships and will shake you up when you read the instances of her gang-rape and life in brothel.

Prostitution which is considered one of the ill faces of our society has been discussed in detail. Not all prostitutes we come across in life (if any) are doing this with their own will. Many are dragged into this business which becomes a deep unending pit for them to come out from. The society that looks a prostitute with a feeling of hatred and an epitome of cheapness will be found in their rooms unclothing them when darkness prevails. Also, it will be the same society that will leave no chance of reminding them about their past, when they try to get over it not considering how much they have suffered to get out of that hell.

Besides knitting his story on the above mentioned aspects, it teaches us that no matter how worse the world may be, there are still some people who will come in our way giving us most necessary and important reasons to live and continue our journey like Audra, her mother, Daniel, Anjali and Sadia did.

Starting with the hardships Maya faced in her life, the book ended with it too. The only difference in the ending was that, then, she was brave enough to live proudly leaving behind the haunting memories of her past. She has learned that death is not a solution, we are born for a reason and that should be fulfilled for us to die peacefully.

All in all, I just want to raise a simple question that; Why amidst the fight of being a men and women, we forget that we are all HUMANS first? (Answers to this are most welcome in the comment box)

An emotional, awaking journey of bravery and heroism, this will pierce your heart as you unfold its pages and will give you immense strength to get up and move on in life fighting all the difficulties.

Read, Her Resurrection, a Survivor's journey of Emancipation, Reclamation and Redemption to find our all the answers.