From: RUKHSANA KHAN <irrualli>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 13:47:50 -0800

Uma,

I think you raise a lot of legitimate points that are seldom addressed in the mainstream media. People read books like Homeless Bird and assume that the writer must have done her research because it sounds so authentic. Perhaps it sounds authentic because of the middle class Western values the author infused her Indian protagonist with. This was exactly my point regarding Shabanu. It irked me no end that this book won a Newbery honor. As a Pakistani I was perturbed by the fact that this book was not true to the way a rural girl under those circumstances would think.

But because it resonates with the way Western readers would think and feel in those circumstances, it got a lot of attention. I suspect it must be the same for Homeless Bird.

And I agree that it is unwise to go on national T.V. and advertise the fact that she'd written this book about India and yet had never been there.

Your experience with Holi is a good example of one of the problems with multicultural issues. South Asians are well aware that we are not a homogenous entity, but for simplicity sake, Westerners often view us as such.

I've been asked questions about Diwali by Westerners because they assume that because my roots are Indian, that I must know more about it than they. Not so.

Rukhsana
Received on Fri 05 Jan 2001 03:47:50 PM CST