Author Pooja Pande explores the spectrum of experiences mothers have as women, as humans - from ecstasy to depression, jealous possessiveness to indifference, exhaustion to sensual desire - in her new book in which she reveals the personal, social and emotional roller-coaster motherhood can be.
Pande says she wrote "Momspeak: The Funny, Bittersweet Story of Motherhood in India" in response to the half-joking conundrum posed by Anne Enright: "Can mothers not hold a pen?" - while attempting to channel the spirit of Karl Marx's Thesis Eleven - "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."
The book, published by Penguin Random House India, talks about pivotal moments in the journey of motherhood.
"There is an impetus each answers to, and also a logic. There is an interrogation of everything we presume and assume about mothers and motherhood - instinct, impulse, rationale," Pande says.
"There is an aching back to buried memories and emotions, mine and that of others - forages into the uncharted dark oceans where motherhood often leaves us, to sink, or swim, or rise; journeys into the sunnier spaces that are as close to blessings as we can get," she writes.
The digital launch of the book will be done by Penguin, Crossword and Shoppers Stop on Saturday.
Writer-director Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, who has praised "Momspeak" for being "funny, witty and lively", will be launching the ebook at the digital launch. She will also be reading from the book and will be in conversation with the author.
Pande, through vignettes of her personal journey, and hilarious and poignant episodes in the lives of different mothers - married, divorced, single, queer, adoptive - celebrates and shines new light on this transformative, life-affirming experience of motherhood.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
