My Daughters' Mum Part 1

Natasha Badhwar

• Publisher: S&S India
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9789386797018
• Print ISBN:
  9789386797001

My Daughters' Mum—a first in a series of two essay collections—covers a range of essential subjects, from parenting and marriage, to faith and selfhood. Knitting together a popular column in Mint Lounge, new writing and priceless handcrafted dialogues, the author describes her journey as the mother of three young daughters; as the wife of a man from a religious background unlike her own; and as an individual with dreams detached from the roles of wife and mother—here's a wanderer, a feminist, a workplace goer. Yet beyond the searingly personal, this is a memoir that tells us about an India that is fast transforming and where questions of identity and personal freedom are in dialogue with ideas of nationality. The candidness of the author's voice, the gentle humour of fleeting narrative and the fragility of diary entries, photographs, collages and sketches will make My Daughters' Mum resonate with every reader.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Dedication
• It Is Okay to Talk About This
• You Have Forgotten Some Things, Mamma?
• Sahar, the Firstborn, a Bridge to My Former Self
• Because Balance Is Not Static
• Aliza, the Second, the Valiant Princess
• The Happiness Key
• Naseem, the Youngest, All Magical Real
• When Baby Aliza Spoke to Big Aliza
• Write It Now, She Said to Me
• The Oldest Is Now the Youngest
• Tight Hugs Four Times a Day
• When We Slow Down and Do Nothing
• Learning to Listen to Innocence
• A Technology Chowkidar at Home
• Small Doses of Joy
• Receiving Is a Form of Generosity
• Coming Home to Become My Mother
• To Fail without Feeling Like a Failure
• My Daughters’ Grandmother
• First Meetings and Intangible Longings
• Ammi, the Feminist and Romantic
• Looking Out for Papa
• Heaven Is Where the Fruit Trees Are
• Five Things to Learn from the Spouse
• My Husband Is Not Fond of Husbands
• Ready to Celebrate Our Differences
• Finding a Cure in Love
• Making Sense of a Four-letter Word
• How to Have It All
• Exeunt Office
• Lessons Learnt from the One Who Helps Me Work
• A Manifesto for Working Women
• Be Corny, Bold and Silly
• Travelling for World Peace
• At Home in the Entire World
• A Household in a Car and the Stars Above
• Returning to a Place of the Past
• The Right to Choose How She Is Represented
• In Praise of the Dehati Aurat
• The Stuff of Their Nightmares
• Feminism Is My Best Friend
• What Friends Are For
• What Does It Take to Be Nineteen Again?
• Recovering the Idea of India
• Papa As the Nation I Know
• Love in the Times of Jihad
• Yes, I Am a Pakistani
• You May Say I’m a Dreamer
• Saying Sorry to Shahrukh Khan
• Can Aliza’s Idea of India Survive?
• When Did You Last Go Home?
• Five Lessons I Learnt All by Myself
• Footnotes and Endnotes
• Acknowledgement
• Copyright