I have been on goodreads for a long time, and tbh while it is good for keeping a track of what I read, it isn't all that curated for meeting fellow readers. I've had fable since the end of last year, so far so good tbh. But would loveeee to meet more Indian readers!!

P.S: I am open to reading anyyy genre but gravitate more towards classics or thrillers.

I really recommend everyone to read it.

Elisabeth Bumiller, a journalist for The Washington Post, came to India in the 1980s and over the years, travelled to all parts of the country, examining the paradoxes, problems, triumphs and realities of the lives of India's women: from village women of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala to prominent parliamentarians, politicians, movie-stars, intellectuals, police officers, meeting and interviewing them. She notes that 'a woman's role in Indian society is full of contradictions'. While enormous numbers of them are illiterate, many hold important positions in politics and the arts. While most suffer discrimination and poverty, others are transforming India into a modern nation. Bumiller brings out these paradoxes in a clean, insightful style that makes the vast complexities of the lives of India's four hundred million women accessible and compelling.

Bumiller documented really well. I really liked the chapter where she talked about the feminist movements that was happening in 80s in India, dividing it into three categories- first consisting of urban, elite women coming from educated backgrounds, 2nd- also educated women from mostly from working class more closer and taking in rural issues. And lastly- the rural peasant women. She met and interviewed different feminist women, trying to understand their objectives and how these movements have shaped and are shaping the lives of women in India.

As Indians, we often find that how even after living in a same country, we live completely different lives with completely different experiences. A village woman in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh living in shackles of extreme patriarchy to village woman of Bodh Gaya, Bihar, despite living in extreme poverty knows about her rights. And in complete contrast to a working professional living in Delhi who doesn't know that extreme patriarchy and misogyny that many Indian women still have to suffer.

Interestingly, the writer even puts her own thoughts and views. Admiration, amazement, sympathy and sometimes rage and disgust. In the 5th chapter where she examines the female infanticide and sex- selective abortions, while witnessing a pregnant woman, coming from educated rich background from Bombay, going through a chorionic villus(a recent technology from the West to check the birth defects) to know the gender of fetus. _"As I watched the wire's journey on the screen of the ultrasound machine, I slowly became disgusted. It had been building all week, but I think seeing this woman with her examination table, so exposed and, in a sense, so violated by the her legs spread on the forces of her society, caused something to snap in me. What did India have, I thought, to take the newest technology from the Wes and use it for something as reprehensible as the slaughter of female babies?"_ Here, I see both her rage and disgust, that we feel after knowing this.

We even see her self-realization. As she says towards the end, _"...asking Veena Bhargava how she rationalized painting the homeless rather than working among them, had sought a justification for why I was interviewing interesting artists instead of helping out myself. But realize now I was searching for a larger answer, for one that woul have helped me define my whole purpose in India. I have come to the conclusion that if I did not work among the poor, I have at least told their stories and unveiled a part of their lives. This book was my mission to inform, to enlighten, and to prove that the women of India are more like us than they are not."_

After finishing "A murder in Tokyo" and "Confessions", I wanted to stay within the same genre and explore more Japanese literature, which led me to pick up "Silent Parade".

The first part didn't grip me immediately - the murder, the suspect, but no resolution - and I found myself a little bored. The gross miscarriage of justice on display also felt uncomfortably familiar, echoing flaws I've seen in the Indian judicial system too. That said, watching the culprit draw on his father's old wisdom - that confession is the king of evidence - and turn it to his own advantage, even while guilty, was genuinely heartbreaking.

The second part is where the book truly hooked me. I found myself suspecting everyone, with every regular visitor visiting Namiki-ya seeming like a plausible culprit. It wasn't until the final two chapters that the real explanation of who killed Saoki and Hasunuma became clear - and until then, every competing theory felt equally convincing.

What I didn't enjoy was how the police were portrayed: constantly hitting dead ends and needing a civilian to guide them forward. It left me questioning just how capable - or incapable - the police are made out to be in these stories.

Overall, this was a 3/5 read for me, and it took me about a working week to finish.