The first portion of this reading considers Corporator Subhash Sawant. I find this particularly interesting because Asha is one of the characters we have come to appreciate, however this first section, “Manju,” gravitates around the expression of her feelings towards the Sawant matter. He does not show up at the church, and we see Asha trying to keep the crowd of people excited — delegating some of this to her daughter — in a new found confidence. She wants to be slum leader, and here she demonstrates some of her leadership abilities.
During the eunuch “performance” at Asha’s door, she thinks about Sawant’s possible reaction. Another example of my above points on Asha’s evolving image and care of her perception by other Annawadi. I also find it very interesting that we pull back—across the street—to Abdul’s house. His mother Mirchi is very upset over the commotion across the road—although this isn’t what I care about. This point applies to elements I can take away from this writing and transfer into my own ethnographic field notes and write-ups. In this section, Boo manages to characterize—in detail—events transpiring in what seems to be a simultaneous fashion. Again, this tracks back to our in-class discussions about Boo as a fictional novelist vs. an ethnographer—I argue that she is indeed an ethnographer, but a damn good one. She interweaves these points so subtly, and the only reason I picked up on this storytelling model vs. cut and dry observations is because I’m now looking for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment