Gogu Shyamala is of Dalit background – she belongs to the lowest Indian caste, which is considered “untouchable” and to this day is discriminated on many levels. The stories in Father May Be an Elephant, and Mother Only a Small Basket, But… were inspired by her childhood in rural Dalit community in an Indian state Telengana. They were translated from telugu by many translators and give a platform to people who don’t want to be defined by the oppression they experience, they would rather share with us their culture, daily life and feelings.
Some of the stories in this collection are realistic, some fiddle with magical realism or allegory. There’s a dappu drum rhytm to them, the hands of a boy sewing leather slippers for the first time and freshly harvested panic grass.
One of the strongest points of this book is the vocabulary that you encounter throughout the stories, which allows you to take a closer look at the culture of the “untouchable” community: their food, abbreviations of the mentioned legends, descriptions of the traditional games. Make sure to read the afterword about the translation process and the author – it shows the great effort of the group of translators to bring the texts to the English reader.