It all started with The God of Small Things - the debut novel of a young Arundhati Roy and the winner of the 1997 Booker Prize. Her languid novel captivated me, as I savoured it slowly, from cover to cover over a long Australian summer afternoon. And then not long afterwards, my dear friend in Melbourne, Marion Crooke, invited me to come and hear Arundhati speak at LaTrobe University.
I remember being struck first by her appearance, for she was the first utterly beautiful, bohemian Indian woman my much younger self had ever seen.
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But what surprised me most that she spoke to that packed lecture hall not about her peak experience as a newly-acclaimed novelist, but about her political and environmental essays. She spoke of mega dams, deforestation, indigenous people and how she had an obligation to speak.
She COULD have made that evening all about her, but instead she gave a voice to the pain of Mother Earth and the millions of displaced, dispossessed Indian people. And with that, she set me on a path that would change my life.
I started reading her essays and was startled by the radical act she took, not long after her rise to international fame, in cutting her hair. She took on an almost monk-like appearance as if to say, "it's not about ME".
I read, and continue to read, her essays. The first serious collection, made me question everything, from population control to mega-dams and what democracy was supposed to look like if you couldn't read. Listening to Grasshoppers is totally recommended for ANYone seeking to understand the world from outside their own bubble.
Roy has campaigned along with activist Medha Patkar against the Narmada dam project, saying that the dam will displace half a million people with little or no compensation, and will not provide the projected irrigation, drinking water, and other benefits.[42] Roy donated her Booker prize money, as well as royalties from her books on the project, to the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Source
I think it was the collection My Seditious Heart that really made me appreciate that she was not just an Indian activist, but a global woman speaking out about global, humanitarian and environmental issues.
The God of Small Things was not just a literary success and nominated as a New York Times Book of the Year, but it was a massive commercial success. It struck me as phenomenal that this then young woman donated all the commercial proceeds, as well as her Booker Prize award of USD $30,000, to the fight against the mega dams and the subsequent displacement of people in India.
I remember being captivated 25 years ago, and comforted, by the knowledge that there are people in the world willing to walk the talk, and willing to put their lives in service of others and the greater good.
FFWD to 2020 and she's still at the forefront of global discussion about covid, political control, personal liberty and the creating of a different world where we can all breathe and thrive.
I am influenced, and inspired, by a woman who has given SO MUCH of herself to the world over more than 30 years. I'm encouraged by her generosity and challenged to be more than my best self by her brave activism and her incisive mind.
I think I am most influenced by the decision she has made to USE her voice and to BE A VOICE. Cos the world needs a whole lot more of that.
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