The Tiger Ladies: A Memoir of Kashmir

228 Pages·2002·1.74 MB·English

by  Sudha Koul

The Tiger Ladies
 
“Lyrical recollections of coming of age in Kashmir.Up on the northern
border of India,hard by Pakistan,lies the enchanted valley of the author’s
childhood....Koul conjures up an elaborate portrait of the world she
knew growing up,with its ancient customs of respect between the Mus-
lims and the Hindus who lived there....A beautifully rendered,decep-
tivelysimplehistoryofthepersonalandpolitical.” —KirkusReviews
“Sudha Koul’s writing is transportive,evoking beautifully the Kashmir
we keep in our hearts.Her book is at once a history,memoir,and lesson;
the author is both to be congratulated and thanked.”
— ,author of InheritanceandThe Journey
Like Indira Gandhi and her father, times contradictory world. Though
Jawaharlal Nehru, Sudha Koul she attends school faithfully, along
was born a Kashmiri Brahmin. The with her Muslim girlfriends, complet-
Hindus, though a tiny minority of ing her graduate education and be-
Kashmir’s population, lived in great coming a magistrate, she looks for-
harmony with Muslims, leading in- ward to the marriage her parents will
tertwined lives in the same cultural arrange for her. She participates fully
fabric. Kashmiris were isolated in in the rites and rituals of Kashmiri
their valley, called “Paradise on culture and mourns her parting from
Earth” by Moghul emperor Jehangir, her beloved valley when marriage
and enjoyed a culture so dissimilar takes her to the United States.
to any other in India that they were This is a magical memoir of a
largely unaffected by what was hap- land now consumed by political and
pening in the world around them. In religious turmoil, a richly detailed
1947, the year of Sudha’s birth, the story of a girl’s passage into matu-
partition of India and Pakistan by the rity, marriage, and motherhood in
British and the first stirrings of funda- the midst of an exquisite and fragile
mentalism in Kashmir ignited what world that will never be entirely the
would gradually become a religious same.
and political inferno.
Sudha grew up immersed in the
colorful legends and rituals of Kash- Sudha Koulis author of Curries with-
miri life, now imperiled for Hindus out WorriesandCome with Me to In-
and Muslims. Her story is that of a dia: On a Wondrous Voyage through
lost Eden, full of the textures, tastes, Time. She lives in New Jersey with
and magical tales of a distant, at her family.
The Tiger Ladies
A Memoir of Kashmir
SUDHA KOUL
BEACONPRESS Boston
Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2002 by Sudha Koul
All rights reserved
First electronic edition 2002
Text design by Melodie Wertelet
Composition by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Koul, Sudha.
The tiger ladies : a memoir of Kashmir / Sudha Koul.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8070-5920-X
ISBN 0-8070-5918-8 (acid-free paper)
1. Jammu and Kashmir (India)—Description and travel. 2. Jammu and Kashmir (India)—
Social life and customs. 3. Koul, Sudha. I. Title.
DS485.K24+
954´.6—dc21
2001005970
ForShyamji,DhannaandBabuji,Tathaji,
andotherancestorswhoexhortmeto
writewhatmightverywellturnouttobe
anepitaphtoawayoflife.
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AndforClarissaPinkolaEstes,
whodoesnotknowme.
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WhohasnotheardoftheValeofCashmere?
ThomasMoore,LallaRookh()
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Contents

Grandmothers

Mothers

Daughters
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