An Oprah-validated book, “Dreaming in Hindi” is a fascinating account of a middle-aged American’s woman’s foray not only into India and learning Hindi, but into living in small-town India, and in a joint family to boot.
Part auto-biography, part academic treatise on linguistics and neurology, full of humour and self-mockery, “Dreaming in Hindi” is a fascinating read. The sort of book that makes this reviewer say, ruefully, “Now, why didn’t I think of that ?” (I live in India, hence the thought.)
From New York, where she has survived cancer and being fired from her job, the author travels to India on a free-lance assignment. Fascinated by the country, she decides to move to India for a year, to immerse herself in the Hindi that she had started to learn back in the USA.
Thus Katherine Rusell Rich – a clever, intellectual but slightly world-weary New Yorker – ends up in Udaipur, a pretty (but small) town in the desert sate of Rajasthan. On one level, her adventures with language and life, with India and her eccentric fellow language students pretty much follow the path of any classic memoir of living in India. A good entertaining read, with huge dollops of indiscretion. This reviewer, for one, would love to know more about Helaena and her Maharaja.
The writer is eager to learn and to adapt to India, and her portrayal of her new home is full of aching love and misgiving, of frustration and hilarity, and above all of deep affection for this new world she is exploring simultaneously on several levels.
What distinguishes this book from any common-or-garden romp through India, is the academic analysis that accompanies her hilarious sorties and inevitable linguistic gaffes. The author consults neurobiologists, experts in linguistics, and researches the meaning and impact of second language learning, skilfully weaving it all into her narrative.
As we follow her progress through India and into the complexities of the Hindi language, we also learn the whys and hows of thinking in another language.
Make no mistake, this is not a light, fluffy read. Parts of it are hilarious. Some parts are slightly coy. Much of it is intellectual. It all adds up to a thought-provoking read.
Dreaming in Hindi is published by Tranquebar and sells in India for Rs 395.
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