My Story by Kamal Das | A Book review

Summary

My story, first published in Malayalam as Ente Katha, gives us glimpses into Kamala’s childhood, her coming-of-age, marriage, relationships (affairs), writing journey, the birth of her three sons, and her brief fight with illnesses – leukemia and heart attacks.

My Review

Memoirs are a reflection of a true-life lived that had a remarkable story. Kamala’s life was filled with controversy. Controversy by her creation. She wrote so honestly and unabashedly about her failed marriage, her lusts, her loneliness, and her feminism that people began to dislike and fear her.

She could not return to her ancestral home and live in peace because her village folks, the ones she grew up with, did not want her around as they believed she was a bad influence.

Kamala’s inward journey is equally torturous. Her quest for love, her depiction of a woman’s life are brave and outspoken for her times and still very much relevant to current times. The book also has poetry written in English that carries similar themes of tragedy, loss, and loneliness. 

Kamala Das did not worry about patriarchal rules, conventional but thoughtless traditions. Her observations about her parents are shocking but sadly true- “My parents and other relatives were obsessed with public opinion and bothered excessively with our society’s reaction to any action of an individual.” She even went to the lengths of thinking of becoming a prostitute but, her introspection rendered her useless for the job because she thought she was too frigid and closed off emotionally and physically. She even contemplated suicide a couple of times, but whether it was to seek attention or her desperation is unclear.

The ups and downs in her life were unpredictable and sudden. Her family, for a brief time, also considered her mentally ill. Such was her life. Vibrant, colorful, and with every emotion packed to the brim.

Final verdict

My story is now considered a masterpiece because of its portrayal of reality and turbulent poetry. Real or not, this book is an engaging autobiography worth a read.