Anita Rau Badami
Author of The Hero's Walk
About the Author
Image credit: Photo by Richard-Max Tremblay
Works by Anita Rau Badami
Asha in Her Garden 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Rau Badami, Anita
- Birthdate
- 1961
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Madras (BA, English)
University of Calgary (MA, English), 1995 - Awards and honors
- Marian Engel Award (2000)
- Agent
- The Bukowski Agency
- Short biography
- Anita was born in India in 1961. She grew up in a household, where English was the primary language spoken, and she attended Catholic schools. At age 18, she borrowed money from her father to buy novels, and to pay him back. She took her first writing assignment, an article in a local newspaper, which earned her 75 rupees. She worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies and she wrote stories for children magazines. Anita married in 1984 and she had a son in 1987. Anita moved to Calgary in 1991. In 1995, she graduated from the university of Calgary, with MA degree in English. Anita Rau Badami submitted her first work to Penguin books. Penguin published her work, and soon she was touring North America, reading from her best-selling debut novel "Tamarind Mem".
- Nationality
- India
Canada - Birthplace
- Rourkela, India
- Places of residence
- Rourkela, India (birth)
Bombay, India
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Associated Place (for map)
- India
Members
Discussions
Canadian Author Challenge — March: Farley Mowat & Anita Rau Badami in 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (April 2016)
The Hero's Walk in Orange January/July (January 2012)
Reviews
A tragic car accident in Canada leaves 7-year-old Nandana orphaned, with no family except her grandparents, uncle, great-aunt and great-grandmother in India. Nandana has never met her Indian family because her grandfather disowned her mother when she married a Canadian. Now, that grandfather has come to Vancouver to bring her "home" to India.
While the circumstance of an orphaned child and the exotic setting of India underlie the story, it is one of universal themes. Sripathi Rao (the show more grandfather) is nearing 60 and examining his life. His job is unsatisfying. His house is old and crowded. His mother, disappointed that he never became a doctor, continues to show her disapproval of him. His son hasn't got a job; his 40-something sister is unmarried. His deceased daughter, in his mind, brought shame on the family by marrying out of caste and out of race. And now, he has a grand-daughter to raise, one who won't speak. Sripathi struggles to do his duty to his extended family, but his own inflexible ideals sometimes get in the way. He is basically a good man, but flawed; he is getting older and starting to wonder about his choices.
The story is well told, with both humour and pathos in the right proportions. Maybe a bit slow at times, as some reviewers have said, but that allowed me to think more deeply about Sripathi. He was, in some way, at a crossroad in his life. Would he continue with the beliefs and grievances he's long held, or take a bold step to a stronger connection with his family. show less
While the circumstance of an orphaned child and the exotic setting of India underlie the story, it is one of universal themes. Sripathi Rao (the show more grandfather) is nearing 60 and examining his life. His job is unsatisfying. His house is old and crowded. His mother, disappointed that he never became a doctor, continues to show her disapproval of him. His son hasn't got a job; his 40-something sister is unmarried. His deceased daughter, in his mind, brought shame on the family by marrying out of caste and out of race. And now, he has a grand-daughter to raise, one who won't speak. Sripathi struggles to do his duty to his extended family, but his own inflexible ideals sometimes get in the way. He is basically a good man, but flawed; he is getting older and starting to wonder about his choices.
The story is well told, with both humour and pathos in the right proportions. Maybe a bit slow at times, as some reviewers have said, but that allowed me to think more deeply about Sripathi. He was, in some way, at a crossroad in his life. Would he continue with the beliefs and grievances he's long held, or take a bold step to a stronger connection with his family. show less
This book was fantastic - utterly engrossing. Tracing the lives of two families, one Sikh and one Hindu, through their experiences in India and the immigration of many of them to Canada, this is a story of family life and so, so much more.
Badami explains how religious differences both divide and unite people, and shows just how clearly fanaticism and extremism ultimately destroys everything.
The author created characters that I truly cared about, and I spent most of the last half of the show more book fearfully turning the pages as I knew what was sure to happen in the end. As a Vancouver resident, the Air India bombing is still impacting lives, and as I read I knew what was coming. In spite of this knowledge, I was still shocked and upset when I did reach the final pages. I'm still sad, actually. show less
Badami explains how religious differences both divide and unite people, and shows just how clearly fanaticism and extremism ultimately destroys everything.
The author created characters that I truly cared about, and I spent most of the last half of the show more book fearfully turning the pages as I knew what was sure to happen in the end. As a Vancouver resident, the Air India bombing is still impacting lives, and as I read I knew what was coming. In spite of this knowledge, I was still shocked and upset when I did reach the final pages. I'm still sad, actually. show less
“Indra the god of heaven flung a net over the world … Its shining strands criss-crossed the world from end to end. At each node of this net there hung a gem, so arranged that if you looked at one you saw all the others reflected in it. As each gem reflected every other one, so was every human affected by the miseries and joys of every other human, every other living thing on the planet. When one gem was touched, hundreds of others shimmered or danced in response, and a tear in the net show more made the whole world tremble.” (106)
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, set in India and Canada, takes place over several decades from 1928 to 1985. It is the story of three women, two Sikh and one Hindu, and their families, which begins in the women’s childhoods. Bibi-ji, born in Panjaur, steals her sister’s fate in marrying and immigrating to Vancouver. Leela, of Bangalore, is “half and half” Indian and German, part of two worlds but wholly belonging to neither – ultimately, she, too, will emigrate from India to live in Vancouver, sharing in Bibi-ji’s immigrant experience. Finally, Nimmo, of New Delhi, is the daughter of Bibi-ji’s lost sister – haunted well into adulthood by the violence she witnessed as a child when India was first partitioned. As tensions between the Hindus and Sikhs escalate in India, all of the women are affected. Thankfully, they cannot know to what extent their families will have tragedy rained down upon them as the tensions give rise to the massacre at the Golden Temple and the assassination of Indira Ghandi; and eventually climax in the bombing of Air India Flight 182.
Badami skillfully writes not only well-developed characters here. She masterfully integrates point of view into a theme of conflict: the immigrant experience, the Sikhs, the Hindus – and then casts her net, Indra’s net as it were, over all of the enmities – quietly (or perhaps not) reminding us that “so was every human affected by the miseries and joys of every other human, every other living thing on the planet.” In this regard, I think Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is translated into something much larger than itself. Impressive, and highly recommended.
“Chance brings lives together in unexpected ways and breaks them apart with equal randomness.” (90) show less
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, set in India and Canada, takes place over several decades from 1928 to 1985. It is the story of three women, two Sikh and one Hindu, and their families, which begins in the women’s childhoods. Bibi-ji, born in Panjaur, steals her sister’s fate in marrying and immigrating to Vancouver. Leela, of Bangalore, is “half and half” Indian and German, part of two worlds but wholly belonging to neither – ultimately, she, too, will emigrate from India to live in Vancouver, sharing in Bibi-ji’s immigrant experience. Finally, Nimmo, of New Delhi, is the daughter of Bibi-ji’s lost sister – haunted well into adulthood by the violence she witnessed as a child when India was first partitioned. As tensions between the Hindus and Sikhs escalate in India, all of the women are affected. Thankfully, they cannot know to what extent their families will have tragedy rained down upon them as the tensions give rise to the massacre at the Golden Temple and the assassination of Indira Ghandi; and eventually climax in the bombing of Air India Flight 182.
Badami skillfully writes not only well-developed characters here. She masterfully integrates point of view into a theme of conflict: the immigrant experience, the Sikhs, the Hindus – and then casts her net, Indra’s net as it were, over all of the enmities – quietly (or perhaps not) reminding us that “so was every human affected by the miseries and joys of every other human, every other living thing on the planet.” In this regard, I think Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is translated into something much larger than itself. Impressive, and highly recommended.
“Chance brings lives together in unexpected ways and breaks them apart with equal randomness.” (90) show less
Sripathi Rao is a disappointment to his mother, who runs his life and his home, Big House, where things are falling into disrepair because he cannot afford to maintain them at the level established by his late father, a more "successful", but much less admirable man. The household includes Sripathi's wife Nirmala and their adult son, Arun; his 42-year-old unmarried sister Putti; and his mother, who spends all her time demanding attention, criticizing everyone and ostensibly trying to arrange show more a suitable marriage for Putti. His daughter, Maya, has disgraced the family by breaking an arranged engagement to marry a foreigner she met while at University in Canada. For this, Sripathi has refused to communicate with her or even to read the letters she sends to her mother. The family is almost totally dysfunctional, until the arrival of Sri and Nirmala's 7-year-old Canadian granddaughter, orphaned and muted by her parents' accidental deaths in Vancouver. Things begin to change as this tiny bewildered stranger becomes the center of everyone's existence, and it is a treat to watch.
I loved the story, loved the writing, and found the ending one of the most satisfying I have read in some time. The characters are so real, they evoked a whole range of emotion from me---sympathy, exasperation, disgust, amusement. And with one mighty exception, each of them learned from life's trials and tragedies, and grew to fuller acceptance of themselves and their place in the universe by story's end. Amazingly sensuous prose...sights, sounds, smells (and not all of them pleasant) so vivid I worried they would wake my husband as I read while he slept. I enjoyed this book so much that I intend to do something I rarely do, which is to read two books by the same author back to back. I have already begun Badami's Tamarind Mem. show less
I loved the story, loved the writing, and found the ending one of the most satisfying I have read in some time. The characters are so real, they evoked a whole range of emotion from me---sympathy, exasperation, disgust, amusement. And with one mighty exception, each of them learned from life's trials and tragedies, and grew to fuller acceptance of themselves and their place in the universe by story's end. Amazingly sensuous prose...sights, sounds, smells (and not all of them pleasant) so vivid I worried they would wake my husband as I read while he slept. I enjoyed this book so much that I intend to do something I rarely do, which is to read two books by the same author back to back. I have already begun Badami's Tamarind Mem. show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,305
- Popularity
- #19,662
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 47
- ISBNs
- 51
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 5