Exile by Taslima Nasrin - A Review

Freedom - a word that is loosely used by almost everyone today. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of almost everything. Most of the people using it does not know its price. Here, Taslima presents her experience in "Exile" how her freedom was curbed because how her freedom of thoughts and speech was not considered so by whoever is against it.

Exile - A Memoir

Hyderabad, we all know as a city famous for its delicious Biryani changed her fate after one event - a simple book release event. The troubles and struggles that Taslima had encountered to live freely after this one event is the sole essence of this book. She beautifully remembers and lists the conversations that happened post that where even the ruling communists party did not want her to stay in Kolkata. The conversation between Taslima and the then Commissioner of Police induces lot humor, and you will laugh when his sole motivation is to get Taslima out of Kolkata comes out through words like "Go to Europe, Go to America, Go to Kerala".

Human mind and brain are brilliant parts. They can convert threat into an opportunity. The chapter "Death Waits Past the Window" exceptionally portrays this phenomenon. How when the police officers tried to scare Taslima and how her mind beautifully scripted the poems is just beautiful! The rest sixty percent of the book is her diary excerpts. For about four months where she was put in a house arrest in New Delhi (she calls that as Safe House), the people she talked to including the journalists that we all know today - Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi. A safe house did not really give her safety as she explains how she was threatened because her phones were tapped, many people who are unknown to her eavesdropped her conversations. A physical torture is worse, but what she refers to "a psychological torture" experience is worst. How helplessly she called everyone that she knows to get out of the safe house and get back even to Bangaladesh from where she was ousted. The letters, conversations, articles, phone chats together form 'Exile'.

It is always interesting to read one's memoir. Taslima's is no exception (she herself says that it cannot act as a source of inspirations like other memoirs) . But, how one interprets freedom of speech is one's own decision, and it may not tally well with yours (after all, everything has its own limit - for example, having driving license in a free country mean you can freely drive at your own will without obeying traffic rules). Also, when it comes to religion, some people are very much tied to what it dictates without even knowing or realizing the meaning. Obviously, a sword cannot be an answer for uttering words against religion because we say that all the religions teach us love. All in all, a beautifully presented memoir which I have read and enjoyed with both agreements and disagreements with Taslima's words.

PS: This book was received, read and reviewed as part of Flipkart’s Blogger Review Program. The opinions in this blog are not forced by the program. It is blog author's own.