Heart Lamp: Stories Too Familiar, Yet Still Unheard

My latest read (a bit delayed, but never mind), winner of the 2025 Booker Prize, Heart Lamp is a collection of selected stories by Banu Mustaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, originally written in Kannada between 1990 and 2023.

As promised, it shines a light on the everyday struggles of Muslim women, focusing on gender inequality, patriarchy, oppression, domestic violence, and more.

Now, is it worth a Booker Prize? Honestly, I’m not the best person to comment on that. But here’s what I felt—many of these stories felt familiar, maybe even too familiar, if you’ve grown up in India.

Tales of patriarchy, domestic abuse, women belittling women… we have all seen or heard these around us.

So, what makes Heart Lamp special?

Perhaps the fact that in 2025, we are still reading and writing about these miseries. It’s disheartening to realize how much hasn’t changed, how women’s pain continues to be normalized, ignored, or silenced.

This book makes you pause and reflect: how far have we really come as humans? Clearly, there’s still a long way to go in learning empathy and respecting every life.

Will we get there someday? Let’s hope so. ✨
Meanwhile, do pick up Heart Lamp (not to “enjoy”), to understand more deeply the simple lives of women around us.

Comments

Draupadi - Action Prevails Emotions

The woman of Kaliyuga…. before the Kaliyuga descended One of the few very clear memories I still have of my childhood is when my mother was feeding me lunch and we were happily chatting about Mahabharata. While talking, I said ‘when I grow up, I want to become Draupadi’. She yelled at me ‘ pagal ho gayi ho kya?, kuch bhi bak bak karti ho. Khana khao chup chap ’. I was taken aback by her sudden anger. Barely 7-8 years of age, I didn’t quite understand the reason for her annoyance, then. Today, after decades I certainly do. Indeed, I do understand, why a mother wouldn’t want her daughter to become Draupadi or even get closer to what she suffered. All said and done, she was the heroine of the one of the only two greatest epics of the country’s history – Mahabharata.

Never Gone: Nostalgic…Back To ‘Bachchpan’ (Book Review)

Book: Never Gone Author: Anusha Subramanian Publisher: Penguin India Do you remember that feeling, when you had your first crush back in good old school days? Or, the days you spent trying to impress your love interest? This book will transport you back to those wonderful days – school days. At least this is what it did to me. It took me back to the days of learning and comprehending emotions such as feelings, emotions, love, friendship, companionship, sympathy, empathy, trust, happiness, sorrow, jealousy, hatred, revenge and the list is endless. I have completed my education in co-ed school and college and very closely witnessed love stories bloom and relationship break. I could completely identify with the story, plot, the setup and the characters. I loved the way the characterization has been done and the flash backs described.

From ‘ASL Pls’ To Emoji’s

I don’t get tired; no really, I do not get tired or bored at all narrating our story to anyone. Infact every new person I meet, I try to grab this opportunity to talk about us – You and I! And I surprise myself when I realise that I still remember it all so well. Every single detail of 4 years of friendship, 4 years of long-distance relationship, and 7 years of being married. Well, can’t really say that about the last 7 years :P, but the first 8 years are like embedded in my DNA. Pic clicked by Sudipto Roy I think our story is unique. It’s beautiful. Just 15 years old but so much has changed in this one and half-decade. Or not much?

A(NU) Thought

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