Motiba's Tattoos: A Grandaughter's Journey into Her Indian Family's Past

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Overview

When Motiba died a whole world disappeared with her. Motiba - "grandmother" in Gujarati - was marked with mysterious signs from a lost era: geometric tattoos on her face and forearms. What did these symbols mean? When had they been etched? Why?" "Haunted by the riddle of Motiba's tattoos, Mira Kamdar begins a journey down the hazy, twisting corridors of the past. The deeper she delves, the more she realizes that her family's story is part of a much larger saga. It is one version of the great story of the twentieth century - the story of leaving home, of severing roots, of losing one's tribe; the story of abandoning a rural life firmly anchored in traditions and rituals for the tantalizing prospects of urban existence in ...
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Overview

When Motiba died a whole world disappeared with her. Motiba - "grandmother" in Gujarati - was marked with mysterious signs from a lost era: geometric tattoos on her face and forearms. What did these symbols mean? When had they been etched? Why?" "Haunted by the riddle of Motiba's tattoos, Mira Kamdar begins a journey down the hazy, twisting corridors of the past. The deeper she delves, the more she realizes that her family's story is part of a much larger saga. It is one version of the great story of the twentieth century - the story of leaving home, of severing roots, of losing one's tribe; the story of abandoning a rural life firmly anchored in traditions and rituals for the tantalizing prospects of urban existence in an increasingly global consumer culture." "With details of her relatives' many fascinating lives, Kamdar evokes the moods and atmospheres of lost times and places. She retraces pivotal historical moments - Satyagraha and India's independence movement, World War II, the "brain drain" years of a triumphant American military-industrial complex, the borderless, dot.com world of the Indian diaspora today - but never strays from the intimate experiences of her remarkable family.

Editorial Reviews

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Mira Kamdar's memoir is a personal history of her ancestors' journey from rural India to her father's success as an American, and of her own mission to unearth and nurture her Indian heritage. She follows the history of the Indian diaspora-and the trail of her own family from their feudal village in India to Rangoon at the start of the twentieth century. When thrust out of Burma and stripped of their business and belongings by a new dictatorship in the 60s, they fled to bustling Bombay, where Kamdar's father got his first taste of America-in the movies.

"So it was that my father arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a suitcase full of clothes stitched…to the exact specifications of a Hollywood movie wardrobe: dinner jackets with white satin lapels, tweed suits. The rest of the students were wearing …jeans, plaid flannel shirts, argyle socks and saddle shoes. Too late, my father learned that Hollywood's America and the America of Cambridge…were two very different countries."

Educated in the U.S., Kamdar's father was one of the first Indian engineers to work for American companies in the "brain drain" from India. Married to an attractive Norwegian and the father of two girls, he left more than a country behind him. His mother, Motiba, would never emigrate. She continued to live in India until her death, bearing the marks of an earlier era-tattoos on her hands and face. Kamdar's story brought to light is not only fascinating reading, it's the cultural history of a people who have lost their land and their way of life, like so many others.

Library Journal
In this story of her grandmother's life, Kamdar (senior fellow, World Policy Inst., New School) brilliantly captures the experiences of the Indian diaspora in the 20th century. Motiba, Kamdar's paternal grandmother, was born in a village in Kathiawar, in western India, in 1908. During the Twenties and Thirties, Motiba's family sought their fortune in Burma. The bombing of Rangoon by the Japanese during World War II and later General Ne Win's nationalist policies forced the family, along with the rest of the Indian community, to flee to India. In the Sixties, Motiba's son emigrated to the United States as a student and eventually married a Danish American. This account of Motiba's odyssey through the 20th century is effectively blended with the wider context of world events, Motiba's Jain religion and culture, Asian Indian immigration to the United States, and the author's own experience of growing up in two cultures. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.--Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Booknews
In an extension of her academic work on economic and political transition in India, Kamdar (World Policy Institute, New York U.) traces the Indian diaspora through this fascinating memoir of her tattooed grandmother's world and her own bicultural upbringing in the US West and Bombay. Includes family photos, maps, recipes, a glossary of Gujarati and Hindi terms, and endnotes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Hema Nair
A saga of migration rootlessness, and uneasy assimilation...Enriched by photos, maps, and recipes, Motiba's Tatoos is a complex mosaic, and Motiba is the star.
—Ms. Magazine
Kirkus Reviews
A well researched but stylistically flat family memoir.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781891620584
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs
  • Publication date: 9/28/2000
  • Pages: 320
  • Lexile: 1230L (what's this?)
  • Product dimensions: 5.84 (w) x 8.58 (h) x 1.06 (d)

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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 23, 2001

    Family Values

    This is the most amazing book I have read. I congratulate Mira Kamdar for all the work and research that she has put into the making of this book by personally visiting and staying in rural India. I really appreciate all the details and especially the Family Tree page and all the authentic pictures. All I have to say is that the book is worth every cent of it and more. Well done Mira Kamdar. This book teaches us family values and binds two cultures together.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 19, 2001

    Essential to understanding the Indian Diaspora

    Mira Kamdar's work is both a compelling family history and an essential documentation of the Indian Diaspora. I followed the Kamdar family's journey from rural Gujarat to colonial Burma to modern Bombay and America with rapt interest.By the end I understood that the Kamdar family experience multiplied by millions has made 21st-century America what it is today.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 8, 2000

    Congratulations! Mira Kamdar

    A book so well written that at times I felt as if I was reading about my own family. It was just so well researched and authentic - but not boring the way some non-fiction books can be. This book takes you from India to Burma and to the U.S.A in a way that will make you nostalgic for your own childhood and grandparents. This is a book for people interested in learning about Gujaratis who are from Western India and predominantly vegetarian, very conservative and yet have managed to find their way all over the world and have no doubt contributed tremendously to their adopted countries. And, have been successful at retaining their culture and tradtions for themselves and the generations to come. You will also enjoy reading / trying out the many Gujarati recipes in this wonderful book.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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