BANGLADESH

READ

For Bangladesh, I was planning to read Tahmima Anam’s The Good Muslim. But just as I finished the first few pages, I found out that it was a sequel to Anam’s first novel, A Golden Age. So I stopped reading The Good Muslim (for now), and picked up A Golden Age.

The book opens with widow Rehana Haque losing her children in a court proceeding in 1959. Her husband has died suddenly, and his brother Faiz is able to convince the court that Rehana doesn’t have the wherewithal to care for them properly. He and his wife take the children from their home in Dhaka, East Pakistan, to Faiz’s home in Lahore, West Pakistan.

Fast forward to 1971. Rehana’s children, Sohail and Maya, have long since been returned to her. They go to school at the local university, where they are involved in the Bangladesh independence movement. At that time, Bangladesh was part of the Dominion of Pakistan and was known as East Pakistan. Sohail and Maya are optimistic about the results of the recent election, but things aren’t happening the way they expected them to happen.

A near riot at a cricket match that she and her family attend gives Rehana a scare, but she is able to convince herself that everything will be fine: “… suddenly Rehana felt sure it would all resolve itself: Sheikh Mujib would be Prime Minister, and the country would go on being her home, and the children would go on being her children. In no time at all the world would right itself, and they would go on living ordinary, unexceptional lives.”

That is not the case, however, and when the city is suddenly invaded by the Pakistani army, everyone is caught completely off-guard. Rehana’s children become immersed in the resistance movement, and because they are her children, Rehana becomes involved too. She helps Sohail and his friends hide weapons and an injured comrade, and later, she travels to Calcutta, where Maya helps out in a refugee camp. The descriptions of the refugee camp and its inhabitants are particularly poignant.

While the book’s plot centers around the fight for independence for Bangladesh, it is also a book about love – romantic love, love for one’s country, but most of all, a mother’s love for her children. I’m happy to know that there is a sequel, because I’m not yet ready to say goodbye to these characters, and I’m looking forward to reading more of this author’s beautiful writing.

COOK

In many of the books I’ve read for this global reading project, I can’t find even one mention of a dish to cook from that country. I had the opposite problem with A Golden Age. There were so many mouth-watering foods described that I had trouble making up my mind which to choose. Dal, biryani, samosas, puris – I wanted it all.

In the end, what I wanted the most was beguni, battered and fried eggplant slices. Rehana makes this dish during Ramadan, an Islamic observance requiring fasting from sunup to sundown, as part of the meal she and Maya will eat after the sun goes down. She knows that Sohail and his friends are out on a dangerous mission, and that occupies her mind while she cooks.

“The fear breathed on her neck and sent the hair upright, electric. It caught her in the double-beat of her heart, the pulse she could feel at her temple, the tremor of her hand as she fried the Iftar food. Beguni, the crunchy strips of eggplant. Chickpeas and tomatoes. The dalpuri Maya had rolled out and stuffed. Orange juice. Tamarind juice. Lassi. It was not elaborate enough for a special occasion, not simple enough to indicate want. A meal for an ordinary day. A meal for a day without war.”

I found the recipe on a blog called Rownak’s Bangla Recipes, which says that beguni is very popular for Ramadan, although eggplant becomes very expensive during that time. The recipe is already vegan, so I didn’t have to make any substitutions for that reason. I couldn’t find carom seeds, which are from the same family as caraway seeds, so I substituted caraway instead. The beguni was tasty, although I’d probably use a little less water in the batter next time, and a little more salt.

GIVE

I had assumed that my donation for Bangladesh would go to the Grameen Foundation, which was inspired by Mohammed Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microcredit and microfinance. However, the Grameen Foundation didn’t seem to have any way for me to earmark my donation for Bangladesh, so I went back to my old stand-by, GlobalGiving.org. They had many projects listed in Bangladesh, but the one that caught my eye, because of Rehana’s devotion to her children, was the Mothers’Clubs in Bangladesh, established by the Hope Foundation for Women &Children of Bangladesh. The purpose of these clubs is to provide mothers with health education, especially information about preventative healthcare, so they can better help their families. More information about the Mothers’ Clubs in Bangladesh is available at https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-mothers-clubs-for-one-year/.

NEXT STOP: BARBADOS

BAHRAIN

READ

This week’s blog post is about Bahrain, a small island in the Persian Gulf with a population that’s predominantly Muslim. The book I read was Yummah, by Sarah A. Al Shafei, and it tells the story of Khadeeja, beginning with her marriage at the age of twelve.

Khadeeja’s mother, a widow, arranges for her to marry Mohammed, a man several years her senior whom Khadeeja has never met. Her mother is eager for the wedding to take place because she herself has a terminal illness, and she wants to make sure someone is there to take care of Khadeeja after she dies. Khadeeja pours out her thoughts on the upcoming wedding to her doll Layla, who remains her confidant throughout her life.

Khadeeja is happy in her marriage, and she and her husband have eight children. When she is pregnant with her ninth child, however, she is suddenly abandoned by Mohammed, who until that moment has been a model husband. The rest of the book follows Khadeeja’s efforts in raising her children without any support from Mohammed.

One interesting aspect of the book is watching the way customs and mores change over the years. Khadeeja marries off her first daughter at the age of twelve, just as she was married. But her second daughter decides to quit school and go to work in a beauty salon to help support the family, something that would have been unheard of a few short years before. All of the children, including (or maybe especially) the girls, become strong and independent. There are quarrels and challenges, but the family bonds remain. By the end of the book, even Mohammed returns to the fold.

While most of the book is focused on Khadeeja’s responsibilities as a wife and mother, one chapter is devoted to a trip she decides to take to Mecca, the holiest city in the Islamic religion. After all the challenges she had faced after Mohammed left, Khadeeja feels the need to heal her soul. She arranges to go with a group of women, not only to Mecca, but to other holy sites as well.

The author’s descriptions of the places visited and Khadeeja’s experiences are beautiful and heartfelt. “The moment I entered the Prophet’s land I felt a shiver in my body, I felt as if the air was hugging me and the vibe filled my heart and soul with love and faith. Everything was different everything was better; the life, the harmony, the land, even the fruits, the dates, the vegetables. The sun was cooler, the moon had a special shine, and the stars had a continuous twinkle.” Khadeeja returns home with a renewed sense of purpose.

The word “Yummah” means grandmother, a tribute to Khadeeja’s long and fulfilling life as her children have children of their own and Khadeeja remains at the center of the family circle. The book presents a lovely portrait of a strong and loving woman and the family she raises on her own.

COOK

One scene in the book describes a family get-together on National Day. They are at a carnival, where sweets and other foods are sold, a puppet show is performed for the children, and the Bahraini National Band plays. As Khadeeja describes it, “It was one of these days that we all waited for. We enjoyed watching all the people in their best from the rooftop. We would take some tea and nuts, biscuits and halwa (a Bahraini sweet).”

So I decided to make halwa for this blog post. I found a recipe for Bahraini halwa on a blog called “Spice Traveller.” It was easy to veganize by replacing the butter with vegan margarine, but it was a tricky recipe to make since I had never dry-fried sugar before and wasn’t sure I was doing it right. I also wasn’t quite sure what cornflour was, so I had to look it up. Apparently, if you live in the United Kingdom or Australia, cornflour means cornstarch, but if you live anywhere else, it’s just cornmeal. At any rate, it all worked out.

GIVE

The organization I chose to receive my donation is Alia for Early Intervention, a program of the Bahrain Society for Children with Behavior and Communication Disorders. Services are available to children who are “at least eighteen months of age at the time of referral, and suspected of developmental delay or diagnosed with a physical or mental condition, resulting in a high probability of delay in the following areas: cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or physical development.” More information about this organization is available at http://www.childbehavior.org/earlyinterventioncenter.html.

  

NEXT STOP: BANGLADESH

THE BAHAMAS

READ

If you’re like me, the only thing you know about the Bahamas is that they are an island paradise in the Caribbean Sea. One reason for undertaking this global reading project is to look beyond the stereotypes and learn about these countries from the perspectives of people who live and work there.

Ian G. Strachan’s novel, God’s Angry Babies, tells the story of a family living in an area of the Bahamas that the tourists don’t see. The family is headed by the formidable Maureen Bodie, who left her good-for-nothing husband and raised their four sons on her own. With a father who doesn’t believe girls need an education and a husband who can’t be bothered to lift a finger on behalf of his wife and children, Maureen has had to carve out her own path to success. With the help of a government scholarship, she takes her young sons abroad with her and earns a college degree. Upon her return to the Bahamas, she gets a job as a vice principal making enough money to have a house built for her family in a nice neighborhood and to pay for a good education for her sons.

Maureen is also politically active, backing the PNF (Progressive National Front) party in the post-colonial Bahamas. When her youngest son Mark (also known as Tree) gets accepted into college abroad, Maureen urges him to talk to their Member of Parliament (MP), also a member of the PNF party, to ensure that he gets a government scholarship. Mark agrees reluctantly, since his political views are more closely aligned with the out-of-power FLP (Free Liberal Party). By requesting the MP’s help, however, Mark is coerced into working on the MP’s election campaign, where political dirty tricks abound.

Racism, sexism, and homophobia are encountered often by characters in this novel, and political corruption is a continuing theme. Through it all, Maureen Bodie’s strength and devotion to her sons provides inspiration to the reader.

I gave this book three stars out of five on GoodReads, not because I didn’t like it, but because of the author’s overuse of colloquial speech to tell the story. While a certain amount of vernacular can help to make the characters come to life, too much can distract from the plot and make it difficult for the reader to understand what the characters are saying. I felt like that’s what happened in this book, where there were entire chapters written in the vernacular. If not for that, I would have given the book four stars.

COOK

I would have expected to find more food descriptions in this novel, but there wasn't much to work with, so I started googling Bahamian recipes instead. I found a recipe for Bahamian-style peas and rice on the allrecipes.com website that seemed to fit the bill. I left out the bacon and replaced the butter with margarine to make it vegan. The only other issue was that the recipe calls for pigeon peas, which I have never seen in any of my local grocery stores. I did a little more searching to see what an acceptable substitute for pigeon peas might be, and found that black-eyed peas would work. This turned out to be a very tasty dish!

GIVE

Now that I've discovered GlobalGiving.org, that's the first place I look when I'm researching organizations to receive my Booktrekker donations. I was happy to find an opportunity there to donate to the Earthwatch Institute, which has projects worldwide that allow people to engage "in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment." Their project in the Bahamas involves research to help save the habitat of the green sea turtle and the hawksbill sea turtle. More information about this project is available at https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/saving-sea-turtles-in-the-bahamas-with-earthwatch/.

NEXT STOP: BAHRAIN

The Booktrekker is on vacation

Between holiday celebrations and traveling, I'm going to have to take a break from blogging. Check back again after January 12th. There may be occasional updates on The Booktrekker's Facebook page as well.

https://m.facebook.com/TheBooktrekker/

Happy holidays and good reading to you all!

AZERBAIJAN

READ

Ali and Nino was written by Kurban Said eighty years ago, but the conflicts it portrays between East and West, between Islam and Christianity, are as relevant today as they were then. The book is set in Azerbaijan, which is situated between Europe and Asia, along with Georgia and Armenia.


The story follows the fates of Ali Khan Shirvanshir, a young man from a proud and venerated Muslim family, and Nino Kipiani, a young woman whose Georgian Christian family is no less proud and esteemed. The two are in love, which scandalizes no one in the town of Baku, where Muslims and Christians mingle openly. Still, their love is a constant balancing act for them, not only because of expectations from their families, but because of the political turmoil of the time.


For example, Ali’s devout friend Seyd has no problem with the idea of Ali marrying a Christian woman, since it is Seyd’s belief that a woman has neither soul nor intelligence. In his mind, Nino’s religion is irrelevant, although he is adamant that the sons of the marriage must be raised as Muslims. Nino is equally concerned when she thinks about how Muslim Persians laid waste to her country of Georgia in times past, and how her children as Muslims may participate in similar destruction in the future.


For his part, Ali worries about Nino’s yearnings for Europe, since he is a son of the sand and the desert and would be miserable in Paris or London or any of the other European capitals that Nino is drawn to. Nino agrees to continue living in Azerbaijan for Ali’s sake, but she lets him know that their child will not be a son of the desert. Ali acquiesces, and at that point he “knew that I had agreed to be the father of a European.”


Ali and Nino overcome many challenges in their relationship because of their love for each other. Azerbaijan, however, is a victim of its own geographical desirability. As the story begins, Azerbaijan is under the control of the Czar’s Russia. Later, the Turks, the British, and post-Czarist Russians all have designs on the region. In the end, it is the political upheaval, rather than their feelings for one another, that determines the fate of Ali and Nino’s relationship.

COOK

While there was plenty of eating and drinking in Ali and Nino, I didn't find anything I thought was representative of the country and also easily veganizable. So I decided to look for something online, and found several references to pomegranate salad in the cuisine of Azerbaijan. Since it's pomegranate season, that seemed to be the perfect choice.

It took awhile for my taste buds to adjust to the combination of main ingredients in the recipe -- pomegranate seeds and boiled potatoes -- but I liked it once I got used to it. The recipe called for either dill or cilantro, which have such different flavors. I opted for cilantro, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably choose the dill. I used vegan mayonnaise in place of the non-vegan variety.

The recipe I used is from a blog called "AZ Cookbook," featuring recipes from Azerbaijan and Turkey.

GIVE

In searching for an organization to give my Azerbaijan donation to, I found a British crowdfunding site called JustGiving, which had a fundraising page for a group called United Aid for Azerbaijan. This organization "implements strategies to help children in need of special protection, those who have been abandoned by their families because of poverty, social problems and disability." More information about United Aid for Azerbaijan is available at http://uafa.az/en/about-us/.

NEXT STOP: THE BAHAMAS

AUSTRIA

READ

So far, most of the books I've read for this project have been by male authors, so I've been actively seeking out books written by women. When I found Brigitte Schwaiger's Why Is There Salt in the Sea? in the European Women Writers Series, I knew it was going to be my book for Austria.

In the book's afterword, translator Sieglinde Lug says the author viewed this book as an "inner monologue," rather than a novel. That's a perfect description, as the book follows the thoughts of the narrator in her attempts to come to terms with her existence in what is very much a man's world. Tellingly, we never find out her name, although we know the names of the men in her life.

As the daughter of a doctor, the narrator is encouraged to go into medicine too. But she doesn't like the field, and nothing else she thinks of doing seems good enough to her father. She ends up getting married instead, and regretting her decision even before the wedding takes place.

In spite of her desire to "be able to talk to someone without being set straight," her husband Rolf is not that person. On the contrary, Rolf is the kind of person who says things like, "A woman without a man, what kind of thing is that?" Or, "I find it touching to see how you sit there and look as if you are thinking about something important."

The narrator looks for solace in a lover, but he doesn't give her the fulfillment she seeks either. Her struggle to find her way continues through the end of the book, and the reader is left to ponder whether the narrator will ever feel like a complete person in the patriarchal society in which she was raised.

COOK

The narrator of Why Is There Salt in the Sea? is not much of a cook. At one point in the book, she is perusing her cookbook. "Do put that book down, Rolf says, you don't learn cooking from books, you learn it from experience." The narrator observes that, "Flaky puff pastry is his favorite dish."

I'm not much of a cook, either, and the thought of trying to make a flaky vegan puff pastry was pretty daunting. A recipe for an easy three-ingredient vegan apple strudel on a blog called Elephantastic Vegan saved me. I used vegan fillo dough from my local natural foods store and added in some chopped walnuts, since I think everything is better with nuts. The resulting strudel was a little dry, but the filling was tasty. I suspect the recipe would be even better with melted vegan butter brushed onto the fillo dough sheets.

GIVE

My donation for Austria has been sent to an organization called kinderhaende, which provides instruction in Austrian sign language to deaf children and their families. They are currently raising money for five classes in which children in Vienna, ages six months to seven years, and their families can learn sign language, get an affirmative perspective on deafness, and develop a positive image of people who sign. More information about this project is available at GlobalGiving.com.

NEXT STOP: AZERBAIJAN

The Booktrekker Is on the Road

I'm currently traveling, which means I have lots of time to read, but no facilities for cooking. Blog posts will resume after November 28th.