Ayya's Accounts

April 1, 2014

Cowritten by Pandian (anthropology, Johns Hopkins; Crooked Stalks: Cultivating Virtue in South India) with his nonagenarian grandfather, Mariappan ("Ayya"), this Horatio Alger-like book chronicles Ayya's life (b. 1919). It was originally penned and published in Tamil in 2012 and is now offered here in English. Mariappan rose from birth in an impoverished Nadar family (traditionally a caste of tree climbers) to become a respected fruit merchant. He helped raise eight children, some of whom became physicians in the United States. Mariappan migrated to Burma to help run his father's provisions store; his father died when Mariappan was 15. Eventually, in the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of Burma during World War II, Mariappan was forced to flee back to India. Pandian rightfully celebrates his grandfather's achievements and his determination to educate his children, but it would have been compelling to know if they were able to benefit from India's postindependence quota-based affirmative action and caste networks. VERDICT Spanning India, Burma (Myanmar), and America, this is an absorbing exploration of one man's life. There is some repetition, but the book turns many a stereotype about status on its head. For readers interested in South Asia and the South Asian diaspora.--Ravi Shenoy, Naperville, IL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.