Customer Reviews

Babyji

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anamika is the biggest nerd that I have ever met...and many of my friends would say the same about me. She was a smooth operator. From reading the description you might be a little turned off but don't be. A 17 year old girl who loves quantum physics sounds crazy but think about that girl in your class that loves math or loves British Literature. That girl could be Anamika - official Smooth operator. These girls/women have lives too as well as feels.

Anamika relates many of the occurences in her life to quantum physics. Sounds boring but it isn't. Also, she is Indian. You learn alot about Indian culture in this piece also. She is respectful to her servant and her elders; she is mature enough to go to them and ask them about life. She has learned that quantum physics can guide you but it makes her life "chaotic"; she likes that in the beginning. This is a must read. I have suggested this book to all of my friends - gay and straight. In fact, I learned about it from the clerk at Oscar Wilde bookstore - a women who reads profusely and knows her customers. If you live in New York City, go there and she will find a book for you. I suggest this one.

The author certainly explores a new realm in Indian literature from the POV of a young woman (in high school) coming to terms with her own sexuality. For that the author is to be commended. It's still taboo to talk of sex in India--the thinking goes that sex happens, when you are old enough to learn about it, you will, until then you know nothing.

But there's something about the book, the writing itself, that could have been a little more sophisticated and refined. If the main protagonist is young (and she is) but obviously a somewhat confident (notwithstanding her physical appearance) woman, confident enough to sneak out of the house at night and make passes at classmates and servants (no spoiler here) she comes across also, through the author's handling of her character as somewhat sophomorish. I would have expected a little more depth of character, some thought invested in these enormous changes that she has to deal with in her life, some exhilaration perhaps...something. But the first foray into sex happens almost in the first chapter (well, at least the immediate awareness of it) and we seen nothing of doubt, of reasoning, of a little shame overcome by confidence and bluster. NO thinking at all. The protagonist seems to be carried through by some force that we are not privy to, and so she seems shallow. Not thoughtful.

3 stars for tackling with such confidence a touchy topic in India; I'd say more Indians should read this book just for that, but I stopped reading partway through the book because I didn't get a sense of anticipatin and tension in the plot. I didn't see where the author promised to take me in the book--just seemed like a slice of life, with most of the movement involving sex...still it doesn't seem like a foray into mere gratituous sex.

Babyji is the story of Anamika, 16, as she discovers herself and her sexuality through a number of relationships - one with an older woman, India, another with her young live-in servant Rani, and one with Sheela, a classmate of hers. I didn't find the story particularly interesting and I felt the story lacked character development and real "events" - all that happens is that Anamika is spending her days going from one girl to another without any kind of depth apart from a couple of interesting thoughts per chapter which are not developed any further. Each character would have benefited from being further developed and because Anamika doesn't focus on any of them, neither does the book.

I read 3/4 of this book before giving up. There are more interesting stories about relationships between women in books such as Pages for You.

Ah, this book is a breath of fresh air. There is just so much bad crap out there, this book reminded me of why I love reading -- because I like compelling personal stories that are raw, real and honest about what they are and are not. This story is funny, emotional and smart. What else is there in life???

She has another book, Miniplanner, that is good, but not as satisfying as this one. She needs to write more, and soon!

This is perhaps one of the most capativating book that I have read. It was extremely compelling and utterly sexy and I just could not put it down. I can't wait to read more of Dewaser's work. I hope that she will write a sequel to this one. I would love to read more about Anamika's facinating life.

The women in the book were absolutely sensational, I loved partical applications of the wave-particle duality. It was nice to see confident and intelligent women and a whole lot of them in one book. It was very refreshing to read about the caste system in this light.

I would definetly recommend this to all.

This book was recommended by someone who knows I like reading about the East Indian diaspora. But this book completely changed everything I knew about South Asian culture. This is an extremely well written and an easy to read novel. All the characters are very intriguing until the very end. It is not only captivating, but but breaks the rules of discussing taboo issues, particularly homosexuality, by talking about them in a matter of factly manner. The story is told in the first person by the protagonist Anamika, a teenaged physics geek who has more than come to terms with her lesbianism. She is having affairs with three females - a trusted servant, a gorgeous older woman, and a gullible schoolmate - simultaneously.

It is refreshing to read a book because there is so little discussion about homosexuality in the Global South. When it is discussed, it is only discussed as being a "White Man's Disease" and thus stigmatized. When the film Fire, a story about two Indian housewives falling in love, was released a few years ago, religious extremists tried to vandalize the theatres it was shown in. So, the fact that this book has been well reviewed in many Indian publications maybe shows a slight shift on this taboo issue.

I also enjoyed how the author introduced the caste issue. There is a growing movement to break down this archane class structure that didn't just start with Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things.

This is a great book and I look forward to Dawesar's future books!

I think a lot of books are over-written, repetitive, unrealistic, and darn near plotless.

"Babyji" is a perfect example.

"Babyji" concerns a modern teenage girl in India, who apparently is so cute and so smart practically everyone she meets instantly falls for her!

She has affairs with 2 women, one divorced, one separated from an abusive husband, and one a girl who is her own age all at the same time, and there's also an adult married man who is interested in her. Was Venus, the goddess of love, ever so irrestible?!

But don't think all these dalliances mean you're going to be reading some hot, erotic make-out scenes - nope, we even get cheated out of that.

The various scenes are repetitive for the most part and don't come to much of anything. Either the author was indulged by her publisher or the book is self-published.

The author tries to convey some depth to her main character by having her frequently thinking of physics or just old fashioned navel gazing in the form of what the heck is life all about anyway.

The characters just move along, no plot develops to speak of, and the ending is non-conclusive. Read it only if you feel like wasting some time in your life.

I bought this book with great anticipation; I was greatly disappointed. Someone said earlier that the book seems like a slice of the character's life with no ups and downs. That's true. There is no climax, no story line that grips you.
At some points I was irritated by the number of times people called the character 'mature' when there was nothing to show to the readers that she was mature.
The idea of story is good- sex in the mind of an Indian lesbian teenager. It is just not well written.

That book is HAWT. Check out some of what the other reviewers have said, I agree (just being a little silly). The main character is so sensual and precocious, nerdy yet daring and adventurous. I wish I had half the balls she has at her age than I do now! So fantastically written and you are seduced by each word. I loved the empowered women in the book as well and Babyji's confidence as she figures out who she is and where in the world she belongs. It's definitely on top, I must see a sequel to this at once!

This book was very boring and yes, I regret reading it. I was expecting some wonderful sex scenes- the book had such a great premise! The story was a laborious task to get through, because the author was way too concerned with the main character's mental exploits than her physical ones. what a sham!