When I first saw the title of this book, I knew immediately that I MUST read it! Patriarchy and the Pangolin by Aditi Patil is a short genre bender book encompassing the genres of travelogue, feminism and natural history. If it were up to me, I’d even add humour to it!
What is the book about you may ask? Is it about Pangolins? Not really. But of course it addresses the lack of them in the world. Is it about patriarchy? Oh absolutely yes, rather let’s say it addresses the abundance of it in our country.
This witty and satirical book is perfect for calling out our privilege and is a wake up call to everyone who thinks they’re stating the “right data”, but data too is biased. The book clearly highlights that there is so much data you will never know about because of how our bureaucrats choose to portray it and there is so much data our field researchers will never be able to collect in a proper manner because of the lack of funds and will by the bureaucracy to push these research projects forward.
Patriarchy and the Pangolin is a reminder of the inherent nature of patriarchy instilled within all of us, even if it is to get rid of unwanted male attention. It’s a wonderful book which I didn’t realise I’d end up enjoying and learning from at the same time. The author rightly states that this book is about what it means to be alive in India (at this point, being alive seems like a very big deal).
This isn’t a fictional book, but with a friend and a research partner like Manya to fill one’s monotonous life with tremendous amounts of drama, it definitely helped to fill my reading experience with many unexpected laughs.
If you share a love for nature, birds, over friendly dogs and tabby’s then I highly recommend this book to you! If you want to know about the IRL situation of farmers and government schemes dipped in patriarchy then again I highly recommend this book to you!
Thank you @aditi_patil for writing this book! Though ideally I find myself reading books to find escapism, this honest anecdote gave me the much needed kick on the bum to see more and try to do more!
Also, a huge thankyou to @hachette_india for sending me a review copy of this book. Couldn’thave picked up a more perfect book for week 3 of the #ReadingAsiaPacific read-a-thon.
