Kirkus Prize winner

BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / 'IN SENSORIUM' BY TANAÏS: The scent of the motherland

The reader might have encountered in their grammar books that the pronoun ‘tara’ in cholito bhasha comes from its shadhu form ‘tahara’. For some of us, years of formal schooling has cemented this etymology in our heads, rendering us unable to find an alternate reality. Breaking these moulds, the author declares, “The word ‘they’ is tara, the word for star”, encouraging one to take a pause and consider these homographs in a new light.