Author: Lakshmibai Tilak
Translator(s): E Josephine Inkster
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 353
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195647440
Description
This is a lively, eventful story, peopled with interesting characters, not the least of whom is Lakshmi's husband Narayan Waman Tilak. The translation is skilful, retaining the simplicity and vigor of the original. This unique autobiography, brimming with the effervescence and resilience of the protagonist, will appeal to a wide general readership.
Lakshmibai Tilak's autobiography, Smriti Chitra, written in Marathi, was published in four parts between 1934 and 1937, and achieved immediate popularity. I Follow After, the English translation of the first three parts, was first published in 1950.
Born into a strict Brahmin family, Lakshmibai is married off at the tender age of eleven and plunged into the tyrannical household of her father-in-law. When Lakshmi's husband converts to Christianity, she is as if widowed. For five years she lives apart from him with her son Dattu. During this period she receives almost daily letters from a husband alternately loving and angry, threatening one day to divorce her, the next begging her to join him with their child. Her love for Tilak wins at last, and she rejoins him, eventually converting to Christianity herself.
Whimsical and impulsive, he disappears for months at a time, leaving him wife to fend for herself. He is a gifted poet, and instrumental in Lakshmi's own forays into writing poetry. Generous to a fault, he lives the last years of his life as a Christian ascetic, loved-but often cheated-by all with whom he comes into contact.
Contents
PART ONE
Father washes away his Pennies and Pounds
The Bride of Eleven
Evil Stars
Second Flight
Wedding Procession
Poona Bangles
My Father-in-law
Trials of a Daughter-in-law
Comfort from Home
Song and Poetry
Pearls for a Nose-ornament
Our First Son
Sixteen Years Old and Still
Tilak in Trade
A Happy Surprise
The Rich Man's Son
Mad, My Friends, Truly Mad
Mahadev
Birth of Dattu
My Illness
Crucial Years
Oratorical Competition
Khare's House is in the Other Direction
Tilak's Diary
Where is My Millstone?
Resignation
Conversion
PART TWO
I am led to the Shrine
Divorce Indeed
The Headmaster's Help
Baby's Clothes
O Bird, the Bars of Thy Cage are of Love
Our Brother-in-law has sent us an Offering
The Clerk of Jalalpur
I Meet a Christian Woman
Gosavi's Father
Reunion
Hospitality
Presentation and Alms
Poison or Nectar
Revolution
The Famine Child
A Memorable Occasion
You Have Outstripped Me
Our Balance
Our Growing Family
Again We Meet
God's Plan
Tilak Leads the Way; I Follow After
My Education
Rahuri
Ordination
PART THREE
Eighteen Rupees
Gopaji
Castor Seeds
A Poets Conference
The Boy-poet Thombre
Exit House Enter Buffalo
Nagar
My Sons-in-law
A Modak among the Karanjies
I Wait Eight Years
Setting up House Anew
My Novel
A Coward
Memories of Thombre the Boy-poet
Satara
Dattu's Prize Story
Abhang-Anjali
Last Visit to Nagar
Dattu's Prize Story
Abhang-Anjali
Last Visit to Nagar
Dattu's Wedding
Not the Christian but Christ
Shadows
What Fear Hath He?
ILLUSTRATIONS