‘A Drop in the Ocean’: Syeda Hameed’s memoir reflects grief for the disappearing idea of India

Orhan Pamuk, the famous Turkish recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in his autobiographical memoir, Istanbul: Memories and the City, underscores “Hüzün” as the defining character of the city and his life. The memoir takes the reader on a journey from his childhood to his adult years and of the city, engulfed in Hüzün for a glorious past, sense of loss and cultural alterations. Hüzün is a Turkish word of Arabic origin (used also in the Qu’uran), denoting deep melancholy.

Activist and policymaker Syeda Hameed’s A Drop in the Ocean: The Story of My Life, though an account of an illustrious life – lush and rich – deeply resonates, page after page, with the idea of Hüzün. Hüzün for the ganga-jaminya tahjeeb, for the ethos and life of syncretic times, but above all for the “idea of India” as embodied in the preamble of the Indian constitution.

The personal is political

This book is also a powerful reminder of “personal being political”. In fact, it shatters the myth that personal and political can be segregated in any way, as her autobiography traverses through the experiences of a young child facing ostracism for being a Muslim; her encounter with the racism of being asked to “take the money and go back” while coins and leftover sandwiches and muffins...

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