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Samina Ali
The first Muslim
Indian
woman in the US to release a book
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Hyderabad,March'04: Samina
Ali's debut, 'Madras on Rainy Days' is Set against the backdrop
of the ancient city of Hyderabad, India, and mounting
Hindu-Muslim tensions, the novel lyrically evokes the
complexities of life behind the chador: the taboo of
homosexuality within the Indian Muslim community, as well as the
conflicts over freedom of thought and expression that many
modern Muslims face.
Ali manages to entwine a collection of issues that, to
outsiders, dismisses the stereotypes that have evolved in the
post 9/11 Western mentality. The usual Indian motifs of vibrant
color, heat, food, nature etc are paralleled with some
interesting insights into the life of a Muslim Indian girl,
returning from the US to her native city.
Samina Ali was born in Hyderabad and emigrated with her parents
to America when she was six months old. Growing up, she spent
half of each year in India, where she also attended school
(Rosary Convent). |
In 1993, she graduated summa
cum laude from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities with a
B.A. in English. She received an M.F.A. from the University of
Oregon.
Among other places, her writing has appeared in rattapallax 8,
Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers,
Literacy Matters: Reading and Writing in the Second Wave of
Multiculturalism, and Our Feet Walk the Sky.
Her writing has received grants from both the Barbara Deming
Memorial Fund and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. She was recently a
panelist at the PEN/Faulkner Conference discussing the role of
Islam in her debut novel.
Samina Ali lives with her four-year-old son in San Francisco. |
Maju Kuriakose
Reachout's News Bureau
-March' 2004
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