At the heart of the story lies Motiba, grandmother of the author, a simple lady steeped in the fine traditions of Kathiawari-Jain culture, and witness to all the dramas that have shaped the lives of her large extended family through the twentieth century. Mira Kamdar beautifully brings to life Motiba's world as a young Jain girl growing up in the deeply traditional Jain villages of Kathiawar. Through Mira's retelling of the anecdotes of older family members, especially Motiba, we learn about the lives of Jain women in the early part of the century: How they lived, their position in society, the role of religion in the Jain village and the impact of the British and Mahatma Gandhi upon this pre-modern world.

As the century moves on, the action switches to the British imperial possession of Burma and the cities of Akyub and Rangoon where many members of the Kamdar-Khara families, like other Indians, travelled in search of business opportunities and the hope for a more prosperous existence. Perhaps because the story of the Indian Diasporas in Burma is not as well known and documented as other Indian Diasporas experiences, the story of the Jain community in Burma is one of the most fascinating parts of the entire narrative. Here we discover how young Jain settlers in Burma built businesses and created new lives for themselves and their families and then saw it all swept away after the Japanese invasion during the Second World War and the consequent ethnic conflicts that gripped post-independence Burma. The poignancy of this section of the story is only heightened by Mira's interviews with the remnants of the once strong Indian community in Rangoon.

But wherever Mira Kamdar's story takes us, and it proceeds to take us to Bombay, Oregon and Los Angeles, a number of overarching themes dominate the book. Firstly, how the descendants of turn-of-the-century Kathiawari-Jain families attempted to preserve and adapt their Jain identity in a modern and, more importantly, non-Jain world. We are witness to the struggles of Motiba's eldest son, Prabhakar or `Pete' as he is known in America, as he attempts to cope with life after emigrating to America and how both he and his family cope with his marriage to a white American girl from Oregon and the status of Prabhakar's children's as perceived half-castes. Secondly, we see how the impersonal forces of history interact with people's personal choices to shape their lives as well as the lives of the generations to follow. Whether it be the ravages of the Second World War, the Cold war or the Indian independence struggle the fate of this Jain family has been touched by external events. But Mira never lets the `external' dominate her narrative; instead she weaves the major events of the century into the fabric of her story whilst preserving the primacy of her chronicle as a family biography.

The people and lives that Mira Kamdar has so affectionately described are not the lives of Maharajas, celebrated Indian independence fighters or Indian industrial magnates: There are no Nehrus, Tatas or Tagores amongst the Kamdar-Khara clan. But this, paradoxically, is the source of the very richness and beauty of Mira Kamdar's story. Mira Kamdar is telling the story of one Jain-Kathiawar family and how it has navigated the twentieth century. But this family is similar to hundreds and thousands of other Jain families who began the century in the pre-modern villages of Gujarat and who ended the century in the cosmopolitan cities of New York, Chicago, Toronto, London and Singapore. And this takes us to the heart of this book: How we, the younger generation of Jains, have a tendency to look at our silver-haired parents and grandparents and dismiss, or at the least never enquire, into their lives and experiences. We lose so much that sits just in front of us if we forget that our older relatives have lived fascinating lives, very different from our own, and have often made extraordinarily brave and difficult decisions to leave their homeland in search of a new future of which we are the ultimate beneficiaries. This then is the true joy of Mira Kamdar's book, reminding us all that within our own families are those who have lived through a history very different to our own and that we have much to discover by sitting down and learning from them and drawing upon their rich experiences and wisdom.

Jay Sheth


The contrasting worlds of a mutli-cultural family   October 26, 2000
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Subtitled "A Granddaughter's Journey into her Indian Family's Past", Mira Kamdar give the reader a picture of a world that is increasingly getting smaller and a lifestyle that is fading into memory.

Born in 1957, Mira Kamdar is the daughter of an Indian engineer who came to the United States to study and fell in love with the red-haired freckled daughter of Danish-American farmers. Their marriage was a happy one and their four children were raised in the United States but kept their ties to their father's world through lengthy visits to India and close knit family ties.

The word "Motiba" means "grandmother" and Ms. Kamdar has chosen to tell her story by contrasting the differences between her own and her grandmother's life. For example, Motiba was abruptly taken out of school at the age of 9 where she had to live in a protected women's world until her marriage at age 15.

The family was of the merchant caste and settled in Burma during the 1920s and 30s where they lived a luxurious life. But when War came to Burma, things changed. Not only did they lose their prosperous businesses, but they were forced to undergo unspeakable horrors as they fled for their lives back to India.

There is much descriptive detail and a feel of history to this book. We also read about young Mira's feelings of living in two different worlds. We feel her discomfort at being different, and applaud the philosophy of her parents' marriage which they saw as way to bring peace and understanding into the world.

I found the book interesting but not without flaws. For example, the title implies that we would learn a lot about the geometric tattoos that Motiba had on her face. The author does mention them but never did find out exactly what they meant. Also, there were whole sections about Ms. Kamdar's own life that never were explored. We learn she has two children but she doesn't mention her own husband or marriage.

There were nice photographs. I savored them all. Some of them were a little small, but I did enjoy them. Also, the narrative structure, without one line of dialogue, was a little tiring for my eyes even though the book was only 275 pages long.

Changes are occurring so rapidly now that it is hard to stop the thrust of globalization that we live with every day. There's e-mail and instant communication and mixture of peoples from all over the world. Ms. Kamdar's story makes all of this very real and is indeed a worthwhile read.


the beauty of a multi-cultural family   September 28, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Anyone who has grown up with parents of two different nationalities -- which includes a great number of people in our country -- will appreciate this story. MOTIBA'S TATTOOS beautifully and lyrically tells of one family's journey to America and illustrates the challenges and blessings that are faced in multi-cultural families. The most beautiful part of this book is when Motiba writes of her parents philosophy of their marriage: that their union and the children that they produce are their contribution to world peace and understanding. This book is for everyone--Indian or not--who has relatives who left their home to start anew and faced the challenges of being "American," remembering their roots, and instilling in their children the same appreciation for their own history.


Preserving and Redefining Culture + a Good Story!!   February 13, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Mira Kamdar writes about her Motiba because she was the last bastion of their family left in India. As long as Motiba was alive and living in India, India was "home". Now that she is gone, the Kamdars are forced to re-center their emotional homeland. This book was the authors attempt to maintain knowledge about her family history while simultaneouly redefining the meaning of being South Asian in the U.S.

This story is a good one for the larger South Asian immigrant community and for other ethnic groups that have immigrated in the U.S. in the last 20-30 years. Since Ms. Kamdar's father came here in the late 1940's, he was a very early Indian emigrant, but now a majority of the family is in the U.S. This will also happen to other immigrant families and it requires a redefinition by all generations of what their culture is. The positive light that Ms. Kamdar sheds on the emerging South Asian-American youth "movement" and on the younger members of her own family is refreshing given the negative image common in the South Asian-American community about Westernizing influences - that has given us the term ABCDs and such.

The difference between the current movement of people and ideas and previous emigrations of Indians abroad is well demonstrated by the Kamdar family. The Kamdars lived in Burma for a long time, but their spiritual and cultural center was always Gujarat. America has become a place which influences global culture and integrates the culture and ideas of its immigrants.


America is peopled by the world.   October 4, 2000
 3 out of 5 found this review helpful

America's greatest strength is it's people, and it's people have come from all over the world. They have met, married, and had children.

Motiba's Tatoo is the story of one family that came into being just that way. It is not just for the multi-cultural reader but should be read by everyone. This story provides insight as to why, today, we see all kinds of interesting names and faces in our great country and why we enjoy all kinds of foods, today readily available. It provides food for thought as to how the world is shrinking and why we should get to know and learn to understand each other.

Motiba's journey through life that took her from village India to the jet age, from her conservative Gujerati Jain roots to being the grandmother of "American" children and great grandmother of BLONDS is a story in itself.