Bandilanka's Forgotten Lives

Bandilanka, a fictional village in Southern India, represents many such ones across the Indian subcontinent, still caught up in the age-old customs, and superstitions that are destructive at times. The characters in this collection have each faced some form of injustice or loss.
'A cleaning woman's tale' and 'Vegetable vendor Sundari' exemplify sex-discrimination in the village. 'Widowhood across generations' describes the fate of widows from all castes, classes, and age groups. 'The matter of trans lives' and 'Tradition's stranglehold' show how despite a 2014 law formally recognizing the existence of a third gender, Hijras continue to face hate and persecution, as does the entire LGBTQ+ community.
Bigotry raises its ugly head in 'Night soil removers Kaavanna and Kondamma,' but is condemned in an interesting reversal of fate. 'A washerman's dream' is the poignant story of a washerman who with his dying breath thanks a loving family for giving him the strength to stand up to a lifetime of rejection because of his perceived low caste.
The stories highlight the inherent worth and dignity of the lives of these disenfranchised groups thus challenging socially constructed divides and inequalities of caste, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and age.

Kamakshi Pappu Murti is a retired professor of German Studies. She has authored fictional and non-fictional writing. Fiction includes children's books and murder mysteries. Her scholarly writing is devoted to multi-cultural issues, as well as gender studies.
Fiction: Murti's first children's book LALLI'S WINDOW was published in 2017 by Austin Macauley, and her first murder mystery MURDERS MOST MATRONLY came out in 2017 as an e-book by Juggernaut Books in India. MURDERS IN THE IVORY TOWER is in the process of being published by Pegasus in Great Britain.
Non-fiction: Scholarly monographs include "Die Reinkarnation des Lesers als Autor: Ein rezeptionsgeschichtlicher Versuch über den Einfluß der altindischen Literatur auf deutsche Schriftsteller" (de Gruyter, 1990) "India: The Seductive and Seduced 'Other' of German Orientalism" (Praeger, 2000) and "To Veil or not to Veil: Europe's Shape-shifting 'Other'" (Peter Lang, 2012).
Murti is an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Women's Fiction Writers Association (WFWA), Modern Language Association (MLA), American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE).
Murti is presently working on a series about two teens, Yasemin and Nirmala ("Yasemin and Nirmala: A Tale of Two Teens") who navigate peer pressure, social media, and their physical disabilities (Yasemin loses an arm in an accident. Nirmala suffers from ALS).
Social media:
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kamakshi.murti)
Twitter (@KamakshiPMurti)
Instagram (Kamakshi@Kamakshimurti.com)
YouTube (Kamakshi Murti)