Reading Guide for The Selector of Souls
- Damini has to change, Anu chooses to change. Did you identify more closely with Damini or Anu in the story? Why?
- Damini and Anu experience and overcome discrimination to different extents. Could either have reacted differently?
- What role do Rano and Chetna play in the novel?
- Do you know anyone like Mumma, Dadu or Sharad Uncle?
- How feminist is Purnima Aunty?
- Did Sister Imaculata grow in her time in India? What reaction does she inspire in you?
- Was Father Pashan all good?
- Was Swamy Rudransh all bad?
- If Suresh were your son, what would you do?
- This story is set in the 1990s when Indians began to acknowledge the problem of sex selection against girls, and the problems of masculinization. As the novel shows, sex selection in Canada often operates to weed out boys. Do we have a responsibility to ensure that technology is not used to discriminate against one sex or the other? Why/why not?
- India’s multilingual, multireligious, multicultural society is contrasted several times with Canada’s. Do the two countries have a few problems in common?
- Which character(s) offered you hope for a better future?
- Why should the world care if Indians reduce their population growth rate by preferring sons and masculinizing their society?
- As the story shows, a husband/husband’s family have the power to pressure a woman to abort a girl child simply by threatening to withhold a family name. How does Damini solve this?
- Will Vikas survive?
Reading Guide For What the Body Remembers