A boy flees poverty only to spend a decade trapped inside the exploitative Jogta custom of rural India.
A drought-stricken village in rural India. Eight-year-old Vali, bruised by his father's drunken rages, slips away from home and finds refuge with a Jogta — a person assigned male at birth who lives in an outward female form, bound to a custom that straddles gender and spiritual servitude. For a decade, this becomes Vali's world.
Manoj Shinde's debut novel pulls back the curtain on the Jogta community, one of India's most marginalised social groups. Through Vali's decade-long initiation, the reader sees the system from the inside: the physical assaults, the public mockery, the ritualised exploitation dressed up as devotion. When Vali finally understands that his masculine self has been suppressed by the very custom that sheltered him, he breaks free — escaping with a woman named Tara into a life that offers its own brand of hardship.
This is not a comfortable read. It is a frank account of caste, gender, and survival in the spaces that mainstream India would rather ignore. Readers drawn to stories that give voice to communities rarely depicted in Indian fiction will find this difficult to put down.
Set in a village grappling with a severe drought, 'Touch of My Shadow' is the tale of Vali, born into extreme poverty. Injured by the beatings of his drunk father, eight-year-old Vali ran away from home to be embraced by a Jogta-an outward female form possessing a male-body person. As a disciple it took him a decade to learn that his true masculine self has been trapped in the garb of his highly marginalized and exploited Jogta custom. During this, Vali suffered several physical assaults, social mockery, and public persecution. He finally abandons his Jogta custom and escapes with Tara, living an equally miserable life. Read the book to know the repercussions and culmination of the journey of Vali. About the author Manoj Shinde, 1981 born, Symbiosis (SIMS & SLC, Pune) educated management consultant turned author. His first novel, 'Touch of My Shadow' is a sobering narrative that explores the hopeless world of the Jogta community.
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