Sound-Shadows of the New World by Ved Mehta
"Sound-Shadows of the New World" by Ved Mehta is a memoir detailing the author's experiences as a blind student at the Arkansas School for the Blind from 1949 to 1952. Born in India and losing his sight at a young age, Mehta's narrative provides insight into his transition from his home in India to an educational setting in the United States. The book is structured into eleven chapters, beginning with his journey to America and concluding with his high school graduation and challenges in university acceptance.
Mehta's writing is characterized by a high level of detail and a reflective philosophical tone, aiming to illustrate the development of his consciousness and personal growth. His perspective as a blind individual adds a unique dimension to the memoir, highlighting both the difficulties and triumphs he encountered in navigating a new culture. As the fifth installment of an ongoing autobiographical series, this work contributes significantly to the understanding of his life experiences, intertwining personal anecdotes with broader reflections on identity and adaptation. The richness of "Sound-Shadows of the New World" makes it not just a recollection of events, but a profound exploration of perception and resilience.
Sound-Shadows of the New World by Ved Mehta
First published: 1985
Type of work: Autobiography
Time of work: 1949-1952
Locale: Little Rock, Arkansas
Principal Personage:
Ved Mehta , a blind teenager
Form and Content
Ved Mehta was born in India of upper-class parents—his father being a fairly prosperous government official in the health department. Ved became totally blind as a result of illness at the age of three. At first he lived at home with his parents, four sisters, and two brothers. Later, his father sent him to school in Bombay before sending him to the Arkansas School for the Blind. This book is an account of his experience at this high school from August, 1949, until his graduation in May, 1952, and departure for college in California. Throughout his sojourn in the United States, Mehta wrote letters home on a typewriter and kept a journal. Thirty-five years later, these letters and his journal became the basis for a series of articles which first appeared in The New Yorker. They were then published in book form in 1985.
The book forms part of an ongoing autobiography. Vedi (1982) and The Ledge Between the Streams (1984) cover his childhood; two earlier volumes, Daddyji (1972) and Mamaji (1979), center on his father and mother. Face to Face (1957) was the forerunner of Mehta’s autobiographies, covering his life through his college days and introducing many of the themes developed in the later works that focus on particular periods in his life.
Sound-Shadows of the New World follows Mehta through his experiences in high school and offers a glimpse into his thoughts, his hopes, his victories, and his defeats. The book contains 430 pages and is divided into eleven chapters. The first chapter deals with the difficulty of getting Mehta accepted into school, his final acceptance by the Arkansas School for the Blind, his journey to the United States, and his first days in New York and Little Rock. The last chapter deals with his final months in school, his problems in getting accepted into the university, and his graduation. Between these two chapters the book offers a narrative of Mehta’s daily life interspersed with letters and entries from his journal.
Critical Context
As noted above, Sound-Shadows of the New World is the fifth installment in a serial autobiography; excerpts from a sixth installment, following Mehta to Pomona College in California, appeared in The New Yorker in 1987 and 1988. Two qualities distinguish Mehta’s ongoing autobiography from most products of the genre: the copious detail of his account, and his perspective as a blind person.
By the time Sound-Shadows of the New World appeared, the scope of Mehta’s project had become evident, and some reviewers found fault with the pace of his narrative. It had taken him five books simply to get himself through high school; why did he not simply tell his life story once and for all and have done with it? Such objections miss the intent of Mehta’s work, which is more than a chronicle of events. While his style is unpretentious, his ambitions are high: He seeks to re-create the growth of a mind, the shaping of consciousness from childhood through youth and into adulthood. His is a philosophical autobiography grounded in the particulars—the trivia, even—of everyday life.
Add to that the unique contribution of the work as a document of a blind person’s experience, and one can begin to appreciate Mehta’s achievement. Of the autobiography’s installments, Sound-Shadows of the New World is one of the richest, as it recounts Mehta’s immersion in an entirely new culture. Its virtues, though, are representative of the entire series.
Bibliography
Gerrity, Mary T. Review in School Library Journal. XXXIII (September, 1986), p. 155.
Goffman, Amy D. Review in Library Journal. CXI (February 1, 1986), p. 77.
Kureishi, Hanif. Review in The Times Literary Supplement. May 30, 1986, p. 589.
Mehta, Ved. Daddyji, 1972.
Mehta, Ved. Face to Face, 1957.
Mehta, Ved. Mamaji, 1979.
Mehta, Ved. Vedi, 1982.
Sternhell, Carol. Review in The New York Times Book Review. XCI (March 9, 1986), p. 14.