My book "Daughters of Kerala"

       “One Still Picture Cannot Capture a Life’s Story” by Gita Hiranyan

     Marie Varghese who reviewed "Daughters of Kerala" remarked that 'One Still Picture Cannot Capture a Life's Story’ offers fascinating insights into the intersections of women's roles in relation to social class—the working poor and the Malayalee elite.

     Azhakamma, the young girl who used walk to school with her friends in long blue skirts, with hair plaited coming down on both sides, a gold necklace and a carefree attitude becomes an orphan when lightning strikes her hut and kills her mother making her an orphan, and knocks her down unconscious.

     After she wakes up she is forced to drop out of school and earn a living cleaning houses and washing dishes for four families, everyday. She is willing to clean all the rooms, but not the toilet, even when the mistress of the house reminds her that Kasturba Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s wife) used to do it. The day the story takes place, Azhakamma is angry at the whole world for everyone reminding her about cleaning the toilet.

     Having to work in four houses everyday gives her little time for personal care or grooming, leaving her hair and body smelling. When she looks at herself in the mirror in the upstairs room she goes to clean, she imagines her image admonishing her for not taking better care of herself and not dressing better, and not wearing even a ‘bindi’ on the forehead.

     Gone are the days she used to dress up for school. Azhakamma has completed eighth grade and the daughter of the house where the story takes place, Ramyakutty, considers her educated enough to ask the cleaning girl for the correct spelling of a difficult word, ‘bougainvilla’ or ‘bougenvilla.’ Some times they watch TV together and both are crazy about cinema actors.

     The cook in the house has sympathy for Azhakamma and advices her to get a government job as at least a janitor so that she doesn’t have to run to four houses and get her hands all blistered with the cleaning materials. The cook gives her special food like fried fish without the knowledge of the mistress of the house, though she just throws it out saying that the bones of the stolen fish will get stuck in her throat.

     Azhakamma is most hurt when someone mentions that she has no husband or children. Men in the area know that her mother has gotten an astrologer to write the name of Azhakamma’s lover in her past life on a small gold disk on a black string that is tied around her hip to protect her from men.

     The last part of the story is her version of her life story, proving her Malayalam teacher’s remark, “You know how to write.” But there is no one to read or listen to her story.

My book "Daughters of Kerala"

“The Lies My Mother Told Me”

     In this story by Ashitha, what stands out is the lack of communication and love in family relationships. The Father is a terror to the other members of the family and the workers who come to the house and the fields. The mother is not truthful to the daughter and has set up many rules for her. The only people the girl can talk to freely are the workers from the “poor, uncultured, unreal world, but more free and happy.”

     The girl’s experience growing up in such a household made her realize that many grownups are not truthful in what they say and make up stories that sound good. Her father shows some kind of softness in appearance and behavior only when her mother’s relative Chellammakka is around. The parents always fight about her but when she commits suicide, the mother pretends to be sad and unhappy. Thinking that the death would put a stop to the arguments her parents had over her, the girl wants to know if her mother is happy this woman is dead. The mother is shocked.

     The girl grows up and is ready for marriage. The day the young woman is getting married her mother tells her about the new responsibilities she will have to take on. Part of that is what the young woman discovers as a “stone studded lie,” that the only way to a man’s heart is through “cooking and feeding on time.” The young woman works in the kitchen for hours to make tasty food and feeds her husband on time. But when she in bed with him she realizes that he is looking for “bigger breasts and thighs.” She realizes that “just like preparing food, I had to prepare for love also.” She felt harshly betrayed by her mother.

     The young woman finally acquires the language of her mother, grandmother and all the women before them, the language of silence. “We learned the art of talking contradiction and denial when we had to talk, and practiced self-denial.”

     One day the young woman’s daughter clumsily drapes a saree on and comes to show her mother how much they look alike. The mother is shocked to see the similarities and realizes that along with the looks, the habits also will be passed down from generation to generation.

     In time, this young woman learns to lie about things in such a way as to make them sound good. The person she has lied to most, she says, is her mother.

Achamma Chandersekaran
Blog: http://achammachander.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.achammachander.com/
India Edition: www.rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com



Kindle edition of "Daughter of Kerala" on Amazon.com

My book "Daughters of Kerala"

     Johny Plathottam's "Amma"  (Mother) says the story of a rich woman.
Interestingly, and perhaps ironically, being rich does not get Amma out of the kitchen though her family is rich enough for her to have many servants.

     The kitchen is a spacious room full of huge cabinets, cupboards made of black wood with glass and wire screen doors, tall shelves full of crockery and things like refrigerator and washing machine that most houses do not have. Servants come to clean the vessels, grind spices and do work around the house. But the man of the house has an ‘aristocratic stipulation’, only Amma is allowed to do things in the kitchen and dining room, servants are not. So the kitchen is the world Amma lives in.

     When they were little the children followed her around in the kitchen. But once they started going to school they are mostly in their rooms upstairs and had only one thing to do—study. They also have their own things to do, learning to ride the bike and play tennis and don’t have much interaction with Amma. When breakfast is set on the table Amma would call them to come down to have breakfast, but they almost never interact with her. All meals are served that way.

     They know their mother through the variety of items that come to the table for their sumptuous meals and her affectionate call to come to have their meals.

     As she lived, the kitchen is where Amma is found dead --in the narrow path between the cabinets and cooking vessels stacked up high, with a cooking spoon in her outstretched arm. The forensic professor friend who joins the doctor for the autopsy remarks that Amma’s death was like the engine that stopped working because it was tired of running, but one thing seems unnatural to him: “Her dead body seemed very old as if the death took place months or even years ago, …yet, the body had not deteriorated.” We are left with the question: when did she actually die?

     Her son who lives at home with her tries to remember when he actually saw her or talked to her, but he is not able to. He has been too busy with his work and couldn’t even come home for her birthday. No one, it seems, had time for her.

Website: http://www.achammachander.com/



India Edition: www.rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com

My book "Daughters of Kerala"

     "A Rented House" is written by Sachidanandan who also writes under the name Anand. He is a trendsetter who has written several books --philosophical works and about issues of social importance-- and has received numerous awards. He demonstrated extraordinary courage of conviction in rejecting two prestigious awards.


     “A Rented House” is about a couple who lives in rented houses just long enough for the writer husband to complete a project. When they leave the “Comfortable old fashioned house, situated in beautiful surroundings,” that they had rented last, the wife, Vimala, wonders why they never want to own something and stay at one place just to live there not just use it to accomplish something.

     The surroundings of this last house are indeed beautiful, with clusters of tall bamboo trees, a small river running along the periphery of the village, a path rather than a road that Vimala can see from the second floor of the house, villagers driving their cattle home in the evening—-the whole scene has captured Vimala’s heart. Although it is very different from the city they are used to living in, Vimala does not want to leave this place in a hurry. She wonders why she and her husband never want to settle down in one place.

     The thought comes up because of the situation of the woman who takes care of their needs at this old fashioned house. This woman used to be the companion to the former owner of the house who lived in grand style and had parties with entertainments which the woman used to oversee.

     She took care of him while he was sick until he died. After his death, she has no claim to the property and no special position to live in style. The one who bought the house has kept her to take care of the guests who rent the place. It is only the memories of the events that took place in the house while she lived with the rich owner that keep her there. She would rather live there even as a servant than leave the house only because she has memories that she doesn’t want to forget.

Website http://www.achammachander.com/
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My book "Daughters of Kerala"

Gracy


     In my blog on Working Women I wrote about “Fraction.” This story is by Gracy who is well known for writing very concise short-stories. There are two more stories by Gracy in the book, “Baby Doll” and “When a Star is Falling.”

     "Baby Doll" is about an innocent 12 year old who has not fully developed mentally and behaves like an 8-year old but has the looks of a17 year old. She loves dolls and treats them like her friends. A college student neighbor uses this fact to trick her when her parents are out to visit a neighbor who had an accident, in the hospital. They had given strict instructions to the young girl not to open the door, but to talk to anyone who rang the door bell through the window. When the young man promises to give her a live doll she is so thrilled that she forgets her mother’s instructions and opens the door wide to follow him to his room. She has no clue as to what his intentions are or how she will get the live doll.

     Unsuspecting young girls being sexually exploited by men is true the world over. If they are vulnerable the situation is worse because, as the mother explains the reason for her anxiety about her daughter, “Times are bad.”

     “When a Star is Falling” is about a young, rich woman who lives in a house that looks like a palace, and has cars and other luxuries. But the housewife looks sad because her husband “is a thief” who steals “women’s chastity,” she tells a real thief who had targeted her house to steal from. She considers a falling star a great wonder, though her beautiful, younger sister used to tease her saying that the stars got scared seeing her and were running away.

     Being wealthy alone does not guarantee a happy life. Many aspects of life have to come together for a person's happiness.

Achamma Chandersekaran

Website: http://www.achammachander.com/

India Edition: www.rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com