Chudamani Raghavan

Women Expecting Change

“Writing must be for self-expression even if it is taken up

only as a hobby. It should not be a contrived
self-expression.”

(qtd. C.S. Lakshmi, The Face Behind the Mask 89)

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 Chudamani Raghavan was born on 10th January, 1934 in Chennai as a third
daughter to Sri. Raghavan, the then district collector of Chennai and Kanakavalli. Her
younger sister Rukmini Parthasarathy was also a renowned novelist and a short story
writer. She was not sent to school but was educated at home with the help of teachers due
to her physical challenge. She started her literary career in 1954 with the publication of
“Parisu Vimarsanam” a humourous skit that appeared in Dinamani Kadir, a Tamil
weekly. She lost her mother in 1955. She died on 13th September 2010. Her affection for
the deserted was so great that she had executed a will saying that her property should be
donated to the charitable trusts, which was immediately executed after her death. Winner
of Ilakkia Chintanai [Short story of the month] award, Tamil Sangam Award and State
Government Award, she has 32 books to her credit including novels, plays and short story
collections. Though she did not have formal education she wrote both in Tamil and
English with the same ease. Her first short story “Kaveri” which bagged Kalaimagal
Silver Jubilee Award was published in 1957 and first novel Manathukku Iniyaval [The
Beloved Woman] was published in 1960. Her award winning play “Iruvar Kandanar”
[Two Persons Witnessed] was frequently performed and the best Tamil short story of the
year 1972 “Nangam Ashram” was first published in Kanaiyazi in February 1972. She has
been translating her own stories into English since 1962. Though a low profile writer who
resisted propaganda, she could make a niche for herself in the Tamil literary world
through her portrayal of people around her.
A writer who does not go out much and feels that „a writer must take care to see
that her work remains genuine and is never contrived‟, she writes her stories
based on the incidents around her, narrated to her and her own reading. (Tharu
235 )

Her better known works are Manathuku Iniyaval [The Beloved Woman] 1959,
Sodanaiyin Mudivu [End Of An Ordeal] 1967; “Suvarotti”[The Poster] 1985; “Oliyin
Mun” [In front of the Light], 1959; “Pinchumugam” [Tender Face] 1964; “Avan
Vadivam” [His Figure] 1965; “Padigal” [Steps] 1965; “Enna Mayamo” [What is the
Myth?] 1965; “Panam Paritta Selvam” [Wealth that Looted Money]; “Udan Pirappu”
[Sibling] 1967; “Uyarvu Ullattile” [Greatness in the Heart] 1967; “Anda Neram” [That
Time] 1969; “Ilandha Magudham” [The Lost Crown] 1973; “Amma” [Mother] 1987 and.
Her stories have been published in Dinamani Kadir, Dinamalar, Deepavali Malar,

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Amudasurabhi, Kalki, Pudiya Paarvai, Kanaiyaali, Sourashtra Mani, Manjari, Sadangai
and India Today. She has written more than 600 short stories in 19 collections. Some of
her short story collections are Antha Neram [That Time 1969], Ilandha Magudham [The
Lost Crown 1973], R. Chudamaniyin Sirukadaigal [R.Chudamani‟s Short Stories, 1978],
Ulagathinidham Enna Bayam [No Fear with the Society, 1978], Suvarotti [The Poster,
1985], Amma [Mother, 1987], Asthamana Kolangal [Rangoli of Sunset, 1993], Kavalai
Meeri [Overcoming the Watch, 1996], R. Chudamani Kadaigal [R. Chudamani‟s Stories
2001]. Apart from the above „The Tamil writer‟s Cooperative Society‟ published a
collection of her stories in 1978. Her novella Iravuchchudar [Night Spark] was translated
by Vasantha Surya into English as Yamini in 1996. Apart from the above said works she
has also penned a few novels like Neeye En Ulagam [You are my World], Theeyinil
Thoodu [Message through Fire], Kannamma En Sagodhari [Kannamma is my Sister], a
novella called Senthazlai [Red Leaf] and few dramas like Arunodhayam [Sunrise] and
Arumai Magal [My Beloved Daughter]. She has written more short stories when
compared to novels. When asked the reason for her interest in short stories she replies,
Short Stories and novels are two different genres of literature. Each one has
its own style and characteristics. It is not a must that one who is interested in one
should be interested in the other. (qtd. Mangaiyar Thilagam 10)

The themes of Tamil Short Stories were different at different times. Before
independence untouchability, plight of the widows, the psychology of children, ill-
matched marriage, alcoholic prohibition, superstitions were the themes of short stories.
During the independence struggle inevitability of caste extinction, unity of India,
labourer‟s unity became the themes. In the post independent era there was a lot of change
in the themes of stories. Human reaction to the problems of poverty, problem of the
labourers, problems in joint families, psychological problems like disappointment,
expectations became the themes of the stories. Not confining herself to these alone,
Chudamani had a variety of themes like the psychological turmoil of married women, the
agony of unemployed youth, the plight of a dependent father, the feelings of a mother
whose son is about to get married, the psychology of old women, sisterhood,
motherhood, male domination, the agony of a crippled man as the themes of her short
stories. She wrote in a sarcastic manner about the problems of working women who due

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to economic independence were more bonded to the family instead of liberating
themselves. As pointed out by Holmstorm,
Her short stories are often sharp and ironic, often about that peculiar phenomenon
of the urban educated lower middle class Tamil woman who is the main bread
winner of the family, but whose earning capacity far from empowering her and
setting her free ties her even more firmly to the needs of the family. (Holmstrom,
56)

Her stories are humorous and well structured. They are either idea-centered or
emotion-centered. Through her stories she puts forth her ideas about the society around
her. The titles of her stories suggest the readers the themes. Her style and diction are
unique commanding verbal dignity. Her flowery language can be sensed in each and
every work of hers. Vasantha Surya the translator of Yamini who has sensed the beauty
of her language and has succeeded in bringing the same style in her translation of Yamini,
commented:
“The Tamil that Chudamani employs swings easily from the Iyengar
colloquialisms to poetic imagery with a classical flavour. Chudamani does not
feel compelled to follow linguistic fashions. She prefers to remain faithful to her
own creative vision and is not easily tempted away from accuracy by the pleasure
of using words. As a result, her use of symbolism is convincing.” (n. pag.)

“Her language is poetic and lyrical catching the subtlest of emotions and
dexterity.”(Miller 64) In Yamini she describes the beauty of Yamini in unequivocal terms.
Shining like a crown were thick black curls. A smile spread over face like a string
of pearls spilling from an open jewel casket – and the round cheeks dimpled
forming hollows to catch that loveliness. (2)

She is also adept at describing the psychology of her characters. As Reetha Gowri
observes,
Instead of explaining what her characters are doing, she explains their thought
process. She feels that the depiction of the psychology of the characters is of
utmost importance. .. She occupies a niche for herself in portraying the subtlest of
thoughts of her characters. (90)

In “Nangam Ashram” [The Fourth Ashram] the professor describes his love with
his wife in his fifty-eighth year in the following words,

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 As she stood before me, I had felt that she was a Vision, all pervasive and sacred.
Strongly enough, I had fallen in love. I, who until then had been a confirmed
bachelor of fifty-eight. It had not been an old man‟s romance, but a marriage of
equal spirits meeting in understanding. (336)

The poetic description of the Nagalinga flowers in “Counting the Flowers” brings
the flowers before eyes of the readers “Clusters of buds, green like raw fruit, were visible
on the tips of branches. Blossoms in embryo. Future flowers.” (93) Her observation was
so meticulous that even a sweet like Mysorepak cannot escape her attention, “Each piece
was a lovely golden brown in colour, granular but quickly melting in the mouth, rich and
fragrant with ghee.” (“Sriram‟s Mother” 45) She continued to observe clearly and
describe the slightest line of pain on human faces. The pain on the face of the snacks
vendor for not getting educated, that appeared only for a second was beautifully pictured
by her.
At that, like a flash of flame, there was a sudden change on that unchanging face.
He shot a look at me and I saw his eyes pervade with a swirling pain, a seething
rage. His lips quivered as though on the verge of an outburst. The next moment
his face once more became a mask and he stood up. (“The Snacks Vendor” 18)

The picturesque run of a woman to free herself from the tangles that chain her
was explained by her poetically as.
As she ran she shed her woman‟s body with its shadow of tribulation. She
transformed herself with running, driving her feet faster and still faster, till at last
barely brushing the ground with the tips of her toes. (“Drought” 36)

Despite her being a women writer, she also has written about the problems faced
by men and has also portrayed men as the protagonists in some of her short stories. In
“The Strands of the Void” the priest is the protagonist of the story. In “The Snacks
Vendor” the unemployed youth is the protagonist. In “My Daughter Shobhana”
Shobana‟s father is the protagonist. It is surprising to note that she describes with the
same ease the psychology of men as she describes the psychology of women. She has
produced some men who are considerate and understanding and some men who are
arrogant and who try to exploit women. When the temple priest in “The Strands of the
Void”, professor Gnanaskandan in “Nangam Ashram”, Shobhana‟s father in “My
Daughter Shobhana” belong to the first category, Saravanan in “Sisterhood”, Sridhar in

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“The Slayer of Narakasura”, Damodaran in “Two Women on an Evening”,
Somasundaram in “A Knock at the Door” belong to the second category. Similarly she
has portrayed both good and bad women in her stories. She does not portray mere men or
women as the victims or the culprits. For her both men and women are victims and the
human feelings of greed, jealousy and affection are the real culprits. As Vasantha Surya
points out the real culprit in Yamini,
Here the pre-eminent emotion is not love between a man and a woman, but the
love of parents for their child. That is the chief motive for action, and the real
culprit in this story. (Introduction to Yamini, n. pag)

A close observation of her characters shows her human approach towards life.
Thirteen of her stories have been taken up for study. “A Knock at the Door” pictures the
human feelings of pain when someone dearer to them gets separated from them.
Psychological drought faced by a woman due to lack of love and affection is the theme of
the story, “Drought”. The affection between a father and a daughter and the daughter‟s
concern for the father which makes a traditional father undergo transition and accept
modernity is clearly pictured in “My Daughter Shobhana”. The suffocation experienced
by a housewife due to over weighing domestic responsibilities is beautifully pictured in
“Bunch of Keys”. Dowry problem has been the main issue in “Counting the Flowers”.
The four phases that a man undergoes in his life as compared to a women‟s life has been
discussed in “Nangam Ashram”. Difference in the way widowhood is tackled in India
and abroad, the loneliness of a widow at every stage of her life have been clearly
portrayed in “Sriram‟s Mother”. Gender discrimination and sisterhood are the issues in
the story “Two Women on an Evening”. If dowry Problem is the theme of the stories
“The Slayer of Narakasura” and “The Strands of the Void”, sisterhood is the theme of the
story “Sisterhood”. The psychological deviation of a girl from the normal desires of life
and the parent‟s love and affection which takes away the life of the girl is the emphasis in
the story Yamini. The plight of women who are considered as reproductive machines and
have to bear more children is beautifully described in the story “Daktaramma‟s Room”.
Human instincts of fear and pain one experiences when someone or something
they are very fond of and are very much attached to, gets separated from them (especially
when they don‟t have any one to shower their affection on) is clearly depicted in the story

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“A Knock at the Door”. It expresses the psychological turmoil of two sisters (widows)
when they learn that the apple of their eye – Gopi is going to be taken away by his father;
and the cravings of a son to join his father. Through the story she depicts the way of life
that one has to accept.
Nilamani and Vasanti are two widow sisters whose sister Radha has committed
suicide and her only six month son Gopi has been abandoned by his father. From then
onwards Gopi becomes the sole purpose of their life and they bring him up for eight years
with care and affection. During his ninth year his father visits him and writes a letter to
the two sisters informing that he wants to have his son with him. When Gopi is
announced of this turn of events his face lights up with eagerness. This shocks the two
sisters and they resolve to allow the boy to have his own way. The mental torture the two
sisters face due to this sudden change is beautifully pictured by the author. Even a knock
at the door terrifies them.
A knock sounded at the front door. The sisters violently startled, raised their
heads. They stared at each other with eyes wide with panic. Vasanti rise slowly,
her legs almost giving way under her. She staggered towards the door. She
hesitated for a moment. Her heart fluttered wildly. Her hand shook over the bolt.
Unable to grip. (12)

When they find that the man who knocked the door isn‟t Gopi‟s father they feel
relieved. “The two sisters felt a little relieved. And relieved they would continue to feel
till the next time someone should knock at the door.”(12) Thus the grip of fear that
entangles the two sisters is beautifully expressed by the author.
The two women in the story Nilamani and Vasanthi are ordinary women with
love and affection. Though Gopi is not their own son, they love him more than his own
mother could do. There is no jealousy or competition between the two sisters. Both of
them respond equally to the calls of the child.
When the child called out “Periamma” the aunt responding with “Yes darling”
could be either Nilamani or Vasanti. …They loved the boy so dearly that they felt
they would have to invent a whole new vocabulary to be able to describe that love
adequately.(9)

The author portrays them as affectionate sisters who wish that their sister should
not have the same bad luck which they have experienced in their life. “All their hopes

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and wishes for their younger sister – that life should bless her with every good that they
themselves had been denied...”(9) Between the two sisters, Nilamani is a possessive and
over sensitive woman who can not control her emotions. When Gopi is willing to go
with his father, she feels as if her own life is being carried away along with Gopi. When
Gopi is enthusiastic to join his father she curses the child for his thanklessness. She is
over enthusiastic and pours out her emotions without caring for time and place. At the
same time she is a cautious woman who warns Gopi against the dangers of being
kidnapped. This she might have done this to avoid Gopi going with his father.
“Appa appa appa! What do you mean by that?” Nilamani burst out, “How do you
know he is your appa? Some loafer comes visiting you at school after all these
years and immediately you start raving about appa. Appa! Could be a child-lifter
for all we know. Hereafter, if any stranger come asking to see you, you are to say
No, d‟you hear?” (10)

She is out spoken and an expressive woman who suffocates Gopi with her
shower of love and affection. „Nilamani pulled the boy to her and hugged him in a
frenzy.‟ (10) She is too possessive to apprehend Gopi‟s enthusiasm to join his father.
When she sees Gopi‟s enthusiasm on hearing his father‟s desire, she can not control
herself.
Nilamani, observing him with twitching lips, shrank within herself for a moment,
like one stricken. Then she stood up, frantic, and shaking the boy by the
shoulders, cries, “You won‟t agree, will you? You won‟t leave us and go away
with your father, will you? Will you? ...” (12)

She can‟t have that understanding to realize the longings of a child to join his
father. She curses Gopi, “See how unfair it is, Vasanthi! We regard him as our entire
world he doesn‟t love us at all – not a bit! As soon as he is told that his father wants
him....” (12)
Contrary to Nilamani, Vasanti is delineated as a self controlled and sensible
woman who can understand the feelings of Gopi. She does not pour out her emotions in
front of the child and even cautions her sister against it. She is portrayed as a practical
woman who in spite of her deep attachment to the boy understands his longings to join
his father and thinks that what has happened is for the boy‟s benefit. She justifies Gopi‟s

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anxiety about his father. When Nilamani scolds Gopi for his eagerness to join his father,
she supports the boy and tries to make Nilamani understand the feelings of Gopi.
“Don‟t accuse the child, akka. Why do you assume that he doesn‟t love us?
Perhaps his classmates ask him where his father is and taunt him about it. Though
Gopi has never said anything to us, we don‟t know what really passes in his mind.
If it is like that, then... then what has happened is....is a good thing for him....isn‟t
it?” (12)

Her attachment with Gopi is so deep that she is carried away by his thoughts even
in the middle of her job and is full of praise for him and knows his needs. In fact, she is
proud of him.
Vasanthi, however, could not lose herself in this service of love except in the
evenings and nights. She worked in an office. But even there, buoying her up, the
memory of Gopi ran like a thread of light through her official duties. What high
marks the dear lad had scored in the recent science test, to be sure! Brainy little
fellow! (9)

She is equally afraid as Nilamani and has her own apprehensions about
Somasundaram‟s visit. But as a sensible woman she can reason out the purpose of
Somasundaram‟s visit to convince her sister.
“Perhaps just to find out how his son is progressing,” Vasanti said, trying hard to
believe her own words, “perhaps he is ashamed of his past conduct and just wants
to pay us a visit in atonement.”(10)

Through the story the author tries to explain the feelings of desperation and the
pain of separation and the strong bond developed by the two sisters with the boy.
Knowing that Gopi is not their own son, they have developed a lot of affection towards
him and can‟t bear his separation. The very idea of his separation shatteres them to
pieces.
If it is over fondness that brings sorrow in Nilamani and Vasanthi, it is the lack of
love that brings sorrow in the story “Drought”. This lack of love makes life a drought.
The drought in the literal sense makes the lives of people topsy-turvy. But this kind of
drought is bearable when compared to the drought one faces in ones own life due to lack
of love. This becomes the theme of the story “Drought”. This story also brings to light
how women prefer the physical drought to emotional drought and how they in traditional

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India are be forced to bear this kind of drought in their life. The society teaches a
married woman that a woman‟s place is with her husband no matter whatever the tortures
she undergoes. Gomathi is married to a mechanic in a chemical factory in Chennai who
tortures her in a beastly manner. Unable to bear his taunts, she flees from her husband
and takes refuge in her drought stricken natal home. For her bearing this drought is better
than the loveless treatment she receives from her husband. But not only the drought but
also the societal paradigm that a married woman should be with her husband makes her
mother and siblings drive her back to her husband. Gomathi even pleads the man who has
seduced her to take her to his house not as a wife but as a servant-maid to his wife. But
the man refuses to do so since his reputation will be at stake if he does so and advises her
to go back to her husband and try to win her husband the way she has won him. He
further reminds her that he is another woman‟s husband and she is another man‟s wife.
Thus much against her wishes, she is forced back to her husband. The story ends with the
girl boarding the train for Chennai. Drought in the story is symbolic of the climatic
drought as well as the psychological drought – a condition where in there is no trace of
love and affection
The writer has portrayed Gomati the protagonist of the story as a charming young
girl, who can not tolerate the bruises of her husband and runs away to her mother‟s home.
She is delineated as a girl who does not care for the paradigms of the society - chastity.
The author‟s version of chastity, “A physical relationship that is based on honesty
between all those involved is also a chaste one”. (qtd. Holmstorm, 56) is clearly reflected
in the story. In response to C.S Lakshmi‟s questionnaire in 1976, Chudamani has said
that “„Chastity‟ is nothing other than honesty in one‟s way of life.”(qtd. Holmstorm 56)
Gomati is attracted and feels indebted to the Panchayat Union chief‟s son Ramananthan
for the love he has showered on her and the happiness he has given her. The author
justifies her deviation from the traditional code of behaviour in her own words to the man
of her love as, (indirectly telling that women view emotional security and happiness
greater than physical security)
“Your touch was gentle and your words considerate. You made me happy. You
weren‟t brutal to me. I hadn‟t imagined that it could be anything like that between
a man and a woman.”(51)

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 To escape from her husband and to enjoy the tender treatment of her lover, she
doesn‟t mind becoming a servant to her lover‟s wife. She did not care for the society or
its abuses. She pleads him,
“I won‟t impose myself in any manner. I don‟t want you to marry me or even give
me money. Let me just stay in your house as a servant. I‟ll do your wife‟s
bedding and look after your children. And whenever you want me I‟ll be
available. All I ask you is that you feed me‟‟ (51)

She is portrayed as a girl who can not bear the physical tortures given by her
husband and explains them to the man of her love with a hope that unlike his mother at
least he would listen to her and understand her problems.
I cannot begin to describe the atrocities. When he gets drunk on illicit liquor it is
even worse. Then his attentions as well as his beatings are simply hell. Once he
dragged me to the street and stripped me and branded my thigh with a hot iron.
(51)

In order to escape her husband‟s tortures she is even ready to accept bad name.
She hopes that some one will see her with the village headman‟s son and complain to her
husband so that he won‟t take her back. “I don‟t care,” Gomati said in a high-pitched,
hysterical voice. “It might even be good if somebody saw us and reported to my husband
so that he would refuse to take me back.” (49) She is not happy with her present life and
feels nostalgic of her childhood days. As a result she imagines that she has become a little
girl again and runs hysterically with imagined happiness.
She got up. And began to run forward. Running, it was easy to imagine that she
was a little girl and happy again. As she ran she shed her woman‟s body with its
shadow of tribulation. She transformed herself with her running, driving her feet
faster and still faster, till at last barely brushing the ground with the tip of toes, she
became just one nebulous whirl of speed that left her entity far behind.....” (50)

When Ramanathan advises her that she should go back to her husband stating that
she is another man‟s wife she logically questions him for his act of succumbing to her
charm, “Then why did you treat me as a wife? You another woman‟s husband, I another
man‟s wife. Why did you ever touch me?”(51)
Gomati‟s mother is a conventional mother who feels that a woman‟s place is with
her husband. She never gives ear to Gomati‟s complaints but keeps on advising her that a
good wife should not leave her husband at any cost. May be for her, what all Gomathi is

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trying to complain are petty things and they should be silently borne by a wife. “You will
pull on with him through thick and thin as a good wife should and will not leave him
again whatever happens.” (37).
Through the portrayal of Gomathi‟s mother the author tries to portray how the
average Indian mother with traditional mind set will behave. Gomathi‟s mother tries to
act deaf to Gomati‟s refusals and pleas. She kept on advising her daughter that she should
stay with her husband forever. Even when Gomati tries to explain her the tortures her
husband gives her, she pays no attention to them.
“I won‟t go,” Gomati said.
“And this time when you go you will be a good wife and obey your husband.”
“I won‟t go.”
“You will pull on with him through thick and thin as a good wife should and will
not leave him again, whatever happens.”
“I won‟t go.”
“A girl should not think of her mother‟s place after she is married. You will be
good wife and stay with your husband……..”
“He beats me, he tortures me.”
“……You will stay with your husband as a good wife should and will not come
running here again. I know you‟ll listen to me. You‟re a good girl.” (49)

She is also partial in giving her very little food when compared to the other
children and she never comes to the support of Gomati even when her siblings scold her.
“The mother had distributed the meager supply among her six children and herself. The
ration she handed out to Gomati seemed the smallest ……..” (48)
Through her character Chudamani is trying to portray how the motherly qualities
of a woman are striped off by tradition and poverty. The traditional mind set of Indian
society that a married woman is no more a part of her maternal family is reflected
through the words of Gomathi‟s siblings. It is not only the drought but the conventions
that turn them selfish. They consider a married off sister as an intruder and a competitor
in their share of food. They don‟t have the heart to hear and understand her problems but
compel her to go back to her husband.
“Shame on you” said one of her sisters, looking at her fixedly.
“To come here and cut in our little food.”
“Why should we feed you?” said another “You are married. Let your husband
feed you. It is his duty now, not ours”.
“Why did you come? You are married. You should be with your husband.”

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 “That piece of food you are eating is ours by right.”
“You are robbing us.” (36-37)

All the people in the story are portrayed as heartless people who are deaf to
Gomati‟s pleas and refusals. They go ahead with their advice asking her to return to her
husband and conduct herself well. In the midst of these heartless people Gomati‟s
continuous refusal, “I won‟t go!”(51) goes unheard.
A woman getting into men‟s prerogatives is accepted in modern world. But there
are always exceptions. When it has something to do with their freedom to do what they
want, society gnaws at it. This particular aspect is addressed by Chudamani Raghavan in
her story, “My daughter Shobana”. Talking about the story, the author says,
“It is an outcome of my thoughts on how our society is changing and what
departure from the traditional norms it can bring about as a result, departures that
must be accepted without inhibition”. (Foreword to “My Daughter Shobhana”
306)

A daughter‟s concern for her father and the transition of a tradition bound father
to accept the affair of his daughter with ease and the psychological turmoil he undergoes
in the process is the theme of the story “My daughter Shobhana”. In this story Chudamani
Raghavan subverts the traditional idea of son shouldering the responsibility of parents
and demands a suitable change in the parents and society to allow women to enjoy the
freedom that is enjoyed by men alone.
Shobhana‟s father has lost his eyesight in an accident twenty years ago and
consequently he comes under the refuge of his only daughter Shobhana. During her
youth, she has got many prospective grooms willing to marry her. Shobhana refuses all
the alliances since they are not ready to allow her to continue with her father‟s
responsibility. As a result, she remains a spinster at the age of 39. One day when
Shobhana is out of station on an official tour, Muthu an acquaintance of Shobhana‟s
father informs him that he has seen her with a man in a hotel two days back and that they
have booked a room as a couple. This very news startles Shobhana‟s father and the
conventional father unable to digest the news feels agitated. Later when he realizes the
comforts Shobhana has given him, her sacrifice for his sake and how he has accepted her

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as his son and has taken refuge from her, he undergoes transition and gets prepared to
accept this break away from tradition with ease.
“And yet I had accepted her as a son and was living comfortably under her
protection. Thus I had already, with ease, accepted a social change and a breaking
away from tradition. Then why should I hesitate to view her as a son regarding
this other matter? She too was a creature of flesh and blood, after all. (316-17)

With this transition he hints her indirectly that he has accepted her style of life by
asking her to bring her special friend (if she has any) and that he is glad that “apart from
looking after him, she has a life of her own.”(317) The story ends on unambiguous note
with Shobhana replying her father, “You say you are glad, and that is enough for me,
Appa. It isn‟t really necessary that I should bring any……any special friend here.” (317)
Shobhana is depicted as an affectionate daughter who feels that her primary
duty is to look after the comforts of her father. She is unlike the traditional girls who look
forward to get married ever since they come to age. She is unmindful of the societal
norms in terms of looking after her father and also having her own way of life. She is
presented as a daughter who has reversed the conventional norm of a parent claiming not
to have “left their children lacking for anything”. It was Shobhana who asked her father,
“Have I left you lacking for anything Appa (Father)?”(308). Whenever her father urges
her to get married she brushes it aside with the question, “What will you do,
Appa?”(309). She is a sensible and practical woman. She is not the one to let her father
join any charitable trust and look after own life. But at the same time she is not against
marriage. She wants a life partner who allows her to look after her father‟s needs and
who accepts her along with her father. She doesn‟t allow the traditions to chalk out her
life. For her marriage is not for the society but for herself. So she is very clear about her
marriage and the kind of husband she needs. The statements she gives, clearly show her
appreciable and balanced stand towards the institution of marriage. It is obvious that the
author too holds the same idea towards marriage.
“I have nothing against marriage. I am quite willing to get married. But I can
marry a man who will agree to my condition. You come first with me, Appa.
Always. I cannot accept anyone who will not accept you”. (309)

On another instance she says, “Surely life does not mean only marriage? I am not
sorry about this Appa.”(310)She did not have even the slightest irritation over her present

54
situation. Chudamani Raghavan presents her as a woman who is so clear about her life
over which she would not have any regrets even in future.
She was 39 years old now.
To this day her tenderness towards me had not wavered. There was never any
accusation in her voice or manner. There was nothing in her behaviour to indicate
that she nursed any discontent, regret, envy or self-pity in her life. Even now it
was as if she were telling me with every breath of her loving kindness, “You
always come first, Appa.” (314)

Shobhana is a loving, considerate daughter who plays the role of a mother to her
father. She can not bear even three days of separation from her father. She has queries
towards her father which are full of concern and empathy.
“Have you had your food, Appa?”
“Appa, your mattress is getting threadbare. I have arranged for the ginning.”
“Why are you lying all huddled up, Appa? Are you feeling cold? Let me cover
you with a sheet.”
“Can‟t sleep, Appa? Shall I read to you?”(312)

Her father is grateful to her for the protected life she has given him. Her father
recalls, “She had given me this attendant, as she had given me my entire, protected life.”
(313) “She had made all arrangements to ensure that my needs and comforts were taken
care of, even when she was away from home or out of town.”(308) When her father
expresses that he will join a charitable trust, she retorts immediately, “Send you to a
charitable home as if you had nobody to call your own? I don‟t want marriage at that
price, Appa.”(309)
As she is the only child, she feels it her responsibility to look after her father and
she has done it in a better way than a son could do. She even convinces her father saying,
“Would I not have supported you if I had been a son? I have the same duty now.” (310).
In a gender biased society which criticizes both the parents and the daughter for the delay
in the daughter‟s marriage she daringly plays the role of a son.
She is projected as a cool and discerning woman. Though she grasps from her
father‟s words what has happened, she does not feel nervous or anxious about it. She
responds wisely and coolly to her father and thanks her father‟s friend who according to
her guess has carried the news about her affair. A temperament of this sort comes from a
strong individuality, so assured of herself having lot of confidence, clarity and control

55
over what she is doing. When her father asks her to bring „her special friend‟ saying that
he had no objection, she immediately thanks Muthu indirectly hinting that she too has
seen him at the hotel. From her words it is clear that Muthu has torn the veil that has
shielded Shobhana‟s private life from her father thus giving her a great relief. She is
presented as a modern woman who has gone in for an alternative for marriage though it is
not clearly given in the story. But she doesn‟t want to publicize her private life even to
her father. She knows the needs of her father and her own needs and hence has charted
out her life in a clear cut manner. She has seen to it that she can take care of her father
without making any sacrifices of her own. Her words show that she is relieved of the
tension of hiding the fact from her father. “You say you are glad, and that is enough for
me, Appa. It isn‟t really necessary that I should bring any … any special friend here.”
(317)
Through the story the author tries to hint at the transition in the thought process of
a man and also the changes that are gradually taking place and ought to take place in the
society. Through Shobhana‟s father she questions the gender discrimination present in the
society. Through the story Chudamani Raghavan indirectly hints at the change which she
wishes to see in the outlook of the society.
Responsibility of any kind becomes a pressure for anyone. But the way one
responds to it differs from person to person. If Shobhana has tackled her father‟s
responsibility in her own convenient way, domestic responsibility has weighed down
Annapurna of “Bunch of Keys”. Woman has been glorified as the mistress of the house
and the queen of her domain - kitchen. It has got so infused in the system that in order to
live up to the image given to them, women often get wearied and tired. Stress is not the
domain of working women alone. Housewives with a lot of domestic responsibilities
undergo stress and are weighed down. Chudamani Raghavan has tried to picture this
suffocation women undergo due to unlimited domestic responsibilities through the story
“Bunch of Keys”. The romantic view that „bunch of keys‟ symbolize authority is
subverted. They no more stand for authority but the responsibilities that weigh women
down. In the story, this bunch of keys seems a problem for wife alone as husband always
avoids it. Further, the more the number of keys attached to the bunch, the more the
responsibility. Ironically, women themselves add these keys and get shackled with the

56
chains invented by themselves. She tries to portray humorously how the domestic
responsibilities pull down a woman in spite of the physical help she receives from her
servants. This story subverts the romantic concept of „gruhalakshmi‟ [Queen of the
home] and shows it as a painful role.
Annapurna is a house wife with a son, a daughter and a loving husband. She has a
cook and a servant couple to look after all the domestic chores. She has proved herself a
good wife and mother. As a cautious house-wife she watches over everything in her
house like a sentinel. As a part of her duty, in order to prevent the servants from stealing,
she has locked everything in the house and keeps the keys in a bunch and tucks in her
waist. But she always feels the bunch of keys weighing her down heavily and feels like
getting rid of it. One evening when they go to the beach, she purposefully hides it in the
glove compartment and after reaching home announces that they are lost. She does not
bother to search for it but stays calm and cool in spite of her husband‟s frantic searches.
She decides to take the keys from the glove compartment after a few minutes and say that
it was lying on the car seat. Those few minutes she wants to enjoy the “pleasure of having
shed a burden, just for five minutes, with every second enjoying into permanence” (43)
Annapurani, the house wife and protagonist of the story is a witty and jovial
woman who jokes at a serious situation to relieve the tension. When her son and daughter
fight on how to call a tin - dabba or dabbi she commented in a lighter vein, “Yes, a dabba
is a male tin and a dabbi a female tin.” (39)She is adept at giving witty answers to her
husband.
“Oh God”
“Why? What‟s happened?”
“Are you god?” she changed it into a joke(40)

Even when her husband complains that the colour of his shirt has changed she
wittily remarks, “This is the blue shirt. It has been reborn on this form after a wash. This
is the moment for the bard kalamegh to sing a song”. (40) She is poetic at heart willing to
enjoy the beauties of the dawn. She feels,
“To hear the birds voices, to see the face of the world revealed as the gray
curtains of darkness are drawn aside one by one, to run up to the roof top, to touch
the sky, to be a part of that splendour of redness slowly spreading below - it is for
these that day should dawn” (39).

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 But she is the mistress of the house who has to look into each and every detail of
the household management. She is considerate and readily sends her servant couple to
attend the death of their kinsman. She is portrayed as a mother proud of her children. She
feels proud on looking at her daughter‟s growth.
Annapurani, proudly gazing at her daughter who looked tall in her maxi, was
startled and said: “Oh – anywhere.” Then she smiled and said: “Solachi has grown
tall, hasn‟t she? Somu was tall from birth. Now, brother and sister make a nice
pair.”(40)

But as a housewife she develops hatred towards the bunch of keys which weighs
on her heart. A woman‟s desire for freedom is shown in her words,
“You run the house for a few days. You look after the locking, opening,
everything. Let me eat sleep and bathe on time like the children. I‟ll do what I feel
like doing and no more. You take all the responsibility”. (42).

But at the same time she also feels that it is neither a great lacking nor small but
“just a little weariness” (42) Annapurna‟s weariness can be compared to Sita‟s longing
to go to the forest and live by herself for a few days in Deshpande‟s, “The Day of the
Golden Deer” which may be due to the dull embrace made routine.
Through the story the author tries to show the heaviness of the responsibilities
house-wife shoulders from the ages unknown. It is always viewed as woman‟s
prerogative but not man‟s. Unless they are into it, no body knows the heaviness. That‟s
why Annapurani in her childhood has teased her mother with tucking keys at her waist.
She has not understood the „monalisa smile‟ given by her mother.
When Annapurni is tired and vexed of the bunch of keys, she is „reminded of the
time when she and her brothers and sisters used to tease their mother who moved around
with the bunch of keys chinking at her waist.‟(41) They used to draw parallel between
their mother and A.J. Cronin‟s novel The Keys of the Kingdom and tease her,
“Amma, isn‟t this house your kingdom? So, as far as you are concerned, these are
the keys of the kingdom!” …. Now she wondered, had her mother really enjoyed
that responsibility and authority? Or was she too suffocated by the tyranny of
those keys? Had she smiled because she could not weep?‟ (41)

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 Everyone in the house depend on her for everything. May it be the keys to the
garage or the pocket money of her husband, everything is under her control, thus exalting
her directly and exploiting her indirectly. Her husband makes her run around even for
petty things like picking up the car keys and locking the garage, thus making her more
tired.
“Annam, I think I‟ve forgotten the car keys in my room. Could you get them,
please?”
“This too”, she thought, and brought him his keys. “Thanks. Will you lock the
garage after I leave? I‟m already very late.” He took the car out without waiting
for her reply. Annapurni stood looking after him for a few moments. Then she
locked the garage and put the key on his table in the house. (40)

If self imposed responsibilities that tire and chain the women are discussed in
“Bunch of Keys”, the problem of marriage and dowry, and gender discrimination are
discussed in “Counting the Flowers”. In Indian society marriage of a girl becomes the top
most priority for parents ever since she is born. Hence many parents view girl child as a
burden to be relieved off as early as possible. In this process they go to the extent of
bringing ill-matched alliances to their daughters and sometimes use their daughters as a
bait for the benefit of their sons not paying any attention to the feelings of the girl.
Chudamani tries to picture this plight of a girl whose father is trying to fix up her
marriage with a lame boy through the story “Counting the Flowers”. Through the story
the author conveys the realities in everyday life wherein the education and the job of the
groom are taken into consideration to increase the dowry rate while his physical
disabilities are overlooked. Getting a bridegroom for a girl is difficult. Getting him for a
less dowry is something unimaginable. For a poor father it is much more difficult. A
scope to cut down the dowry comes when there is defect on the groom‟s side. When the
girl is beautiful, the girl‟s father has a larger scope to bring down the dowry. Here, the
girl will not have any say except to accept what her father has decided. Further, she also
becomes a scapegoat of gender discrimination. She often may have to sacrifice her
dreams and desires for the welfare of her family especially her brothers. In such
circumstances, both the girl and her mother become helpless. This is the usual condition
of the girls born in lower middle class family in Indian society. This becomes the story of
Brinda in “Counting the Flowers”.

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 Brinda is a beautiful young girl born to poor parents. During the bride viewing
arranged with a lame groom her father exploits her beauty to bring down the dowry and
uses her as a bait to get his son educated. The groom attracted by Brinda‟s physical
charm finally comes down to accept the cut down in the dowry. But Brinda all through
the bridal interview and afterwards concentrates on the beauty of the Nagalinga flowers
which she sees from the window and tries hard to count them. Though she tries hard to
divert her concentration on the Nagalinga flowers, she can‟t succeed and finally instead
of the Nagalinga flowers, she sees the lame legs. “And even as she was counting,
suddenly the flowers seemed to vanish and she saw on the tree four dozen lame legs”.
(96). This story reveals the bargain as it takes place in the society. Bride not having
education, her inability to cook well, her dark complexion, the grooms education, job,
salary are the factors that increase the dowry rate. It doesn‟t matter even if the groom
does not look good. Whereas the good looks of the girl, her capacity to cook well and the
physical challenge of the groom are the factors that decrease the dowry rate. But the
irony here is that the negotiation goes on in the very presence of the girl and the boy. The
cruel and latent inhuman nature is exposed here.
“Uneducated,” said the boy‟s mother. “You ought to give us three thousand
rupees more for that reason alone.” (89)

The boy‟s mother spoke sharply, “All said and done, he is a man. What does a
man‟s appearance matter? Is he not educated? Is he not employed? (93)

“That‟s a laugh. What effrontery! It was only because the broker said the girl
wasn‟t too bad looking that we agreed to this small sum. Normally a boy‟s
parents would expect not less than thirty thousand rupees”.
The girl‟s father glanced at the boy “For this boy?” He did not voice the
question, but the boy flushed and instantly pulled in his right leg under his dhoti.
His parents, too, felt abruptly silent” (90)

Brinda is a girl of wheatish complexion, more than average height, with a

“luminous air of easy, natural grace about her that brushed aside poverty as one might
shake off a fly”. (84) She is educated only up to the eighth standard. Like any average
Indian girl she learns to cook well and for the father it is a talent that can make the
bridegroom‟s party to consider her. She is portrayed as a casual girl who does not bother
about the traditional formalities and hastens to sit in front of the groom‟s party which is

60
not liked by the groom‟s mother. Right from the beginning she concentrates on the
beauty of the Nagalinga flowers and nothing else. When her father is busy exhibiting her
virtues before the groom‟s party, she is bent on talking about the beauty of the Nagalinga
flowers. “Do you know how absolutely beautiful these Nagalinga flowers are?” Brinda‟s
voice cuts into the exchange, “People walk down the street grazing at this house. And
everyone in ten is sure to come in to ask for a few of them to be used in worship ….”(92)
Brinda is a submissive girl who does not have the courage to oppose her father
despite his going wrong. Initially when her father asks her to wear the georgette sari she
understands that he is trying to expose her beauties in front of the groom‟s party and
hence does not easily obey him. When compelled she does it unwillingly.
“Go, change into the georgette that your friend Meenakshi gave you last week.
Don‟t you want to show it to aunty? Get up.”
Brinda did not stir.
“Get up and go in now, will you?”
Brinda shut her eyes for a moment, tight, and then opened them again. She got up
and went into an inner room. (93)

She is a girl who tries hard to divert her attention from the business bargain going
on in the name of bride viewing. From the beginning to the end, she concentrates on the
Nagalinga flowers. She has some similarities to „Yamini‟ in getting herself lost amidst
the hustle bustle. But unlike Yamini she is submissive and obeys her father‟s words. She
speaks neither against her father nor against the match fixing process.
She is delineated as a girl who can compromise with the situations and call the
champak flowers superior to jasmines, roses and champaks despite the fact that they have
a strong pungent odour the next day. This symbolically suggests her trials to consider the
lame groom high of all.
But finally she is unable to control her mind and can see only the lame legs but
not the flowers on the tree. It is an indication of the overwhelming grief within her due to
the ill-matched marriage fixed by her father. She is an ordinary girl who can not
completely divert her attention despite her trials. She secretly hopes the alliance to be
given up due to the dowry. So, when the boy agrees to the cut off in the dowry she loses
heart. “Brinda counted the nagalinga flowers feverishly. One, two, three, four, ….”(95)

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 Brinda‟s mother is delineated as an affectionate mother who can‟t tolerate to see
her daughter being made a scapegoat. “The girl‟s mother sat with her eyes carefully
averted from her daughter, afraid that she might break down if she looked at her.” (86).
She can not put up with her husband when he tries to expose the physical charms of
Brinda to lure the groom by making her wear Georgette sari and pace up and down the
room on some pretext or the other. “The girl‟s mother got up abruptly and left the room.”
(94)
When the groom‟s parents are angry with the father‟s proposals and are in the
point of giving up the alliance, she feels happy about it and becomes courageous to look
at her daughter. “Sensing their anger, the girl‟s mother‟s eyes lit up for a moment in
sudden hope. She made bold to turn round and glance at her daughter.” (91) She is not at
all happy when the marriage gets fixed up.
The girl‟s mother had come out again at the last minute for the formality of seeing
the visitors off. When they left, she raised her head and looked straight into her
husbands eyes…….. The girl‟s mother turned towards her daughter. Then she
looked away teetered and sat down. (95-96)

The boy‟s mother is depicted as a dominating, egotistic woman and an average

Indian mother-in-law who is highly influenced by the dowry system. She can‟t bear her
husband inviting the girl to sit and the girl sitting down immediately. “Was it not for her
to invite the girl to sit down? And the girl, too, had sat down at once. Really!” (85)
Though she has been informed of the girl‟s education earlier, she enquires and makes
fuss about it for two reasons. “Just for the pleasure of saying, not good at studies?” (86)
and to increase the dowry in that pretext. “Uneducated”, said the boy‟s mother. “You
ought to give us three thousand rupees more for that reason alone.” (86) She is a tradition
bound woman who feels that a groom should maintain certain prestige and when she sees
her son not doing that she can not control her anger. “His mother seethed inwardly. Did
the wretched boy have no pride, for God‟s sake? (87) She has a feeling that the more
dowry one takes, the more valuable they are.
“What is a marriage without the boy‟s people getting at least twenty thousand
rupees?” (89)
“Normally a boy‟s parents would expect not less than thirty thousand rupees.”
(90)

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 She has a feeling that if a boy is educated and employed, he is qualified to
demand more dowry no matter how he looks and whatever the disabilities he has. “All
said and done, he is a man. What does a man‟s appearance matter? Is he not educated? Is
he not employed?” (93) But with all her villainy she can not do anything against her son‟s
wishes and has to accept the cut down of dowry.
The author tries to hint at the gender discrimination and show how the father is
not bothered about the kind of husband his daughter gets. He is only concerned to see that
somehow or other she gets married off. Even the likings of a girl are not taken into
consideration.
When Brinda can‟t take a daring step to refuse the ill-matched marriage that is
forced upon her, Shankari of “Nangam Ashram” is a courageous girl who marries thrice
and the men are of her own choice. Nothing can bind her – neither the traditions nor the
family ties. And the author compares the journey of Shankari through all these to the
different stages a man goes through before he gets to the final stage of renunciation.
These four various stages, that hitherto have been seen in man‟s life, Chudamani
Raghavan traces in woman‟s life too. “Nangam Ashram” talks about the four stages of a
man‟s life:
brahmachariyam (bachelor and student); grihasta (householder); Vanaprasta
(living in detachment in the forests) and Sannyasam (complete renunciation) as it
means to a woman. It also talks about woman‟s liberation. (Tharu, Foreword to
“Nangam Ashram” 325)

The story begins with Professor Gnanskandan returning form the cremation
ground after cremating the body of his wife Shankari. On the way he meets Shankari‟s
former husband Murthy. Shankari‟s past life is revealed to the readers through their
conversation. Shankari is an educated woman who has fallen in love with a boy called
Manohar in her sixteenth year and has married him with the consent of her father. When
the boy dies in her twenty-first year, she marries Manohar and leads a happy marriedl life
with him and bears two sons. In her thirty-eighth year when she feels an intellectual urge
within her, she understands that her husband can not cope up with her intellectual
passion, takes divorce from him and marries her professor who is her father‟s friend and
twenty years older to her. She always views him as her professor with whose guidance

63
her „mind grows like a child.‟ But when she realizes that she requires solitude for final
fulfillment she asks for divorce from the professor to which the professor denies since he
has „grown too attached to her.‟ (333) Then she escapes by falling from the balcony of
the flat. Murthy unable to understand the reason why Shankari has asked for divorce from
the professor comments if she wants to marry for the fourth time to which the professor
starts analyzing the reason behind her odd behaviour. According to the professor when
she was in the state of emotions, she was with Manohar. But she had physical fulfillment
with Murthy „as a woman and mother‟ (332). When she realized intellectual urge she
married the professor. Finally when she realizes that „her supreme fulfillment requires
total solitude of self‟ she asks for divorce from the professor to which he denies. Hence
she escapes by committing suicide in the pretext of an accident. According to the
professor Murthy is generous to let her go her way, but he is not. He has been too
possessive of her, which becomes the cause of her death.
Shankari is portrayed as a forerunner of the Women‟s Liberation Movement who
behaves the way she likes. By describing the four ashrams in Shankari‟s life, the author
tries to project the similar kind of emotional stages a woman is capable of going through
like men as coded in „Hindu philosophy‟. Through this the author indirectly states that
human feelings are not bound by gender. May be it is the societal paradigm that must
have made people purposefully overlook these stages in women. Though born as a
woman she lives the stages of life like a man and fulfills her needs like a man. When she
feels that emotional, physical and intellectual requirements of her body are fulfilled, she
understands that “her supreme fulfillment would require total solitude of self, she broke
away from all bonds, including marriage.” (332) She is an unconventional woman
unchained by the traditions that chain an average Indian woman. Nothing can bind her.
She does not have any sentimental attachment either to her family or her children. In the
words of the professor,
Relationships, associations, obligations, marriage, family - she gave up
everything, or rather, she experienced and outgrew everything. She wanted to
liberate herself in order to be alone. (332)

In her attitude to life, she is above an average Indian woman who finds her identity either
in her parents or husband or children. Morgaret Cormack commenting about Indian

64
women says that the women who have western influence on them alone will try to
establish their identity apart from the family:
The concept of the woman‟s self is not that of an individual as the Western
woman sees herself, but more like a cog in the family machine. Therefore it is not
surprising that the Hindu woman feels a strong identification of self with the
family. It would be almost inconceivable for her to think of herself as separate
from her family – and that apparently happens only in cases of much Western
influence. (Cormack, 189)

But it doesn‟t look so in the case of Shankari. Chudamani Raghavan never talks
about the western influence. “Nangam Ashram” was written in the year 1972. It was a
time when the society scorned at the widows who married or the women who got
separated from their husbands. Shankari can be compared to the Avvayyar who out grew
the familial bonds in her quest for knowledge.
Surprisingly she is portrayed as a woman who wants to identify herself as an
individual but not as a cog in the family machine. She is delineated as an honest but
determined woman. One doesn‟t find Shankari hiding her feelings and living an artificial
life. If she is not satisfied with the life she is leading, she has the honesty to ask for
divorce from her husband. When her second husband Moorthy grants her the divorce she
asks for, everything goes on well and she marries the Professor. The attraction she has for
the professor is intellectual passion not the physical passion as she confesses to him.
I have always admired the depth of your knowledge. For me, no one could
compare with Professor Gnanaskandan. After all these years, it is those very
qualities I need, professor. Those things that I admired then, I cherish now and I
have come to you. (329)

But when the Professor refuses to give her divorce, she searches for the other way to
freedom – suicide. She is a lovable person who has such a hold on her previous husband
that he can not tolerate her suffering.
“I can‟t bear even to think how much she must have suffered.”
“You must be wondering why she still has such a hold over me.” (327)

Her independent quality can be understood by both her present and her former
husband. And the Professor exclaims:
“We both know, don‟t we, Mr. Murthy, that she was an independent soul. Nothing
could keep her bound.” (333)

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Professor seems to be the only person who can understand her properly.
She had a maturity that demanded completeness, depth and knowledge. She had
claimed them as her birth right. She couldn‟t be caged. She was an independent
soul. We create barriers and we create freedom. She was beyond all that. (326)

Feelings and desires are similar for both man and woman. Our Indian society that
can understand the needs of a man overlooks the needs of a woman. It fails to understand
the fact that Chalam tries to emphasize through his writings "Woman too has a body; it
needs exercise. She has a brain; it needs knowledge. She has a heart; it needs experience"
(qtd. Praveen Marthanda)
Chudamani Raghavan through her story “Sriram‟s mother” tries to bring to light
the psychology of a woman who becomes widow at a very young age and remains a
widow all her life in order to bring up her only son and her plight when this son falls in
love with a girl and gets married. It is the story of a young, widowed, possessive mother
whose possessiveness is shackled to the earth, the moment she hears her son‟s love affair.
Gender discrimination and turning of tables in a similar situation is the paradox in the
story.
Gayathri, the protagonist is the mother of a handsome young chap who falls in
love with a girl and announces this to his mother. Instead of asking for her consent to
their marriage, he declares his wish to get married to his lady love. Gayathri, a forty six
year old lady who seems young and beautiful has been a widow for 21 years since her
twenty fifth year. “Her youth was abruptly arrested one rainy evening twenty one years
ago by a lorry-motorbike collision on a narrow street in Park Town.”(47) Ever since her
husband died, her son Sriram became the only source of solace for her in her moments of
despair and agony.
Minutes and hours- days, weeks, months – fell into one dense darkness of
bewilderment (… this can‟t be true… this can‟t be true….) as she shivered
through sleepless nights pressing her son to her chest. (42)
She had developed a deep attachment for her son and became possessive of him.
When he announces that he is in love with a girl, she feels her whole being
shackled to earth. But to hide the reality, she continuously announces everyone and even
lifeless things that she is happy. It is a kind of hypnotism that she is trying with. But

66
finally she succeeds in her effort and seems to be happy on the day of her son‟s marriage.
The story ends on an unambiguous note without revealing whether she has really changed
or she is acting.
Gayathri is a beautiful woman with a small well-proportioned womanly form.
“With an ivory-fair skin and thick black hair” she can be singled out in any big crowd.
“She walked proudly erect, thrusting her chest out, a queen conscious of her empire of
loveliness.” (43) Her husband Mukundan used to appreciate her beauty with “a twinkle
in his eyes” saying “Small is beautiful”.(43) At the age of 46 too she looked stunningly
beautiful and is admired by her colleagues. She has “petite shapely figure”, “large eyes:
“dark hair where just a couple of strands near the right temple showed reluctantly white
as though graying under protest.”(47) Though she doesn‟t show it openly, in heart of
hearts she takes pride of her beauty. Whenever people pass comment on her beauty, she
„acknowledges the compliment with a demure smile.‟(47) One of her colleagues
Ramanathan a great admirer of her beauty, is the one who gives her compliments often.
He is the person who tries to inject into her the thought of getting married again. He
would say, “You look so young,” and “If you had been born in America… you could
have married again long ago.” (47) Even her daughter-in-law acknowledges her beauty
when she says, “I did not know that my future mother-in-law would be such a young and
beautiful woman!"(46)
Chudamani Raghavan doesn‟t depict the social stigma that is attached to a widow
in Indian society like being treated as a bad omen and not being invited for the functions
and all. But she ponders on the emotional and mental agony a widow silently suffers
unseen by others. Her loneliness, her getting old, her separation from her son who is the
sole purpose of her life, her jealousies, her enigmas, dilemmas and conflicts are
beautifully portrayed. Chudamani Raghavan has succeeded in bringing this part of an
educated, working widow into light in this story.
The loneliness that haunts a widow doesn‟t spare Gayathri. She could find solace
in her son who is “Her all” when she “fell into one dense darkness of bewilderment…as
she shivered through sleepless nights” by “pressing her son to her chest.”(42) But when
this son grows up and announces “I am in love with a girl”(43), the loneliness that has
temporarily left her starts engulfing her with much more intensity. One can find Gayathri

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thinking and moaning through the nights lying all alone in the bed. “She could not sleep
that night.”(44) Even on the day he brings Anitha to her “Her sleep was fitful that night.
The jagged fragments of sleep were heavy with formless images. In one of the
nightmares she saw herself awake but her eyelids were drooping. Weighted. With
rejection.”(45) Even before the wedding “She lay awake in bed.”(47) “She sat for a long
time without moving. She sat hugging herself, crossed arms pressing against her breasts,
head hanging down, limp, like a lifeless thing. And the tears rose from some dark,
primordial source.”(48) After some days of her husband‟s death, she gets used to idea
that her son is her only companion and became happy in his service. When she learns that
her son is in love with a woman, the loneliness and the tears that had left her temporarily
engulfs her once again. Quite often she feels lonely and depressed where the tears
become her companion.
She becomes jealous and over sensitive where her son is concerned. This
happens because she becomes so attached to her only son ever since her husband died.
She becomes so possessive of him that the very words that he fell in love and he needs
another woman in his life irritates her; the very thought of the girl her son wants to marry
provokes jealousy in her. She is relaxed a little when she finds her future daughter-in-law
„Anitha‟ as a plain girl “no beauty. Intelligent face…tall…but swarthy in
complexion…flat-chested.” (45) But when Anitha pays compliments to her beauty, her
attitude changes a bit to that of soft towards Anitha. But her jealousy towards Anitha as a
woman taking her place doesn‟t leave her completely. She tries to suppress her sorrowful
feelings, saying time and again “I am very happy that my son is getting married.”(47)
Even in the beginning of the story, one finds her repeatedly saying, “I am happy.”(42)
But now and then her jealousy finds its expression in her sorrowful thoughts and in
slapping her servant maid.
The author through the story tries to portray the fact that in the same age of
twenty five where a woman‟s youth has ended, the youth of a man blossomed to its full.
Due to over possessiveness she feels jealous of the girl with whom her son is in love
with.
She had coffee ready the next afternoon. Nothing special about that. You offer
coffee to any visitor. Perhaps she should also offer tiffin to the girl? But not
Mysorepak. Certainly not Mysorepak, that she had made especially for her son.

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 Besides, this was no festive occasion that you should serve a sweet. It wasn‟t as
though the engagement ceremony was being held. (45)

Gayathri is an over-sensitive woman whose jealousy vanishes when she sees that
the girl is of ordinary looks and when the girl praises her beauty.
When she saw the girl she relaxed a little. Anita, dressed in simple printed cotton
sari and greeting her hostess with joined palm and a bright “Vanakkam, amma”
was no beauty. (45)

When she comments on Gayathri‟s beauty, “I didn‟t know that my future mother-
in-law would be such a young and beautiful woman!” (46) Gayathri serves the girl not
only tiffin – rava dosas - but Mysorepak as well along with coffee.
She is an envious and weak minded woman who can not tolerate to hear anyone
saying that her son needs a wife and hence slaps her servant maid when she declares that
her son needs a wife. After that a kind of restlessness overpowers her and makes her feel
insecure. She is a down to earth mother who asked her son whether he still cared for her.
“You….you care for your old mother, don‟t you son?”(45) Like any ordinary mother she
has her own dreams of accompanying her son to any corner of the world and cook his
favourite dishes for him
Will my son be another Srinivasa Ramanujan ? He can go to a contemporary
Professor Hardy any where in the world and I‟ll go with him and cook his
favourite brinjal koottu for him and keep house for him. (43)

When her son announces his love affair to his mother for the first time, she burns
her fingers with the hot iron out of shock. The words, “How could she have been so
careless?” (43) might point out her carelessness with the iron or her son.
Gayathri is a woman of pleasant character who makes the servant brood over the
change in her instead of lambasting her. “Amma was a kind woman and had never struck
her before. What happened to her,” Valli wondered. (46) She is delineated as a beauty-
conscious woman who is happy to hear people say that she is young. That‟s why even
when Ramanathan comments that she is young she takes it in a lighter vein.
She is a woman who has the capacity to hide her feelings. Though she is inwardly
very disturbed and sad, she appears to be happy to the people. In this aspect she can be
compared to the lady doctor in Shashi Deshpande‟s “A Liberated Woman” where the

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lady doctor who in reality is a caged bird has been hailed as the liberated woman in the
magazine by the interviewers.
She feels unsecured and on learning that her son has fallen in love and is going to
get married feels totally alienated and deserted. “At age forty-six it was still standing
bewildered, stunted, not knowing how to cope with the anomaly, how to clear the
yawning chasm of loneliness.” (47) She is not very clear of her needs and very much
confused of her life. The day Sriram announces that he is going to bring his lover the next
day; she was overcome with a feeling of insecurity. Out of her unsecured feeling, she
spends many restless nights but she cautions herself that it was due to overwork.
I am too tired to sleep, she told herself. Too tired making the marriage
preparations. That is why I am not able to sleep……..She sat for a long time
without moving. She sat hugging herself, crossed arm, pressing against her
breasts, head hanging down, limp like a lifeless thing. And the tears rose from
some dark, primordial source. (48)

Anitha, Gayathri‟s future daughter-in-law is an intelligent girl with good manners

and honesty, who knows how to capture the hearts of people. Gayathri regards her as the
one who has attracted her handsome son in spite of her ordinary looks.
Anitha, dressed simple printed Cotton sari and greeting her hostess with joined
palm and a bright “Vanakkam, amma,” was no beauty. Intelligent face, yes…
Tall, yes (Perhaps a little too tall for a girl?) but swarthy in complexion. And good
almost flat-chested! Whatever did her handsome son see in this ….this person?
(45).

She is honest and outspoken and with her „frank admiration‟ captivates the
reluctant Gayathri and makes her serve tiffin with sweets.
“I didn‟t know that my future mother-in-law would be such a young and beautiful
woman!” she said.
Gayathri served the girl not only tiffin - rava dosas - but Mysorepak as well along
with coffee. (46)

Through the story the author tries to present the feelings of insecurity of a
widowed mother with only son undergoes when she is being deprived of the only
pleasure that she has in her life – her son. Her modesty doesn‟t allow her to show her
resentment, anger and ill feelings that she develops in the process outwardly. But they

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find expression in her sleepless nights, bitter tears, loneliness and the slap she gives to her
servant.
Due to the effect of patriarchal society, Gayathri feels estranged and lonely
because of her son‟s marriage. In fact she has not realized that she can have another
woman to share her feelings and woes. Will this new bond be a permanent one? Do the
relatives who become closer due to marriage get estranged from each other when the
marriage is dissolved? When the man who is freed of the marriage bond and can marry
for the second time, why can‟t the woman do the same thing to build social justice?
Chudamani muses on these questions in her story “Two Women on an Evening”. It is a
story in the feministic perspective based on sisterhood. It implies the basic fact that all
women belong to the same category and are bonded with sisterhood. In “Two Women on
an Evening” the ex-sisters-in-law Hema and Tulasi meet in a shop when Hema is caught
up in a predicament with a few rupees lacking to settle her bill. Tulasi comes to her
rescue and helps her with the deficit money. At first Hema is reluctant to accept the help,
but later accepts it. Then they go to a restaurant to have coffee and ice-cream. Tulasi
praises Hema for her achievements as a journalist. Hema has been married to Tulasi‟s
brother Damodharan. Initially he feels proud of his wife‟s talent as a free lance journalist.
But gradually ego over-powers him and he forces her to give up her job as a journalist.
When she resists to that, he divorces her and gets ready to marry for the second time.
Hence Tulasi asks Hema why she too can‟t marry for the second time and says that “it
would demonstrate a basic justice.”(47) Then they go on their way.
Hema is portrayed as a woman of self-respect who is not willing to accept help
even from an acquaintance. Initially she looks at Tulasi as her rival since she is her ex
sister-in-law. She is a cautious woman who suspects Tulasi‟s friendly approach as a trap
to her. “Perhaps Tulasi, with such honeyed talk, was trying to trap her back into the old
set-up.”(143) She accepts Tulasi‟s friendship only when she talks high of her profession
and calls her by her maiden name.
Hema felt Tulasi had dispelled all her misgivings at one stroke. By praising her
article, she had acknowledged Hema‟s status as a journalist. And in say „Hema
Nagarajan‟ she had indicated that she accepted the validity of that name.(143)

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 She feels that a woman‟s relationships that come through marriage and are gone
the moment the marriage is dissolved. “But Tulasi, can you help feeling a certain distance
from me? Can you really maintain an impartial attitude between…..between your brother
and me?” (144)
She is an ordinary woman who in spite of her name and fame tries her best to
dance to her husband‟s tunes. When Damodaran shouts at her for typing in the house, she
sits down quietly at night with pen and paper to escape it. But she is very particular not to
give up her profession. When he asks her to choose between her profession and her
husband, she chooses the former. As a woman with self respect and self-identity she
gives divorce to her husband when he tries to overshadow her will and identity as a
working woman outside her family life.
She is characterized as a woman who takes life in an easy way. When Tulasi
informs her of her brother‟s second marriage she wishes whole heartedly that he should
find happiness in his second marriage. “Is that so? My best wishes to him. I hope he finds
happiness at least in this marriage.”(147)
She is self-confident and feels that marriage is not much important for a woman.
That‟s why when Tulasi advises her to get married, she asks, “Do you think marriage is
all-important to a woman, Tulasi?” (147)
She also declares that she is at peace after her divorce and feels it her
responsibility to look after her parents.
“Where do you live now, Hema?”
“With my parents. They too need my support.”(146)
…………………..
“I live a peaceful life now.” (`147)

Tulasi is delineated as a modern woman with the feelings of feminism who feels
that man and woman are equal. “If a divorced man can find re-marriage so easy, why not
a divorced woman as well?”(147). She urges Hema to get re-married to demonstrate a
basic justice. She is the fore-runner of sisterhood to feel that the basic bond of sisterhood
between two women is stronger than any other bond.
“But I have a bond with you too, Hema! In fact, a much more basic bond”
“And what is that ?”
“We both are women” (144)

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 She is an advocator of friendship.
“Friendship is also a relationship, Hema. Two people get acquainted in some
context. Then, if they become friends in their own right, the friendship can
continue even after the original context has changed” (144).

One doesn‟t find any kind of resentment, jealousy or revenge in her for Hema
who has given divorce to her brother. She represents the kind of women who respect
self-respecting women. She is considerate, respecting and welcomes the decision taken
by Hema and calls her by her maiden name which shocks Hema too. She even says that
she feels proud of Hema‟s achievements. With her friendly behaviour she drove away the
suspicions of Hema.
Tulasi had dispelled all her misgivings at one stroke. By praising her article, she
had acknowledged Hema‟s status as a journalist. And in saying “Hema Nagarajan
she had indicated that she accepted the validity of that name. (143)

Hema can be compared to Shobhana of “My Daughter Shobhana” in her view of

giving marriage the least importance and Tulasi can be compared to Shankari of
“Nangam Ashram” in considering second marriage as a right for women.
The torture a woman faces in the hands of an egotistic husband is negligible when
compared to the torture faced by a woman due to dowry problem. In the earlier case the
victim is the girl alone and nobody else. But in the latter case the girl‟s parents too suffer
along with the girl. Dowry problem and the torture in the hands of in-laws is the theme of
the story “The Slayer of Narakasura”. Padma‟s parents belong to a middle class family
with a daughter Padma married off and a son - a five year old one, Babu. The child is a
silent witness to the tortures faced by his parents at the hands of Kaveri amma - the
groom‟s mother right from the day Padma got married till her first Diwali celebrated in
her natal home. Both at the time of marriage and during this festive occasion, the groom
Sridhar‟s mother harasses Padma‟s parents and makes them dance to her tunes. She goes
on finding fault with everything right from the delicacies prepared by Padma‟s mother to
the diamond ring presented to her son. This disheartens Padma‟s parents who hang their
faces in humiliation. Babu who witnesses all these things suddenly remembers Diwali as
a festival that celebrates the destruction of evil and Sridhar‟s warning that crackers could

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kill people. Immediately he rushes to the inner room, takes a series of crackers, lights
them and throws them upon Padma‟s mother-in-law. All of them are shocked at this act
of Babu and his father even beats him and asks him to apologize to the lady for his
misdeed. But Babu bluntly refuses to do so and even affirms that he did it as he wanted to
kill her. When asked the reason for his deed, he lists the harassment given by the lady to
his parents and says that he wants to kill her as she is the Narakasura. This brings a
change in the lady and she turns out a new leaf. Thus the story has a cinematic ending.
This story has a variety of characters such a Padma, her husband Sreedhar, her
mother-in-law Kaveri her parents and her brother Babu - the only child character and the
protagonist of the story. Padma is a typical Indian girl who changes herself according to
her husband‟s tastes immediately after marriage. She is submissive and is obedient both
to her parents and her mother-in-law. She represents the women who silently accept the
harassment from their in-laws without questioning them.
And at that very moment Mami shouted, “Padma, where is my towel?” from some
where in the house and immediately Akka called back, “I‟m coming” and went to
running to her. (27)

Her jovial nature seems to be dried up by the marriage. Now she becomes so
reserved keeping herself at the beck and call of her mother-in-law. Her brother Babu
could see this transformation in her. “She has lost her old jolly look and manner. Her eyes
keep darting timidly towards Kaveri Mami, every now and then.” (27) She becomes her
old self only when she is out of sight of her husband and her mother-in-law. When she
goes out with Babu to greet some of their relatives, Babu „pinched her arm fondly and
playfully, saying, “New Pinch!” She did the same to (him) and (they) laughed together.
This was my old Akka.‟ (28)
Padma‟s mother, too, is portrayed as a typical Indian house wife whose only aim
is to look after the family welfare and see that her daughter lives in peace. As most of the
Indian mothers do, she also feels that her daughter‟s in-laws are superior to them and they
should be given utmost respect. She gives utmost importance to her daughter‟s mother-
in-law. She and her husband act as if they are slaves to her. The words of Babu reflect the
importance they pay to Padma‟s mother-in-law, “From the way they danced attendance
on her, you would think she was some sort of queen, and my parents her slaves.” (29)

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 She is a patient mother who puts up with the naggings of Babu. She is the one
who gets up with the lark to see to the household arrangement. She is a good-natured
woman who has taken a resolution not to take a single paisa from her daughter-in-law.
Whenever Padma‟s mother-in-law humiliates her, she bears it with silence without
talking back. She is so frightened of Kaveri Mami that when Babu flings crackers on
Kaveri, she “seemed to sway on her feet, ready to drop down.” (32).
Kaveri Mami is an image of that typical Indian mother-in-law known in Indian
society for her harassment of her daughter-in-law‟s people in the name of dowry and
custom. She is a tall and hefty woman – a demon both in terms of her personality and her
character. Despite being a woman, she finds fault with everything Padma‟s mother
prepares for her.
“The idlis are like rock,” Mami complained, “So is the Mysore Pak. You should
supply a hammer with it so that one can break it into bits to eat it. I haven‟t tasted
the other sweets or the savouries yet. I am afraid to.” (29)

With all these flaws she is a flexible woman who can be easily corrected for she
gets changed on Babu‟s pin-pointing her mistakes.
Problems for women start with marriage. But they change their shape and
intensity from time to time. If dowry is the problem for a newly married woman, after
some years of marriage continuous child-birth becomes a problem for her.
“Daktaramma‟s Room” depicts the plight of women who are considered reproductive
machines and not human beings. Devaki the protagonist of the story has given birth to six
children in her sixteen years of married life within her thirty second year. Now she is
pregnant for the seventh time much against her wishes and eagerly yearns that it should
be anything else other than pregnancy. She will be happy even if it were a tumor. The
doctor advises her husband to get her operated immediately after the birth of her seventh
child as her health is in a bad state, but he doesn‟t give ear to her words and says that they
will have those many children they are destined to have. When the lady doctor talks about
Devaki‟s abortion or operation, Devaki‟s eyes widen with hope that it may put a full stop
to all her sufferings. But her husband is adamant about having more children as he has
the capacity to rear them. On the way they purchase so many things for the house which
Shanmugam carries. On reaching home, he puts it down as if he has carried a heavy

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weight through out and says, “SS….Appadaa! How heavy this was! What a relief!”(210)
Here the writer subtly satirizes the attitude of insensible men who can not understand the
burden of pregnancy. The man who cannot carry a small weight for a little while expects
his wife to carry babies after babies every year for nine whole months.
Devaki is depicted as a timid girl who can‟t go beyond her husband‟s wishes.
Though she is pregnant for the seventh time in her sixteen years of married life within her
thirty second year she doesn‟t have the courage to say „No‟ to it. But she is so scared of
pregnancy that she whole heartedly wills that it should be a tumor or something else other
than pregnancy. She yearns that a tumor will be a great deliverance for her as that will
give her rest.
„It wouldn‟t matter even if it were a tumor. Wouldn‟t matter? Why, that would be
a great deliverance! She would go to the hospital and lay herself down in peace.
(207)

She asks the doctor with eagerness if her weak health will be the reason for her
delayed periods.
“Then by any chance could that be why it‟s getting delayed?”
A desperate longing lit up her face and set her eyelids aflutter. (207)
The person who knows the ins and outs, pains and sufferings attached to
pregnancy can never have a romantic conception of pregnancy promulgated by the
society. Devaki wishing that is should be tumour instead of pregnancy subverts the
concept of women glorifying pregnancy.
She seems to be a docile woman who speaks every word with great care not to
irritate her husband. When her husband is restless about waiting for the doctor,
she pleads him to wait for some more time saying that it will be a trouble for him
to come over again there. „I mean, for you it‟s so much trouble all over again,
after cautiously spelling it out. (206)

When the doctor said that if she gets operated immediately after the delivery there
won‟t be anymore problems, she looks at her husband with lots of hopes.
“And if we do an operation as soon as she delivers there will be no more
problem”, said Daktaramma.
A light blazed up in Devaki‟s eyes. With a tremulous smile, She looked at her
husband‟s face, her own frantic hope blocking it from view (208)

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 She is a timid, submissive woman who doesn‟t have the courage even to cry.
For the space of a second, Devaki‟s glance froze. The light in it went out. From
the trembling of her lips it looked as if she were about to cry. But she did not cry.
As though all her bodily fatigue had gathered into a heavy load pressing down on
top of her, she hung her head. Her face was vacant. (209-210)

Daktaramma, the minor women character in the story is portrayed as a person

who has a lot of concern for her patients. She is experienced enough to understand the
problems of her patients even before examining them. As a trained woman she can
understand the agony and feelings of another woman. Her understanding of Devaki
shows this aspect.
Daktaramma‟s trained eyes looked her up and down, observing a wasting of the
flesh rather than any slender elegance, Rings under the eyes, a skin that indicated
anemia … If she were put to bed she would sleep soundly for a week without a
break. (206).

She tries her best to convince Shanmugam to get Devaki operated immediately
after her birth, but does not succeed.
The author through the story tries to bring to light the ill-fate of the wives due to
the superstitious belief of the husbands that children are god given gifts. She also tries to
portray the ignorance of husbands which turn out a curse to women.
Men have their own way of keeping their wives under control. If some men like
Shanmugam do it outwardly, there are some men like Saravanan of “Sisterhood” who it
under the pretext of love and affection. But the hidden reason behind such kind of
character would be their dominating character and egoism. Even traditional wives who
are submissive to their husbands appreciate women who can challenge egoistic husbands.
These feelings of sisterhood and male ego of a man are beautifully pictured in the story
„Sisterhood‟. Saravanan is a typical average Indian husband who tries to suppress his
wife in the guise of love and ideals. He feels that working women will not be submissive
and are head strong and hence does not want his wife to work. But he has sugar coated
this bitter fact in the name of the ideal saying that it is inconsiderate for two people in the
same family to work when there are so many families without a single working person.
He exerts full control over his wife, but always under the pretence of love. Like
Devakis‟s husband in „Daktaramma‟s Room‟ he too is insensible to the feelings of his

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wife. He sees that his word has the final laugh in everything. He makes her wear the dress
of his choice, cook a delicious, variety supper in spite of her tiredness and throws cooked
food on her face. Added to these, he even flirts with another woman. He refuses not only
to help his father-in-law financially but also to send his wife to her natal home in times of
her parent‟s need. But he gives a valid reason for all his actions. Whether or not aware of
his intention his wife Prema never opens her mouth against him, but serves him with the
same submissiveness.
One day Saravanan brings home the news of his friend Balan‟s wife who has sued
against her husband asking for divorce. The very thought of a woman asking for divorce
shocks Prema. When Saravanan informs Prema that Balan‟s wife has got divorce from
him, she prepares delicious Badam Kheer to celebrate the occasion. Thus she expresses
her feeling of sisterhood and feels happy when the other woman has achieved what she
can‟t.
Prema is portrayed as an average Indian wife who does nothing other than
surrendering herself to her husband. Right from the beginning of her married life, she is a
submissive wife who neither talks back to her husband nor does anything against her
husband‟s wish. Even her egotistic husband thinks of her as,
„Prema, an appropriate name for her. She was the very embodiment of love.‟ (15)
She is meek and prepares a delicious meal at the order of her husband in spite of
her exhaustion. She doesn‟t have the courage to say that she is tired.
“Hotel food is also terribly adulterated, isn‟t it?
Why eat it and invite all sorts of diseases? Let‟s go straight home. You do the
cooking.”
In the moment when she was silent, her fatigue seemed to bear down on her a
hundred fold.
“Feeling lazy” His voice had an edge to it.
“Oh no. Nothing like that. Let‟s go home. Homemade food is after all the best,”
“That‟s my girl.”
They reached home
“Shall I just make some rice and rasam, and fry a couple of appalams? I feel a
little ti…..”
Before she could finish he cut in, “Am I a convalescing patient that you dole out a
starvation diet to me ? Cook a proper meal with sambar, vegetables and
everything”
Doesn‟t matter if it takes time.
“I will do it.”(17)

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 She is a timid girl who does not raise her voice and does not question him both
when he refuses to help her father and when she discovers his flirts with another girl.
When her father writes to her asking for monetary help to treat her ailing mother, he roars
at her talking very ill of her father. He doesn‟t even allow her to visit her mother under
the pretext of paying hospitality to his sister who is visiting them. Even then she makes
no arguments and behaves as before.
She asked her husband‟s permission to go home and visit her mother, and he
refused because his sister was coming to them with her children for a holiday and
she obediently fell silent again. She entered into no argument and created no
scene. In her conduct towards him, there was no change. (18)

She without throwing tantrums silently bears her husband‟s unfaithfulness when
she discovers her husband‟s flirts with another woman. She accepts Saravanan‟s
infidelity in a helpless state.
Later she had found a dainty, perfumed woman‟s hand kerchief in her husband‟s
coat pocket. The truth became plain to her, but even though her eyes showed her
deep hurt, she picked no quarrel with him.
“Prema darling, I love you so much,” his voice would whisper into her ear and
she, with the expression on her face unchanged, would say, “What tiffin would
you like me to make today?” (17).

Prema is a tradition bound woman who can not initially digest the fact that a
woman asks for divorce. When Saravanan informs her about his friend Balan‟s wife, who
has sued a case against him, she was „aghast‟. “Divorce!” she exclaimed, “A woman asks
for divorce.” (17) But the same Prema celebrates the victory of Balan‟s wife with
payasayam [sweet porridge] when she gets divorce. Thus she exhibits her feelings of
sisterhood towards the other woman who has achieved what she can‟t achieve.
“What, Paayasam! What are we celebrating today? Our wedding anniversary?
No. Is it somebody‟s birthday?”
She made no answer. She filled another cup with paayasam and, looking steadily
at him, sipped it slowly. (18)

With marriage women become alien to their parent‟s house. They rarely speak of
their problems to their parents. They try to suppress their agonies within their hearts
without letting out. Like Prema of “Sisterhood” who hasn‟t opened her heart even to her

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parents, Muktha of “The Strands of the Void” also tries to keep her sorrow confined to
herself. Only when she realizes that she can no longer keep it a secret she lets it out, that
too not to her conventional mother, but to her considerate father. The story “The Strands
of the Void” goes round dowry problem and metaphysical conception of God. The
protagonist of the story the temple priest has a son and daughter. The son has been killed
by a gang of robbers whohave pushed him out of the running train. He has left behind
him a wife and two sons as the continuation of his existence. As a result of all these
incidents the priest looses faith in God. Even when he is praying to God in the Sanctum
Sanctorum his mind roams elsewhere and he has least faith in God. Hence he decides to
quit the job of the priest and start a business of his own. Mukta, the daughter is married
off to a man in a village near Trichy. It has been a month since her arrival, but she has
never opened her mouth about the purpose of her arrival. It is only when her mother starts
making preparations to see her off to her in-laws home, she opens her mouth and reveals
the truth that her husband and her-in-laws have tortured her by placing burning cinders on
her palms as a warning for not bringing complete dowry and have sent her there to return
with the full dowry. She pours out everything to her father and pleads him not to send her
again to her-in laws. Her father is reminded of the words uttered by the banker‟s son who
is a devotee that dowry problem has been completely eradicated out of the country and
realizes how controversial it is. Then he assures his daughter that she will not be sent to
her-in-laws and consoles her that it is not the end of life.
The priest‟s wife is portrayed as typical Indian house wife who feels that the place
of a girl is with her husband. She can be compared to Gomathi‟s mother in “Drought”
who feel the same way. She compels her husband to take Mukta back to her husband‟s
place with the necessary rituals. She is a vigilant mother who can sense that there is
something wrong with her daughter‟s married life. In spite of it she feels that her
daughter should live with her husband.
“There‟s obviously something wrong, we should take her and leave her there. She
is young, She must live life to the full. Her place is with her husband, whatever
the problems.” (150)

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 She is a responsible woman who is worried about running the household without
her husband‟s salary. The moment her husband says that he is going to leave the job there
is mixed feelings on her face. “On her face …What was it? Fear? Grief? Anxiety?” (151)
She is religious minded and can remain contented about her husband‟s profession
as a priest. “But I feel a special joy and contentment in the fact that your job is service to
God.”(151). Her faith in God helps her bear the sorrows in her life with a hope. She is so
religious that she cannot tolerate any statement against God. When her husband tells her
that he is doubtful of the existence of God, she exclaims
“Shiva, Shiva! What is this atheism? And that too from a temple priest? In the
midst of so much grief it is bhakti [devotion] and puja [worship] that gives us
consolation. And you…..” (146).

As an understanding and loving wife she can decipher the psychological turmoil
of her husband and comforts him.
She touched me (the priest) gently on the shoulder and gave me a comforting
smile, “I understand. But I don‟t want to understand. Your mind is not in a proper
state just now. Take rest for some time.” She said and went inside. (151)

Muktha is a patient girl who does not want to trouble her parents with her
problems. That‟s why she does not inform the reality of how her palms have got burnt.
Though it has been her mother-in-law and husband who have kept burning cinders on her
hands, she tells her parent that she has held a hot pot with her hands spread out. Like
Gomati of “Drought” she doesn‟t want to go back to her husband‟s place. Like Gomati
she does not try to tell her parents what really happened at her husband‟s house but
declares her resolution of never going there.
“I don‟t think I will return alive if I go there again,”
“I don‟t wish to go back there. Not only now. But for ever.” (154)

She is a caring daughter who keeps awake till her father‟s arrival and opens the
door even before he knocks it. She serves him food and sees to it that her father eats
properly. “I reached home. Even before I knocked on the door I heard the sound of the
door being unlatched. Then the door opened. Mukta stood before me.” (142) When her
father refuses to have any food she insists that he should have some food. “Appa, take

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some rice with reason. After that, some buttermilk. Else, you‟ll feel hungry at night. So
what if it‟s late?” (142-143)
If dowry is the problem for Muktha to lead a happy married life, married life
becomes an albatross for Yamini due to her own nature. Yamini is the only daughter of
Saaranathan and Perundevi born after two still births. Even after Yamini they have a son
born dead.
She was born when night blossomed like a flower. Saaranathan was then thirty-
two years old, on a good salary in government service. There were the advantages
of inherited wealth, and a house of his own. (6)

In a mood of annoyance he names her Yamini, but for Perundevi, she is her
“salvation‟. (6) Saaranathan does not relent towards her till her second year, when one
day she goes up to him who is sitting “with his head bent down and eyes closed in
weariness.” With her “petal soft touch” of “satiny fingers like coral buds coming open
and scattering drops of honey” she asked him “Are you crying Appa? Don‟t cry.” (7)
He suddenly gathered her up into his lap and held her tightly close to him. From
that moment on, his feeling for her was intense, inseparable from his own life.‟
(8)

As Yamini grows she loses the “inclination for close association with others.”(8)
She helps her mother with household chores but “preferred to sit by herself rather than
get caught up in such matters.” (8-9) She finds “solitude completely satisfying by itself”
(9) When she attains maturity “She quivered with outrage as though the world had
invaded and planted its flag upon her unsullied, solitary inner domain. And she struggled
to free herself.” (11) During her eighteenth year when Perundevi fixes Yamini‟s marriage
with her brother‟s Son, Rameshan, Yamini protests.
Mere mention of the word „marriage‟ provoked her essential being to surge up in
revolt. This protest was like hunger, like sleep – a simple, not-to-be-denied
instinct. (26)

Saaranathan is a bit confused and apprehensive of getting his daughter married.

But Perndevi thinks that everything will become alright once she gets married and hence
they go ahead with the preparations for marriage. Four days before the marriage Yamini
escapes from the house. The next evening when she is trying to board a train, she is

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stopped by the police and is brought home. Amidst her refusals and cries she is married
to Rameshan and is sent to her husband‟s home. Unable to cope up with her husband she
flees from her husband‟s home and refuses to go back.
She ran home many times crying and wailing, and each time they took her back.
And since returning to her parents home meant being sent back to her husband‟s
house, she sometimes did not go there either. She would just disappear. But they
found her each time and brought her back. (33-34)

She becomes pregnant and as a result develops hysteria. Unable to control her, her
husband sends her to her parents saying that he will take her after the child is born. She
even tries several times to abort the child but in vain. Everyone hope that once the child is
born she will become alright.
Maybe once the child was born she would become normal like anyone else?
However strange her propensities – would not the awakening of motherly love be
a salve for all her wounds? (35-36)

But things take a different turn. She becomes insane after delivering the child.
“Her condition worsened. Finally she had to be admitted to a hospital for proper
treatment.”(40) Yamini‟s child is fair and bright unlike her mother. Her “brightness was
immensely soothing.” (40) She is named Geetha. Perundevi‟s fear that Geetha too will
behave like Yamini is nullified when Geetha shows the enthusiasm of a normal girl child.
She becomes the only source of comfort for Perundevi and the child too becomes
attached to her. After some days of treatment Yamini becomes normal and is sent home.
Her state becomes worse whenever her husband comes to fetch her to his house. One day
when Perundevi tries to show the child to Yamini with a hope to bring Yamini back to
normalcy, she becomes hysteric again and tries to commit suicide and is prevented by her
father and the gardener. Her father Saaranathan is the only person who can talk to her and
attend on her. Putting the blame on himself, Saranathan becomes guilt ridden for the state
of Yamini. Perundevi is afraid to go near her and also takes care to see that the baby does
not come in front of her. Rameshan gets transferred out of Madras and does not come to
visit her. “And so Yamini remained calm. Her speech and behaviour were lucid.” (44)
Yamini‟s disease had assumed a certain definite pattern. She appeared normal, but
whenever she was left alone, even for a brief while, she would rush to the well.

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 This was the way that her mental disorder expressed itself. Medical treatment
could not cure it. (45)

As a result she is locked in a corner room. During these days, Yamini‟s father remains
her constant companion and takes care of her.
Perundevi would open the door to give her food. Yamini would be taken outside
for fresh air, for a stroll, by either her mother or her father. They would not take
their eyes from her even for a second. Then she would be led back into the room
and locked up once again. (45)

On one such occasion, overcome by the feelings of guilt that he has wronged his
daughter Yamini by getting her married, Saaranathan asks Yamini to forgive him to
which she replies, “Set me free. I‟ll forgive you.” (58) Overcome with pity for her
suffering, he bids her farewell and allows her to go her way. She immediately rushes to
the well, jumps into it and commits suicide. But to Perundevi he acts as if everything has
happened without his knowledge.
After Yamini‟s death, Geetha became the only purpose of life to Perundevi. But
Saaranathan „saw her as the embodiment of the wrong he had done to the other
one – to the one embedded in his heart.‟ (53)

After Yamini‟s death Perundevi convinces her son-in-law that he should get
married. He gets married to Vasanthi who seems “well within a comprehensive pattern of
growth and change.” (18) They have two sons Mahesh and Ramesh. Since they have no
daughter “the special tenderness that was a daughter‟s due” is lavished on Geetha. In her
nineteenth year Geetha goes on a pilgrimage to Badri, Rishikesha with her friend
Meena‟s family. On her return Perundevi senses something wrong with her. She is not
her usual self. She sits “all alone and brooding by herself, going around in a daze as
though there‟s something weighing on her mind.” (54) Perundevi thinks that “Geetha too
might succumb to the tempting delusion that one could live by oneself, completely
content and fulfilled.”(23) She doubts that if Yamini has sought the way of solitude and
the night, will “the same incomprehensible urge sought an outlet in the divinity enshrined
in temples.”(54) in Geetha. Such thoughts make Perundevi tremble and feel giddy. She
prays God to spare Geetha. But when Saranathan hears this, his attitude is different. He
views it as an opportunity to correct the wrong he has done to Yamini.

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 When Rameshan brings a marriage proposal for Geetha, she declares her love
affair openly. She has loved a Gujarati, who is the son of Meena‟s father‟s friend (Meena
is Geetha‟s friend), “the Madras agent for a steel manufacturing firm up north” and who
is in the same line of his father‟s business.
They both had met at some festive occasion in Meena‟s house. They had had
plenty of pleasant occasions to meet and get acquainted during the past year.
When they realized they were growing fond of each other, the Badri trip had
come up. Geetha had accepted her friend‟s invitation only because that young
man was one of the group of pilgrims, going to keep his elderly mother company.
(66)

On hearing this Perundevi feels relieved and immediately gives her consent. Even
her father gives his consent immediately and makes arrangements to visit the boy‟s
parents the same evening. Seeing all this Saaranathan is very much upset. He is reminded
of his daughter. He who has expected Geetha to reject marriage like her mother thinks
that he should not mess it up this time and should support his grand daughter in order to
compensate the wrong he has done to his daughter. But now hearing Geetha‟s love story
much contrasted to that of her mother, Saaranathan draws within. He can‟t take part in
their happy conversations.
That evening the whole family visits the boy‟s family and fixes up the marriage.
When Saaranathan is informed of all these events, he does not respond except an “Mm”.
The memories of his dead daughter over shadow him. He feels that he has been doing a
penance for his dead daughter all these ten years, holding her in his memory. He thinks,
Such penance as his, surely deserved reward. Yet for so many years, despite this
single-minded devotion, despite this tear-soaked ardour, why had peace eluded
him? He was so tired. Would there be no end to all this pining, this restless
suffereing?!‟ (69)

Overcome with such thoughts he jumps into the well to join his dead daughter.
Yamini‟s mother Perundevi is potrayed as a symbol of “Prakruti” or “Matter”.
Chudamani Raghavan uses Perundevi to show the stigma the society usually attaches to a
barren woman. This is evident in Perundevi‟s fear of being called barren and her relief
when she gives birth to Yamini after many still borns. “As far as Perundevi was
concerned, that baby was her salvation.”(6) She is her “Deliverance, come to rid

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Perundevi of her grief.”(7) She enjoys her motherhood each and every moment with the
baby. She stands just opposite to Devaki in „Daktaramma‟s Room‟ who considers
pregnancy a burden. But Devaki‟s weariness may be due to her giving birth to so many
children.
As she fed the baby at her breast and fondly tendered her, Perundevi‟s heart
would swell with pride and pleasure. Watching the tender creature sleep in the
crook of her arm, she would be oblivious of the passage of time. (7)

She is an ordinary woman who considers marriage as the very essence of a

woman‟s life. Unlike Hema in “Two Women on an Evening”, Shobhana in “My
Daughter Shobhana” she is a woman who considers married life and various roles a
woman has to perform as a wife and a mother as a bliss. She like any mother wishes the
same blessing to fall on her daughter Yamini too. A woman of this sort can never
understand a woman with a different mind set. That‟s why when Saranathan is hesitant
to convince Yamini for marriage and is frightened of how Yamini will get on at her
husband‟s house, she comforts him saying that it would be a dawn for her.
„Perundevi drew comfort from thoughts of her own married life. She had found
fulfillment. Surely marriage would do the same for her daughter.
“Just wait and see. It‟s going to be a new dawn for her.”
Perundevi said, wiping her eyes gently. Yes she did miss her daughter, but it was
more important for her child to have a good life‟. (32).

She is a woman who wholeheartedly attaches herself to the image of woman

ordained by Hindu dharma. Her identity lies in her family. Unlike Hema in “Two
Women on an Evening” who gives importance to her career and gives up her married life,
she tries to draw fulfillment in doing her motherly duties and her domestic chores. She
expects her daughter to behave like the ordinary girls and depend on her for everything.
She yearns for Yamini
“to scatter her books around when she came home from school, just so that she
might gather them up. By that one act of service, the mother yearned to bind
herself to her child, to cast her protective shadow over her.” (8)

She is a tradition bound woman for whom her husband iss her everything. She
finds contentment and fulfillment within her family. “Her husband was her Kashi, her
family was her temple; within these boundaries she had found contentment.” (14)

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 When the affection she is denied of by Yamini, comes true with Geetha she feels
consoled. Hence she finds comfort with Geetha and Geetha is like a source of
compassion for her. “She (Geetha) was a badly needed source of comfort to a heart that
had grown sore with self blame.” (16)
For the author she is a down-to-earth woman who doesn‟t entertain any thing
other than the roles the society ordained for women. She is no odd or extraordinary.
Her feet were very much on the ground, planted in the dust, and that dust was
pure gold to her! ....She was human after all. She needed care, tenderness. A
companion to look at and to love. And Geetha was that companion.”(19-20)

No one can find fault with a mother like Perundevi though her over affection to
see her daughter to settle like any other girl ended in Yamini turning insane. It is the
system in which she has grown that doesn‟t allow her to think other than the way she
thinks. Her gentle, kind, affectionate nature is evident in her care for her son-in-law and
her grand-daughter Geetha. She forces her son-in-law to get married again after her
daughter‟s death and she never feels even a pinch of jealousy towards Vasanthi who takes
the place of her daughter. On the other hand she readily fantasizes that Vasanthi is her
daughter.
Perundevi liked her.(Vasanthi) That she had taken her daughter‟s place had not
made Perundevi Jealous in the least……
To Perundevi Vasanthi appeared well within a comprehensible pattern of growth
and change. In her company one did not need to feel anxious or even agitated, let
alone suffer the bewildering fear that she knew only too well. Because she was
Rameshan‟s wife, Perundevi could fantasize happily that this was her “daughter”;
she could imagine her in a normal setting, at least for a little while. (18)

She is an ordinary conventional woman prevalent during 1950s and 1970s and
who is present even today in the Indian society who tries to induce the feelings of
marriage into the hearts of young children. When Yamini doesn‟t agree to play hide and
seek game with Rameshan (alias Babu) as they need to touch each other in that game she
advises Yamini,
“You shouldn‟t say such things, Yamini. Don‟t children touch each other when
they play games? What wrong with that?” Though acutely aware that she was
saying something not really meant for young ears, she went on with a kind of
desperate urgency, “If Babu holds your hand, you can‟t just brush him off and
come away like that! One day he is going to marry you! Remember that!” (28).

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 Perundevi develops a phobia that the same thing her daughter did might repeat in
her grand-daughter Geetha‟s life too. This very thought sends shivers down her spine.
Since idea of marriage occupies an important place in her life she becomes so feeble
minded that on seeing the indifferent attitude of Geetha after her return from the
pilgrimage, she begins to fear that Geetha too is going the way of her mother. If Yamini
has said that she is not going to get married, Geetha is becoming God crazy is what she
fears. From the day of Geetha‟s return from her pilgrimage to the day of Geetha
announcing her love, she lives in a continuous grip of fear. She prays God not to take
away Geetha in the path of her mother and that she wants to see Geetha in the role of a
bride, wife and the head of a household - the roles which her daughter refused to play.
“Lord! Even if it only you who are calling her, don‟t let it happen! I won‟t give
her up not even to you! Don‟t break my heart. Leave her to this world. At least
now let me have the child I prayed for once, the child I was cheated of. I want to
see her as a bride! Shy, beautiful! I want to see her as a much-loved wife, as a fine
mature woman, the head of a household, who radiates happiness. I want to see her
in all these roles. Her feet must rest firmly on the precious earth. This wound of
mine that hasn‟t yet healed let her heal it forever. Don‟t take her away, leave her,
let her be……” (23).

Her ready acceptance to Geetha‟s wish to marry a boy outside her caste comes
from her anxiety to see to that Geetha gets married. When Geetha announces her love
affair she feels relieved of her grip of constant fear and tension.
“Perundevi was like a tightly twisted wire that had uncoiled without warning. The
relaxing of tension left her shaken and wondering that joy could so closely
resemble grief in the manner of its coming.” (63)

Thus Perundevi represents the type of Indian woman who find fulfillment in
marriage, husband and children and who can not entertain any other thoughts that do not
fit in the frame of traditional roles a woman has to play in the Indian society.
She can also be compared to Nilamani of “A Knock at the Door”. Just like
Nilamani in her frenzy hugs the boy and suffocates him, Perundevi also hugs Geetha
firmly not willing to leave her.
As though to prevent this one too from leaving her, the old arms tightened
desperately around the young girl.

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 “What is it, Amma? Why are you hugging me so hard? It hurts!”
Perundevi loosened her embrace. The zest of a little while ago had evaporated,
leaving her fatigued. (13)

Yamini the protagonist of the story is portrayed as a different personality who

embraces solitude and darkness. Like Suseela in R.K Narayan‟s The English Teacher she
has her influence on her father even after her death.
“Like Daphne du Maurier‟s immortal Rebeca, Yamini is dead before this story
begins. But she is its central character, its raism dieter. In her passing away she
may have attained the freedom she yearned, but those she left behind are forever
in her thrall.” (Malini Seshadri: 4)

In spite of her dark complexion, she has a beauty that is unique. „She…..she was
not mere darkness, she was night itself. A flame of night.‟ (5)

Dark skinned though she was, she exuded loveliness like a luxuriant jungle
scintillating with light. The curve of her eyebrows above the brilliant eyes, the
moist lips like dew-drenched buds… the sheen of the skin, like a smooth sheet of
water. Everything about her was fascinating, everything about her was beautiful.
(29)

Like a breath of night, the small, graceful form emitted a glowing flame of dark
rays. Shining like a crown were thick black curls. A smile spread over her face
like a string of pearls spilling from an open jewel casket – and the round cheeks
dimpled, forming hollows to catch that loveliness. (7)

As she grows up she detaches herself with the world. “As the baby became a
little girl the inclination for close association with others was lost.”(8) Even at a tender
age she eats by herself, bathes, combs and does everything herself. “At only seven years
of age, she shook off the company of the servant and began to sleep alone in a separate
room.”(8)
In her dislike for anklets, flowers in the hair, dressing up in different kinds of
clothes she is extraordinary. Though she plays with her friends she hates the games in
which children touch each other, huddle together and giggle. She is in a “level of
complete self-sufficiency?” (9)
Physical closeness, cuddling-these she did not want. She backed away and fled
from even the petting and the pampering little favours - which children usually
are so fond of. (9)

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 But she has a separate fond for night. She loves darkness and declares it to her
parents. “The night had found a natural echo in her. It strummed her as though she were a
yaazh, and she gushed forth like music from its tenebrous fingers.” (10) As her father
observes, “Her passion was reserved for the night, her romance was with solitude itself.”
(29)
She is the one who can not digest the changes that are taking place in her body as
she grows up. Her feelings on her attainting puberty are of disgust.
The sheer marvel of having become a real woman did not thrill her in the least.
Instead, indistinct waves of emotion surged up and buffeted her. She quivered
with outrage as though the world had invaded and planted its flag upon her
unsullied, solitary inner domain. And she struggled to free herself. (11)

The only thing she understands is her repulsion for marriage. She hates the very
word of marriage.
Mere mention of the word “marriage” provoked her essential being to surge up in
revolt. This protest was like hunger, like sleep- a simple, not-to-be-derived
instinct. (26)

Talking about the nature of Yamini, Prema Nandakumar says,

Half a century later, medical research has advanced so much that today the
hysterical (and at time autistic) behaviour of Yamini could have been controlled,
and she could have become a normal person, ready for marriage and motherhood.
(World Literature Today)

There is a dilemma expressed in the novel regarding the character of Yamini.

Saranathan has his own doubts.
He was amazed. It was a primeval, an inchoate urge. When the time came, it
might ripen and even take shape as the great purpose of life! Perhaps it was this
kind of growth that occurs at the very summit. If one searched the personalities of
those who had given themselves to the whole world, maybe one would find this
rare quality.
Naturally she saw marriage as narrow and restrictive and shunned it. That must be
it. Or was it because she did not like to give herself, and did not like getting
involved, unwilling to share. To take part in human emotional life showed a kind
of miserliness. And her habit of wanting to be alone intensified her distaste for
marriage and family life. Maybe she hated the male sex, maybe she had a distaste

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 for sex itself. Saaranathan wondered, “Is she what they call „undersexed‟?” (29-
30)

Vasantha Surya while discussing the question “Was Yamini unnatural?” says,
She reminds one of the figure of Samjna, wife of the sun god, Surya. Samjna
cannot bear Surya‟s rays and leaves him. Like Samjna whose name means –
consciousness, Intellect, Awareness, Yamini is possessed by a self sufficient and
inner awareness.
Would Yamini, if she had been left alone, have developed any emotional
relationships later on, bonds that she would have willingly assumed? Perhaps, or
perhaps not. Samjna leaves Surya, but he yearns for her and woos her back. If
“Surya” is thought of as “Life in the Normal World”, such a spirit never wins
Yamini over. (Introduction to Yamini)

Again Vasanthasurya talks about the point Chudamani Raghavan tries to drive home,
For Yamini existence is nothing but an awareness of the self in relation to the vast
and mysterious cosmos, so much greater than the world of human society.
Yamini‟s dark inner universe scintillates with perceptions, and is mirrored by the
dark night sky, radiant with stars both seen and unseen. (Introduction to Yamini)

Once while sharing her aspirations with her father, Yamini says,
“I‟d like to go round and see the whole world, Appa! I want to find out about
everything there in the universe – not just the moon, the planets, but all the other
worlds too. Every nook and corner of this immense creation.” (29)

Vasantha Surya observes,

Her father senses this shrinking away from physicality and gives her the
undemanding, quiet companionship which is acceptable to her. Her impulse to
seek solitude is so great that it seems to interfere with natural urges for
communication and companionship, sex and family life. (Introduction to Yamini)

Towards the end, Saranathan gives a statement that clearly shows the nature of Yamini.
Why does fire burn? Because that‟s the very nature of fire, the essence of its
being. There was nothing more to it than that! Fire cannot be cooled. If you want
to cool it and pour water on it, it will not cool, it will just go out.
That‟s what happened. The fire went out. (57)

Thus Chudamani Raghavan presents a totally different kind of woman beyond

traditions and heterodoxies in Yamini who comes closer to Shankari in “Nangam
Ashram”. At least, there is Professor to explain Shankari‟s odd behaviour, but there is

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none in the case of Yamini. They only assume. However through Yamini, Chudamani
Raghavan explores the mystery of the human mind.
With unobtrusive ardour Chudamani explores the mystery of the human mind,
and its essential solitariness. Every individual has a core, an inner life. She
suggests that to violate this core of privacy is to set off a kind of cataclysm within
the mind. And because of the nature of human relationship, that cataclysm will
raise relentless echoes in the lives of others. (Introduction to Yamini)

Girls forced into marriage and being forced to go back to their husbands in spite
of their unwillingness is a common phenomenon in Indian society. Yamini is forced into
marriage, Gomathi is forced to go back to her husband. In both the cases, the iteration of
the phrase, “I won‟t do it, I won‟t, I won‟t!”(Yamini 26) “I won‟t go” (Drought 51)
clearly shows the helpless condition of women in Indian society where marriage and a
place by her husband‟s side is considered a safe, holy and respectable position.
She is an extra-ordinary girl for whom the repulsion for marriage is not the
general repulsion for change of place or status and whose fears do not clear up after
settling in the husband‟s home and who does not become normal. She develops a kind of
hysteria on the very sight of her husband and even goes mad when she has a baby. The
thought of her motherhood makes her have the suicidal urge which fruits out after ten
years.
“Unable to live in accordance with the dictates of her own nature, she had secretly
pronounced a death sentence on herself and was bent on carrying it out. For her,
living had become a prison.” (45)

In Indian we have two kinds of women. One is a conventional woman who easily
fits herself into the traditionally ordained roles of a mother, wife and daughter-in-law.
The other kind of women is unconventional women who can not be bound by such roles.
They outgrow all the bonds and try to be out of the ordinary. But the commonly accepted
phenomenon in our Indian fiction is that these kind of unconventional women suffer and
embrace death as the only solace.
“The unconventional are seen to suffer for their violation of accepted norms of
society or for questioning them - death is the way out for them, unless their
experience teaches them to subdue their individuality and rebelliousness and
realize the wisdom of the traditional ways.” ( Bala Kothandaraman )

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 This has been delineated by Chudamani Raghavan in her stories, “The Fourth
Ashram” and Yamini. Both Shankari of “The Fourth Ashram” and Yamini embrace death
as the ultimate refuge. It can also be viewed from a different angle as her father thinks,
“When life cheats you, you cannot fill that void with the world‟s alms, its paltry
satisfactions. Only death can compensate for life.” (59)
She is a girl who finds her solace in solitude ad appears to her father as the living
embodiment of the word “solitude”.
It seemed to him that she was the living embodiment of the word “solitude”. So
far as he knew she had no close friends. All continued themselves within the
boundary of acquaintance….. She seemed to care nothing for companionship or
closeness. (29)

Because of this love for liberty she asks her father to set her free when her father
asks her forgiveness.
It darted out of her, like lighting streaking across the face of the night, visible and
distinct.
“Set me free. I‟ll forgive you.(58).

He lets her act according to her wishes and she commits suicide and quenches the
urge within her for liberty from the shackles of life,
Geetha, Yamini‟s daughter is in full contrast to her mother. As the day is born out
of the night, she though born of Yamini has none of her traits. She is the embodiment of
all the wordly qualities which Perundevi had longed for in Yamini. She is of the fair
complexion unlike Yamini:
But this one was radiantly fair! Everything about her was bright… Her skin was
very fair, with a tinge of rose. Looking at her made you think of milk, of the full
moon, or of lilies…. Like the moon blossoming in the field of night, like the day
being born from night‟s womb, Geetha emerged from Yamini. (20)

She evens hates darkness and puts on the light as soon as it gets dark. “In nothing
did she resemble the other one. As soon as it was dusk Geetha would switch on the lights
in each room of the house. She disliked the dark.” (14) In contrast to her mother, she likes
cuddling and caressing. The moment she returns from her pilgrimage, “Brimming over
with eagerness, she called out “Amma! As soon as she came in, rushed up and hugged
her tight,” (11)

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 She loves all kinds of decoration, decking herself with flowers and all to show
that her feet are attached to the earthly desires.
She is affectionate to Vasanthi, her step-mother and her two sons Mahesh and
Ramesh. She jokes with Vasanthi and her father as she would to a friend.
Geetha stuck out her tongue and made a playful face, “Why should I butter you
up? What do I want from you? It‟s only poor chithi! Looks like she‟d really like
to go on a holiday! Why don‟t you take her, Appa? Leave Mahesh and Ramesh
here and go off on a second honeymoon, just the two of you!” (17).

Like her mother Yamini, she doesn‟t repulse against marriage. On the contrary
she has loved a boy out of their caste and gets the consent of her parents for marriage. To
some extent she is reticent and hence has kept her love affair a secret. This leads to the
nervousness of her grandmother Perundevi. Her interests in God are not the interest
Meera or any other saint had. She seeks the help of God in making her love a success.
Even her pilgrimage to Badri has been because her lover was on his trip to Badri to keep
company to his mother. She has stayed in the pilgrimage for a long time only to keep him
company. With out saying all these she tells her grandmother she is staying back as she is
awful about the sadhus over there. It is the reason for Perundevi‟s grief and fear. She is
bold to fall in love and to declare her love to her parents and get their consent.
When Rameshan insists that Geetha should come out with her feelings regarding
her marriage, she blurts it out at once.
Struggling bit by bit through an account of what was sure to be considered a
controversial experience would only drag out her suspense. It would be much
better to spill it all out at once. … There was no time to pick and choose the
words and arrange them neatly. And so, as soon as she had begun to say what was
at the centre to secret mind, it all came out in a single breath.
“I am in love with someone,” she said. … All of a sudden it seemed to her that
she had been outrageously bold and shameless. (62-63)

Rameshan and Vasanthi are the minor characters in the story. Much is not spoken
of these characters though Rameshan is Yamini‟s husband.
Much is not said of Vasanthi, Rameshan‟s second wife. But she has been
portrayed as a loving mother and affectionate daughter to Geetha and Perundevi
respectively. In the words of the author, ”Vasanthi too was a generous sort of person who
could love her.” (16) She accepts her husband‟s former mother-in-law as her Aunt and

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call her “Athai”. (18) Similarly she accepts Geetha as her daughter and converses freely
with both Perundevi and Geetha.
Vasanthi would look at her vegetable patch, talk about the price of brinjals,
worriedly seek advice on children‟s illness. She would tell her all about a paly she
had seen with her husband, or recount how she had exchanged two pairs of old
trousers and three old sarees( two of them with jari borders) for a stainless steel
container with a lid, plus a spoon. (18)

Her intimacy with Geetha is so much that Geetha even teases her and takes her side.
“It‟s only poor Chithi! Looks like she‟d really like to go on a holiday! Why don‟t
you take her, Appa? Leave Mahesh and Ramesh here and go off on a second
honeymoon, just the two of you!” (17)

Thus Chudamani Raghavan brings a kaleidoscopic variety of human characters

through her stories. She adeptly makes her message reach the reader. Even her titles are
indicative of the themes, with a dignity of style and diction. Except a few stories like “My
Daughter Shobana” the author has used third person narration and in particular
omniscient point view in narrating the story. Some of her stories like “Counting the
Flowers” and “Drought” are open ended stories. The author does not portray men alone
or the women alone as culprits. It may be either of them or both based on the situation.
Due to her portrayal of day-to-day life she has occupied a citadel of short story in spite of
being a major low profile short-story writer.
Thus we can find that all her stories have been dealt with the feministic
perspective though it is not her main concern. The problems of dowry, women‟s
psychology, domestic chores thrusting the women, gender discrimination in the name of
social norms, breakaway from the traditional norms, poverty and drought making human
beings inhuman, women being thrust into marriage against their wishes, concept of
sisterhood are the themes of her stories. Her characters do not rebel against the situation
but accept it as it comes. At the same time they have their own outlook of life. Though
some of women like Prema of “Sisterhood” and Muktha of “The Strands of the Void” are
conventional, they too are assertive in their own way. “Within the constraints of
economic needs and family loyalties, she allows her women characters almost to a
utopian degree, the freedom to make moral choices.” (Holmstorm, 56)

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