“Sush burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably. Her tears found their way into my heart and stayed there as hatred for the very race of men. She controlled her sobs and continued: When I asked him about the solution Lina had found, he shrieked like a demon: ‘It was her lifeless corpse that I saw next morning that told me what her solution was! In front of it, I took an oath – that I will douse the fire in me only with vengeance. That is how I came down here along with Krishnan Nair. Because I am capable of lively speech and pleasing behaviour – maybe also because of Providence – I gained what I wished. Because I did not know who my Hindu opponent was, I picked a young Hindu girl who was as pretty and young as my Lina to despoil. Our faith tells us to show the other cheek when slapped on one. But human beings are incomplete. The actual answer in situations like this is – the book says on thing, but the act, another. But personally, I am only full of affection for you, Rani. Helpless I am! A man’s lust destroyed my sister; my revenge has dirtied you too. But I am still sad. That Rani has not suffered the inevitable humiliation that Lina had to suffer!’
Continue reading “K Saraswathi Amma: Ramani (Part 5)”Tag: early feminist literature Malayalam
K Saraswathi Amma: Ramani (Part 4)
“Then visits and conversations began to happen regularly. The familiarity soon grew into love before long. How sad! What a fool I was back then! Mr Babu started by addressing me as Ms Rani, then Sushama Rani, then Sushama, and soon, Sush. Mr Babu became just Babu to me.”
Continue reading “K Saraswathi Amma: Ramani (Part 4)”K Saraswathi Amma : Ramani (Part 3)
“Great!” Sushama said with a smile. “She who was ready for a pure Gandharva marriage, what fear of social humiliation can she have? In any case, what secret existed in the world that her father’s wealth and power could not hide? The world today worships the God of Wealth. Money can kill a lover, make a virgin pregnant, turn a whore into a chaste woman, and a criminal into an innocent, and besides, throw the sand in the eyes of the world in general.”
Continue reading “K Saraswathi Amma : Ramani (Part 3)”K Saraswathi Amma : Ramani (Part 2)
“But wouldn’t that decision been the sounder one? Ramanan was deeply wounded when he was abandoned. His life withered away, true. But if Chandrika had been faithful to her love, how many lives would have withered and died? The parents would not have lasted long at the sight of their daughter’s despicable fecklessness. Chandrika needs not Kuchela’s pure-hearted poverty but Kubera’s riches even if it is impure. Does not Ramanan who is forever singing “This world is not a fantasy” know this? The ultimate aim of Chandrika’s immense sacrifice for the sake of love would be of Chandrika, Ramanan, and their poverty-stricken children, born of the daughter of a wealthy family, sinking in the mire of hardships and disappearing from the world before or after each other.”
Continue reading “K Saraswathi Amma : Ramani (Part 2)”K Saraswathi Amma: Ramani (Part 1)
[This is my translation of her famous response to the poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai’s pastoral elegy Ramanan, which was arguably the most popular book in Malayalam in the 1940s. It told the tale of a poor goatherd, Ramanan, who fell in love with a beautiful aristocratic maiden, Chandrika, who, the poet bewails, betrayed their love by marrying another. Unable to bear the end of their love, the goatherd commits suicide. At its time, this feminist reading of Ramanan was not treated with the seriousness that it deserved but as a typically eccentric outpouring of a strange woman.]
Continue reading “K Saraswathi Amma: Ramani (Part 1)”Before the Rains: K Saraswathi Amma
Translated by J Devika
They were arguing inside; they didn’t notice that I had stepped soundlessly on the veranda. Her mother was saying, “Yes, after some more years, not even this! Did even a dog look at you all this while? Two years after the exam and the grand victory?” Continue reading “Before the Rains: K Saraswathi Amma”
The Perfect Wife: K Saraswathi Amma
Translated by J Devika
Divakaran Nair had started meeting prospective brides in their home from the age of twenty. He had unshakable ideas about how his bride should look. Fourteen years of age; complexion that rivalled the gleam of a pure gold sovereign; thick curly black knee-length tresses; eyes that never rose above ground level; a face that attracted others even when cast down modestly; no taller than five feet and a half; slender, well-shaped form. He did not believe that an unlettered woman was unworthy of wifely status. How proud would a husband feel when he, during his hours of leisure, drew a young girl, untouched by knowledge of the world, close to him, and poured his knowledge and culture into her? What ecstasy would that be! Continue reading “The Perfect Wife: K Saraswathi Amma”
Swatantryavaadini 