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The Glass Bead Curtain
by Lakshmi Kannan
4.5
4.5 out of 5
Creators
AuthorLakshmi Kannan
PublisherVitasta Publishing
SynopsisKalyani and Athai, two feisty women, sail through the turn- of- the- century Madras Presidency under British rule, despite archaic customs such as child marriage and a prescriptive widowhood. British influence encounters an ambivalent attitude that was contrary and at times uproariously hilarious. Kalyani`s child marriage ends her formal education because of a prevalent superstition that married girls would be widowed if sent to school. Tutored at home by the intrepid Susan O`Leary of Irish origin, Kalyani soaks up her irrepressible humour. O`Leary is equally delighted by the strapping girl`s passion for sports and athletics, but is anxious about her pupil`s future beyond the luminous beauty of the glass bead curtain in her father`s home. Kalyani, grows taller than her husband Natarajan. It becomes a contentious issue for her retrograde female in-laws who mock her height and her English. Kalyani battles her way through unfazed and evolves as a successful badminton coach with the unstinting support of her husband, father-in- law and grand mother-in- law. The intellectually endowed Athai uses her widowhood to pursue her education. The family discovers an astonishing secret about her, when she dies. A contemporary writer Shailaja
