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When The Lotus Blooms: Book Review
'When The Lotus Blooms' stared at me from the bookshelf of a reputed book store with a yearning look. My first instinct was to ignore it. Although I spent 350 bucks for the novel, I feel it is worth for the debut author.
A
period
drama
set
in
the
early
20th
century,
India
is
not
an
unexplored
area
for
fiction.
But
debutante
author
Kanchana
Krishnan
Ayyar
manages
to
give
us
a
fresh
view
of
this
era
with
her
tight
storytelling.
The
story
of
When
The
Lotus
Blooms
is
weaved
around
two
Tamil
Brahmin
families
who
bring
in
two
child
brides;
Rajam
and
Dharmu.
These
two
young
girls
are
the
protagonists
of
the
novel
and
their
journey
to
womanhood
is
the
plot
of
the
story.
Although When The Lotus Blooms has only two main characters, the story has several narrators including the husbands of Rajam and Dharmu, their respective family members and also stray characters like the 'untouchable' cleaner in Rajam's village. So, we know what each character is thinking and that justifies their actions. This narrative method is too conclusive as it takes the mystery away but, it also gives the story diversity of perspectives.
In the world of When The Lotus Blooms, each character is struggling with their own problems; Rajam with an oppressive mother in law who taunts her about her barrenness, and Dharmu with an ultra modern meat eating husband who dominates her. The story is crafted in such a way that one woman's curse becomes another woman's boon.When teh lotus finally blooms, it will obliterate their problems binding the two women in an unnatural bond.
The new Indian author Ms Ayyar too has the curse of all women writers, a feminine perspective to the world around her. But it brings a refreshing touch to this story because the British Raj has rarely been described from such a sensitive feminine angle. We as a nation were slave to a foreign government. But what was it like for the women, especially young women, in those days to be 'slave' to the 'slaves', i.e. their men.
To conclude the book review I would say that it is a must read! If you are a busy working woman struggling with your so called 'modern' problems of managing a career and family, read When The Lotus Blooms. You will be humbled.
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