This is
a story of Akhila, a 45 year old spinster, who realises that she has spent her
life making others happy, her widowed mother, her younger brother and sister.
In the process she completely ignored her own happiness. Much to her surprise,
she did not even know what she wanted in life, to be happy.
It is
the story about her search for womanhood, that her environment and her family
failed to instil in her. It is a personal journey of not one, but six women,
aptly set in a train. She meets five women from different circumstances of life
and at different junctures of their lives, in a ladies coupe, of the second
class compartment of a train. She had boarded the train with a one way ticket
to Kanyakumari. Again an apt destination... to travel to the tip of the
country, to find the ultimate truth. Farthest from home, that a simple person
like Akhila, who has lived in Bangalore all her life, with very little space or
courage to think for herself, could think of, in her most courageous effort to
explore.
All
five of these women that Akhila meets, are just as much as herself, searching
for the answers. Each one of them share their own story of life and that helps
Akhila to discover what she truly desired from life.
As I
read the book, I longed to share my own story, because each one of us have a
story to tell. As for me, there were seven women in the coupe not six, I being
the seventh one. A mute spectator, listening to others, but who never
spoke or shared her own story. But like Akhila, she was discovering what it
meant to be a woman.
I don't
know if this can be termed as a feminist novel. And then again, why not? I
don't see anything wrong with that label. I have never really reflected upon
the 'ist aspect of myself... feminist, communist, capitalist, sexist etc etc. I
have not had to. These are labels that others can give, how can I label myself.
I try to be logical that is all.
Logically
speaking this novel introduced me to the concept of independence of women, in a
very natural kind of way. I believed that a girl had to burn the midnight oil,
be a professionally qualified person, with a high paying job and a fancy
position at work, to be emancipated. I never thought of emancipation to be as
fundamental as the right to breathe. This book is all about emancipation of
mind and body and heart. Not something to be earned or toiled for. Not like a
prize for hard work, reachable only for a few. This books removes the scarcity
concept from emancipation, that girls from the eighties and nineties, were
brought up with. It makes it to be something as natural as air and water. I had
never really explored the free for all emotional independence before. Call me
naive for that. There will be a million reasons for that if I were to explore.
Each one of you can, if you stand in that tight fitting shoe, if you know what
I mean...
But
here is the book that demystifies emancipation. Ever since I read it, I have
told every woman about it, if I have ever had a remotely intimate talk with
her. It is worth a read.
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