Oxford University Press, Mini Krishnan and Prabha Sridevan have earned another feather in the cap with this translation of R. Chudamani’s short stories. A writer with unusual depth, subtlety and compassion, Chudamani presents the world she has access to. She looks for small mercies, little balms for sore wounds and unarticulated emotions that transpire in intimate relationships, erotic or not . Her frail health did not ever make her bitter.
Twenty-four stories written over 40 years and a comment on the publication of the first story called ‘A Trace of Envy’ make this book a treasure. In the story ‘He Is Not In Town’, Anjali has to manage call upon call about her husband Shanmugam. He was seen boarding a train with a younger woman, soon after their daughter’s wedding. He returns, unburdens his heart by sharing with her his experimental sexual relationship with his young colleague to prove that he had not aged that much. She listens to him, upset by his indifference to her feelings but replies quietly, “I never realised that there could be a solution to it — until you told me.” Chudamani ends the story with her characteristic punchline “Suddenly, he went pale.”
What I miss in this collection is the sense of Chudamani’s mastery over fiction writing. Kalachuvadu, a leading Tamil publishing house, published the complete works edited by Seetha Ravi and Bharathi in 2013. It contains details of the year and place of publication of all the stories with a well-researched introduction by the editors. It would have been befitting if that sentiment had been valued in the English translation as well, especially since her story-telling seems to have had a definite chronological sequence.
The universe Chudamani presents is one where little things matter; they simmer; there is no explosion but there are minor earth-shattering transformations. Her personas are primarily children and women and men who come into their lives. A woman whose horoscope is not good enough to get a groom; a young widowed mother whose beauty is found to be more attractive than her daughter’s — much to her chagrin, an aunt who is single, blocking her niece’s alliances; two siblings realise that they have grown to be different human beings; a daughter runs away from home, while her mother is blissfully unaware; a wife having to bear a seventh pregnancy; the daughter recognising her father’s extra-marital relationship and women coming to terms with ageing in not-so-graceful ways are her characters who could be our next door neighbours, except that we never give them the status of characters worthy of our attention.
What is more gripping is the way Chudamani imagines the changing contours of masculinity. The title story has a blind father who was not aware of his daughter Shobana’s needs as a human being and later accepts her choices. In ‘After Three Years,’ a husband understands the plight of his wife caught between her natal and marital homes and their feuds, to her pleasant surprise. A little boy’s fantasy of a TV newsreader upsets his mother who realises that her worries are ungrounded. In ‘Heat and Rain’, a sex worker is seen as more honest than a black-marketeer. A son sees his father beating up his mother and decides to take on the mantle of a bread-winner much earlier in his life. Another son searches out for his mother’s lover after she had been widowed, on her death bed, trying to make amends for his childhood possessiveness. An old grandfather is considered heartless by everyone when he refuses to cry over his wife’s death, only to take in every inch of her world at home and breathe his last. The most classic of the stories is ‘The Fourth Stage of Life.’ It presents a woman’s quest to experience each stage of life and move on.
The translation captures the nuances of the stories. It is unbelievable that it is the debut work of Prabha Sridevan, who has, however, been quite active in the Tamil cultural scene all along.
Her passionate involvement in the work is evident in her note and Mini Krishnan’s commitment to get the best out of her is obvious. Prema Nandakumar has given an invested introduction to read Chudamani in context. Ambai’s friendship with Chudamani is well-known.
Seeing in the Dark; R. Chudamani, OUP, Rs.495.
