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Kalyani 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 boy 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 writes the novel capturing the changing ethos of the people with the irony, pathos and humour that animate the period.
