“My dear Estha, how are you? I am
well. Ammu died yesterday” a letter written by a sister to inform her brother
about her mother’s death.
This disheartening line of letter is
taken from the 1997 booker prize winning book “The God of Small Things”, the
debut novel of Arundhati Roy. The plot of this book is woven around the
childhood experiences of fraternal twins, Rahel and Estha. Their childhood
lives were ruined when their divorced ammu(mother) left her husband and came
back to Kottayam( Kerala) at her mother’s house.
In Kottayam also she had to face the
atrocities of the cruel society due to which she was neglected and was treated as a Vaishya (hoar), that proves more when she was not allowed to attend the funeral ceremony of her
niece (her brother Chacko’s daughter) died in a road accident.
Consequently, Rahel, Estha and her Ammu were not allowed to attend the death ceremony
together with the family member and were standing at a distant place like a pariah. The prime cause of discrimination was that she had an affair with an untouchable man of her village named Velutha.
Moving further about the tragic story of the fraternal twins was beautifully described in the the seventh chapter of the book ‘Wisdom
and Exercise Notebooks", in which the twins mother died due to poor health and paucity in a guest house. The way the heart throbbing incident is presented to the readers will surely bring tears in their eyes. It was articulately written that poor people
can’t live or die peacefully.
Her dead body was sent to electronic crematorium house as Church refused to bury in Church premises,
as she was discarded from the society. She was accompanied by Chacko and Rahel in a municipality ambulance, where her dead body had
to pass through several stages like a government offices a file moves. The pitiable condition
of crematorium house was beautifully described in book, where it was compared with an abandoned railway station.
Twins life became so arduous after their mother's death......Estha started working whereas Rahel focused on studies. They both had to pass several hard phases of life and because of it they met at the age of 31 after their mother's death.
Twins life became so arduous after their mother's death......Estha started working whereas Rahel focused on studies. They both had to pass several hard phases of life and because of it they met at the age of 31 after their mother's death.
This articulately written book was praised by many News Papers, magazines world wide. Here is the review of the newspaper, The Pioneer, “A sad story, told very hilariously, very tenderly and
very craftily”.
