LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Love is More Than Language
Feminine Sensibility in the Works of Lakshmi Kannan

Pauline Das, Ph.D.

Introduction

Lakshmi Kannan writes in English and, under the pen name 'Kaveri' in Tamil. She also writes poetry in English. Besides translating her own works into English, she has also translated the works of many major Tamil writers. Some of her important works include 'Rhythms' (short fiction translated from the original Tamil, 'Osaigal'); three poetry collections -'Exiled Gods', 'The Glow and the Grey', and 'Impressions'; 'Wooden Cow' (Translation of T.Janakiraman's novel 'Marappasu') ; and 'Through the Veils' (Translation of Indira Parthasarathi's novel 'Thiraigalukku Appaal).

Women Committed to a Strong Feminine Sensibility

The stories of Lakshmi Kannan are sharply evocative and haunting in their exploration of the lives of women in India, and Indian women living abroad. The women in these stories are unforgettable in their struggle towards self-realization, committed to a special feminine sensibility, strong-willed, pathetic and rebellious and a kind of revelation of a new and unexpected dimension of an ordinary simple reality.

Selected Short Stories and Poetry

Three of her stories, 'Muniyakka', 'A Pea in the Mattress' and "Pain' from \her short story collection India Gate and Other Stories and her poetry style are analyzed in the feministic perspective in this article.

Muniyakka's Plight

'Muniyakka' pictures the life of a woman who had been battered and torn by her husband, sons and destiny. The author Lakshmi Kannan enters into the inner psyche of womanhood and tells a captivating story. Muniyakka's mastered art of soliloquy during her work shows her inner turmoil. Her routine duties of mopping, sweeping and cleaning, to sustain herself in her old age is really touching.

The Sufferings of a Wife and Mother

Lakshmi Kannan, through her splendid narration, presents a word picture for the readers. Muniyakka's back breaking effort to water the garden, her solemn love for the green vegetation, the breeze brushing past the trees and the trees making a hissing sound are presented as the pulsating rhythm through which her very being is identified.

Muniyakka has a very strange behaviour. She would keep muttering to herself while working. Children call her a walkie-talkie. Most of her mutterings are against her dead husband Bairappa and their three careless sons. Sometimes Muniyakka used to scold all the devotees who stain the stones of the temple with kumkum, sandalwood paste, and the smudgy sprinkling of withered flowers. It would be a free curse for everyone from the mouth of this old lady. She wonders why all these married young women were praying for a son. She had three sons herself and what worthless creatures they turned out to be. Her husband Bairappa drank, gambled, squandered all her hard earned money and finally died, leading a wasted life.

The Sensitive Ever-Loving Quality of Womanhood

But in spite of all her anger against her dead husband, Muniyakka always celebrates Bairappa's sraddha. It is more of a love-hate relationship. On this day she has a youthful glow on her face with a large round kumkum on her forehead, flowers in her hair and a clean cotton saree wrapped around her old body. One also wonders whether such celebration is in some manner a celebration of her own liberation. Lakshmi Kannan, through the portrayal of Muniyakka, emphasizes the finer, sensitive and ever-loving quality of womanhood.

The Vibrating Personality in Women

In the story 'A Pea in the Mattress', Lakshmi Kannan shows that a woman is not a puppet in the hands of a man. She is a vibrating personality like any other being. Shobha, the central character of the story, is an understanding wife but caught between her duties towards her own family and the love she has for her husband. Her husband, Shekhar, is a bright, brilliant and work-conscious man. He does not understand what torments his wife all day.

Love is More than Language

Shobha wants to go to work and thus support her family but her husband rejects her proposal. Apart from this, there is artificiality in his actions. He does not want to take his wife to official gatherings but puts it in such a manner that she herself would get bored during such occasions. At the same time, he asks Shobha to attend the party hosted by his friend Balaji. For the first time Shobha rebels and moves away from her husband's ordered path. She avoids Balaji's dinner and goes to a tavern along with her friends Phyllis, Janet, Peter and Cathy. The last two live together without being married. Shobha wonders what a well-matched couple they make in spite of being unmarried. She feels that they do not need the artificial glue of the ritual called marriage.

Woman as a Rebel

Very soon Shobha drinks martini with them. In a semi-conscious state because of consumption of martini, she removes a picture from the wall of the tavern and slips it into her bag. This is not seen by any of her friends but a manager notices this and brings the theft to the notice of Peter. Shobha hands back the picture. Peter consoles Shobha and tells her that he would fetch a picture just like the one she had taken. But, deep inside, Shobha feels that for the first time in her life she has jumped over the line of 'Quality Control' which had been instituted in her throughout her life. At least once in her lifetime, she had broken away from the programmed goodness and allowed her soul to feel the freshness of freedom. It is assumed that she had ceased being a pea in the mattress of her husband.

The Uniqueness of Feminine Qualities

In the story 'Pain' Lakshmi Kannan once again ushers in the feminine qualities and their uniqueness in this man's world. It is a touching story because it deals with the feelings and emotions of a woman who is on her deathbed. Padma is undergoing the torture of pain in her body because of cancer. The description of the outside and the inside of Padma is outstanding. Lakshmi Kannan describes her condition as that of being on a parole from Yama./p>

A team of doctors unanimously predicts that Padma would not survive beyond this point. The cancer, started initially from her uterus, had also spread to her breasts with terrible speed. Under the grip of pain she lay writhing. To get rid of the pain she had been drugged with heavy doses of powerful, pain - killing sedatives. But when the drug was not administered, she saw blue-veins turn purple and swollen into the throbbing ropes, pulling and tearing at the muscles and tendons, the body curled in hopeless surrender as the pain went on in hopeless surrender as the pain went on in uninterrupted waves, boring into the very marrow of the bones chillingly. The house brimmed with relations as the news started to reach far and wide.

In Death There is No Difference between the Genders

Seshadri and Padma are proud parents of two beautiful daughters, Usha and Prema. Usha was more matured and represented in some way feminine culture. Her aunt started discussing how the cancer would have spread from the uterus, to the stomach and then to the breast. It looked as if she was dissecting her body into pieces. She wonders at the way a woman's body is assessed, evaluated, and judged, sometimes by other women or at times by relatives, friends and men. Her body had served its purpose of giving birth to two daughters. She is now ready to offer it to a hungry pyre. Padma begins to imagine the Arlington cemetery. Through this imagination part the author ushers in the fact that in the graveyard there is no difference between the sexes and between the organs. Once the body is placed inside the earth and covered with greenery, then the decomposition starts. For, the process of decomposition does not have any biased attitude. Beneath the soil, nobody is separate, no disease is separate. There is no difference for earth or for the fire in consuming the human body.

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