Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Glass Bead Curtain

The Glass Bead Curtain

Kannan, Lakshmi

Paperback

General Fiction

ISBN10: 9382711791
ISBN13: 9789382711797
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc
Published: Jan 1 2016
Pages: 408
Weight: 1.14
Height: 0.91 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
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.

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