000			02045cam a22002537i 4500
003			CUTN
005			20240719153232.0
008			160712s2016 ii 000 1 eng
020			_a9789382711797
025			_aI-E-2016317984; 26-91
041			_aEnglish
042			_alcode
082			_a894.811 _bKAN
100	1		_aKannan, Lakshmi,
100	1		_eauthor.
245	1	4	_aThe glass bead curtain / _cLakshmi Kannan.
260			_aNew Delhi : _bVirasta Pub, _c2016.
300			_a393 pages ; _c20 cm
500			_aNovel.
520			_aKalyani 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 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.
906			_a7 _bcbc _corigode _d4 _encip _f20 _gy-gencatlg
942			_2ddc _cBOOKS
999			_c43262 _d43262