De haute lutte

அம்பை சிறுகதைகள் #4

by Ambai, Dominique Vitalyos (translator), Nagarathinam Krishna (translator)

« Ce n’était pas à une forêt ordinaire que Chentiru pensait, mais plutôt à la forêt des poèmes classiques tamouls, au cœur de laquelle une eau pure comme le lait se jette en cascade entre des parois rocheuses où s’accrochent des ruches sauvages. Elle voulait séjourner dans une forêt. Une forêt pour laisser derrière elle les bruits de voitures, de conversations, de pas, d’appareils ménagers. »

C’est ainsi qu’on entre, par la puissance du verbe et de l’image, dans l’univers si singulier d’Ambai. Qui nous mêle sans crier gare à la destinée de femmes on ne peut plus habitées – écrivain, musicienne, éditrice, ou femme au foyer par accident –, bousculant soudain, à la faveur d’un geste, d’un départ, d’un renoncement, leur monde tel qu’il est.

Avec son écriture limpide soudain balayée par un trait percutant, Ambai donne au short cut toute l’ampleur du temps romanesque.

Genres: Short Stories, India, Literary Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Ambai (nom de plume of C. S. Lakshmi), is a historian, an independent Women's Studies researcher, and a feminist writer in Tamil. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Madras Christian College and MA in Bangalore and her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her dissertation was on American policy towards refugees fleeing Hungary due to the failed revolution of 1956. After completing her education, she worked as a school teacher and college lecturer in Tamil Nadu. She is married to Vishnu Mathur, a film maker, and lives in Mumbai.

In 1962, Ambai published her first work Nandimalai Charalilae (lit. At Nandi Hills) – written when she was still a teenager. Her first serious work of fiction was the Tamil novel Andhi Maalai (lit. Twilight) published in 1966. She received critical acclaim with the short story Siragukal muriyum (lit. Wings Will be Broken) (1967) published in the literary magazine Kanaiyazhi. This story was later published in book form as a part of short story collection under the same name in 1976. The same year she was awarded a two-year fellowship to study the work of Tamil women writers. The research work was published as The Face behind the mask (Advent Books) in 1984. In 1988, her second Tamil short story collection titled Veetin mulaiyil oru samaiyalarai (lit. A Kitchen in the Corner of the House) was published. This established her reputation as a major short story writer.

Her work is characterised by her feminism, an eye for detail, and a sense of irony. Some of her works – A Purple Sea (1992) and In A Forest, A Deer (2006) – have been translated to English by Lakshmi Holmström. For her contributions to Tamil literature, she received the 2008 Iyal Virudhu (Lifetime Achievement Award) awarded by the Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden. She is currently the Director of SPARROW (Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women).

Reviews

[Ashish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A much deserved 5 stars! This book is beautifully written and has everything that I want from a desi book. It does not resort to unwanted romanticism and elaborate descriptions of nature to get it's point across. The stories are just right in their length and the characters in it are very well drawn. Reading the book was a breeze and I couldn't get enough of it. Sadly, it had to end, but it has ignited a desire in me to read all the other books by the author.

It seems to be really honest writing that comes straight from the heart, no frills and no gimmicks. It has an understated tone of feminism and a sense of justice but does not resort to established tropes or clichés to get the message across. A really underrated book in my opinion, and one which I would happily recommend to everyone.

[Tejaswini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fish in a dwindling lake is a set of 10 short stories which have a common stroke of feminism brushed equally. These stories except three , don't have a proper name. The author has named these 7 stories as journey 4 , journey 5, ... journey 10. Though I couldn't make out an apparent reason behind these unique way of naming, these set of stories have an unnamed female narrator in common and mostly are sent in Mumbai as a backdrop.
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The titular story which is my favourite of the collection captures glimpses of life of an ill fated Kumud whose husband expires within days of her marriage. In her middle age, she unwillingly decides to settle in abroad with her niece & nephew reluctant to leave her own land. One last visit to her friend Bimla devi & her spiritual quest veers Kumud from the decision she had taken.
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'The Calf that frolicked in the hall' is about three friends- Kadir, Udayan and an unnamed female narrator. After 25 years of their drifting apart , Kadir and she meet only when Udayan commits suicide. They both reminisce their past relationship with Udayan, their own past love life , the trio's passion for literature & homeland and they also disclose a few hidden facts to each other.
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'Kailasam' is a an unconventional & different story which I loved reading. It discusses philosophically about body and sexual desires & how it withers & fades away respectively as age grows.
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And the remaining set of 7 stories though given similar titles yet they are absolutely eclectic in nature. These stories acquaints us to a pregnant lady whose husband is sterile; two women who were childhood freinds after many years, they plan travelling to Pondicherry searching for freedom but discover a new facet of love in a old couple there. A story on extreme secularist unrest cracked in Mubai city during riots; a lady who befteinds & sympathesies a male prostitute ; story on how human wants & needs are overpowered by their pets; I also loved reading this story of a lady from North eastern State fervouring for an identity in Mumbai.
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Ambai's female leads are intricately intimate & empathetic and at the same unconservative too. They are independent & face boldly their life turning topsy-turvy. One or two stories didn't work for me , but this book packs a punch despite its slimness.

[Gopal Vijayaraghavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambai is one of the best short story writers in Tamil. Her style is distinct and in most of her stories the protagonists are mainly females and her stories narrated from the perspective of women. 'Vatrum Eriyin Meengal' is one more short story collection consisting of 12 short stories published in small Tamil literary magazines. 'Or Iyakkam, Oru Koppu, Sila Kannir Thuligal' is a longer short story. The story revolves around the friendship of three women during a period of bomb blasts, communal riots and breaking relations between social groups which were maintained friendly relations. In my view, this is too long for a short story and considering the scope and period covered in the short story, this could have been well written as a short novel. In most of the other short stories, the protagonists are in travel and Ambai has in her style embellished the people one ordinarily meets during travel. For me, Varum Eriyin Meengal which explores the feelings of a women who lost her mother when she was born and lost her husband when she was young and remains a single women touched me more. Kailasam, on the other hand, is about a man, spurned in his love and after divorce of a marriage which was not consummated lives and dies in the memory of a women who spurned him. These two short stories are the best stories in the collection.

In short, a collection of short stories not to be missed even though some stories do not leave an impression on the mind of the reader

[Chinar Mehta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I should hold off on reading translations for a while because I think they don't always capture the full context of stories and settings unless it is a very good translation. In this collection, the stories are nice even if some of the context definitely seemed lost to me. I am still thinking about how feminist it was considering that some of the characters in the book seemed to be glorifying an aging past... something that I have never really liked. Otherwise, each of the stories is unique even though the voice of the narrator does seem to continue throughout the collection. This can be a good thing too, because while I was reading it, even though I mixed up the order, I felt I was reading about more or less the same person. Personally, however, I wanted a change in the voice.

[Opale · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai adoré les 2 premières nouvelles mais beaucoup moins compris toutes les références des 2 suivantes malgré le glossaire bien fourni. J'adorerai lire un roman de cette autrice qui a vraiment une plume magnifique.

[Alealea · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 nouvelles aux ambiances très différentes il est difficile d'estimer la lecture globalement.


C'est bien écrit et prenant mais c'est pas fun. Oui il y a de belles relations mere-fille / fille-pere mais la toxicité des relations mari-epouse, c'est intense. J'avoue j'étais emotionnee a la fin de la 3e nouvelle.
Je suis contente de découvrir cette autrice et en même temps, j'aimerais voir un texte plus mature d'elle?
Son agenda feminisme est évident et des fois je trouve ça taillé au couteau. Je me demande pourquoi elle emploie à plusieurs reprises des personnages masculins pour avoir des paroles qui remettent en question la place de la femme dans la société. Ce sont des hommes qui ont du statut donc ils ont plus de chance d'être écouté? Alors que les femmes on a plus leur monologue Intérieur et leurs actions que des paroles directes.

La dernière nouvelle m'a faite penser à un conte et j'aurais adoré avoir une version illustrée pour faciliter l'immersion.

[Luminalsl · Rating 4 out of 5]

un très beau recueil ! Les histoires tournent autour de la place de la femme en Inde, ce sont des histoires graves, touchantes et très justes.

[Kumar Anshul · Rating 5 out of 5]

While browsing randomly at the iconic @kitabkhanabooks at Colaba, I stumbled upon this transient section for #womenintranslation Month and picked up the first book I saw. I have hardly read much Indian translated books (the one I remember was 'Ghachar Ghochar, a book translated from Kannada language that I read back in 2016) and I have always been curious about Indian authors who have excelled while writing in their local language. Needless to say, this book caught my attention and hence I picked it up.
Ambai's stories (originally written in Tamil) are unconventional, and so are her female protagonists. They dream, they travel, they think fondly of their unrequited love. They are unapologetic, they are empathetic. Some stories are just named as 'Journey 2', 'Journey 3' etc while some are named after a forgotten lover. There is exploration of female body, sexuality and sexual expression. There are tragedies of Mumbai riots. There is a non-chalant campus romance here, and a unexplainable suicide there.
I am glad I picked it up. I can say, I didn't choose this book, this book chose me.

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a decent short story collection that are a bit of miss as they thematically play out quite similarly with minor changes to plot points. However this is an excellent collection driven by characters motivations and ignoring the plot, the delivery is quite powerful.

[Malabaricus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy read . Very evocative of the 70’s with some beautifully perceptive observations of people and situations .
C.S Laxmi is one of India’s most authentic writers.

[Yamini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambai, a feminist par excellence, characterizes the sensual body as a natural landscape and believes it's the only thing that keeps you mapped to the outside world. Great read.

[Dhanya Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book immensely. All the characters seemed so real. I am delighted to know the existence of such women who are not hesitant to express love in all forms.

[Nanta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was disappointed with this collection especially since my expectations were very high after reading Purple Sea from the same team. The stories chosen didn't really fall in place into a collection and the translation was very rudimentary. "The calf that frolicked in the hall" was the one saving grace. It was a moving and wonderfully constructed tale!

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little collection of short stories, translated by Lakshmi Holmström (with a wonderful collection of Tamil phrases peppered throughout the book). The stories are centred around the theme of travel, but the heart and soul of the stories explore female sexuality in a way I've never seen in Indian--especially Tamil--literature. Ambai is an intriguing, fascinating, feminist writer!

[Ekta Talwar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way each story unfolds is so enriching and helps us understand women, their lives in a more profound way. Every time you read it ,you will find so much to chew on, to ponder about, to love.
Everyone should read her once in their life.

[Meena]

1) Journey 4 A short story. Amazing and unexpected ending.
2) Journey 5 Also a short story. An unexpected twist. Sweet.