Authors: Anita Nair
Tags: #Bangalore (India), #Widows, #Contemporary Women, #Domestic fiction, #General, #College teachers, #Fiction, #Cultural Heritage
The Lilac House (31 page)
‘What a number! There was a time when she was doing so many openings, cutting so many satin ribbons tied across doorways, that Deepak called her Edward Scissorhands in one of his columns. She doesn’t talk to him any more.’
Meera giggles.
Suddenly Meera realizes she is having a splendid time. These are all her friends. And this is the life she so wanted. Meera knows for certain that there is nowhere else she would rather be.
The afternoon wears on. Meera forgets to count the number of glasses. She sits by the pool letting the water lick at her feet. She has an anklet on. Her daughter has the other one. Her grown-up daughter leading a very grown-up life in another city…
What will he say if I tell him that I have a nineteen-year-old daughter? A tall girl with skin like porcelain and grey-green eyes, studying at the Indian Institute of Technology. She looks at the handsome aspiring actor who sits by her side with his feet in the water. He has his trousers rolled up far enough for her to see the hair that covers his legs. Mia macho. Mia maxima macho…
Zeus, are you looking my way? Meera throws a glance over her shoulder. Do you see him, this Adonis, with a doric column for a throat and a damp well at the base? Where locusts feed, so can I, Giri, so can I.
Meera smiles honey at the actor even as he speaks the most inane rubbish; he wants, among other things, a chessboard patterned floor and to write a book about his childhood spent in a small town. Why is it, Meera asks herself suppressing a yawn, that everyone wants to write a book about their suburban childhood?
Long bicycle rides, skinning mango trees, cricket matches and other wholesome things – why not one about trawling the alleys of a city, strangling cats and smashing car windows?
Long bicycle rides, skinning mango trees, cricket matches and other wholesome things – why not one about trawling the alleys of a city, strangling cats and smashing car windows?
But every now and then Meera sees him dart a glance at her ankles and feels his eyes on her lips. When he reaches across and touches the tip of her nose, she wonders if she should say something. She knows what Giri will accuse him of when they get home. ‘He just wants to fuck you. Guys like him have only one thing on their minds. I know. I know how men think!’
Meera thrusts the thought away and puts on her everything-you-say-is-the-most-interesting-thing-I’ve-ever-heard-in-my-life face and focuses on the actor.
‘You are so …’ the actor begins.
‘Charming? Sexy?’ Meera giggles.
‘I was going to say easy to talk to. That I feel a great connection with you. But yes, you are charming and sexy too!’ he whispers huskily.
Someone must have told him that his voice has a sexy timbre when lowered. What an ass! I ought to shut up and not encourage him. I am drunk, Meera thinks, and searches the poolside for Giri. Where is he? She wants to go home and lie down.
Just then Nikhil comes to her side. ‘Mom, I can’t find Dad!’
‘He’ll be here somewhere.’
‘No, he’s not. I checked the men’s room. And the parking lot too. His car’s not there either.’
Meera rises abruptly. She thrusts the plate and glass into the actor’s hands and looks around. ‘He should be here somewhere,’ she says again, wandering back towards the seating area.
‘Are you looking for Giri?’ Charlie asks from near the bar.
‘Yes, have you seen him, Charlie?’ She tries to hide the worry in her voice. She sees Queen Lat’s eyes glitter. The speculation.
‘He stepped out as I was coming in. That was about two hours ago, Meera.’
That is when Meera feels her perfect September day with its blue sky acquire an underbelly of grey.
A wail gathers in her. But she clamps it down and improvises, ‘How silly of me. The flight must be early…’
The words trail away. Meera sees the knowing look on the faces around her.
My Giri is not Zeus. He does not frolic with nymphets or even goddesses. He is prone to fits of rage; he is ambitious. But he is eminently trustworthy.
Meera hears again the censorious voice in her head: That’s exactly what Hera must have thought each time Zeus disappeared from her horizon!
Fiction
The Better Man
Ladies Coupé
Mistress
Satyr of the Subway & Eleven Other Stories
—Short Fiction
The Better Man
Ladies Coupé
Mistress
Satyr of the Subway & Eleven Other Stories
—Short Fiction
Nonfiction
Where the Rain is Born
—[Ed.]
Goodnight and God Bless
—Essays
Where the Rain is Born
—[Ed.]
Goodnight and God Bless
—Essays
For Children
Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends
Adventures of Nonu, the Skating Squirrel
Living Next Door To Alise
Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths
Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends
Adventures of Nonu, the Skating Squirrel
Living Next Door To Alise
Puffin Book of Magical Indian Myths
Poetry
Malabar Mind
Malabar Mind
The Greek Myths
[Complete Edition], Robert Graves, Penguin Books Ltd, 1992.
[Complete Edition], Robert Graves, Penguin Books Ltd, 1992.
Special Series: The Art of Hospitality, Part V, Dinner Party Etiquette,
Tamera Bastiaans,
www.homecooking.about.com
Tamera Bastiaans,
www.homecooking.about.com
As always, this book wouldn’t be what it is, were it not for V.K. Karthika – anchor, bulwark, rudder and then that final gust of wind that steered the book through its course.
Jayant Kodkani for once again being my first reader and celestial navigator.
Camilla Ferrier, Geraldine Cooke and the team at The Marsh Agency for their sustained support.
Mini Kuruvilla for making a veritable difference to the mechanics of producing a literary work.
Sudha Pillai who made available to me material on cyclones.
Sumentha and Franklin Bell, Francesca Diano, Leela Kalyanraman, Gita Krishnankutty, Chetan Krishnaswamy, Achuthan Kudallur, Carmen Lavin, Dimpy and Suresh Menon, S. Prasannarajan, Sunita Shankar, Rajini and Sunil, Jayapriya Vasudevan, Vishwas and Patrick Wilson – friends who made everything and every day so much easier to deal with in countless ways.
My parents, Soumini and Bhaskaran, for being there for me. Always.
Unni, Maitreya and Sugar – the triumvirate without whom life and literature would have neither meaning nor relevance for me.
1.
Amidst the changeability in Meera’s life, her family home, Lilac House, remains a constant, a place “Meera has forbidden panic�� (23). Yet the Lilac House is also cause of much strife in her marriage to Giri. How would you describe Meera’s relationship to her family home in the beginning of the novel? Does this relationship change by the end? How so?
Amidst the changeability in Meera’s life, her family home, Lilac House, remains a constant, a place “Meera has forbidden panic�� (23). Yet the Lilac House is also cause of much strife in her marriage to Giri. How would you describe Meera’s relationship to her family home in the beginning of the novel? Does this relationship change by the end? How so?
2.
Why do you think Anita Nair chose to interweave Greek mythological figures throughout
The Lilac House
? In what ways did these figures contribute to your reading experience?
Why do you think Anita Nair chose to interweave Greek mythological figures throughout
The Lilac House
? In what ways did these figures contribute to your reading experience?
3.
How do Professor Jak’s articles about the different stages of a cyclone illuminate the structure of the novel? How about the plot?
How do Professor Jak’s articles about the different stages of a cyclone illuminate the structure of the novel? How about the plot?
4.
When Jak is a child and his father flees the family, Jak’s mother says, “I am cursed … that’s what I am. Neither a wife nor a widow. Who am I, Kitcha?” (17). In what ways does Meera’s journey explore this question? What does it mean for her to be a woman who is “neither a wife nor a widow?”
When Jak is a child and his father flees the family, Jak’s mother says, “I am cursed … that’s what I am. Neither a wife nor a widow. Who am I, Kitcha?” (17). In what ways does Meera’s journey explore this question? What does it mean for her to be a woman who is “neither a wife nor a widow?”
5.
As Jak seeks answers to Smriti’s mysterious accident, he tells Kala Chithi that he is “a scientist” and “it is the way of all scientific investigation to end in a conclusion.” In response, Kala Chithi asks, “and Kitcha, what do you do with the conclusion you arrive at?” (58). What does Jak do with his conclusions at the end of the novel? How does Kala Chithi’s question pervade the novel more generally?
As Jak seeks answers to Smriti’s mysterious accident, he tells Kala Chithi that he is “a scientist” and “it is the way of all scientific investigation to end in a conclusion.” In response, Kala Chithi asks, “and Kitcha, what do you do with the conclusion you arrive at?” (58). What does Jak do with his conclusions at the end of the novel? How does Kala Chithi’s question pervade the novel more generally?
6.
The characters in
The Lilac House
are complex and flawed in many ways. Did you disagree with a character’s way of thinking or his/her actions while reading? At what point? Why?
The characters in
The Lilac House
are complex and flawed in many ways. Did you disagree with a character’s way of thinking or his/her actions while reading? At what point? Why?
7.
Were you surprised by the truth behind Smriti’s accident? How does Smriti’s campaign against female infanticide tie into broader questions of female identity in the novel?
Were you surprised by the truth behind Smriti’s accident? How does Smriti’s campaign against female infanticide tie into broader questions of female identity in the novel?
8.
Anita Nair gives the reader insight into both Meera’s and Jak’s perspectives. How do their views on marriage, parenting, love, and careers differ? How are they similar? In what ways do these perspectives shift throughout the novel?
Anita Nair gives the reader insight into both Meera’s and Jak’s perspectives. How do their views on marriage, parenting, love, and careers differ? How are they similar? In what ways do these perspectives shift throughout the novel?
For more reading group suggestions, visit
www.readinggroupgold.com
.
www.readinggroupgold.com
.
ANITA NAIR’S books have been published in several languages around the world. Her last novel
Mistress
was long-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize in the UK, and named a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award in the United States.
The Lilac House
was recently adapted for stage and film in India. She lives in Bangalore, India.
Mistress
was long-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize in the UK, and named a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award in the United States.
The Lilac House
was recently adapted for stage and film in India. She lives in Bangalore, India.
Visit Anita at
www.anitanair.net
.
www.anitanair.net
.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE LILAC HOUSE. Copyright © 2010 by Anita Nair. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
eISBN 9781429942553
First eBook Edition : April 2012
ISBN 978-0-312-60677-0 (trade paperback) ISBN 978-1-250-00518-2 (hardcover)
First published in India by
HarperCollins
Publishers
India,
a joint venture with
The India Today Group
under the title
Lessons in Forgetting
HarperCollins
Publishers
India,
a joint venture with
The India Today Group
under the title
Lessons in Forgetting
First U.S. Edition: April 2012
Other books
The Scottish Play Murder by Anne Rutherford
The Ginseng Conspiracy (A Kay Driscoll Mystery) by Bernhardt, Susan
Wytchfire (Book 1) by Michael Meyerhofer
The Pretend Wife by Bridget Asher
SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) by Nowotny, Michael
Sorry, Charlie (Poconos Pack) by Dana Marie Bell
Chosen Mate (Catamount Lion Shifters #2) by J.H. Croix
Money (The Keatyn Chronicles Book 10) by Jillian Dodd
Love in Our Time by Norman Collins
October Ghosts (A Southern Romance Monthly) by Hockenberry, CJ