“It is very important for women to have a sound knowledge of their histories. Unless one knows women’s history, how are they expected to make policies governing them?”- Ambai
C.S Lakshmi is a renowned Indian writer and independent researcher pioneering in women’s studies. Lakshmi was born in 1944 in a typical Tamil family in Coimbatore. She grew up in Mumbai and Bangalore. She has been weaving a complex yet delicate web of grief, experience, memories, journeys and tainted characters in her short stories since she was sixteen. She writes under the pseudonym Ambai and is a distinguished Tamil writer. Her works highlight the cause for women and use humour in a lucid and profound style. She is the only Tamil writer who has been included in the Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature by Amit Chaudhuri. Lakshmi has been doing independent research on Indian women for thirty years now.
She was the force behind the country’s first dedicated archives for women. Ambai completed her doctorate in American Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University and then thought of creating archives that would document and preserve stories written by and of women. Ambai realized the need for archives that would preserve writings, pictorial representations, oral recordings and videos about women. She is the founder and director of SPARROW (Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women). Ambai has edited a series of five volumes of translations of eighty-seven writers from twenty-three languages of India. Her organisation aims to teach the masses about the politics of family and religion, topics that are excluded from textbooks. Thus, in this manner, she became a voice for hundreds of Indian women who were unheard and unseen for centuries. Virginia Woolf in her essay, The Room of One’s Own, ponders over how women in the past have been excluded from the narrative. Ambai, in a way, takes initiative to write the lost history of women but in this case, Indian women.
She played a major role in the establishment of Raja Muthiah Research Library (RMRL) by urging the University to acquire Raja Muthaiah Chettiar's collection of books and other published material. She has been a Research Officer in the Indian Council of Historical Research. She was also a university lecturer in New Delhi. In the 1990s, Ambai worked on two research projects, namely, Illustrated Social History of Women in Tamil Nadu, which was sponsored by the Ford Foundation and An Idiom of Silence: An Oral History and Pictorial Study, which was sponsored by the Homi J. Bhabha fellowship. Eventually, these researches were published as two volumes of the Seven Seas & Seven Mountains series. She is a current member of the University of Michigan's Global Feminisms Project.
Moreover, Ambai is an excellent writer. She inks her characters and stories with beautiful metaphors, images and symbolism. Most of her stories are about complicated relationships and they contain extraordinary observations about life in modern times. Some of the recurring themes in her stories have been about the exploration of one's personal space, solemnity, coming to terms with one's body or sexuality, and the importance of healthy communication. Her stories are translated into two volumes: A Purple Sea and In a Forest, A Deer. Ambai writes a lot about non -human objects but these objects are closely linked with humane characters and desires. What makes her writings different from others is how they express emotions on various levels. Her writings discuss those aspects of humans, especially women, that are ignored by other writers. In my opinion, her stories give an undefined warmth and tranquillity to the readers.
Her first work of fiction was the Tamil novel Andhi Maalai (lit. Twilight) which came out in 1966. It received the Kalaimagal Narayanaswamy Aiyar Prize. She received extremely good reviews for her short story Siragukal muriyum (lit. Wings will be broken) which was published in the literary magazine Kanaiyazhi in 1967. She is also a recipient of the Narayanaswamy Aiyar Prize for her work in fiction. Her other works include Sirakukal muriyum, Vittin mulaiyil oru camaiyalarai and The Face behind the mask: Women in Tamil literature. Translation of her stories in English has helped readers to enjoy her works. The Library of Congress holds five of her writings in its collection. In 2006, she won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award along with Lakshmi Holmström in the Indian language fiction translation category for In a Forest, A Dee'. Ambai also received the 2008 Iyal Virudhu (Lifetime Achievement Award) awarded by the Canada-based Tamil Literary Garden for her contributions to Tamil literature.
Books in English:
The Face behind the mask: Women in Tamil literature(1984)
A Purple Sea (Translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom) (1992)
Body blows: women, violence, and survival: three plays (2000)
Seven seas & seven mountains: Volume 1: The Singer and the Song — Conversations with Women Musicians, Kali for Women (2000)
Seven seas & seven mountains: Volume 2: Mirrors and Gestures – Conversations with Women Dancers, Kali for Women (2003)
(ed.) The Unhurried City – Writings on Chennai, Kali for Women (2003)
In A Forest, A Deer: Stories By Ambai (Translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom), Katha (2006)
A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge: Sudha Gupta Investigates, Juggernaut (2016)
Books in Tamil:
Nandimalai Charalilae (lit. At Nandi Hills) (1962)
Andhi Malai (lit. Twilight) (1967)
Sirakukal muriyum (lit. Wings will be broken), Kalachuvadu (1976)
Veetin mulaiyil oru camaiyalarai (lit. A kitchen in the corner of the house), cre-A (1988)
Ambai : Kalacchuvadu Nerkanalgal (lit. Kalachuvadu Interviews with Ambai), Kalachuvadu (1998)
Kaatil Oru Maan (lit. A Deer in the Forest), Kalachuvadu (2000)
Varrum eriyin meengal (lit. Fish in a drying pond), Kalachuvadu (2007)
Sources
About the author
Pratishtha Singh Gaur is an ordinary Indian girl who loves voicing her opinion about gender disparity and social taboos. She has always been open to conversations about songs, books, movies and cats. In social gatherings, her role is mostly keeping the mood light.
Thank you 💓💓
Wonderful!! Loved the insights❤
Beautifully written and expressed! Kudos :)