MM VINODINI

THE PARABLE OF THE LOST DAUGHTER

 Story begins with the question of whether Paladasu and Suvarthavani will
even be allowed to enter the Brahmin’s house
- The notion of “purity”
 Paladasu –father - a carpenter and rikshapuller
Krupamma – mom – domestic helper in other ppl’s houses
Zachariah - brother (named after the angel bc both are short) (the family is
also dalit Christian ig like the author herself)
 Suva sisn’t want Pala to drop her to the station himself
- Probably out of embarrassment
 Suva doesn’t eat beef anymore bc of her friends- she makes an excuse that
it doesn’t sit well w her but her brother rebuts w how she ate all her life
and was alright before
- Food and caste
 Suva asks her mother to wear her saree properly – not hitched, comb her
hair, cook on gas, wear powder etc
- “looking” dalit
 Suva – does MA in Rajahmundry
 Gayatri – friend in college – close to Gayatri’s family too
Piratla Subramaniam
Kameswaramma
 Suva talks about going to a Brahmin’s home for the first time- never been
there before eve when she had visited other houses of people from other
communities
- College first time she in contact w Brahmins at sucha lvl bc
in vlg probably had marked distinction bw brahmin and
dalit areas
-
 Taken inside a temple by Gayatri to apply vermilion on forehead – called
bottu- applied for the first time
 Started changing her ways to fit in and shift away from her identity like
adding an h to her words, using ‘S. Vani’ as her name instead of whole,
listening to classical poetry reced by profs, reading Sanskrit texts, changing
eating habits where she would just use spoons not bare hands, would lie
abt the food she used to eat at home and replace it w dishes she had heard
her friends mention, started bunking church and wearing a red thread on
her wrists like hindus, wearing bottu whenever she visited gayatri’s house
 Gayatri’s sister was pregnant so they had a function at their house but Suva
could come only if gayatri’s grandma or uncle Bachi didn’t attend because if
they found out about her caste then gayatri would be reprimanded for
bringing Suva to their house
 Ppl at the function continued to ask gayatri her caste and she was v
uncomfortable at telling them – they were also surprised at ‘there were
such lovely girls among the harijans’
 Many consoled her how she looked like a ‘kamma or reddy’ not harijan –
Suva started to take pride in this and saw this as a compliment
 At the function – gayatri put turmeric on everyone’s feet but not Suva’s bc
‘brahmins shouldn’t touch the feet of harijans’
- Deep down Gayatri was casteist too
- It was just a matter of “oh Suva is a good dalit, she isn’t
like the bad one at all”
 She started hating her own family and community for the way they spoke,
dressed, worked, etc
 After MA gayatri got married and moved to the US, her faily went to
Hyderabad and Suva worked part time in Ambedkar Open University while
doing her research – she then moved to Hyderabad when she got a call
from Hyderabad University
 back to present

 goes to Gaytri’s parents house – on her way, removes her christain cross
pendant and wears the bottu instead to hide her real identity / fit in better
 she always refereed to gayatri’s parents and family as her own to
strengthen her friendship w her as well as fit in better w them
 but there when she is going to the kitchen to put away ger coffee cup –
kame asks her to not enter the kitchen and puja room as they had just
finished the pooja for the day
 she lived in their house in a room w books incl one that Subr had written on
oppressed people – she read them and was keen to discuss these w him but
he barely talked to her
 when she was about to get her periods she was v anxious on how she was
to go about it whether she should tell them or not but thankfully she
doesn’t get them
 gayatri’s brother in law was a creep – he would approach her all the time
and even inappropriately touch her
 he told her that she was Christian – not a traditional girl thus she should
enjoy life and not stick to “our traditions”
- christain women and how they are seen as “characterless”
 he makes v derogatory comment about Christian girls: wear modern
clothes, ride on bikes, go anywhere w you, sit close, don’t engage in
sentiments like marriage, you can touch them however, he regers to them
as “women from your community”
 he goes on to talk about how Christian women in villages are also like this –
how men from big families use ‘women from harijanwada’ and take them
to fields but there’s the fear of getting them pregnant
- he is trying to make a move on suva bc he mentions how in
the cities yo don’t have to be afraid of getting pregnant as
there are other measures
 - his actions speak for themself and how right from the start
he has been eyeing suva
- he keeps the farce of being all pious and tradiotional
religious in front of everyone but this is his reality
 suva gets extremely angry on his description of Christian women and also
gets v uncomfortable – she walks out of the cafe – she couldn’t get over
what he had said
 she realised how while she had respect for their culture an dtraditions but
they just had hatred towards hers and thought of them as unworthy of
being respected
 she realised how she had also started to internalise this idea- w how she
had started othering and inferiorizing her own community and even started
wearing the bottu to fit in better – but to them she was still dalit
 she started to think of how many times she had been treated as an
untouchable by her friend herself
 when subra comes back home he starts shouting at his wife bc she didn’t
get the bolt fitted on the front door- he goes on to abuse her verbally
calling her slurs – he comments on how she must have ‘showed them her
body and slept w them bc she let the carpenters go w only half the work
done’ – he even called her slurs used for dalit communities and also called
her a Christian bitch – he degraded not just his wife as a woman but also
communities like mala and madiga as well as woman from those
communities
 Suva shocked to hear this – while she was familiar w verbal abuse and
swearing in general in her own community – these had different
connotations because Subra’s words here hurtful to dalit communities too
and using them as an insult
 She looks at the books written by him and realises how different he is in
person – she also realises how he didn’t just insult his wife but Suva herself
as well, along w her caste, religion, people
 The next morning was the morinig of her departure- she packed her things
– wore her jesus pendant – threw the bottu packet away – she fared them
 bye and when Kames told her she didn’t wear her bottu she replied w how
she was a Christian dalit girl
 Thus again making peace w her own identity