Ramachandran Usha’s Tamil novel Unmoored, or Karai Thedum Odangal in Tamil, translated into English by Krupa Ge is the story of three women – Ayesha, Indu and Ameera, as they come back from Dubai after their attempts to financially support their families back in Chennai by migrating to a foreign country. The book tethers the lives of the three women through a sense of betrayal from their loved ones, and the three come to rely on each other in a heartwarming ending.
Each of the women comes back to their families in Chennai to find a family very different from the one they left behind – one which leaves them only afloat on the constant ebb and flow of a sea of changes, bobbing back and forth trying to find a shore. Navigating the changing expectations and the difficult times, they find a sense of belonging with each other.
Krupa Ge, in translating the book, does a beautiful job in capturing the affairs of the city life in Chennai, by preserving some of the language and humour from Tamil into English, without letting it feel forced or unusual. The translation does not only preserve the Tamil sensibilities, but also carefully weaves the cultural shift from the unfamiliarity of the Gulf to the comfort of a city so far away that the women call home. It brings us the stories of the women whose experiences are rooted in a specific language.
Ayesha moves to Dubai to work as a caretaker for a rich lady; Ameera marries a rich older man to help support her siblings in Chennai but spends years in prison, blamed for the death of her husband; and Indu is offered a job but realises upon reaching Dubai that she was trapped in something worse. The migration to the Middle East to help their families financially, for years in the case of Ayesha and Ameera to a few days for Indu, binds their lives by the longing for home – to find a true sense of belonging and a true mooring. The story dwells on little known, anonymous experiences of women who move to the Middle East and find themselves struggling with an unfamiliar legal system.
With short, closely knit chapters, the brevity with which Usha passes us a story of the experience of migration and identity is a challenging task when dealing with themes of such gravity. She also deals with the question of identity in her story – one can observe the differences in the caste, social class and religion of the women, who despite these create a family of their own. Regional differences of culture and language are also carefully woven into the fabric of the text, creating a seamless narrative for us to experience the vivacious city and its constant movements.
Krupa Ge attempts to translate this question of identity too in her translation, exploring the subtle differences in the Tamil language and bringing them into English. She brings the jumble of Tamil words like “poriyal” (vegetable preparation) and “poriyiyal” (science) when Jameela incorrectly uses one of the words.
The book also comes with two short stories, “Khushka” and “Success”, which also touch upon the similar themes of financial strain in the protagonists’ lives as presented in Unmoored. Usha imbues these short stories with the various ideas held by people from different social classes in Southern India. The translation by Krupa Ge enriches the moments of heartache with such beauty. Published by Zubaan Books as part of the ‘Women Translating Women’ series by the Ashoka Centre for Translation, the novel is definitely worth a read this August as we celebrate the Women in Translation month!
About the Author:
Pakhi Daswani is a student of English Literature at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and an intern at AfterWord.