Get Fish In A Dwindling Lake Prepared By Ambai Issued As Version

short story. Amazing and unexpected ending.
JourneyAlso a short story, An unexpected twist. Sweet. A much deservedstars! 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, 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 Indianespecially Tamilliterature.
Ambai is an intriguing, fascinating, feminist writer! 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. Fish in a dwindling lake is a set ofshort stories which have a common stroke of feminism brushed equally, These stories except three , don't have a proper name, The author has named thesestories as journey, journey, . . journey. 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.


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 amp nephew reluctant to leave her own land, One last visit to her friend Bimla devi amp her spiritual quest veers Kumud from the decision she had taken,

'The Calf that frolicked in the hall' is about three friends Kadir, Udayan and an unnamed female narrator, Afteryears 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 amp homeland and they also disclose a few hidden facts to each other.


'Kailasam' is a an unconventional amp different story which I loved reading, It discusses philosophically about body and sexual desires amp how it withers amp fades away respectively as age grows,

And the remaining set ofstories 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 amp sympathesies a male prostitute story on how human wants amp 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.


Ambai's female leads are intricately intimate amp empathetic and at the same unconservative too, They are independent amp face boldly their life turning topsyturvy, One or two stories didn't work for me , but this book packs a punch despite its slimness, 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, 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,
The body was the only truth she knew, It was the body alone that was left, even as she went beyond the body,

Journeys form the leitmotif of these astonishing new stories by Ambai, Sometimes culminating in an unconventional love affair, some are extraordinary tales of loyalty and integrity others touch on the almost fantastic, absurd aspect of Mumbai.
Yet others explore the notion of a wholesome self, and its tragic absence at times, These stories are illuminated by vivid and unusual characters: from an eccentric, penurious singercouple who adopt an ape as their son, to a male prostitute, who is battered by bimbos for not giving full satisfaction.


Crucially, some of the stories, like the title one, engage uninhibitedly with a womans relationship to her body, For Ambai, feminist par excellence, the sensual body, experienced as a natural landscape changing with age, is at the same time, the only vehicle of life and tool for mapping the external world.
This is an easy read, Very evocative of thes with some beautifully perceptive observations of people and situations,
C. S Laxmi is one of Indias most authentic writers, 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, 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 inand 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', 'Journey' 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 nonchalant 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, Ambai nom de plume of C, S. Lakshmi, is a historian, an independent Womens 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, 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, 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, Twil 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, 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, 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. She received critical acclaim with the short story Siragukal muriyum lit, Wings Will be Brokenpublished 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, 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, In, 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 Seaand In A Forest, A Deerhave been translated to English by Lakshmi Holmström.
For her contributions to Tamil literature, she received theIyal 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, sitelink.