In this episode, Kanchana Viswanathan reads some extracts from Chellammal's Journal: A Woman's Memoir of a Joint Family in Twentieth-Century India. Chellammal’s Journal records the journey of a woman in an upper-caste joint family in early twentieth-century Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. It excavates the complex familial relationships within the walls of the house, and the interplay of love, hurt, affection, disappointment, anger and control which thwart the aspirations of a young woman.
Written at a time when dissent or disagreement by women in Chellammal's circumstances would have been frowned upon, the book provides the reader with a rare, contemporary look at the interior of an upper-caste twentieth-century Tamil household, even as her daughter Kanchana Viswanathan’s translation brings the narrative to life for non-Tamil speaking readers for the first time.

Buy it here: http://yodapress.co.in/chellammal-s-journal. This episode has been produced by Tanya Singh and edited by Chitraksh Ashray. Opening song is 'Typewriter' by Marc Taboel via Epidemic Sound.