[.ca] Signet Classics Nectar In A Sieve (ISBN 0451528239)

how i feel...:
Nectar in a Sieve. I believe there are two different interpretations in this ambiguous title, just like the words inflammable and flammable. Before I continue, let me inform you the definitions of nectar and sieve. Nectar is a sweet liquid secreted by flowers and are consumed by pollinators such as hummingbirds and insects. A sieve is a utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized substance. The first interpretation is that the main character in the story, Rukmani, used a sieve to try to capture all the sweetness out of her hard, miserable life and she somehow succeeded. The title shows how this brave Indian woman tries to get the best out of every challenge and never surrender to fate. The second interpretation, the one that I believe to be true, is that in Rukmani¡¦s depressing life she tried to capture the sweet nectar by using a sieve and the results were fruitless. All her hard work and her hope, represented by the nectar, slipped away bit by bit through the sieve. There are many evidences in the book that supports and chains my idea. Rukmani is the ¡§daughter of the village headman¡¨ but due to the reason of the dowries of her four previous sisters and the Collector in the village who seized control, Rukmani¡¦s family ¡§could not find her a rich husband, so they married her to a tenant farmer who was poor in everything.¡¨ Rukmani¡¦s social status drop suddenly from a daughter of a headman to a wife of a farmer and the marriage was considered as¡§ a poor match.¡¨ Later, to her disappointment, she gave birth to a girl named Irawaddy, ¡§after one of the great rivers of Asia, who would take with her a dowry and leave nothing but a memory behind.¡¨ Five years after the marriage of Irawaddy, she was returned to her parents for she is a ¡§barren women¡¨,¡§a failure." As the story moves on, more unexpected events came and shatter Rukmani¡¦s life. She gave birth to more children and ¡§the resources have to be shared out in smaller and smaller portions. Finally, ¡§they no longer had milk in the house and curds and butter were beyond their means except on rare occasions.¡¨ After their lives improve,¡§the rains failed¡¨ and ¡§the earth was parched to dust.¡¨Still,¡§day after day the pitiless sun blazed down, scorching whatever still struggled to grow and baking the earth hard until at last it split and great irregular fissures paged in the land.¡¨To Rukmani¡¦s surprise, her beloved daughter, Irawaddy, tried to help the family financially by becoming a prostitute. As a result, she gave birth to an albino child as ¡§fair as a blossom¡¨ and whose hair was the ¡§color of moonlight.¡¨ It was a great humiliation to the family and the source of gossip around the neighborhood. Due to the problem with the lack of rain, another merciless impact hit Rumani, her ¡§last child, conceived in happiness at a time when the river ran gently, had been taken¡¨ by death. These are just a few examples of obstacles such as poverty or disasters Rukmani encountered throughout her life. Many more heartrending events happened afterwards. To me, Rukmuni courageously used a sieve to try to capture the nectar, or precious objects in life but no matter how hard she tries, the sweetness seeps out and all that is left is bitterness and despair.

Should be Required Reading for Westerners:
Nectar in a Sieve has affected me deeply, although I am familiar first hand with the life described in it. Although I am a westerner, born and raised in the U.S. Midwest, white, upper-middle class, well-educated, and Christian -- I know something of India -- and know that the spirit and essence of this story is as true as anything real. It is of immeasurable value. My mother and aunt were born of missionary parents in India in 1912 & 1915. Their father, my grandfather, died there of black fever, and a few days later their 2-year old brother dropped dead while playing -- all during a famine. Their mother stayed on. India was British back then, but poverty was deep and wide throughout the land, and my grandmother lived nearly as poor as those around her, being supported by donations from the U.S. that amounted to 25 cents to a dollar at a time. I have her accounting books and I grew up with stories, and later came across over 1,000 pages of diaries from her that are very much in keeping with life that Kamala Markandaya writes about. In 1982 I accompanied my mother and aunt back to their birthplaces, which were still in the midst of extreme poverty and the ignorant stupidity of which Kamala describes through the eyes of the white doctor Kenney. I've eaten with families on dung floors, and help stir pots of curry over open fires. I've met and photographed families living on streets with only what they can carry to their name. I've been to temple in the middle of the night and breathed the pungent smoke of dung cakes used for fuel, and watched as a dead leper was carried from her mud-dung hut and given an impromptu funeral in a field before being carried off to be buried in the sands of a river so animals could easily dispose of her body at night. Perhaps it was all of that which spoke to me in Ms. Markandaya's writing. But I will tell you this. Reading this novel, if you are a Westerner of any ilk, is more important than eating. Let your children go without food for a few meals, if that will give you time to live, love, and walk with Rukmani. This book should be required reading (period - no qualifications). In its reading you will be a better person, and your children, sans meals, more healthy. If you are a priest that hands on penance, Nectar in a Sieve should be reading for any sin involving wealth, greed, abundance, or a lack of human dignity or marital infidelity. I dare to say that before Christ came to Earth to care and love the poor, he read this book. (It is a possible thing, you know.) On the outside Nectar in a Sieve is about the suffering and trials of living near the bottom of the cast system in rural India. But what it's really about is how love and hope can possess the human heart in the most desperate of lives.

Nectar in a Sieve:
Nectar in a Sieve is an emotional trip through the life of, Rukmani, an Indian woman. Begining in the present, she takes us through her life; sharing with her readers the hardships, sacrifices, the joys, and the family that we soon become a part of. As Indian customs go, she is married off at the age of thirteen to a poor husband whom she grows to love. After trying for many years, thanks to the help of a white doctor, yet unknown to her husband, Rukmani is finaly able to have children. She watches the world change around her and her family into new modern business which she feels is distroying everything. Poverty and hunger stricken, she watches two of her sons die, one move far away and her daughter, unable to bear children, become a prostitue. This book pulls you so deep into the heart of Rukmani you can feel her tears when she is forced to move away from her homeland and go on a journey which eventulay takes the life of her beloved husband. I really enjoyed this book and i reccomend it to anyone looking for a fast read of courage and never giving up.

Great backup information for British India:
I read this as a view as to what living in India was like under British rule and during their transitional period. It was great as an inside look to the average life of a peasent farmer.

Excellent:
I read this for an Intro in Indian Civilization class. It is a very good narrative, and I could not put it down. It describes bascially the life of an Indian woman from the time she gets married, and then it goes a full circle until the woman finds herself, essentially alone with no husband, at the same place she first lived after getting married. One of the themes of the book is modernity and its affects on an Indian village and Indian family. I highly recommend this book.