Muthassi

Soudamini, (Damini means lightning), the matriarch, around whom this story is woven, was born in pre independent India in the year 1934. Born into a Warrier family, an upper caste, very select community in Kerala, the story traces her life, its tribulations, it successes, the whole nine yards of a life lived well. The community is one of the few which was strongly matriarchal, not just in everyday life, but in terms of inheritance, asset administration and lineage. Over time it became more matrilineal but Soudamini was born when it was still matriarchal.  She was the oldest girl of an only girl which automatically gave her the position of the matriarch in her generation. The story is written in four parts, her childhood, her independent life as a nurse (a career woman at a time when women did not leave their homes at all least of all to work), her married life (she married for love, outside her community) and finally the retired life of a grandmother and a matriarch who returns to her roots. Biographical in large parts, some amount of poetic license has been taken with the delivery and some timelines.

Written By: Shalini Elassery