Nine Yard Sarees: a short story cycle

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Winner of Fiction in English

Nine Yard Sarees: a short story cycle

Nine Yard Sarees is a multigenerational portrait of a fictional Tamil Brahmin family. Comprising eleven interlinked stories, this short story cycle traces the lives of nine women from 1950 all the way to 2019, shedding light on the community and its evolution through the decades. As the stories take us from India to Singapore, Australia and even America, we follow the experiences of the women in the family: Raji the matriarch who lives in seclusion at an ashram; her daughter Padma who struggles to raise her family the traditional way; Padma’s daughter Keerthana who is about to be married and don the nine yard saree, a symbol of womanhood. Tender, dynamic and full of heart, this cycle is a resonant portrayal of female solidarity and the complexities of the diasporic experience in contemporary Singapore.

Excerpt

1 May 2000

Dear Padma,

This is Amma. I believe this is my first ever letter to you. In fact, it is my first time in 56 years of existing in this world that I am writing a letter addressed to anyone in particular. I only ever pick up the pen to write ஓம்108 times each evening in my notebook. So, this feels strange to me, as if I am in first standard again.

The truth is, by the time you receive this letter in the post, I would have left your Ganesan Mama and Gomathi Mami and moved out of Chennai. I know this will come as a shock to
you and your younger sister. What kind of mother leaves without a word, you may think.

But I trust that the two of you are old enough to understand. You see, when your father left us and his atma merged with heaven, I had no idea what to do. It was different from losing my sister or my parents. You and Prema returned to Singapore after the funeral, and I was suddenly very alone in Chennai. You would not believe how people treat widows, the way they would hide from me as if I were a disease. Above everything, without the only man I have ever loved in my life, I was overcome with this foreign feeling of loneliness. You did ask me several times to come over and live with your family because you feared that I would feel this way. But I hope you understand—no place outside of India can ever be my home. It will never feel right for me, even if it does to you both, for which I am glad.

I do not have to tell you that your father was a good man. You know as well as I do. He kept me steady and strong whenever I wavered, and I have wavered so many times in this life. He was the one person who could make me believe once again in the goodness of people, and in the value of living. Of life itself. But without him, I am not so sure anymore.

Ethos Books, 2023

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Judges' Comments

If one of the defining features of Singaporean fiction is a richly tapestried portrait of the transnational diasporic family at the crossroads of various cultures and crises, then Nine Yard Sarees is a superbly crafted exemplar of the form. Written as a short-story cycle – a series of eleven interconnected short stories narrated through the perspectives of nine different women – this is a dazzling, multi-faceted work that illuminates the lives of three generations of Tamil Brahmin Singaporean women and their associates across various times, traditions, and places. While documenting meticulously the social structures and quotidian rituals of traditional Indian life in Kalakad, Tamil Nadu, the book also showcases women’s networks, desires and ambitions in contemporary Singaporean society and culture, positioning Singapore as the vibrant hub of global movements and interests. The pulsing life of the city-state is fed by streams of diasporic migrants from around the world – middle-class Indians like the Srinivasans, but also the domestic workers who make up Singapore’s transient class of precariats – and in turn it plenishes the cosmopolitan citizens who later find homes in Sydney, Connecticut and New York. These broader themes are narrated through the daily lives, loves and longings, as well as the hurts and humiliations, experienced by the nine women whose voices swell in polyphonic chorus to recount their stories and insist that they matter. But this is no nostalgic or idealistic call to sisterhood. A clear-sighted and ruthlessly principled observer, Ram shows with remorseless precision the damage women inflict on each other and on the men in their families, yet the book is not patronisingly didactic. She trusts her readers to respond appropriately to stories that depict with powerful simplicity the failure to treat the marginalised with respect or humanity. Her writing is skilful, assured, comedic at times, and profoundly moving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prasanthi Ram

Prasanthi Ram (Dr) is a full-time writing lecturer at Nanyang Technological University, where she completed her PhD in creative writing. Her short stories can be found in Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Five and Food Republic: A Singapore Literary Banquet. She also writes personal essays that have been published in What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian as well as Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore. In 2020, she co-founded Mahogany Journal, an online literary journal, and currently serves as its fiction editor.

Short Notes with Prasanthi Ram

What does "Mata Hati | 心眼 | Eye of the Heart | மனக்கண் வழியே" mean to you in writing?

It means to tend the world with both compassion and rage.

What does your writing process look like? Do you type or write? Are there multiple drafts, long pauses, or sudden bursts of activity?

I prefer to type because my thoughts leap too quickly for the pen. My process tends to be in spontaneous bursts too, but for a few hours at a time. For Nine Yard Sarees in particular, the family tree was the starting point for each writing session.

What does your working space look like?

There must be natural light filtering through my bedroom windows, a lit bergamot or geranium candle on the ledge, a clean desk with dual screens and a just-brewed pot of green tea. Of course, my phone must be in silent mode too.

Make an elevator pitch for your shortlisted work in 30 words or less.

This multi-generational family drama across four countries, nine co-protagonists, and eleven stories shows how beliefs are transformed in the diaspora and how there is no one way to live authentically.

Could you share a pivotal moment as you were writing this work?

“Before the Rooster Calls” is the cycle’s oldest story and is loosely inspired by a family tale. One night, I was home alone writing when I heard a woman call out my name kindly. I cannot say that ghosts exist, but that encounter convinced me that Kamala’s story had to be told.

If you could give one advice to yourself when you were writing this book, what would it be?

Write people as they are, even when they contradict themselves, or think and behave in ways you oppose – be more a courier than a judge.