In these stories, republished for a new generation, Kamala Das is unforgiving of men
‘Padmavati the Harlot & Other Stories’ was originally published in 1992. Kamala Das
There are spaces where puberty is for sale and youth loses its beauty prematurely. There are spaces where lust, an abiding customer, arrives with a ferocity that annihilates everything, especially a petrified love. Splendid lives exist within these sordid confines. Voices – small, shy, hesitant – manage to rise above daily cacophonies to tell their stories. Kamala Das’s
Padmavati the Harlot & Other Stories, first published in 1992, is a trespass into the rooms and mohallas and hospital wards from where one might stare unabashedly at these lives, or more specifically, watch their unravelling. Das’s collection of stories is a pageant of women. Fallen women and forsaken ones. Unloved women. Women who are somewhat loved, and somewhat desired. Transgressors. Professional fornicators. The besotte