Anita Nair's "Ladies Coupe"

    

  

  From aspiring to be a psychiatrist to almost being sure of becoming a writer, Anita Nair has come a long way. Anita Nair is an Indian English novelist. She was born on 26th January 1966, near Shornur in Kerala, India. She was working as the creative director of an advertising agency in Bangalore when she wrote her first book, a collection of short stories called Satyr: of the Subway, which she sold to Har - Anand press. The book won her fellowship from the Virginia centre for creative arts.

Her second book was published by Penguin India, and was the first book by an Indian author to be published by Picador USA. Her books have been published in several languages around the world. A bestselling author of fiction and poetry, her novels The Better Man and Ladies Coupe have been translated into 21 languages. She was educated in Chennai before returning to Kerala, where she gained a B.A in English literature. She lives with her husband and son in Bangalore. Anita Nair is one of India's remarkable female writers. Through her writings she exposes the conditions of women with wit and humour. She mesmerizes the reader with her evocative language and description with which her novels abound. She is without doubt one of the finest writers in English today and with an international reputation. As a novelist she is more concerned with the inner world of the individuals than with the outer world of society or nation. She portrays typically Indian middle class families living in traditional manner. Most of her works engage the complexities of modern Indian culture from a feminine perspective while highlighting the female Indian predicament of maintaining self identity as an individual. Her characters are inspired by people she sees in her daily life. Anita Nair goes deep into the inner mind of the depressed woman by virtue of their feminine sensibility and psychological insight.

Anita Nair's novels are passionately woven on the thread of human nature and values with feminist outlook. Her novel Ladies Coupe is one of the famous feminist novels in Indian literature where female characters are analysed through the lens of feminist theoretical framework. This book was published in 2001 and in 2002, it was elected as one of the five best books of the year in India. It is the story of Akhila who is frustrated with life as she has sacrificed her youth in taking care of her family consisting of her mother, younger sister and two younger brothers after her father's untimely death. She has secured the life of everyone around her but is still single, unmarried, exploited and frustrated. She books a ticket to Kanyakumari and finds herself in the ladies coupe with five other ladies and the impact that they make on Akhila is what the rest of the story is about.

        Akhila, the protagonist chooses to travel in a ladies coupe to discover herself. She sets out the journey to find an answer to the question "Can a woman live without a man and be happy?". She finds answer to her question at the end of this novel. The author deals with the concept of patriarchy and brings out the inequality in man-woman relationship, marriage, divorce, social and cultural problems encountered by women in a male dominated society. The protagonist of this novel, Akhilandeswari, aka, Akhila is a universal character who reflects the common plight of any Indian woman.The women characters in the novel seems to be the personification of 'New women' who have been trying to throw off the burden of inhibitions that they have been carrying for ages. They are a blend of tradition and modernity and they fight hard to free themselves from the subjugation of Indian male dominated society.

Anita Nair highlights the positive role and positive transformation of women in the ongoing battle of establishing female selfhood. The novel ends with an optimistic aspect, which tries to display the possible independence of women in future through the protagonist.

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