Nectar In a Sieve By Kamala Markandaya

This book took me to the thoughts of country turning into city, and the sea change in the lifestyle and pattern…..in the last century…

Kamala Markandaya born Kamala Purnaiya in a small town in Mysore in 1924, attended the University of Madras, beginning in 1940, where she studied history, and had settled in England since the age of 25, following her marriage to Bertrand Taylor. Her daughter Kim Oliver survives her. She left for her heavenly abode in 2004, at the age of 80, Sunday May 18 at her home in the outskirts of London. Fame and success came with her first published novel, Nectar In A Sieve (1954), a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection and bestseller in the United States.



The book is about generous and gentle, Indian Peasant women Rukumani married when she was 12, who is content in her love and admiration for her husband Nathan, , and their playful children, in her little South Indian Village, though she struggles for survival,….how knowing to read and write makes a difference…..

Growth is a constant wonder-from the time the seed split and the first shoots break out, to the first bloom, growing unconsciously, having very secret of itself, fragile, vanishing….How quickly children grow! They are infants- you look away a minute and in that time they have left their babyhood behind…Then on the wedding day, the girl is bruised by the imminent parting…in a few months time her new home would be the most significant part of her life, among strangers, the rest only a preparation….

Thoughts come of their own accord, although afterwards we can chase them away….

Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work for you. So long as you are vigilant and walk warily with thought and care, so long will it give you its aid, but look away for an instant, be heedless or forgetful, and it has you by the throat. The sowing of seed disciplines the body and the sprouting of the seed uplifts the spirit, but there is nothing to equal the rich satisfaction of a gathered harvest, when the grain is set before you…….

People will never learn! What was it we had to learn? To fight against tremendous odds? What was the use? One only lost the little one had. ‘Of what use to fight when the conclusion is known?’

What people will say! One goes from one end of the world to the other to hear the same story, Does it matter what people say? It matters to those about whom it is said?

Others like Kenny, helped, because they have the means, and because they have learnt of your need, but you must cry out if you want help, it is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life? ‘Do not think spiritual grace comes from being in want, or from suffering? What thoughts have you when your belly is empty or your body is sick? Tell me they are nobel ones and I will call you a liar.” Who’s the blame then? Not I or you…

Blame the wind and the rain and the sun and the earth: they cannot refute it, they are the culprits.

To those who live by the land there must always come time of hardship, of fear and of hunger, even as there are years of plenty? This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours from one harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune.

In city, where shall a man turn who has no money? Where can he go? Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand. Like a tethered goat, so far and no farther. Only money can make the rope stretch, only money. Our people may not be ours, we learn even from children, and you have people who have no one like Puli…

Sometimes one loses, sometimes one gains, It evens itself out…..

Finally, it is a novel about the conflicts between a traditional agricultural culture and a burgeoning industrial capitalistic society. The novel touches on several important social phenomena: the importance of traditional cultural practices, people's reluctance to change, and the impact of economic change. There is so much packed into this little novel….I loved it….