Assortment of Hues: Tales of Transmutation as Echoed in Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupé

Abstract

Anita Nair, the famous Indian English writer is popular for her novel Ladies Coupé, which broods on the empowerment of women through the female bonding that occurs within the ladies compartment of a train. This study is an attempt to focus upon the self-identity of women folk, and to detect the complications they face in a male dominated patriarchal society. Through a skilful storytelling mode, Nair explicitly lays open the tales of transmutation echoing in the ladies coupé, and its influence upon the life of the protagonist. The novel is also a brilliant evocation of sisterhood, and a tale of mutual care and understanding. The tales of transmutation of the narrators lay entangled with each other, unveiling the various shades of life of which they are representative. The role of journey in creating a shift in the real life statuses of these women, from a claustrophobic state to a wider state of openness, sets off the entire tone of transmutation in the novel. The six narrators forming the assorted hues of the coupé, reverberates the extent of transmutation that sorority brings upon the life of a woman in dire need of assistance.