Bonds That Matter

Two women-centric books-Mauli and The Woman Who Climbed Trees-explore Nepali society and how women navigate it

- Vineeta Rai

MAULI by Badrinarayan Pradhan (translated by Anmole Prasad) RACHNA BOOKS ₹499; 185 pages

Malati/ Mauli, Sangita, Elder-Mother, Dhankumari, and Radhika in Badrinarayan Pradhan’s Mauli; Meena, Kaveri, Kumud, Sawari Devi, Preeti and other women in Smriti Ravindra’s The Woman Who Climbed Trees share bonds that go well beyond the written word.

Although privileged to have studied in Darjeeling, Mauli has been alienated from her culture and learns about it from her extended family and father’s employees in Jhapa and Ilam in Nepal. The border with India is fluid and people move freely, physically and culturally. Mauli is proud of her inheritance, but grows aware of its patriarchal and feudal restrictions. Buffeted by life’s vagaries, Mauli comes into her own and faces the challenges head-on.