TheDaak review

Across the Purple Moor – A Novel, Kalpana M Naghnoor, Bangalore, Aakar Publications, 2023, 192 pages, dimensions: 8.2”X5.2”, ISBN: 978-81-963208-1-2, Price: 299 INR

By Rajeshwari Nukala

Emotional neglect and abuse form the core of Kalpana Naghnoor’s novel, Across the Purple Moor. The book talks about women and their emotional struggles and suppressions. The story is narrated across multiple timelines and generations and tells a tale of how trauma changes an optimistic, confident girl,  Rushali into a nervous and self-reproachful woman. Rushali is not mired in the cliched struggles of physical or sexual abuse but a more universal human need of ‘acceptance’. In the protagonist’s own words, “I was hurt without bruises and apparency, and those glossed-over violations which are not written in the annals of law as punishable” (p. 10). 

Across the Purple Moor opens with a 47 years old Rushali living with an incorrigible, abusive, insecure husband. The ray of hope in her life is her daughter, Trisha who is a lawyer. Trisha is a confident andgritty woman and makes no apology for who she is; she is doing everything she can to support a rape victim who is under threat by her perpetrator. The story then shifts to the time when Rushali was a girl of 7 years. Rushali comes from a family of wealth, leading an opulent lifestyle. Raised (rather not raised) by her mother, Maya, with an insouciant attitude towards parenting (who loves her card parties more than spending time with her daughter).She quickly brands her exceptional daughter as being a disruptor. Rushali is emotionally neglected by her mother who is most of the time absent due to her hectic social life; Rushali’s feelings, thoughts, emotions are never validated by her mother who lives in a constant fear that Rushali is not acting as per the idealistic expectations set by her. Maya shows no affection whatsoever to her daughter, their relationship is marred by a dreary coldness and rejection. The silver lining in Rushali’s childhood is her father who treasures her, her maternal grandmother who indulges her and her nanny who spoils her somewhat. Case in point how she allowed little Rushali to to pour out her milk in the washbasin almost every day. To illustrate this further, the 7-year-old Rushali, draws pink cows with red udders and purple moors in an art test; much to her mother’s mortification. She  had to color them bizarre as she felt compelled to share half the crayons with her classmate who had forgotten to bring them to an art test.And this classmate didn’t believe in, ‘beggars can’t be choosers’, he didn’t take the pink crayons or the purple ones, leaving it with the poor Rushali who had to make do with the rest. Instead of giving her a kindness certificate the insensitive school nuns were aghast about the painting and affirmed her mother’s deepest fears that she had a ‘streak’ in her. But her compassionate, wise father felt that it  turned out to be a great painting with the limited options she had and embraces her eclecticism in front of the draconian school staff, and her apathetic mother. In fact, he goes on to frame this painting in his study. And her nanny also chooses to look beyond the purple moors, and red udders and said the 7-year-old girl has a heart of pure white. But her mother was disappointed in her. In the protagonist’s words, “Maya had it all and when her disapproval came my way, I felt like a complete loser” (p. 14). Rushali learnt to live without the care and love from her mother and accustomed herself to her taunts and indifference. 

As fate had it, when Rushali was around 17 years old, her favourite people, her father and grandmother, were gone too soon, leaving her alone with her antagonistic mother. But Rushali pulls through these circumstances strongly.  Maya’s grief and dependence on Rushali now that her husband and mother were dead, lead somewhat  to cessation of day-to-day hostilities between Rushali and Maya. This truce though is short lived, till Rushali meets the charming Mohan. Rushali’s mother does not approve of Mohan. In her typical indifferent manner, she labels Rushali as a rebel, and chooses to be absent from her nuptials. Rushali, all of 19 years, still not marred by the woes of life, is assertive and confident, chooses to marry Mohan without her mother’s presence at a civil court ceremony. After the wedding when Rushali and Mohan try to seek Maya’s blessings, her nonconformist mother greets her with a banana smoothie (which Rushali hates) rather than a Banana shikaran. Who would offer a new bride a gift they hated and the least of all a mother. 

The charming lovelorn Mohan turns out to be a husband from hell. Though Mohan is a womanizer, and suffers from nosophobia, Rushali gives it her all for this toxic marriage to work. Going about her life in a frantic flurry of keeping her house perfect, in trying to be a great cook, an equally great mother and an author, still caring for Mohan; she is on a path of being the  paragon of virtues. She tries to meet all of Mohan’s needs and demands.  

Eventually however, Rushali had to come to terms that ‘what she thought to be  love, was actually Stockholm’s syndrome. Though still wealthy, having a retinue of maids, and  a perfect marriage in society’s eyes, Rushali is tormented with verbal abuse, neglect and even manipulation by her husband for her maternal wealth. He constantly criticizes the way Rushali looks and dresses. He relies constantly on ad hominem arguments. He heaps her with insults and curses every day. Mohan’s mean-spirited, extended family does nothing to help her confidence, taunting and jibing her for every move in her life. The ugly face of  patriarchy raises its head too many times in their marriage. Despite Mohan’s parents having four kids of their own he constantly taunts her that she, ‘the daughter-in-law’ never did enough for his parents in their old age. 

Due to her mother’s constant disapproval and lack of support all her life, Rushali believes that she’s somehow inexplicably flawed and is guilty.Rushali has convinced herself that she was willful and rebellious as a child which has turned her fate into this. As a self-doubting, desolate, tormented woman who lives mostly in her head tormented by the shadows of the past; she has reduced herself to become submissive in every way, believing that her daughter will have a more secure life if she does that. But will she? Will Rushali ever break free from these shackles? 

The book brings out the lingering harm of childhood emotional neglect. The mistreatment by her mother has scarred Rushali for life. The book indicates that though as a child Rushali learnt to block the negative feelings she had for her mother, she could never really shake that chronic sense of emptiness or emotional numbness that comes and goes. Though distressed and distraught she’s still kind, lovable and most dutiful. Despite being neglected by her mother, Rushali becomes the diligent caregiver for Maya, her mother who now lives with Rushali’s family.Though she never heard a kind word from Maya, Rushali is always affectionate and warm towards her mother. 

This book raises other important issues. The author does a commendable job of questioning societal values, victim-shaming, the broken culture that pervades today and an almost ineradicable inequality towards women. At one-point Rushali seriously considers divorcing Mohan. But her daughter growing up in different homes, custodial battles, and the fact that Mohan would never agree to the divorce deterred her. When she did approach a lawyer, she was advised by him, “ Mohan has never physically abused you, and it looks like you live well. Which judge will think you are suffering enough to break up the institution of marriage which this society holds dear?” (p. 65). The author reiterates that women may strive to deal with abusive relationships at the outset, but when they don’t get any kind of help or support from family, society and or even from the legal system they may reach the mindset of learned helplessness.

The book is thoughtful; the narrative is full of warmth and unspoken sadness. Reading the novel is also delightfully funny in some parts. Looking through Rushali’s eyes, it’s comical to see those pesky relatives or ‘nomads’ as she calls them. But that doesn’t make the book any less poignant. This book has sentences that read like poetry and paints stunning vivid imagery. It transports the reader back in time when Bangalore was a garden city, taking one back to all the popular spots in the city.  The characters are relatable, etched beautifully and come to life; not only with Rushali, but also in the supporting character arches.. Though the story revolves around the protagonist Rushali, it also gives a glimpse of life through the different lens that various other women experience, like Rushali’s headstrong daughter, or her faithful maid or her Anglo-Indian pedagogue and of course Maya. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to this realistic, heart wrenching novel.