"In 1992, when Bama published her novel Karukku in Tamil, she in fact broke thesilence of a large class of people, lying unarticulated over a long period in history. Theimaginative and honest life-story of a woman, who is a Dalit and Christian, becomes asmuch fiction as autobiographical.
Karakku, the title of the novel, means Palmyra leaves, double-edged like the words usedin the novel. Such a woman's life can perhaps find voice most appropriately in theemotionally rich idiom evolved by the author. The language of the novel is quietlyhurtful, both to the speaker as well as the listener, to the writer as much as the reader.
The authenticity of the original voice is retained wonderfully well in the directness ofthe language of the translation by Lakshmi Holmstorm. The simplicity of the tale is inreality pregnant with the complex nuances of the entire social context."
J.P. Das
Sukrita Kumar
Dilip Kumar