Ladies Coupé by Anita Nair – A Study Guide

Exam season is just around the corner if you are lucky enough (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) to be examined on the Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair you may be looking for a few little tips for your exam. This book is hard to decipher for a lot of people and if that’s you, just know you are not alone. Not every book you study has to appeal to you, but you do still need to study them. If you are looking for a helping hand, this Study Guide is here to help. It is not an alternative to reading the book itself, it is best used as a supplementary FAQ studying tool.

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Title of the Book: Ladies Coupé
Author’s name: Anita Nair
Book details: Penguin Books, India, 2001

Genre: roman à clef
Date when the action takes place: December 19, 1997
Setting: on a train in India

Breaking Free: A Journey of Self-Discovery

“Ladies Coupé” by Anita Nair is a novel that tells the story of six women who share their life experiences while travelling in the ladies compartment of a train. The novel is set in India and explores themes of gender roles, cultural expectations, and the power of personal choice.

The protagonist of the novel is Akhila, a forty-five-year-old woman who is unhappy with her life and feels trapped by the expectations of her family and society. Akhila has always been interested in books and learning, but her father insisted that she marry and devote herself to her husband and children. Despite her unhappiness, Akhila has never been able to break free from the expectations of her family.

One day, Akhila decides to embark on a journey to Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India, to find answers to her questions about life and to break free from the constraints of her family and society. During the train journey, she meets five other women who are also travelling in the ladies compartment. These women come from different backgrounds and have different life experiences, but they all share one thing in common: they are struggling with the expectations and constraints that society has placed upon them.

Over the course of the journey, the women share their life stories and experiences with each other. Through these conversations, they begin to understand that they are not alone in their struggles and that they have the power to make choices that will enable them to live the lives they want.

One of the most compelling themes of the novel is the idea that women should be allowed to make their own choices and pursue their own dreams. Akhila’s journey to Kanyakumari is a powerful metaphor for this idea, as she is able to break free from the constraints of her family and society and pursue her own path in life.

Another important theme of the novel is the idea that women can find strength and support in their relationships with other women. Through their conversations on the train, the women in the novel form a deep bond with each other and are able to find the support and encouragement they need to pursue their own paths in life.

Overall, “Ladies Coupé” is a beautifully written and powerful novel that explores important themes of gender roles, cultural expectations, and the power of personal choice. Anita Nair’s writing is rich and evocative, and she does an excellent job of bringing her characters to life and exploring their innermost thoughts and feelings. This novel is a must-read for anyone who is interested in exploring these important themes and understanding the experiences of women in India and around the world.

Who is Anita Nair?

Anita Nair is an Indian novelist who used English as the language of her novels. She was born in 1966 in Kerala, south of India. He has won and has been shortlisted for many literary prizes, both at home and din Europe. She is best know for her Ladies Coupé, her third novel which was published in 2001.

What is Ladies Coupé about?

Ladies Coupé follows the journey of a middle-aged Indian woman named Akhila as she travels and on the train’s ladies coupé. In her search for independence and wanting to learn more about the lives of her travel companions, she swaps stories with 5 different women who inspire her to live her own life.

What are the main themes of Ladies Coupe?

Feminism is the most important theme for this book. The book follows the main character as she starts to embrace the fact that she does not need to be defined by specific gender roles. The book does not just touch on independence and freedom but change too. The change is in scenery just as much as it is in her internal thoughts.

What does the train represent?

Some people argue that the train journey represents Akhila’s emotional journey. By the time she gets off the train at the other end, she is in just as much of a different place spiritually as she is physically.

Who do the 5 women on the train represent?

They represent the 5 extremities of what a woman’s life could entail. From a pampered wife to an insensitive tyrant. From the perfect child to one without innocence. Never are any of these women portrayed as the wrong choice. Just different from her own.

What is Akhila’s eternal dilemma?

Akhila expresses that her eternal dilemma is whether or not she needs a man to fulfill her. Does she need a man to complete her, or is happiness attainable as a single woman? This goes back to the theme of feminism.

What does Akhila ultimately learn?

Akhila learns so much about the other women’s lives that she manages to see for herself how different choices might have affected her. Though she respects all of her conversation companions she does judge them. Not harshly, more observationally. She ultimately learns that she must think for herself not just follow the social norm. This again leads back to feminism.

What is Akhila’s internal struggle?

Akhila worries that she has spent too long doing as others ask her. She feels she never got the chance to truly live her own life. She has always dutifully played the role of daughter, sister, aunt, but never wife. She wonders whether she has missed out on being someone’s wife, or whether she would be better off alone.

Does Anita Nair think her book is about feminism?

Ultimately, no, she doesn’t. She even states in her book that it is not about feminism. That it is just about how women must find their place in society. Regardless of what Anita Nair may think, her book does have feminist connotations. The independence of women is a key part of the book. Anita’s opinion matters, of course, but so does context. Whether it was her intention or not is irrelevant, Ladies Coupe is an important part of feminist literature.

The times:

  • Puraichi Thalaivar dies – the revolutionary leader, Chief Minister

The society:

  • “All men want fair-skinned wives even if they are black as coal themselves.” (p.51)

Major characters:

Akhila [Akhilandeswari] – main character

  • Hindu (doesn’t eat meat and eggs)
  • 45 years old
  • spinster
  • does what is expected of her to do; she doesn’t have an identity of her own
  • her father dies (or commits suicide because he couldn’t fit into his workplace – too honest) so Akhila has to provide for the family
  • an organized person
  • has always lived with and for her family
  • Mandras – the town where Akhila lives
  • takes a trip by train to Kanyakumari
  • Quo vadis? Whither goest thou? (Where do you go?) – a recurring question / theme – symbolizes the need to escape
  • has an affair with Hari, a man much younger than her; he wants to marry her but she refuses because she is afraid of what society will say
  • she doesn’t understand what is love; she feels the need to define it
  • when she leaves Hari, she says “… this is not meant to be”(p.153); lost a good opportunities to have a happier life.
  • Karpagam – an old school friend; she influences Akhila a lot; she convinces her to live alone, and do whatever she wants
  • in Kanyakumari – a city by the sea, she has a one night stand with a young man. The day she leaves she calls Hari
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Padama

  • Akhila’s sister
  • married with 2 daughters
  • lives in Akhila’s house
  • has a permanent conflict with Akhila

Katherine Webber

  • a young Anglo-Indian girl
  • Akhila’s colleague at the income-tax department office and Akhila’s only friend
  • persuades Akhila to eat eggs (Akhila thought that to remove the fragments of the shell of an egg “must be the most pleasurable thing anyone could do” – p.87)

Passengers in the coupé (train compartment):

Janaki Prabhakar

  • the eldest of them all
  • travels with her husband
  • married Prabhakar when she was 18; he was 27 at that time
  • it was an arranged marriage
  • her relationship with her husband is “friendly love”

Sheela Vasudevan

  • attending the 9th grade at Holy Angels Convent
  • travels with her father
  • is the only one to understand her dying grandmother

Margaret Paulraj

  • married to Ebenezer Paulraj (Ebe), now a fat man
  • is a chemistry teacher (Head of Department of Chemistry) in the same school where her husband acts as principal
  • for her, everything in life is compared to chemical elements
  • Ebe – a narcissistic man; he cares only about his job and his career; he makes Margaret have an abortion; he thinks the book called The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner (1959) by Alan Sillitoe is the best book ever written
  • Margaret decides to make him fat, and thus subdues him

Prabha Devi

  • the rich wife of Jagdeesh, the son of a prosperous diamond merchant
  • loves swimming
  • she visit New York; when she comes back she is changed for a while; imitates western women
  • She is a proud person: “How lucky I am to be me.” (p.179)
  • Alice in Wonderland intertextuality: “Was this how Alice felt when she saw the little door in the wall? What wonderland lay beyond it?” (p.186)
  • She succeeds to stay afloat both in life and in the water

Marikolanthu

  • 31 years old
  • has a son but no husband
  • works as a helper in a mission hospital
  • was raped when 19; born a child which she rejected
  • she worked in the Chettiar household, and the rapist was a member of the house

Style:

  • short sentences

Concluding remarks / lesson learned:

  • people should not lose given opportunities

Author’s website: anitanair.net

Author V.M. Simandan

is a Beijing-based Romanian-born counsellor, coach, psychology teacher, and former competitive archer

More posts by V.M. Simandan

Join the discussion 3 Comments

  • mohit says:

    Must be an enjoyable read Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by “to read” list.

  • Ashmita Bhattacharya says:

    the manner in which the book ha been written is very interesting. the stories of the ladies and the way and their perspectives of looking at life has been portrayed beautifully..

  • GOGULA VANI says:

    nice story. Its give a new spirit of the readers. And the story was too interesting. Ladies Coupe is my one of the favourite story now.

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V.M. Simandan