Mehar dreams of freedom and a life with her children. Asiya dreams of her daughter’s happiness. Sajida dreams of becoming a doctor. Subaida dreams of the day when her family will become free of woes.
Parveen dreams of a little independence, a little space for herself in the world. Mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, neighbours.
Women, Dreaming, a novel by writer and activist Salma, translated from the Tamil by Meena Kandasamy, captures the lives of these women in a tiny Muslim-dominated village in Tamil Nadu. Salma’s storytelling, crystalline in its simplicity, patient in its unravelling, enters this interior world of women, held together by love, demarcated by religion and comforted by the courage in dreaming of better futures. These women might be caught in circumstances beyond their control, but they are spunky at heart and strong-willed.
Published 24 October 2020, 20:29 IST