A review of Where Mayflies Live Forever

Like the ocean
be vast and unknown,
but if you cannot,
like the river,
be free and forever flowing,
if that too be hard,
then, still as that mystic river,
be whose deeps no eye can see’

They say you cannot quite gauge the depth of a woman’s heart! Even Gods cannot! It is like a quiet, deep, slow-swirling mystery where once you set foot, you will be instantly pulled into its folds! Now whether the mystery that you unveil will take you to an unreal magical realm or to your own burning hell depends on how you ended up reaching the gates of this great mystery in the first place!

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At the heart of Anupama Mohan’s debut tale is a brutal gang rape of a woman named Sriveni, in a small town in Tamil Nadu. Sriveni, a girl with long beautiful hair, a darling little child to her mother and grandmother, a girl carrying the ‘siddha’ (divine skills or expertise) within her, as her grandmother believed, a keen observer of nature, a young teacher at the town school gets violated by a powerful political goon Adhiban and his men. Her deep knowledge about women’s bodies and how to protect one under brutal circumstances made her stay alive even after brutal physical assault and it took her four years to recover. When the men attacked her, Sriveni was four months pregnant and though she managed to save her own life somehow, the baby inside her did not survive the attack. Her face, her body was damaged to an extent that seemed beyond repair. Here, what astounds the readers is Veni’s will to live, her will to survive and to heal. Here we find a woman, who knows her worth, who knows the blessings of a life, who gives herself time and accepts the changes in her body. Here we find a woman with a resolve, a woman who does not leave the battleground, a woman whose torn and damaged soul claims recovery, her body a battlefield emerges as a quiet force! Her body absorbs all the benevolent powers of nature and silently taking one step at a time walks towards self-healing. The novel traces how a violated woman gets treated by society, family members, neighbours and acquaintances. How tragedy sets in between the gaps in words, uncanny silences, in the way thoughts turn from something benign to something utterly vengeful. The narrative technique used in the novel is thought-provoking and intriguingly interesting. The novel does not tell us the tale from a single perspective but uses multiple voices. Readers go through the testimonies of Veni’s family members and her childhood friend and also a testimony of a man accused. Mohan uses police case files, forensic details to bring in the seriousness of the crime committed and while in this country rape and gangrape cases have risen more than 20% since 2021, Mohan uses ‘écriture féminine’, which is a style of writing that defies patriarchal, linear way of writing. She avoids providing bodily descriptions, instead she focuses on regeneration of the soul, healing through the quiet, persevering strength of nature.

Mohan’s prose style has a shifting quality. In her recounting of Veni’s childhood days, her days of understanding her own strengths and beauty, the prose almost takes a poetic nature. The tale is punctuated by the use of songs that Aatha (Grandmother) used to sing to Veni. These verses offer a dreamlike setting. Veni’s grandmother was a popular midwife who in her own ways understood female bodies just too well. Veni and her mother helped her grandmother in this very important task of taking care of the pregnant ladies throughout the days. Veni, as a child had a special gift of understanding the women’s bodies too and she always knew what exactly she needed to do for the ladies to put their scared minds and anxious bodies at ease! She was a keen learner of nature’s mysteries! With her father she explored the mysteries of nature, she tried and understood the ways of the natural world, sympathising with the plants and insects, taking in the joy of complenenting each other!

Veni’s healing comes through her self-exploration, that gets velocity when she discovers a mysterious cave-world, hidden from the eyes of people, a place where nature has come alive in its full bounty. She starts spending almost all her time in this cave, achieving little delights in picking up small berries, witnessing a dead patch of land inside the cave suddenly teeming with the vigour of life-force. She starts spending more and more time in this mysterious world. Even in the nighttime she finds peace and solace in the cave-world staring at the darkness lit up by the firefliesjust like stardust hanging in the air, unfolding magic in front of her eyes. Her resilience, tolerance, understanding of nature’s imperceptible wonders, her quiet, inner struggle aimed at healing herself, her attempts at seeking harmony between human experience and natural orders make her fight more enduring and courage-driven.

Mohan’s prose is interspersed with snippets of songs, weaving back softness and melody in the harsh, aching body of the tale! The songs in the text come alive with their healing powers, pushing the wild uproars of the burning soul of the victim inwards, turning them into shining beads of silent meditation. The songs bring new hope, new promise of limitless flights, new dreams of letting go of the past, embracing a sky full of light..
Mohan, creates an alternative space for the tormented souls, and makes a better place for women, whose souls like the mayflies are short-lived, their vigour beaten down, strength drained out. She creates a safe, magical world where the mayflies live forever.