Ladies Coupe By Anita Nair

This is a story of Akhilnandeshwari alias Akhila, a woman with her independent thoughts and ways, a woman who wants to find the real truth behind her life. At the age of 45, she is still unmarried, working as a government servant. But, continuously shouldering responsibilities one after the other, as a daughter, as a sister, as an aunt….She has forgotten live for herself. She forgot that she also had some notions about living. She was buried deep into the problems of her family members, relatives. For days after days, the same thing was going on. But, one day, she heard her inner voice and started on the journey to find herself, towards Kanyakumari, alone, to breathe freely in the open, at last. She wanted to live her life, out of the boundaries set up by her orthodox Tamil family, she wanted to live for herself in her own style, without restrictions, without any scorching looks. During the railway journey, she comes across a different world. She meets another five women in the ladies coupe. Very soon, they all get familiar with each other, their differences resolved. The train starts its journey with a set mind, merging the six directions from which these six ladies came into one. They start speaking, revealing their wounds, their secrets, …. And much more. Six totally different lives are shared into all of them. Janaki, Margaret Shanti, Prabhadevi, Sheela, Maricolanthu… Akhila asks these newly met fellow travelers, Can a woman stay without the support of a man? Can she be happy and contended?Or does every woman need a man at the end?