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This story begins with a student looking for a red rose in order to swoon a woman into attending a ball with him. It is beautiful- the passion he holds for the love he feels. A little nightingale in a big oak tree watches him struggle in this pained state, and realizes he has no way of attaining a red rose for this woman. He feels ultimately defeated, and instead dances with the thought of her in his head thinking that he will never have the chance to live out is fantasy.

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The little nightingale hears his cries, and tries desperately to help him. She goes up to him and chirps a giddy tune, but he has zero way of interpreting her words. He instead makes a spectacle of her beauty, and relates it back to the woman be so immensely seeks.

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The nightingale does something beautiful in this situation. She understood both his words and actions, but not his love . It was something she so desperately begged to feel. His love was based on a material possession, and she was willing to give her life to see him live it out(ironic). So she flew over ever field and every grove until she found a wilted red rose bush. The tree beside her let her know that only her blood and her life could resurrect a red rose. So she did just this, and fell dead. Her life resembled beauty and innocence, like the rose she left behind.
Until the student throws it into the street in angry anguish anyhow.

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Nathan recovers and is very healthy for about a year, and Rukmani feels as if her life is finally getting back to normal. Finally.
And with this- just the thought of being content- she find Nathan almost lifeless in a heap outside their home.
The son let his company buy out their home. And they only had two weeks to leave.
In that time, they find themselves at a temple alike a shelter, and are essentially homeless.
After breaking stones all day at her new job, Rukmani cam home to her husband to find he had a terrible fever. She goes back out into town to get him something, because she wants so badly to bring him comfort.
This, we find out, was a terrible idea. She comes back to see a crowd of people who have carried her beloved Nathan out of the street and onto the mud sidewalk. It is here that she holds him until he expels his last breath.

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Nathan falls ill, and Kenny's nagging isn't helping. Its in this part of the story that we see a softer side of Nathan- one that is much more vulnerable. His plain rice isn't filling the nutrients he's needing, and Rukmani cannot do enough to help. Kenny's incessant nagging makes Rukmani is livid until she realizes just how sick he really is getting, and ho he feels like a failure to his family that he should be caring for- not the other way around.

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If you're accidentally reading this before the seven first parts, now is your chance to scram. Don't ruin it for yourself. It's never worth it.
So we're back with Ira, but this time she has surprised us big time.
WITH A KID.
After her husband went off and left her, she kept living her life and tried to stay as happy as possible. Somewhere along the line, she conceived! Though we are all so excited for her, her baby was born with albinism. This was not easily accepted. That was until sir Selvam came along and supported her. Now don't be gross, that is her brother whom she had raised like a child. She was his saving grace, and now he was hers.

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Coincidentally, in trying to avoid Biswas, she stumbled across him. Biswas was a slimy business man (this was in her words not mine). The nasty snotball knew Kenny (the doctor that aided in her fertility) had returned to town, and he wanted to be the first to tell Rukmani. You can see here how Rukmani's independence has exploded, and how loyal she is to her beliefs and family compared to the beginning of the story, (we love good character development!!). She yells at him to leave her alone after he accuses her of sleeping with him, and realizes during the argument just how much it isn't worth it.

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Growing up, I was constantly asked if I was adopted and why I looked nothing like my family. As this progressed, I started to question what family really was, and what it truly meant. I spent most of my childhood enveloped in a book of some kind. I wanted to see if I could find a story as equally mysterious and beautiful as my own throughout someone else's fictional tales. It was only until after I dug deep into my lifestyle that I found out about my biological culture- and this itself was what helped me to distinguish that family is self interpreted.

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I chose, "Nectar in a Sieve," because the plot stuck out to me. Young Rukmani is born one of four daughters of the head of her village. She is the youngest, and she watches as her parents receive dowries for them and their daughters are wed to doctors and successful men. As it reached to be her turn for marriage, her parents realize her father isn't held as valuable in his position due to the tax collector, and she ends up with a poor tenant farmer to marry.
No spoilers here, but young Nathan was rich in love for Rukmani in a way of which overruled how much he made entirely. Rukmani was twelve at the time, and the two grew together in the ways of love and maturity.

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I was introduced to entirely new concepts of setting in this book. I have never found a book that so vividly captures what these small Indian villages would look like.
After their wedding, Nathan brought Rukmani to a small mud hut, in which many children would be born. This hut was built over a large span of tie, as Nathan crafted it himself by hand. Though, her biggest struggle in the beginning their journey was bringing Nathan a son. In the time she was pregnant, she took up reading and writing again as her father had taught her.

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After years of trying for a child, Nathan and Rukmani were almost certain they were infertile. Nathan loved her nonetheless, but was in desperate need of sons to help support him and his immense workload. Finally, Rukmani found out she was pregnant. She was so happy to be with child, but also excited to lightly rub it in everyone's faces. The local women told her she'd never bear child, and this was her time to shine. But not her only time... However we love a determined (and fertile) woman!
This first child was a girl named Ira, but Nathan wanted a boy. And boys he got!! After Ira came FIVE boys that we'll see later in the story. How's that Nathan?

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As I continued through the narration of Rukmani's life, the reader got the chance to watch Ira relive her life and feeling of failure as a mother. Male-order brides are very common in Indian culture, unlike that of modern-day America. After five years of trying and Ira not bearing a child, her husband returned her and basically said she wasn't worth his time. Before even thinking, I was scoffing at the page I was on in disbelief. I mean, that is simply ridiculous. But, after stepping in his shoes and culture, understood how important it was that she bore him sons. But to be honest, he definitely could be part of the problem, so all shade to him. -_-

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Their desperate calls for children had been answered, but now they were left with multiple hungry mouths. Nathan masked his fear, and both him and Rukmani did everything in their power to keep them fed. However, a famine of sorts came through, and every family member suffered. Rukmani described the hunger as an incessant annoyance that further becomes a burden. You dream about it and are constantly reminded of it through you stomach's audible rebellion. This was eating both her family and herself alive (pun intended). Though the made it by, they rebelled against the higher classes by eating grass but did it equally so in a deep desperation. Rukmani becomes weak, so Ira takes care of baby Kuti in her best ability. Unfortunately, even this wasn't enough.