Plentiful Springs is the bittersweet, growing-up story of Siana, a stubborn, intelligent, creative and articulate girl born to a Keralite-Uttar Pradesh couple and brought up in villages, estates and boarding schools in and around Mangalore and Wayanad. Siana’s best friend is her diary to whom she confides everything. Much later, after law school and a career in journalism that takes her to Dubai and various trouble-torn parts of the globe, Siana is left wondering if the bad things actually happened or if she had imagined them. She reads her diary again and re-traces her steps before she can be sure of what had actually transpired.
Anjaly Thomas is an excellent
writer who does not let fine language come in the way of a riveting story, one
that will make you root for Siana, hate her abusers and make you want
Siana to get her life back. Thomas keeps her prose simple and straight-forward
and gets on with her story. Siana’s diary entries are interspersed with
narrations in third person and Siana’s extensive correspondence with her
various friends. Since we are talking of the 1980s and 1990, we are
talking of correspondence through inland letter cards. Travel is usually
through public transport or auto-rickshaws. Money is tight and tempers run high
everywhere. Corporal punishment is par for the course for Siana as is domestic
violence for her mother. Many of those in power,
teachers, wardens and fathers abuse their power and strength freely,
but amidst all that, occasional kindness and humanity shines through. Siana’s indomitable will and
her never-say-die spirit pull her through, despite her occasional moroseness
and bad temper.
I really enjoyed
reading Plentiful Springs, though at
times in the early stages of the 348-page tome, I did wonder where the story is
headed to. Thomas, however, has an excellent instinct for timing and she
gathers the various loose ends and brings the story to a gentle climax at the
end.
One of the best
things about Plentiful Springs is the
manner in which Thomas has captured the 1980s, the 1990s and early 2000, when
India was so very different from what it’s now. Life in various estates of
Managalore and Wayanad are also detailed with precision. Thomas has time-stamped the story throughout and that helps the reader place the
story in its proper context. For example, Thomas would have her reader know that in
April 1981, Siana’s father left Uganda for good, in June 1982, at the age of
six, Siana started boarding school, in 1993, Siana starts a five-year course at the Mangalore Law School, so on and so forth.
Please don’t read
the brief paragraph below. Instead, do buy a copy of Plentiful Springs and read this excellent work of fiction for
yourself.
Spoilers Ahead
The evidence was always blowing in the wind. In addition to being abused by the butler at her first boarding school, Siana was also abused by Him. Siana’s diary has at various times, recorded such abuse. Even after Siana is a teenager, Siana hates staying at home, in fear of abuse. We don’t see Siana complain to her mother, herself a victim of domestic violence, about the abuse. In a way, since the reader knows Siana well, the reader also knows that’s typical of Siana’s character and eyebrows won't be raised, though the situation does tug one’s heartstrings. However, isn’t this typical of abuse within most families? I wonder if there ever can be a solution to these issues. Strong, kick-ass women like Siana can provide answers, hopefully. I end this review by raising a toast to brave Siana as she ‘gets on with the rest of her life’. I'm sure Siana will continue to find many more springs as she moves on in life.
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