蜜芽传媒

This is the first memoir by the acclaimed Indian writer and political activist Arundhati Roy, best-known for her Booker-prize-winning novel The God of Small Things. It is the account of a remarkable and difficult childhood which was dominated by Arundhati鈥檚 formidable mother, Mary Roy.

This was a time in South India when women had very proscribed roles, and Mary Roy challenged them profoundly:
鈥業n that conservative, stifling little South Indian town, where, in those days, women were only allowed the option of cloying virtue 鈥� or its affectation 鈥� my mother conducted herself with the edginess of a gangster.鈥�

Mary Roy鈥檚 achievements are extraordinary - she founded a co-educational school which challenged sexist gender roles, and she brought a legal challenge which gave South Indian women equal inheritance rights with men. But at home, as Arundhati reveals, she鈥檚 cruel and bullying; she hits her children and belittles them constantly. At 18, Arundhati left home and didn鈥檛 see or speak to her mother for seven years. But when Mary Roy died in 2022, Arundhati was distraught, and even a 鈥榣ittle ashamed鈥� at the intensity of her loss. In an attempt to make sense of their relationship, she began to write Mother Mary Comes to Me.

In this final episode, Arundhati describes her 鈥榖rittle, tentative鈥� reunion with her mother after a seven-year absence from home. She becomes a published writer and wins the Booker Prize with her first novel, The God of Small Things:
鈥楾he only person I called after the prize was announced was my mother. It would have been about 2am for her in Kottayam. She was up, watching the news on tv. 鈥淲ell done, baby girl.鈥� An incredible expression of love. I鈥檇 caught her on a good day.鈥�
In September 2022, after a period of increasing frailty, Mrs Roy died.
鈥業 spun unanchored in space with no coordinates. I had constructed myself around her. I had grown into the peculiar shape that I am to accommodate her. I had never wanted to defeat her, never wanted to win. I had always wanted her to go out like a queen. And now that she had, I didn鈥檛 make sense to myself any more.鈥�

Read by Shaheen Khan

Produced and abridged by Elizabeth Burke

Studio Production and Sound Design by Jon Calver

Executive Producer: Sara Davies

Photo courtesy of Arundhati Roy

A Loftus Media production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4

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