Nine Yard Sarees
Prasanthi Ram
Ethos Books: 2023
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Recently, a friend said that he thinks the greatest love story we’ll ever have is the one with our mothers. In Nine Yard Sarees, Prasanthi Ram (also a friend) lays out the idea that this love story extends further back than we realise.

In Nine Yard Sarees, Ram probes the lives and relationships of nine women—all affiliated with the Srinivasan family in some way—through eleven short stories. The initial stories focus on the women in the nuclear family unit—Padma and her daughter Keerthana—before moving on to the extended family. An intergenerational portrait, the short story cycle explores the narratives of love (or hate) that we develop within ourselves, alongside the ones shared with our families.

We kick off with ‘The Panasonic’, set in 1996. Amusing and relatable, this introduction sees the Srinivasans on holiday in America. The story of a minority family’s needs being overlooked by the local tour guides places us in familiar territory. Padma, a mother with foresight, has packed a rice cooker in their luggage, much to the delight of the children, Keerthana and Krishnan. While not all Indian Singaporean families face the exact same challenges, ‘The Panasonic’ underscores the heightened significance of family, especially for minority children. Here, Keerthana learns that family is solidarity and mother knows best. Who else, but a mother like Padma, would have also packed Yu Yee medicated oil and run to an American mart to pick up ingredients to whip up an improvised Indian vegetarian meal in a hotel room? As Ram writes at the story’s close: “Home was a feeling that sprang directly out of Amma’s masterful, loving hands.”

• Tags: Gayathrii Nathan, India, Issue 34, Prasanthi Ram