1.
How did Akhila’s mother feel about her?
2.
Why did Akhila’s sister Padma treat her so badly?
3.
Does Akhila learn anything from the way Margaret Shanthi handles her difficult husband?
4.
Should Akhila have married Hari? Would she have been treated better or worse by her family?
5.
Why does Janaki’s son Siddharth ask her to come and stay and then get so angry with her? Is Janaki spoiled?
6.
Was Sheela, the young girl, right to dress up her grandmother after she died?
7.
After her husband’s friend propositions her, Prabha Devi retreats into herself. At the end of her story she thinks, “That nothing else that happened would ever measure up to that moment of supreme content when she realized that she had stayed afloat.” What does she mean by this?
8.
What does Akhila learn from Marikolanthu’s story? Why is her story the last one that Akhila hears?
9.
What does Akhila learn from the women on the train?
10.
Why does Akhila sleep with the young man Vinod?
11.
At one point Akhila thinks that what she desires most in the world is to be her own person. Why then does she call Hari?