Close Reading

“The reason for this sudden, unceremonious dumping [of the garden] was a new love. Baby Kochamma had installed a dish antenna on the roof of the Ayemenem house. She presided over the world in her drawing room on satellite TV. The impossible excitement that this engendered in Baby Kochamma wasn’t hard to understand. It wasn’t something that happened gradually. It happened overnight. Blondes, wars, famines, football, sex, music, coup d’état—the all arrived on the same train. They unpacked together. They stayed in the same hotel... And so, while her ornamental garden wilted and died, Baby Kochamma followed American NBA league games, one-day cricket and all the Grand Slam tennis tournaments” (27).

This passage serves as an alternate interpretation of the Love Laws. Though it relates to Roy's definition of Love Laws as who should be loved and how much, this passage comments on what should be loved and how much in order to ensure that the Love Laws create balance and stability. Their defiance, as exemplified with Baby Kochomma, produces the idea of a “trauma”/life changing event.

The paragraph is tainted with reminders of Baby Kochamma's failed relationship with Father Mulligan to make a commentary on the unnaturalness of Baby Kochamma's new hobby. Roy's description of Baby Kochamma's actions as “sudden, unceremonious” are revealing. First, they conjure images of wedding ceremonies and reinforce the idea that Baby Kochamma's attempt to seduce Father Mulligan by feigning love for God defied the Love Laws. Second, mentioning “sudden” suggests being spontaneous, incautious, unplanned. This relates back to Baby Kochamma's whimsical decision to move into a nunnery--the traumatic event that she continues to be a victim of. Just as Baby Kochamma left her family to live in the nunnery, she now leaves behind her ornamental garden (most likely a common traditional activity in her culture) for the pursuit of satellite cable (a new-aged, foreign passive activity). By doing so she defies the historical value of the Love Laws as reinforcement of societal/cultural norms.

Roy further comments on how Baby Kochamma's interaction with the television is unnatural and unadvised. She has “impossible excitement” while this occurrence “happened overnight.” This description can be easily related to the excited encounter between Ammu and Velutha (167). Both situations are strange and foreign because the Love Laws emphasize stability and order. They are based in historical tradition where love is meant to be a reliant and gradual growth. This makes Baby Kochamma's “new love,” like Ammu and Velutha's interactions, that much more irrational and defiant of cultural tradition. Even the statement of “They unpacked together. They stayed in the same hotel.” produces imagery of an entering uneasiness. Just like how a tourist staying in a hotel is displaced, Kochamma's new love does not belong. The specific description of “blondes, wars, famines, football, sex, music, coup d’état” suggests that the television is foreign on multiple levels. It is alien in every aspect from appearance to political action to cultural identity. Even specifying that Baby Kochamma watched “American NBA league games, one-day crick and all the Grand Slam tennis tournaments” emphasizes just how uncommon and inapplicable these events are to Baby Kochamma's life. They retain no cultural tradition.

The Love Laws are implemented to determine who/what can be loved and how much as a means of prolonging historical traditions and promoting stability. It is why Ammu and Velutha's relationship is defiant of the Love Laws by disregarding the caste system. It is also the reason why Baby Kochamma's love for the television instead of her garden is portrayed as unnatural and harmful. Both create trauma by ignoring the historical tradition that the Love Laws promote.