Akhila, 45 and single, gets a one-way ticket to the seaside town of
Kanyakumari. In the intimate atmosphere of the all-women sleeping car, Akhila
can ask the question that has been haunting her: can a woman stay single and be
happy, or does she need a man to feel complete?Meet Akhilandeswari, Akhila for short: forty-five and single, an incometax
clerk, and a woman who has never been allowed to live her own life - always the
daughter, the sister, the aunt, the provider. Until the day she gets herself a
one-way ticket to the seaside town of Kanyakumari. In the intimate atmosphere
of the all-women sleeping car - the 'Ladies Coupe' - Akhila asks the five women
she is travelling with the question that has been haunting her all her adult
life: can a woman stay single and be happy, or does she need a man to feel
complete? This wonderfully atmospheric, deliciously warm novel takes the reader
into the heart of women's lives in contemporary India, revealing how the
dilemmas that women face in their relationships with husbands, mothers,
friends, employers and children are the same the world over.
