The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

The Bridge Home is a story of family, loss, forgiveness, redemption and second chances. Two sisters flee an abusive home, living on the streets with two boys until illness forces one of them to take a chance that will change all their lives.

Eleven-year-old Viji and her intellectually-challenged sister Rukku live in Chennai, India with their Amma and Appa. Their Appa is a violent man who beats Amma. One night Amma is so badly beaten that her arm is broken and she has to go to the hospital. The next day, Appa attempts to apologize by giving Viji and Rukku gifts but Viji rejects her father's attempt and he becomes physically abusive. Viji knows that unlike her Amma who hopes the beatings will stop someday, she must leave. The next morning taking food, extra clothing, a book her teacher gave her and some money, Viji leades Rukku out of their home to the bus station where they take the bus from their village to the city. In the city they barely escape from the bus driver who attempts to kidnap them. Their first bit of luck happens when they meet a kindly lady who runs a teashop with her husband. When Rukku breaks a glass cup, Viji offers to work to pay for the broken cup and it is then that they meet Teashop Aunty.

At night they wander onto an abandoned, ruined bridge with their newfound puppy Kutti. There they meet two boys, Muthu and an older boy, Arul. The next morning they return to Teashop Aunty who gives Rukku a large bag of beads and shows her how to tie knots and braid the strings together. The two girls wander to the temple looking for work but end up encountering a wealthy woman and her daughter Praba who wants Viji and Rukku's little dog. They are chased away by the gardener and their first day ends without work or food.  That night Arul brings them food and a tarp for shelter. While telling Rukku a story, Muthu refers to Viji as Akka or older sister, which makes her feel like they are family.

Viji, Rukku, Muthu and Arul spend the next months working as ragpickers on various dumps in the city.  This job disgusts Viji as it is smelly and covers her in grime and filth. Rukku uses the beads to make necklaces and they manage to sell all but one, earning a small fortune of hundreds of rupees. The four children are eventually forced to leave their tent homes on the bridge after they are pursued and set upon by the waste mart man who tries to kidnap them. Salvaging the remaining money from the necklaces they sold, the four children relocate to a graveyard and set up new tents against one of the tombstones.

The monsoon rains arrive and with them hordes of mosquitoes. On a visit to a Catholic church, the children encounter a kindly woman, Dr. Celina Pinto who is the director of  Safe Home for Working Children. Celina Aunty as she is called, offers them a place to live, go to school and work. Viji is immediately attracted to this offer because she has a dream of some day becoming a teacher. Muthu and Arul run out of the church with Viji and Rukku following them, but not before Celina Aunty hands Viji her card. Later on Muthu reveals that he doesn't believe Celina Aunty because he was sold by his stepbrother into slave labour in a factory making handbags. There he was beaten and starved.

The monsoon and mosquitoes bring illness to both Muthu and Rukku. At first Viji tres to help by selling Kutti and buying medicine but it soon becomes apparent that both are very very ill. Viji must trust her instincts and reach out to Celina Aunty in the hopes she can save them and herself.


Discussion

Venkatraman who grew up in India, the daughter of a single mother, was introduced at a young age to charitable work for underprivileged children in her native country. Her interest and work with organizations devoted to helping the thousands of homeless and underprivileged children both in India and in the United States were the inspiration for this novel. It is evident from her portrayal of  homeless children in India, that this is an issue close to Venkatraman's heart.

With sensitivity and compassion, Venkatraman portrays the plight of two young sisters who flee from their abusive father. Viji makes the decision to leave, partly to protect her younger, disabled sister. "If I wanted a better future, I needed to change the live we had. Now." Fiercely protective of her sister Rukku who is developmentally challenged, Viji promises that they will always be together no matter what. It is a promise that is destined to be broken, although through no fault of Viji's.

Living on the street is difficult  especially for Viji who wonders if her dream of being a teacher is lost forever. Viji wonders, "Could we ever recover enough to clean ourselves up and go to school? Or was that dream as impossible as pretending the trash dump was a treasure trove?" When Viji challenges Arul and Muthu to consider the future they tell her they only worry about each day but Viji is determined to hope and dream. "I couldn't -- wouldn't let the boys destroy my hope we'd find a better life, somehow." She wonders how they can live without dreams.

When Rukku becomes very ill, Viji wants to reach out to Celina Aunty, a kind woman who has offered them help, but she doesn't know if she is able to trust her feeling that this woman is a good person. Eventually though, she must find the courage to trust Celina Aunty who proves that Viji's initial impression was correct.

Rukku's death from dengue fever and pneumonia devastates Viji. With Rukku gone, Viji's life seems to have no purpose. Celina Aunty attempts to help Viji cope with the loss of her sister, attempting to get her to write about it since she can't seem to talk about what has happened. Viji mistakenly believes that Celina Aunty is attempting to convert her and tells her that she doesn't believe in God. But Celina Aunty encourages her to "have faith in the goodness within yourself."

Viji must contend with the immense guilt she feels over Rukku's death. She reasons that Rukku would be alive today if she hadn't forced her to leave home. That guilt is "like a rock was sitting on my chest, weight me down so I couldn't rise out of bed." Viji is angry that her sister is gone; the loss of her sister makes her feel alone. Arul points out that he and Muthu are now her family and he admonishes her, "Start looking at what you haven't lost...Start giving thanks for what you do have." He points out that she has a second chance "to do something more with your life..."

Perhaps the most touching scene in the entire book occurs when Celina Aunty takes Viji to a home for people with disabilities like Rukku. The realization that Rukku could have gone to school causes Viji immense pain and grief. But out of this experience comes the first reawakening of a purpose in Viji's life; the desire to return and help at the school. Celina Aunty's suggestion that Viji may one day be able to teach there gives her hope. "Celina Aunty's words made my dream glimmer again. Faint and far away, but not lost."

Viji takes the first steps towards achieving that dream when she refuses to return home with her Appa during his visit to Celina Aunty's home. Recognizing that she must move forward Viji refuses her father's offer to return home. With a mixture of forgiveness and pity, and maturity and courage far beyond her years, Viji understands that her home and future is with Celina Aunty, despite her father's promises to be better.

Not only has Venkatraman crafted a feisty, strong heroine in Viji but her supporting characters are also well drawn. There is the thoughtful Arul who brings Viji and Rukku a tarp after their first night on the beach, and who offers to go to the waste man so that Viji and Rukku can "see the nice part of the beach..." There is Muthu whose playful ways help Rukku and there is Rukku who surprises even Viji. Viji marvels at how Rukku grows during their time out on the street. "Ever since we'd left, you'd been behaving so differently from before. You hadn't once lost your temper. You'd made friends. You even looked different, because you'd been holding your back straight all the time." In the end it is Rukku who helps Viji move forward in life, who gives Viji her purpose again, who gives her the strength to forgive and to remember. At the end of the novel Viji recognizes how Rukku really helped her in her life.
"All this while, I thought I'd looked after you, but now I see it was often the opposite.
You gave me strength.
By never letting me get away with a lie.
By showing me small miracles.
By laughing at all the wrong times.
Together we were such a good team."
Because of Rukku, Viji decides that she will face life "living with my whole heart...And imagining with my whole mind."

The Bridge Home is another fine novel by Padma Venkatraman, one that offers insight and understanding about the plight of poor and homeless children in the developing world, ending with a message of hope. Her novel gives young readers a sense of the childrens' humanity and dignity, by portraying them as young people with dreams and hopes like children everywhere, deserving of a childhood that is safe and nurturing. Perhaps we can all take Celina Aunty's advice to "try thinking about Good. About doing Good."

Book Details:

The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books      2019
191 pp.

A Time To Dance by Padma Venkatraman

Veda Venkat  lives in an apartment in Chennai with her Pa and Ma and her grandmother, Paati. Veda is a Bharatanatyam dancer. She lives and breathes dancing. She hears music everywhere in the world around her.

But Veda's Ma encourages her to study because she wants Veda to become what she wanted to be, an engineer. Ma believes dancing is not a respectable career for a middle class girl.

Veda is very close to Paati who has had a hard life. Paati's husband died when she was young and Veda's father just a baby. As a widow, Paati did not give up. Instead, she returned to college and became a teacher. She never remarried.

Veda, who trains with dance instructor, Uday anna, wants more than anything to win the upcoming Bharatanatyam dance competition. When she makes it to the finals, Veda is ecstatic and certain she will win.

Veda competes in the Bharatanatyam dance competition and beats her nearest rival, Kamini. She is ecstatic and celebrates her victory with her best friend, Chandra, but her Ma is not so pleased. Paati tells her not to be discouraged about how things are going with her mother.

Tragedy strikes when the van taking the dancers, musicians and teachers home from the competition crashes. Veda's right leg is badly mangled and despite the attempts by Dr. Murali to save her leg, she has her right foot amputated. In a split second, Veda's life is changed- her dreams of dancing seemingly destroyed forever.

It feels like Shiva destroyed my universes of possibility,
like He's dancing
on the ashes
of my snatched-away dreams.

While she is in hospital recovering from her injuries, Veda meets Mr. James, a prosthetist from America. James, or Jim as he asks Veda to call him, helps Veda with her rehabilitation, teaching her to use crutches and prepare for her new prosthetic. Veda finds herself feeling drawn to the kindly American man, even though he is much older than her.

Veda returns home and eventually to school where she is taunted about being lame. However her friend Chandra encourages her to be the fighter she's always recognized her to be. While she has never considered herself beautiful, Veda felt that dancing and the control she had over her body, made up for her lack of beauty. Now she feels ugly and clumsy. But Chandra tells her it is her spirit that makes her so attractive.

Jim studies Bharatanatyam dance so he can understand Veda's art and learn what she will need her prosthetic leg to be able to do. In his office he has several posters of dancers who suffered seriously leg injuries, yet still found the courage and ability to continue to dance. He tells Veda he will make her a leg she can dance on and Veda becomes determined that she will dance again. When she goes to see Uday anna, who never even visited her while she was in the hospital, he tells her she cannot dance, that it is time for a new dream. Disillusioned and very upset, Veda returns home. When Veda tells Paati what happened, Paati tells her to seek out Dr. Dhanam, a Bharatanatyam teacher who teaches her dancers to express their emotions.

Dr. Dhanam accepts her but tells Veda she will need to begin again with the younger students. She will study with Govinda, a student of Dr. Dhanam's who teaches young children. Veda finds Govinda, patient, kind and handsome. In turn, Govinda admires Veda's demon-like desire to pursue what she wants in life, an ability he feels he does not have. Govinda wants to be a dancer but his parents want him to be an engineer. As Govinda and Veda spend time together training, a deep friendship begins to blossom between the two. Gradually Govinda teaches Veda to accept herself as she is and to have patience to relearn dance.

After asking Akka if she might be in the play, Dhanam akka gives Veda not one but two parts; a sick, old woman Buddha sees and the part of Gautami, a woman who came to Buddha with her dead son in her arms, asking him to bring her son back to life. Veda's thrill is soon replaced by trepidation and discouragement when she finds the latter part difficult to portray as Akka wishes. Akka takes Veda aside and tells her she must learn to dance the way she wants her students to, with compassion. To do this, Akka tells Veda she must first acknowledge her own pain that she has experienced from the loss of her foot.

Although Govinda understands dance and is more mature in his approach to his art than Veda, he lacks the courage to pursue his dream of being a professional dancer and teacher. With his parents forcing him to curtail his dancing, Govinda must decide for himself what his future will be.

Discussion

A Time To Dance is another brilliant novel by Padma Venkatraman. In this novel, Venkatraman explores a number of themes, those of loss, identity, the resilience of people to overcome tragedy and the power of art, in this case, Bharatanatyam dance, to transform lives.

Venkatraman tells Veda's story in free verse that captures the physical and emotional pain Veda experiences from her accident as well as the joy of dancing and the uncertainty and exhilaration of a blossoming first love. Each poem has a title that captures the essence of the verse.

It is especially the last two themes that Venkatraman explores in-depth. The purpose of art whether it be music or dance to reach out to others and to allow the performer to express his or her own feelings is important and can sometimes be forgotten during competitions and the desire to win.  Veda wants to work to regain as much of her dancing skills as possible - to be able to do the exotic poses and to awe her audience. However, now she knows she has certain limitations because of her artificial leg. At first she angrily rebels against her body's new limitations. But Govinda admonishes her for viewing dancing in this manner. He points out that Dhanam akka's body has limitations due to her advanced age, but this does not mean she is not a good dancer.

"You think because she's older and less flexible
she's not as good a dancer anymore?
Being a good dancer is more
than mastering
every pose there is."

Govinda tells Veda to care about "entering people's hearts and elevating their souls" and to stop obsessing over her body's new physical limitations. Veda's gradual transformation into accepting her body as beautiful despite its limitations is a result of gradually gaining back some of her ability to dance, and being able to express more fully her feelings through dance.

She achieves the latter partly by coming to some acceptance of what has happened to her. Since her accident Veda has questioned why certain things happen to people; why God leaves a beggar with nothing and why he allows suffering. Chandra has no real answers to these questions except to say that eventually good is rewarded. Govinda tells her that for him, finding the answers is not important - he realizes through the wonder and awe of things that are good, that God is present. Veda realizes that she needs to feel the wonder of dance again, like she did as a child.

"Maybe all I need is to feel what I felt as a child. Through dance.
By dancing a different way,
dancing so it strengthens not just my body,
but also helps me find, then soothe, and strengthen, my soul."

The relationship between Govinda and Veda is quite lovely; both have a mutual respect for one another and each admires in the other, a quality they feel they are lacking.  Venkatraman's free verse beautifully captures this aspect of their relationship. Veda is a beautifully crafted character, resilient, determined and intelligent. Her growth through the novel is also captured through Venkatraman's poetry.

Overall another great novel from Padma Venkatraman which captures some of the flavour of eastern mysticism.

Book Details:
A Time To Dance by Padma Venkatraman
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books    2014
307 pp.