It started with one picture
From the author's note in the book.
A note from the author
I was not yet ten the first time I saw Munnar. I don't remember much of that trip. Only the cold, the smell of the tea, and the mist coming down over the hills so suddenly that the whole world disappeared, and then, just as suddenly, came back.
This story began in 2020, during the long, strange months of the lockdown. It started with one picture in my head: a young bride on a hilltop in Munnar, holding a cup of tea, and a small black bird dropping out of a tree.
— Anosh Abraham, Kochi
A story about labels
At its heart, it's about the labels people carry, and how heavy they become when someone else puts them there. Every woman in the book is carrying something like that.
Written the way Kerala talks
Simple English, with Malayalam words left the way people actually say them. Expect chettans, moles and poruthams.
Hundreds of hours, countless drafts
Characters changed names. Whole chapters disappeared. Some people who seemed like villains turned out to be something more complicated.
A tip if you visit Munnar
Go early, before the tourists and the sun, and walk up through the tea estates while the mist still sits in the valley. If a small black bird with a red beak lands near you, say hello from me.