Depiction of Familial & Cultural Values in Rural Life of Southern India in Amulya Malladi's novel The Mango Season

<p>India has large population residing in its rural parts. In fact, more than seventy<br>percent of people live in villages. Indian literature has given much scope to the<br>depiction of rural life. Many authors produced literary creations based on rustic life<br>giving both idealized and/or realistic picture of rural India. Amulya Malladi’s The<br>Mango Season (2003) is one of the finest novels, published in recent times, which<br>gives a very interesting picture of Indian rural life mainly from Southern part. Malladi<br>gives her great insight into the Indian tradition while portraying traditional and<br>familial values, generation gap, rural family structure, etc. The novel The Mango<br>Season has a traditional Indian family from rural area at its background. The<br>captivating plot relates to Indian traditions, and takes readers onto a journey into<br>India’s cultural and familial values. To be more specific, it deals with things peculiar<br>to India: family rules, arranged marriages, women’s status in family decisions, and<br>parents’ expectation from their children. Malladi, skillful in handling emotion and<br>humour, has presented some painful scenes in quite a humorous tone. The events<br>portrayed and the characters presented are so close to reality. The orthodox views<br>about social status and vanity, mostly cultivated by high caste rural people, find its<br>place in the story. Amulya, a great story teller, takes us close to the rural India with<br>stunning details of families, their customs, values and even the food culture. In fact,<br>almost every chapter begins with a recipe. Every aspect viz. setting, events and<br>characters is all set to bring forth rural life, cultural and familial values minutely and<br>in a very lucid language</p>