Mallika: Deadness, my saviour
1976
As children, Prabha, Gauri, Mahima, and I used to act out ‘Mad Mrs Moitra.’ Mrs Moitra, one of our neighbours, was mad because she was the only woman we knew who had left her husband. Her husband then took away their son, her parents would have nothing to do with her, and after that, she went crazier. We would see her going to the market, muttering to herself, and she sometimes didn’t comb her hair. She lived alone, worked in a bank, didn’t care that no one befriended her, and sat in her veranda on weekends painting abstract paintings. Gauri used to say that, late at night, especially when there was a full moon, Mrs Moitra tore her hair and screamed and threw herself on the ground. ‘Mad Mrs Moitra’ was the crème de la crème of performances, and Gauri an
