Unmoored

In Unmoored, Ramachandran Usha crafts an intimate exploration of migration and belonging. Three women—Ayesha, Indu, and Ameera—return to Chennai from the Gulf, each looking to reunite with the loved ones they left behind. Despite differences in religion, social status and age, they are also united in their quest for a true sense of home. Usha’s novella dwells on the seldom-told yet pervasive story of women who travel to the Middle East and beyond, driven by the need to secure their families’ futures.

The protagonists of the two short stories featured in this collection, ‘Khushka’, and ‘Success’, have much in common with the women of Unmoored, even as they grapple with crises of faith and finance.

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Ramachandran Usha has been writing in Tamil since 2003. She was awarded the second place in the KiVa Jagannathan Centenary Novel Award Competition for Karai Thedum Odangal (translated as Unmoored). She also won a short story competition held by Kalki and has been published widely in leading magazines and online journals.

Krupa Ge is a writer from Madras (Chennai). She is the author of a novel, What We Know About Her (2021) and a narrative non-fiction book, Rivers Remember (2019). Her reportage and cultural writings have appeared in Indian and international publications over the last 14 years.