Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary Pdf Download

Details of Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary Book

Book Name: Maria, Just Maria
Authors: Sandhya Mary
Pages: 164
Genre: Fiction
Publish Date:16 January 2024
Language: English
Format: PDF, ePub, Mobi
Price: Paid

Book Review:

So coming to the plot of the story um now the book begins in a psychiatric hospital mental hospital and Maria is um you know in the psychiatric hospital right

Now she's someone who basically went on a silent mode uh stopped talking absolutely with any anyone after her grandfather passed away and now she is um she's in the mental hospital and her condition is improving from before and she's kind of u making that connection with reality again

So as she's doing that you know making that connection with reality she's kind of um trying to go back in her memories and wondering that how did she land in this pental institute you know

She's trying to dig through her memories and wondering what really happened with her that she landed up at this place because according to Maria there wasn't a clear or consise uh reason for her to be you know labeled as mad and put in a psychiatric hospital so she's really not sure what she's doing here now

As she uh reflects on these memories we are taken to her childhood days now uh Maria was a girl who was born in a in a Syrian Christian family in Kerala and uh since birth she was um like when she was really young she was left uh by her parents she was the fourth child

So she was kind of treated as a leftover an extra child and uh so she was left by her parents uh you know to at her ancestral home to live with her grandparents so her bond with her grandfather was really strong and instead of you know her siblings and parents

She was was surrounded by her grandfather her grandfather was really dear to her he used to you know often take her on walks and spend time with her at his toddy shop now a toddy shop is a very traditional setting in Kerala where the alcohol is made

So he used to take her there and spend time with her there there are also mentions about a great aunt who had dementia a dog which was um who had a fondness for philosophy

So he used to actually talk um or Maria thought he used to talk and he was actually very philosophical and several other long dead relatives so you know all these people are mentioned when Maria goes back in time and remembers about her childhood now like I said that uh you know

She was um she was really young when she was left at her grandparents house so she always um you know lacked that feeling of belongingness there was always this um thing of you know where do

I belong because she was left by her siblings and her family and her parents so when we think that you know you realize as a reader that when she's going back for the LGE for the longest time in the book she's not really talking about her parents and siblings because she doesn't have memories with them

I think towards the end when uh we read about when the parents come you know when she reaches a certain age and they realize you know it's time to bring her back how devastated she is you know to leave her ancestral home her grandfather and come back and live with the siblings because as soon as she comes back you know

It's like a transformation from a very Whimsical world that she was living and all the fun memories that she was have enjoying um and you know suddenly the transformation is very tragic because you can see how her siblings you know bully her and um how the parents are cold and no one really notices

If she's around and uh you know worse even the even the school even the school teachers are really harsh with her you know and very rude to her and this entire transformation is so confusing to her and people calling her all kinds of names and labeling her

So you know this kind of fills her with a lot of rage and all the negative emotions um you know there's a quote in this book that I will share you know Maria's feeling when um how she's describing the childhood

So she's really boiling with all this rage and everything so what she does is she often you know kind of retreats in her room and lives in this imaginary world where she's still spending time with the grandfather and the grand the great aunt and few of the characters that

We you know come across in our childhood day spent at The Village at the ancestral home so um that is how the book flows um the book is actually told from the perspective of a child who is uh labeled mad or abnormal by the society um and and that's how the author has you know addressed themes on what is normal and what is abnormal

She's also taken up themes like you know family relationships love and hate and how complex Human Relationships can be and um you know there's a very funny line where Maria says you know that life can be boring it's actually her Madness that adds interest to it

Now like I said you know there is this uh the book raises big question um what what is normal you know is it uh so you know the author is saying that um or author through Maria is saying that you know the society conveniently puts people in different moldes and they are termed as normal

When someone behaves different you know or goes against these molds that the society has formed they're termed as crazy or abnormal and that's exactly you know that happens with Maria if you read the book in fact

When I was reading I but like she's the one who is sayane and all the other people you know around are abnormal and um you know Maria questions you know why do we have a unique um you know like a one definition of success you know uh what if I'm not ambitious

I don't have huge plans I just want to be Maria and I just want to be happy and if that makes me crazy so be it I will be crazy so I think um this last takeaway message that the author leaves us with you know the plea for an inclusive world where

We don't label people as you know abnormal or crazy or mad just because they don't fit our definition of normal is something that you know really stayed with me and was a stand out in this book um quickly I just wanted to read about two of Maria's Impressions

So this was her time when she came back to her parents house and her experience in the school Maria found School traumatic because she could not understand the psychology behind competitions exams being at the top of the class or why some people were considered smart just because they knew the answers to specific questions asked at specific times did knowing the answers to questions make someone smart again you know

She was defined the normal tag of you know who is smart if they know the answers at that specific time if they know all the answers if they're performing well in the exams are those people only the smarter ones and lastly which is you know um very sad

When I read it her um you know her definition of childhood how she looks at childhood so she says every time someone talks nostalgically about their childhood I'm convinced that they're lying the colorfulness of childhood the joyous wonder the Innocence I'm yet to meet a child who personifies innocence and as for me I don't remember any feelings other than fear and hatred

I guess my childhood wonderments died under the cloud that was the constant expectation of punishment I think it clearly talks about what a um sad and tragic childhood she had with her siblings and her parents and her classmates and her teachers were really cold to her and just because she didn't behave in a normal way she was constantly punished she was bullied

I think that's the sad part so this was the impression of two of the impressions of Maria so you get you know how her life has been and yeah because she was just she defied every normal moldes and tag she was probably she landed in a psychiatric hospital

So this is what the story is All About I think uh something that was really difficult or I found um while I was reading is that because the plot is not not linear as in it's not in a flow her memories are going back and forth you know in the time and some of the characters actually have two names the real name and you know probably a second name that Maria has or some of the lers have so sometimes you get confused which character she talking about

so you really have to focus and probably sometimes you know go back so that was um you know I like books that just flow very naturally.

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