end of Nectar in a Sieve

The book Nectar in a Sieve really helps show you what real poverty is like and the emotional and physical damages it can have on a family. When we last left them, they had only two days of rice left and they all seemed to be on edge the next few nights; Ruku more than the others. One night, she awakens to the sounds of someone approaching their home, thinking of Kunthi, she runs outside and attacks without seeing whom it is she was attacking. Turns out it’s her daughter and her injuries are pretty bad.  Her parents soon learn that she is a prostitute and has been using her earnings to help feed her baby brother, who is less than five years old and badly malnourished at this point. Although it is hard for Ruku and Nathan to accept what Ira is doing, they accept that she is a grown woman making her own decisions and know they cannot hold her back. They realize they have no other option. Their son soon dies despite Ira’s efforts and it is a really heartbreaking part of the book because you can really feel the desperation the family is experiencing. Spring arrives and with it hope of a brighter future. Things became good again for a while, Ruku’s son got a job working with Kenny, they were making decent money from their produce and their family seemed to be happy for the time being. This doesn’t last too long as they soon come to learn that the tannery has purchased their land and they have two weeks to vacate the premises. With nowhere to go the family decides to split up, Selvan and Ira and her son remain in the village and Ruku and her husband set to go stay with their son who lives in a city ten villages away. They journey to the city is okay but they have a hard time finding their son and find out from his wife, that he has been gone for the past two years and no one has seen him. With nowhere to go, they seek shelter at the temple. For a while all hope seems lost as they have lost their possessions and money during the travel and cannot afford to go back home. With the help of a beggar boy, Puli, Nathan and Ruku find work breaking stones and do that for a while earning almost one rupee every day and saving most of it for their tickets home. Eventually, due to rheumatism and other sicknesses’, Nathan dies. By this point Ruku has enough rupees for a ticket home for both her and Puli who she has decided to permanently adopt and bring along. They return back to Ruku’s village and are met by her son and daughter with open arms. Selvan assures her they will manage with her and Puli and all is assumed to be well from then on forward.

            This book honestly made me cry on a few occasions and it inspired me to do some research on how to help.  If you go on freerice.com, you can play a simple vocabulary game, which donates 10 grains of rice for every right answer to starving people around the world. It’s an easy and free way to help donate.  Other sites such as, hungersite.greatergood.com, you can donate food to the hungry by simply clicking a button. These are just a couple of the various sites available and I hope more sites like this continue to be created.