"Even her walk changed from a safe mother-walk to another wilder sort of walk. She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes" (Roy, 43).
This passage is striking because it illustrates just how uncharacteristic Ammu is compared to what we've seen of the mothers figures in what we have read thus far. In the last two short stories as well as in Midnights Children, as I mentioned in a previous post about Mistry, that women are often portrayed as coquettish and child-like while maintaining some sense of self-awareness that leads the reader to think they know more than their husbands give them credit for. Ammu is a largely unsympathetic woman, although some of her attitudes towards her children, though they may seem harsh, are unrelatable and human. It could be Roy's way of challenging our traditional expectations of mothers in that Ammu can set aside her motherly responsibilities and be more fulfilled being her own person in a "better, happier place" (Roy, 43).
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