An IIT Madras professor has written a book about girlhood and heartbreaks in 1910s

New Delhi: In the intimate corners of a family’s forgotten papers, a century-old girlhood stirs back to life. A Woman of No Consequence , written by IIT-Madras Associate Professor Kalpana Karunakaran, traces the life of her grandmother, Panjakam—her memory, her silences, and her inner world. While ostensibly a single story –– Panjakam’s life stretches into the politics, history, and culture of a very different kind of Madras and a version of womanhood that continues to ring true.

“In my book, diverse sources are used to reconstruct the story of a girl child,” she said at the launch of the book at Jawahar Bhawan last month. “Pankajam’s story allows me to write about girlhood –– its joys and heartbreaks in the 1910s and 1920s.”

But there is no single story. Education for many women