Showers of Flowers

Abstract

A beautiful Kannada women's tale about a girl who can transform herself into a flowering tree was first brought to English readers by A. K. Ramanujan. On the occasion of this story being further adapted into an opera, I present yet another retelling and also set the story in the larger context of Ramanujan's brilliant corpus of writing. I draw on Ramanujan's essays on women's folktales and this story in particular; also, I consult his larger reflections on storytelling in his own background, and present images that reflect aspects of this story in his fiction and poetry. I end by linking the story to my own research on women's oral traditions in the Himalayan foothills and recalling Ramanujan's advice on the creative process that may also be read into the theme of transformation and flowering abundance.

Key Words:

• A Flowering Tree
• A. K. Ramanujan
• creative process
• women's folktales
• John Adams
• Kannada
• Kirin Narayan
• opera
• oral traditions
• Peter Sellars