I lived on the edge of the community in a very vulnerable fashion. Looking at life from the outside and not being part of this safe world where you grow up and then are married and sent off. Having an arranged life and being sent off to some stranger's house. But on the other hand escaping that meant watching it from the outside and not knowing exactly what would happen to you. One of the characters in the book is Baby Kochamma.
Baby is actually the twins' great aunt.
In her youth she fell in love with a priest, and actually converted to Christianity and entered a convent for a time, in the mistaken belief that she could then be near the one she loved. She hated convent life so her father brought her back home. Realizing his daughter would never marry he decided to educate her. She studied horticulture in the United States, and returned to Ayemenem to develop a most impressive ornamental garden in the family's front yard. A task which demanded all her time.