End of Nectar in a Sieve

The rest of this book was pretty good.  Nathan is approaching 50 and gets rheumatism with high fevers which make him weak.  Nathan is unable to tend to the land leaving Ira and Ruku to do the best they can.  Unfortunately, they don't do nearly as much work as Nathan did.  Kenny the doctor watches over Nathan, but he says he is only getting weaker because he doesn't eat much.  Somehow Nathan starts to make a miraculous recovery, but then things take a turn for the worse. Rukmani comes home to Sacrabani hiding in a corner looking at Nathan who Rukmani thought he had just had another one of his attacks again.  However, it wasn't an attack Sivaja had made a surprise visit to tell them that their land has been sold to the tannery.  Selvam says he will take care of his sister Ira and nephew Sacrabani, but he doesn't have anything to offer to his parents.  Rukmani and Nathan have no other choice but to leave.  They leave the rest of their family behind.  They only have 16 rupees

and get on the bullock cart until it can't take them any farther.  When the cart stops they are faced with three streets to chose from and have no idea which one will lead them to their son.  They find someone to ask about where their son is and unfortunately they are 15 miles away from the road they need.    After walking for several miles they get directed to a temple that provides food and shelter.  They are relived that they will actually have a nice place to rest for the night.  When they wake they begin to walk again and Nathan wants to splurge and use their money to buy food.  Rukmani finally agrees and goes to grab the money tied to her only to find that it is gone.  In a panic they return to the temple where they had laid to rest, but they money is not there.  They have no choice but to continue on their journey.  With help from several gracious people somehow they finally make it to their sons house.  However, when his wife answers the door they are informed that he left her about two years ago and never came back.  Things get worse, they become regulars at the temple and get used to the cruel words that are spoken of them.  Nathan ends up dying which was devastating for Ruku.  I couldn't imagine losing my spouse after everything they had endured together.  Somehow Ruku still manages to pull the pieces of her life together which amazes me. This book really showed me how intense life could be and how easy I have it.  

Nectar in a sieve continued

As I continue reading things Rukmani is facing even more problems.  At this point in the book she is worried that they won't be able to harvest the season's rice because they are so weak from having no food.  The paddy won't be ready for another three weeks which makes things even worse because they don't even know if they can make it that long.  Their sixth son Kuti has a rash all over his body that Rukmani worries about.  Luckily, somehow he gets better and she finally is able to sleep at night.  Unfortunately, while Rukmani is sleeping she wakes up to hear an intruder (or so she thinks) most likely coming to steal what littlle they have left.  Rukmani goes outside in a rage to try and see the intruder.  Rukmani is so tired and hungry she just loses control and starts beating the intruder.  Nathan comes outside and pulls Rukmani off the intruder and starts yelling at Rukmani because the intruder was actually their daughter Ira.  Most of Ira gashes came from the glass bangles she was wearing which worries Nathan and Rukmani because a piece like this usually come from prostitution.  When Nathan gets home from the fields one night he sees Ira all dressed up ready for the night, ready to sell her body.  Kuti leaves before the rice season which is unfortunate because this year the harvest is splendid.  The family not only has enough food for themselves, but also to sell.  We get the happy news that Ira is pregnant.  However, although the news is happy she has no idea who the father is since she has been selling her body.  Her mother tries to defend Ira to Kenny, but Kenny said he knew that she would turn to "streetwalking" so the news of this didn't surprise him.  Nathan

doesn't really seem to give much input on this matter except for a baby is a baby. Sometimes I think the way we view children varies quite a bit from people like
Nathan and the rest of their village.  For example, a baby in their village would be another mouth to feed, but also another worker for the harvests.  Still at the end of this section Rukmani has a positive attitude.                

Nectar in a Sieve (1-15)

The story starts out with a woman talking (Rukmani) about the present although her story will be in the past. She talks about how she wishes her husband was still alive and with her.  She has three children, but technically only two of them are actually hers.  She had a daughter and a son named Selvam.  The other child is a boy named Puli who has no fingers.  Her son Selvam works in a hospitcal with a man named Kenny.  She is now an old women and talk about how her father was a headman in her village which his job became less important when the "collector" began to change things in the village.  She was the youngest of four daughters.  Her parents didn't have the money to afford good dowry

so they best they could do was marry her to a tenant farmer.  Even though she was matched with the farmer she says that she is happy with him.  She got married at the young age of twelve.  Nathan is her husband and he is described as caring and gentle.  As the story goes on she tell us how she helped Kunthi give birth to her child.  Rukmani returned home to her husband who was mad at her because she herself was pregnant and shouldn't put herself or the baby in danger.  Since she is pregnant she now has the time to do non work like read and write which is something her gather taught her.  Her husband finds Rukmani clever because she can read and write.  She gives birth to a baby girl named Irawaddy.  They love their daughter very much and so does Rukmani's mother.  Her mother even makes the long ride just to see her. This is before they have their son.  When Irawaddy turns six Nathan and Rukmani start to worry that they will only have one child.  She prays with the women of the village that she will have another baby Around the same time her mother gets sick and starts to die from consumption.  After learning about several other sad events that have occurred in the first 15 chapters I am surprised with Rukmani's positive attitude she still has.  I look forward to reading more :)          
  

about the games

For those of you who read my last post which it looks like none of you did because I have no comments, I read the syllabus wrong and thought the last blog post was supposed to be about the rest of the book.  Therefore, I am sorry if i ruined the ending of the book for you :( Anyways.... I want to focus more about what happened in the games.  First of all I didn't think Peta would join up with the careers.  Granted, I am pretty sure he only did it to help protect Katniss, that way if they did find her he could try and save her.  When Katniss was trapped up in the tree with the careers beneath her I thought it was very helpful of Rue to tell Katniss about the tracker jacker nest.  Later, I was impressed that Katniss stumbled upon Peta who was perfectly camouflaged with the scenery around him.  I didn't think Peta was that good with disguising himself, but I guess he had to in order to stay alive.  This is where it gets really interesting.... When Peta and Katniss find the cave Peta's love starts to really show.  We learn that both people from the same district are alive at the end they both win.  Therefore, Peta and Katniss work even harder to keep each other alive.  Once Peta heals up they are faced with another creation

of the games...some crazy savage dog like things are put into the field.  Katniss and Peta try to run to higher ground which is the cornucopia and almost die.  The dogs get a guy from another district and that leaves Peta and Katniss victorious... or so we think.  An announcemnet is made that there has to be only one winner so Katniss decides that this isn't right and convinces Peta to eat poison berries and they will die together.  Once again, this gets reversed and they both get to live.

HuNgEr GaMeS

This book is very inspiring to me.  The brave, caring, passionate, intelligent, and fearless girl on fire Katniss never ceased to amaze me.  I felt like the whole time she was fighting for her life in the games she was really fighting for her loved ones back back in her home of District 12. I don't think I would have lasted even half of the time that she did in the games, but because of the passion she had for her family, it kept her on the right path.  When Rue and Katniss became allies I really thought things would get better for them both. I found it unique that Katniss took Rue under her wing almost like she was her little sister Prim.  After planning out a strategy to get to the cornucopia there was a mishap and resolves with the death of Rue.  When I read this I felt like I could cry.  Katniss shows her true colors once again when she surrounds Rue with flowers trying to give her a proper burial.  I admire Katniss in more ways than one.  She may have been weak at times due to everything going on in the games, but she never cracked under the pressure and I applaud her for that.  She also shocked me at the end when she failed to abide by the capitols standards and almost killed herself and Peta rather than crumbling under their feet.  Katniss made an impact on all the districts by how she acted and carried herself in the games.

 The less fortunate will always fight the hardest in my opinion because they have nothing to lose.  Yes, Katniss did have loved ones to lose, but other than that her life in District 12 wasn't very bright.  She was always hungry and looking for food.  In the end she endured the games and was able to go back to her family in District 12.