Singleness. Image: pixabay.com
Let me begin with a story, which is set in urban middle-class Sri Lanka.
It had been six years since Ruwanthi (36) had left her violent and alcoholic husband after enduring five years of severe psychological and physical abuse. When I met her, Ruwanthi was living with her older sister’s family who had offered her refuge, reluctantly at first, after she could not “drag this along [sic] anymore”. She now had a full-time job at a Montessori and she also baked cakes to supplement her income. Ruwanthi presented herself as a resourceful person who her extended family, as well as friends, relied on especially in the organisation of events such as a birthday party or wedding. Yet, her life-history was redolent of a sense of being ‘out of place’. Two moments in Ruwanthi’s narrative stood out. Ruwanthi told me:
