Maheswari’s Story: A Memoir

Born around 1975 in rural South India, Maheswari Sateesh was raised in crushing poverty by a father with leprosy and married off at age 14 to her uncle as a second wife. Her life in a Chennai slum was marked by constant violence and the progressive loss of her vision. Through her ability to forge friendships over cultural, class, and language barriers, and with her intelligence and unconquered spirit, she begins against all odds to change her circumstances.

This is the story of Maheswari’s remarkable life, ghost written by Ilari Kaila. Subscribe to get each new chapter emailed to you, about once a week, both as text and audio (narrated by Laya Kumaravel). You will also have access to full publication archives on the website.

Content warning: Where necessary, posts will be labelled with a notice about themes that may be distressing or triggering to some readers.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect people’s privacy.

Ilari Kaila is a Finnish-American composer and writer currently on the humanities faculty of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His writing spans scripts for audio plays and docudramas, essays on politics and culture, as well as investigative journalism, and has appeared in various publications and other media in the US and Europe. You can read some of his previous work on the Limited Hangout blog and check out his composer website here.