Pickles and a brass vase

'Pappachi's Moth' comes from Arundhati Roy's novel 'The God of Small Things'. Pappachi retires from government service in Delhi, and the family moves to Ayemenem, in Kerala. There, his wife Mammachi makes jams and pickles. They sell so well that she starts a business.

Pappachi is many years older than his wife, and he feels shamed by retirement: he has lost his position and importance. He refuses to help with the pickles, because he thinks such work is beneath a former officer.

He is jealous of Mammachi's success. The story tells plainly that he beat her every night with a brass vase, and that once he threw her violin bow into the river.

Then their son Chacko comes home from Oxford. One night he catches his father's arm and tells him that this must never happen again.

That night, Pappachi smashes his favourite rocking chair. He never hits Mammachi again. But he never speaks to her again, either.

Mammachi builds a business; Pappachi builds resentment.