QUILT: A DOCUMENTED FABRIC (Pages 55-64) by Ms. Lissy Kachappilly in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

Quit is a text, consciously or unconsciously that records a story, the beliefs, desires and hopes in an obscure language. It represents a universal text in the sense that, for centuries, they have been accessible to women of all races, classes and social statuses, regardless of their leveluit is a text, consciously or unconsciously that records a story, the beliefs, desires and hopes in an obscure language. It represents a universal text in the sense that, for centuries, they have been accessible to women of all races, classes and social statuses, regardless of their levelof formal education. With the recent emergence of fields such as women’s studies, scholars have claimed quilt as a text as it has proven a useful tool to understand women’s lives. Usually a quilt is made of three layers- a pieced appliqué top, an inner layer of batting, and a back. Quilting perfectly fits into the rhythms of a woman’s life. The patchwork quilt that Dina stitches up in Mistry’s A Fine Balance serves as a perfect document for the communal life of Dina , the tailors and Maneck as well as the socio-cultural, historical and economic barriers which females have to overcome in a patriarchal society. Each piece of the quilt is associated with a memory of days of good and bad fortune. The quilt thus becomes a documented fabric that narrates the lives of the four people which is woven together with the memories of the past. Rohinton Mistry provides a more general message on life through the metaphor of quilt.Keywords: Quilting, Documented fabric, Patriarchal, metaphor, memoir