"Her Mother," is a short story in Appachana's first book, "Incantation and Other Stories." It was published in England in 1991 and in America in 1992. It is a short story collection that examines middle-class Indian life, especially among families who cross international boundaries. Her Mother tells about a mother who is sheered off by her daughter, Rani Bati. After Rani's leaving, she sent a letter to her mother. Rani's leaving is caused by norms restraint in her hometown, India. Her mother feels angry at her daughter's disobedience, disappointed in her daughter's act, afraid of her daughter's principle, and worry about her daughter's life and future. Rani does not want to be a common woman in India who just does house works and stay at home. She want to be a free and independent woman who can do something more and explore her talent and get something worth from what she does. But, her passion is not in line with her parents pretension and the norms.
Why that short story is categorized as post-colonial literature? It is because India is included commonwealth of The British Empire, and the work was produced after the colonization. Dobie (2002) assumes that post-colonialism refers to the texts produced after the colonized countries became independent. If Dobie emphasizes post-colonialism to the product which is produced after colonization, then Aschroft et al (2001) argued that post-colonialism deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. The British was not only colonizing the colonized country, but also engrafting their culture to the colonized country. Because of engrafting culture by the British, then it contaminates the native culture and then engenders hybrid identity in native people. Hybrid identity is one of major issues in post-colonialism.
The term hybridity has frequently been used in post-colonial discourse to mean simply cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity as defined by Aschroft et al (1998) is the creation of new transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonialization.
