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Baby Kochamma is Rahel and Estha’s grandaunt. She falls in love with an Irish monk as a young woman and joins a convent to make him love her. The plan doesn’t work, so she enrolls in a university and receives a degree in ornamental gardening instead. When Baby Kochamma returns to Ayemenem, she lives in Mammachi and Pappachi’s home, and keeps a garden there for a time. However, in time Baby Kochamma becomes a couch potato and spends her days watching American television with the home’s servant, Kochu Maria. The house goes to rot with her presence there. Baby Kochamma still carries a rosary, and does everything in her power to maintain the family’s position in the world, in addition to her seat in the Ayemenem house. Baby Kochamma’s chief concern when the twins return to the home is that they’ll steal the home from her. 

Baby Kochamma’s unrequited love turns her into a bitter and jealous old woman, and when she discovers Ammu and Velutha’s affair, she uses it as a tool for revenge. Baby Kochamma goes as far as to file a report at the police station slandering Velutha’s character when she hears of their affair, and shamelessly implicates Velutha in the twins’ and Sophie Mol’s disappearance. Finally, in her most tragically shameful moment, she pressures Estha into testifying against Velutha to save herself.

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