Melisew Shibabaw Et Al., International Journal of Research in Engineering

Dr. Reena Singh, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 02, February 2019, Page 24- Revelation of Socio-Political and Historical Aspects of Cultures through the Writings of Vikram Seth Dr. Reena Singh (Assistant Professor, Amity English Study and Research, Amity University, Noida, UP, India) Abstract: There is a sense of chaos, alienation, marginality, homelessness and restlessness expressed in Seth’s depiction of Western culture. In contrast there is a sense of cohesiveness and harmony experienced in his portrayal of life in India, China and Tibet symbolism of eastern culture. As a social realist, Seth mirrors different aspects of the society faithfully. His reflection of the society, its customs and conventions and contemporary events, with vivid details establishes him as a social realist. Since he had spent half of his life abroad, he had no direct access to the India of different decades. Seth had to do a lot of research, interview freedom fighters, spend a great deal of time in the libraries to collect material about the references. Lovers, joggers, dieters, religious zealots, drug freaks, yuppies, suburbanites, academics, critics-they're all there in his writings depicting that they all contribute to the wonderful absurdity of contemporary life. So through his writings there are myriad issues which are depicted focusing on various cultures. The writings expose world’s significant happenings that disturbed the harmony of the world. He depicted that culture might be different but the underline emotions of the people are similar. Keywords: Marginalized, Semi-isolation, Diaspora In an earlier collection of verse, The Humble Administrator’s Garden, Seth expresses his response to different cultures he has experienced: Indian, Californian (he was working towards an economics Ph.D. at that time) and Chinese (he visited China in connection with his research). Seth was a student at Tonbridge School, U.K. Seth also did a first degree in politics, economics and philosophy at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where the English cultural and chapel traditions are probably preserved in their most rigid way. Yet no mention is made of the formative years he spent at the Doon school in India, Tonbridge School or Oxford in his work. From this we can interpret that his years in England as represented in an English school and Oxford stultified Seth’s spirit. Interestingly in contrast the freedom of Stanford without a rigid social code, where meals are eaten off stacks of dishes and not in oppressive formal halls or high tables, nurtured his soul. This aspect of American culture as opposed to English culture is evident in poems such as “Abalone Soup” and “Cease Upon the Midnight”. The Humble Administrator's Garden maps out Seth’s experiences in India, China and America, and different sections in the volume are connected by the symbol in representation of a ‘tree.’ The tree symbol metaphorically captures the essence of Seth's art. There are many poems in the volume that imply the way Seth redefines the nature of art. The title poem of this volume depicts the real pleasure garden of Chinese art built from the practical experience of life in an implied contrast to the ideal imagined ones. The section “Neem” (Indian) emphasizes a sense of being in exile within a family and home context. Like many children of his generation Seth perhaps saw his schooling in a boarding school by parents who like others in their generation thought this an ideal education, as a forced exile which Tonbridge School and Oxford continued. In contrast Stanford and California were a voluntary exile; and at the end of the travel through Tibet he returns home. In “The They” he states “They have left me the quiet gift of fearing.”1 In “The Comfortable Classes at Work and Play” where the members of a family are described as a mother, a father, the eldest son, the second son, the daughter of the house and a cranky grandmother, each existing in a state of self-absorbed semi-isolation, we can again see Seth’s sense of hurt and neglect at the absence of a nurturing familial affection-typified in this typical family scene. “Homeless” once again voices his insecurity: I envy those Who have a house of their own, Who can say their feet Rest on what is theirs alone,2 “Live Oak” records Californian experiences and his attempts to come to terms with the nitty gritty of an American way of existence. In “Abalone Soup” he is again marginalised. Not possessing a wetsuit, he awaits his American friends on the shore while they go diving. Interestingly, at the end of the poem it is the Chinese neighbour, Mrs Chen’s abalone soup made from leftover scraps that is Seth’s cultural choice- the Chinese theme haunts California: http://indusedu.org Page 24 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Dr. Reena Singh, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 02, February 2019, Page 24- That Mrs Chen-Jim’s Chinese neighbour who, Though reticent, one evening chanced to see Him pounding abs in the yard and as he threw The scraps away, exclaimed, ‘Give those to me!’, One Night appearing with two tureens at the door- May grant her avid addicts an encore.3 “In Other Voices,” (in All You Who Sleep Tonight) Seth attempts to retrieve some of the suppressed voices from history, who suffered and perished in Auschwitz, Lithuania and other places in order to articulate their voices into poetic speech. He also revisits World War II through the eye of a Doctor. The pain of the violence and horror that the West and the whole world have witnessed finds parallels and equivalence in Ghalib’s own testimony two years after the Mutiny in India in the poem “Ghalib, Two Years after the Mutiny”. The poet retrieves these unknown voices from history to trace the buried texts of the victims of inhuman cruelties. The tattooed line “for Hitler’s Troops”4 on the arm of a rape victim implies that the memory of the concentration camps, and its sorrow and pain, cannot be erased; one can only find comfort in a just God who shall avenge(“Lithuania”): The fall of the transgressors from whose face Is blotted any human semblance-wolves; Beasts of the forest and voracious wolves Who hasten to spill innocent blood and kill The pious and the upright, read those words But think of Moses’ words, the man of God; ‘Sing aloud , O you nations, of his people; For he avenges the blood of his servants, and Renders revenge upon His adversaries .5 Without rememorizing what happened to the Jews, 20th century history may be empty. However, the other side of the horrendous human tragedy is the reflection of a German officer, who too was uneasy about what went on in the camp he was in charge of. Very often, we tend to view all German officers and soldiers associated with the concentration camp as devil’s children. But there were exceptions. One such exception is a conscientious officer in poem “Work and Freedom” who is forced to accept his fatal duty and was, finally, happy to be free from his damned job: My wife said, “Think of us not only the service.” How could she know what lay so heavily on me? ....At first thought of Uprooting myself from Auschwitz made me unhappy, So involved had I grown in its task and troubles But in the end I was glad to gain my freedom.6 As a parallel to the horrors of the concentration camp, the dropping of atom bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima did trouble the poet, who does wonder about the limits of human barbarity. “A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945” depicts the picture of the dead and dying, and the survivors who do not understand what has happened to them. Only one thing was clear, that the brutality of man upon man defies comprehension and logic, and buries speech into silence in shock and sorrow. Ghalib’s pain and sorrow may be of a different order. But the tone of that pain is similar to the Doctor's or the victim of Auschwitz, for it is perpetrated by men on fellow human beings. The poem “Ghalib, Two Years after the Mutiny”, Ghalib’s letter is a record of that pain which comes when the means of livelihood are snatched away by the powerful and the mighty expressing, “My brother died insane, his children and his wife, /Stranded in Jaipur, eke their pittance of a life./The children of high lords go begging in the street.”7 From here when we move to the verse Novella The Golden Gate we find that the characters grow in the context of their specific time and place, and the poet gives them details for the creation of local verisimilitude. Yet the characters and their world are permeated with a tinge of the universal and that makes it a story of human experiences, common to people all over the world. The use of verse to describe scenes from the various places in San Francisco lends these places beauty and elegance. The Golden Gate sets a fast pace with the opening lines: To make a start more swift than weighty, Hail Muse. Dear Reader, once upon A time, say, circa” 1980, There lived a man. His name was John. Successful in his field though only http://indusedu.org Page 25 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Dr.

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