About Us: Ashvamegh Vol.II Issue.XXI October 2016

Ashvamegh Biharsharif, India [email protected], +91 7004831594

Editorial Board on Ashvamegh:

Alok Mishra (Editor-in-Chief) Murray Alfredson (Sr. Editor) Dr. Shrikant Singh (Sr. Editor) Nidhi Sharma (Sr. Editor) Vihang Naik (Sr. Editor) Pooja Chakraborty (Editor) Anway Mukhopadhyay (Editor) Munia Khan (Editor) Dr. Sarada Thallam (Sr. Editor) D. Anjan Kumar (Sr. Editor) Ravi Teja (Editor)

Advisory Panel on Ashvamegh: Dr. Swarna Prabhat Ken W Simpson N. K. Dar Alan Britt

Ashvamegh is an online international journal of literary and creative writing. Publishing monthly, Ashvamegh has successfully launched its 21st issue in October 2016 (this issue). Submission is open every day of the year. Please visit http://ashvamegh.net for more details.

Find Ashvamegh on Facebook Twitter Website Table of Contents: Ashvamegh Vol.II Issue.XXI October 2016

What is inside to read?

Cover About us Table of contents • Editorial • Research Articles by: 1. Astha Saklani: On Works of Ruskin Bond 2. Rohini Jha: On Bessie Head 3. Sheela V: On Paul Zindel 4. Lalita Gupta: On Mulk Raj Anand 5. Sowmya TG: On Dark Holds No Terror 6. Soniya Verma: On Ruskin Bond’s Short Stories 7. Sangeetha Alwar: On Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry 8. Sonia Bhardwaj: On Monica Ali’s Brick Lane 9. Sona Gaur: On Taslima Nasrin’s French Lover 10. Ramya: On Chinua Achebe’s Novels Special Editorial Contribution by Nidhi Sharma on Utopian & Dystopian Literature • Essays by: 1. Dr. Deepa Sharma: On Gandhi & Women Literacy 2. Devi Kanchana: Self Exploration & Literature

(note: you can download poems, stories, reviews & interviews in a different fiction edition of the issue from the website)

Find Ashvamegh on Facebook Twitter Website Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Alok Mishra: Editorial ISSN: 2454-4574

We are witnessing a merger of poetry with other forms of art. You must have known already that Bob Dylan, a well-known and legendary singer, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for the year 2016. There is rarely a person today who does not like the songs of Bob Dylan. Well, let me share some of my favourites with the readers. Here is one:

"Well, in my time of dying don't want nobody to mourn All I want for you to do is take my body home Well, well, well, so I can die easy..."

These lyrics are from the song 'In my time of dyin''. Can you feel the poetry in the lines? The songs of Bob Dylan, most of the times, carried a metaphor like a poem generally does. These qualities make him one of his class. Another band (not a single singer, but band) I know who exhibits such poetic quality is The Beatles. Their songs also used to be wonderful and should I wait for them to win the Nobel Prize too? Well, these questions be better answered by time only!

I congratulate all the poets, authors, and academicians who have been published in this issue of Ashvamegh. Let's keep our efforts towards making Ashvamegh a platform for the best literature as well as for the best of the literature...

Wishes of the coming festive season, Love Alok Mishra

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Representation of the Lower Himalayas in the Works of Ruskin Bond Introduction to the Author:

Astha Saklani is a postgraduate from Miranda House, Delhi University. Her areas of interest include Post-Colonial Studies, Regional Literature, and Eighteenth Century British Literature.

ABSTRACT: Ruskin bond’s works have been hailed by several critics as depicting the life of the hills he calls his home. Some have even called him a “regional writer”. However, upon investigating closely, one realizes that there appear some discrepancies in the way he portrays the Garhwal Himalayas in some of his fictional and non-fictional works. While in several of his fictional writings, he represents the rural life of Garhwal quite realistically and points out several social issues pertaining to the hills, his travel writings about the same region stand in sharp contrast. In his travelogue, his attitude is more like a European observing the orient but more without his own biases and a sense of superiority. This paper analyses two of his fictional novellas, A Long Walk for Bina and Vagrants in the Valley and excerpts from his travel-writings on Garhwal, On the Road to explore these contradictions and also seeks to find a possible explanation for the same.

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Ruskin bond has been living and writing about the hills for more than three decades. He has often confessed that it is in the hills that he feels at home. The backdrop of most of his writings is either the Doon valley or the nearby hills. Bond himself states that he writes “about mountains and people who live in the hills of Himalaya. Most of [his] books are set in a small town like Dehradun or Mussoorie or a small village.” (Mirza) This has led several critics towards the simplistic conclusion that he portrays the life of the people in the hills realistically without actually considering all of his works. Meena G. Khorana states:

Like Narayan, he [Ruskin Bond] has come to be known as a “regional” writer, who evokes the local colour and atmosphere of the small towns and villages of the lower Himalayas. He brings a unique insider’s perspective when describing the lives of simple rural or small-town people. (Khorana 2)

When one reads his travel narratives about the region, one realizes that this may not be the case with all of his works. In his non-fictional travel-writings, he rarely delves upon the lives of the locals. The hills he describes seem almost empty of any inhabitants. When he does talk about them, which seems rare, he is not really interested in their customs or social problems. His narration becomes journalistic, very different from his more insightful fictional stories. His eloquence only finds its way to describe some British dweller of the nineteenth or twentieth century Garhwal. He often quotes British sources while describing the hills. The contradiction in his works in representing the same region is reflected in this paper. Can one really say then that he represents the realities of Garhwal Himalayas? His own works, as the paper explores, provide such varied and contrasting accounts of the hills that it is difficult to provide credibility of any one version. The paper also aims to find a possible explanation for this contradiction.

Several of Ruskin Bond’s fictional works provide an insight into the lives of rural Garhwalis. In A Long Walk for Bina, Bond portrays the life of a village around the historical town of Tehri which would soon be submerged in water. The story is about a small school-going village girl called Bina. Through her life, Bond is able to bring out certain aspects of the rural life of Garhwal. From the children having to walk miles in order to reach their school to the fear of wild animals which haunts the people who struggle to save themselves and their crops from these animals, Bond very minutely reports the lives of rural Garhwalis. A Long Walk for Bina, begins with the three children, Bina, her younger brother Sonu and Prakash walking five miles and crossing a stream to reach their schools. In a passing reference the readers are told that Bina’s father is a soldier and her mother takes care of her children, the fields and cattle. Though seemingly unimportant, this statement highlights what is known as the “money-order economy” of Garhwal. Due to the lack of job opportunities, most of the men from Uttarakhand enroll themselves in the Indian Army while the women stay back in the villages to raise their children and take care of their crops and fields. In Vagrants in the valley, the narrator talks about another village near Lansdowne:

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There were not many men about, and the few that could be found were either old or inactive. Most young men joined the army or took jobs in the plains, for the village economy was poor. The women remained behind to do the work. They fetched water, kept the house clean, cooked meals, and would soon be ploughing the fields. (Bond 372)

The figure of a soldier is integral to the Garhwali imagination and literature. As early as the two World Wars, a lot of youth have been attracted towards army. Fairs like the one held in Chamba in the memory of Gabar Singh Negi, a soldier who won a Victoria Cross after giving away his life in France during World War I, are celebrated to commemorate the brave soldiers who died fighting for their country. Thus, in the very first chapter, Ruskin Bond provides a peak into the backbone of the economy of the hill state.

There are often mentions of leopard killing people in the story. The hills have been notorious for many man-eating tigers and leopards that become a nightmare for the rural areas. When the master Mr. Mani is found missing from the village and his clothes are seen near the forest, it is presumed that the leopard has killed him. Such references emerge time and again in the novel. At the end of the story, a leopard is seen watching the children Bina, Prakash and Sonu with her cubs. It is beautiful image with animals and humans living in complete harmony with each other. Bond’s fascination with the tigers and leopards emerges in several of his stories. Panther’s Moon is the story of how the villagers come together to kill a man-eater who menaces the village. But the villagers make it clear that tigers don’t start killing humans without a reason. “We should be safe as long as a shikari doesn’t wound another panther. There was an old bullet wound in the man- eater’s thigh. That’s why it couldn’t hunt in the forest. The deer was too fast for it”, remarks Kamal Singh in the story. (Chatterjee) Porcupines also cause grievance to the farmers as they eat up the formers’ crops, especially potatoes, at night. Mr. Mani in the story is always concerned about his potato crop which he finally gives up due to the porcupines. The narrator informs the readers:

Mr. Mani was having trouble with the porcupines. They had been getting into his garden at night and digging up and eating his potatoes… For Mr. Mani it was as though they were biting through his own flesh. (Bond 23)

Bond’s acute sensitivity to the problems which only a villager from Garhwal could enumerate is reflected through such scenes. In the words of Partha Chatterjee, “The writer obviously knows these people and their way of life. He loves and respects them as he does all the characters who figure in his stories.” (Chatterjee)

Bond’s story is set in a village near Tehri, a town doomed to submerge in water for the construction of a dam. At the time Bond wrote A Long Walk for Bina, the Tehri dam was a burning issue in Uttarakhand. Several protests were being held against the construction of the dam which would lead to dispersal of large number of local population which had made Tehri their home generation after generation. More than four dozen villages would also meet the same fate and the

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people would be force to give up their ancestral homes and fields. Anxiety of the soon to be displaced locals is voiced in the story. “To be uprooted like this- a town and hundreds of villages put down somewhere on the hot, dusty plains…” (Bond 39)Bond provides a picture of the thriving town of Tehri, “the clock tower and the old palace, the long bazaar, and the temples... All those people would have to go.” (Bond 38). A discussion between Bina and her teacher ensues while they visit the town of Tehri regarding the construction of the dam which would submerge the town in water. Bina asks her teacher if it would have any benefits for the locals. The teacher, though not convinced about the utility of dam tries to reason out its importance for the people who will benefit from the electricity produced. Although the teacher tries to divert from the topic, Bina herself is thankful that her village is not near any river. The lively town with the market selling everything from fruits and sweets to jewelry, radios playing songs in the shops, buses blaring their horns and monkeys and cows searching the dustbins for treats would soon be deserted by the humans and animals and become a memory of the past.

In sharp contrast to this is the way he narrates his travel writing. While he is still mesmerized by the beauty of the hills, he does not really delve into the issues of the inhabitants of the areas he visits. He seems more fascinated by the British predecessors who at some point of time might have lived in those hills. In his excitement to narrate the lives of these British colonizers, he at times ends up eulogizing them and neglecting the perspective of the locals about these colonizers. One such example of a British colonizer is that of Frederick Wilson, a deserter of the British army who after the Anglo-Afghan wars sought refuge in the hills. Soon he began selling the timber from the hills to a London-based company. (Smith) Due to his greed for money, he blindly deforested a large number of forests from the Harsil valley near Gangotri and became of the richest men in northern India. He also hunted a large number of animals to the extent that several species like the blue sheep, musk deer etc were almost extinct. Sundarlal Bahuguna, a leading environmentalist from Uttarakhand charges Wilson of destroying the flora and fauna of Garhwal. Wilson through his indiscriminate cutting of trees and hunting of animals destroyed the entire landscape of the region as the forests also stabilized water flow and prevented landslides. What the loss meant to the local Garhwalis can be estimated by understanding what the forests mean to these people. Ramchandra Guha states:

[The] dependence of the hill peasant on forest resources was institutionalized through a variety of social and cultural mechanisms. Through religion, folklore and tradition the village communities had drawn a protective ring around the forests… Often hilltops were dedicated to local deities and the trees around the spot regarded with great respect. (Guha 29)

It is strange that Bond would eulogize such a person given that his sensitivity towards plant and animal life. In an interview with Amrita Aggarwal, he reflected, “Problems of deforestation and pollution of environment and decay of wildlife have been the subject of my stories and essays.” (Aggarwal 166-167) Although Bond dedicates almost half of a chapter to Wilson, he fails to mention the above mentioned facts. Moreover, Wilson is said to have exploited the local people.

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According to the local legends, Wilson, due to his ruthless exploitation of the region was cursed by the local deity, Lord Someshwar who pronounced the doom of Wilson and his successors and that no one would remember him in future. It seems ironic that Bond points that the “awe and admiration” that the locals still hold for Wilson who was rarely remembered by any inhabitants, let alone the whole world until he was resurrected by another British writer, Robert Hutchison who titled him as “Raja of Harsil”.1

Bond, on the other hand concentrates on the single good thing that Wilson did in his stay in Harsil, the apples he introduced to that area. Bond believes that now it is only these apples which provide identity to that region. Wilson is hailed as bringing modernity and civilization to that area which of course after his death gradually collapsed and now is “out of bounds to civilians”. He praises Wilson thus:

Wilson’s life is fit subject for a romance… Some men leave a trail of legend behind them because they give their spirit to the place where they have lived, and remain forever a part of the rocks and mountain streams. (Bond 411)

Bond’s version of Wilson’s story is based on selective study of the latter’s life. Harsil becomes for Bond, the abode of Frederic “Pahadi” Wilson which is the former’s only claim to fame. Bond seems to suggest that whatever Wilson did for the region might not have been favoured by the locals because they did not know what is good for them. Edward Said points out the conviction of the colonizer in another context, “they [natives] are a subject race, dominated by a race that knows them and what is good for them better than they could possibly know themselves.” (Said 35)So Wilson was a harbinger of modernity and prosperity to the Harsil region which had been shrouded in darkness and superstition. It was a “triumph of English knowledge and power”, of “superior talents and unselfish conduct” (Said 35-37). Bond does not feel the need to talk about the local narratives and the legends. Throughout the travelogue, he quotes British sources which reflect the fascination of the British writers towards the exotic hills. He rarely listens to the stories of the locals. He describes Rudraprayag thus:

Perhaps its [Rudraprayag’s] chief claim to fame is that it gave its name to the dreaded man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag who, in the course of seven years (1918-250 accounted for more than 300 victims. It was finally shot by the fifty-one year-old Jim Corbett. (Bond 423)

Apart from the highly exaggerated number of the victims of the man-eater, the statement smacks of chauvinism and is offensive to the region which is reduced to being the hunting ground of Jim Corbett. Rudraprayag, one of the “panch prayags” is the land of Shiva and the place of origin of Rudra music according to the folk legends. It is believed that it was here that Narada learnt music from Lord Shiva. With famous temples like Koteshwar, Rudranath and Chamunda

1 Hutchison published a book entitled The Raja of Harsil: The Legend of Frederick “Pahari” Wilson in which he dealt with the life of Wilson, a book which pulled Wilson out of anonymity after more than a century.

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Devi, all that Bond found worth mentioning was the British Hunter, Jim Corbett. Bond believes that due to Corbett’s compassion for the locals, the latter is “still a legend in Garhwal and Kumaon amongst people who have never read his books” (Bond 425-426). Interestingly, according to an article in Times of India, Jim Corbett is not even known to the residents of Nainital, the town Corbett made his home before moving to Kenya. (Manjesh) Is it then Bond’s own allegiance to the British predecessors combined with his wishful thinking which makes him believe that Garhwal owes its existence to the British colonizers? He associates the rainfall and thunderstorm at Tungnath temple with Emily Bronte’s novels, the “runda” (pika) with the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

The above examples prove that it would be simplistic to call his works as representing the life of the people of lower Himalayas. One has to consider all his works before coming to any conclusion. What could be the reason for such contradictions while representing his so-called home? Critics have labeled Ruskin Bond as an Anglo-Indian writer due to his parentage. But the implications of belonging to the categories of both the colonizer and the colonized can be most successfully seen in the contrasting representation of the Garhwal region within his works. While it is true to some extent, one can hardly account for his projection of rural life of the hills just based upon his biography. It is true that his social and cultural background shape his writings to a large extent. His short-stories based on Mussoorie or Dehradun, for instance, cater to a certain class and do not usually address the local social issues of the underprivileged. At the time Bond wrote most of his works, Uttarakhand, then under Uttar Pradesh was in turmoil. The Uttarakhand Movement which demanded a separate state for the hills was at its height. People were killed in Mussoorie itself but Bond did not choose to voice them in his works.

Can an Anglo-Indian belonging to the privileged class truly represent the rural life of the hills? The question is certainly not new in the critical circles. Even in the nineteenth century, poets like Wordsworth were being charged of misrepresenting a certain community.2 However, one cannot deny the fact that in certain works, Bond is able to transcend the social and cultural barriers to be one with the suffering peasants, the displaced locals, the children of the hilly villages and even the animals. It is in his fictional works like A Long Walk for Bina where he is able to truthfully represent the social issues of Garhwal.

Therefore, one must keep in mind the contradictions projected in Ruskin Bond’s works before pronouncing that Bond truthfully represents the life of the hills of Garhwal. It becomes clear from the paper that Garhwal is many things for Bond; it is where the British colonials lived

2 The debate between Coleridge and Wordsworth where Coleridge accuses Wordsworth of misrepresenting the peasantry in his works since Wordsworth did not belong to the peasantry himself and was thus incapable of understanding them. Wordsworth also attacked by Francis Jeffrey in 1802 in the Edinburgh Review who critiques Wordsworth’s “affectation of great simplicity”. However, philosophers like Adam Smith in his theory of moral sentiments and Wordsworth himself believed that one could transcend one’s condition and sympathize with the other through the faculty of imagination. In contemporary times, the subaltern theories too deal with a similar debate.

7 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Saklani: Himalyas’ Representation in Ruskin Bond ISSN: 2454-4574 and thrived, it is where the rural hill folks fight for sustenance with animals and the modernization which at times displaces them from their homes, it is where his quest for natural beauty ends. It sometimes finds a local flavor in his works and at other times is universalized by him. Most importantly, it is a mysterious realm for Bond, a “sweet-scented mystery”, something which has preoccupied him for decades, which at times he seems to have solved but at other times deludes him. When the writer himself has not been able to reconcile with the region, it is futile to believe that he successfully represents the hills since he presents the readers with several versions and it would be a mistake to choose just one of them since there will always be some silences and absences in each.

Works Cited:

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Aggarwal, Amita. The Fictional World of Ruskin Bond. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2005. Web.

Bond, Ruskin. A Long Walk for Bina. New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Ptv. Ltd., 2002. Web.

—. A Long Walk for Bina. New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2002. Web.

Bond, Ruskin. "On the Road." Bond, Ruskin. The Best of Ruskin Bond. New Delhi: Penguin Publishers, 1994. 409-458. Web.

Bond, Ruskin. "Vagrants in the valley." Bond, Ruskin. Classic Ruskin Bond: Complete and Unabridged. New Delhi: Penguin Publishers, n.d. 266-504. Web.

Chatterjee, Partha. "Bond with the Hills." Frontline 13 November 2015. Print.

Guha, Ramchandra. The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalayas. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. Print.

Khorana, Meena G. The Life and Works of Ruskin Bond. London: Praeger Publishers, 2003. Web.

Manjesh, Sindhu. "Jim Corbett: Memory is a Man-eater." The Times of India 31 July 2010. Web.

Mirza, Shabir Hussain. "Shabir Hussain Mirza in Conversaion with Ruskin Bond." Indian Literature (2004): 152-160. Web.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Random House, 1979. Print.

Smith, R.V. "An English Raja of Garhwal." The Hindu 22 March 2015. Web.

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THE NOVELISTIC VISION OF BESSIE HEAD: WOMEN’S REFUTING PATRIARCHY AND CLAIMING FOR SPACE AND IDENTITY

By – Rohini Jha

Introduction to the Author:

Ms. Rohini Jha is a Research Scholar at V.K.S. University, Bihar, India. Qualified for K-SET, she has topped in PhD entrance test at V.K.S University, Bihar. Having been accepted and published paper in many national and international journal, she is a member of Association for English Studies of India, Centre for Race and Gender Studies, and Pierean Spring. Her current research interests include Race, Gender and Feminism and she is also interested in exploring Africa and its culture. Her PhD research is based on African Writer Bessie Head.

She has been to different parts of the world to present her papers, including Thailand, Nigeria, and others. Recently she is going to present her paper in IIT Patna, in Higher Education and Research Society, Pune and Linton University College, Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

From ages women’s places have been widely discussed by many but the outcome is never concrete. Reason may be that women’s space never existed in our history. It had existed only as accompanying subject to males and nothing more than that. My paper shall shed light on how the female writers became the mouthpiece of marginalized subject called females. The research methodology would be content analysis of selected texts of Bessie Head. Although feminist movements are of great support for women but still they are claiming for the differences. From very beginning Female writers had to struggle to raise their voices in male chauvinist society. My paper shall answer some questions related to feminism. How females writing have subverted males writing? Is there any need to uplift females further? Have they achieved their voice in the third world which was silenced long back? Where can one expect women’s writing can go in future and how they could claim for their space? The answers are important for those who think that women need not claim for space and voice in post modernist era. In fact, the free post modernist era has guaranteed them everything. This topic is relevant as it would help find out how any female writer could bring a change in ordinary woman in any society by the dint of their writings.

Keywords: Bessie Head, claiming space, gender chauvinism, postmodernism, identity.

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INTRODUCTION

I would open my paper with the definition of feminism and then move on to the birth of feminism and how women are refuting patriarchy and claiming for the difference through Bessie Head’s text and finally closing my paper with discussing the status of women in contemporary postcolonial period. The female, feminism and now the female phase all these are terms interrelated with each other. And to write about them seems to be like seven labours of Hercules because enough ink has been spilled in writing and discussing about these topics. This time when the glass-ceilings are breaking so very fast it would be really very hectic but interesting to know about women’s journey from the time they were captured in cages of patriarchy and now when they are totally independent, strong and above all an individual with their own identities.

In this post modern era research is still going on to find out the rigorous journey of feminism to female phase but the outcome is never clear and accurate. Sometimes it seems as if everything has been achieved by females of postmodern era, but in reality something may be troubling them in their goal. It has becomes a riddle to disclose the exact achievements and flaws of feminism in general and females in particular.

ORIGIN OF FEMINISM

It is a thinkable topic for many why feminism originated and from where. The root cause for its birth are so many but it would be wise to cover it under one umbrella term and that is Male Chauvinism and its dominating tendencies. In a very short and rough way I would say patriarchy had damaged the wings of females from ancient till modern time. And it is also true that postmodernism has brought a sea change in males’ attitude towards females. And consequently females are successfully regaining their lost jewel that is identity. If feminism had not originated, the women of our society would not have been able to reach at such heights. From very beginning women had no say in any subject be it political, social or economical because males were there to handle it single handily. Frankly, women lived without voice and without involvement in any intellectual decisions. And when the matter of its place of origin is concerned there is no fixed place of its origin rather it was not a sudden outburst but a result of very gradual and continuous breakthrough from suppression and coercion. A saying ‘Excess of anything is bad’ is very correct and for the feminist this excess was to tolerate and survive in male dominated society. Literally, when the embryos of male dominated societies were full of suppressions and coercions of all types none can stop the birth of feminism and feminist movements. Although their birth takes place in different parts of the world and at different time but the sole purpose was all the same to procure the rights of females.

Feminism has its origin with many purposes. But most importantly, Feminism has its origin in the struggle for women’s right. Although there were many political agendas and forum for the females in almost many countries of the world but I will be looking from literary perspectives. And how the feminist writes were ably dealing with this issues in their writings. Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication for the rights of women’ (1792) should be

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given credit for conveying such a groundbreaking message for the upliftment of women who were kept on the lowest rung of the society.

And later British’s most bright and female gem writer of modern age Virginia Woolf came up with her master work ‘A room of one’s own’ in 1929. Due to its content it immediately became classic read for feminist movements. In Virginia Woolf’s work we can get the answer of some questions as to why it becomes very difficult for any woman to write something. According to Virginia Woolf a woman must break the rusty iron gate of womanhood and explore the world with a fresh and new vision. Again in 1949, a serious attempt for the sake of females was advocated in ‘The Second sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir. It advocates that men and women be given equal social and political rights. All these writers have a done remarkable job to raise voice against dominant males and that too living in patriarchal society.

Women from early times to till date are claiming for sex discrimination, space, identity which should be given to them without claiming. Much hullaballoo in the female world is due to the differences in terms of rights denied to females and the same rights enjoyed by males. It becomes real hard to live without rights which they must enjoy. To live without enjoying one’s right is like a person without soul. If we peep into the History we will find numerous examples of women who managed to live without some rights. The sexual difference had led women to suffer at the surface level and also at the deeper level. The sexual difference is a trouble which females start facing right from their birth.

The question of Culture, literature, identity, space are very subtle subject but are directly related to procuring the right place for women in our society. The balance between the male and female is only possible if they are provided with equal opportunity.

Females constitutes half of the humanity says Simon de Beauvoir [1]. I think Beauvoir has rightly justified this subject of female and feminist. In my opinion if females constitute a major part of human race one should not encourage sexism. Sexism is such a base which could eat up our whole society without indigestion. I wonder how sexism has entered in the mind set of people like a monster. Its outcome is definitely going to instigate war within the human race. It is never clear the fairer sex of all is women but on what basis. The term fair indicates clarity in their thoughts, high intellectual level of women or just a fair colour of their skin. Again if we are judging the qualities of being women on the basis of skin colour it is a horrible mistake and it is like to take the bull by its horn. The power lies within women is not very clear on the surface level in pre colonial era but post modernism had given them wings of non melting metals to fly high and explore.

In the third world women’s voices were not heard and due to this the crisis in their identity and existence persists. The fourth world people who constitute a major part of the subaltern, poor, backward people, tribes etc who were unable to enjoy in the third world and remained unheard are again raising their voices. Here, I mean to say that in this world where nothing is constant and permanent no one knows that the voices raised by them could bring a drastic change in the world aura and denying them with some rights will be like hampering the growth of not only a particular community but half of the human race.

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WOMEN CLAIMING FOR IDENTITY AND SPACE

Identity is one major subject that has been discussed by many female writers from many countries. And this writing proved to be so much influential that gradually it laid the foundation stone of many movements working for the awareness of females. These movements are called as female phase and previously also known as feminist movements. And post colonial feminism known as third world feminism has reached its heights due to protest and a tendency to claim for the shortcomings and gradual shift of females from periphery and their voices are not unheard. In the postcolonial period women could easily understand that now the tables has turned and subalterns ( a term frequently used by Indian feminist critic Gayatri Spivak) are ready to claim for their rights and fight for the discrimination caused by men towards them.

If we peep into the past and turn pages of women’s writing, we find they had minimal position in the literary world. Women are not writing, women are not writing even about woman. There talent was crushed or the male chauvinist society had built a fall wall so high that their voices were unheard. And the predicament is that females had started with a protest in their writing. It would not be wrong to say that women were marginalized to the deepest level. Women were robbed of their identity, voice, denied of space, inequality in gender and what not. Thanks to the literary world that their writings got recognition and they got golden opportunity to deliver their voices to every marginalized and the subaltern. Subaltern is a term which is frequently used by renowned literary critic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak for the unheard and marginalized.

In ‘Feminism and Critical Theory’, Spivak argues that:

‘‘ My own definition of a woman is very simple: it rests on the word ‘man’ as used in texts that provide the foundation for the corner of the literary criticism establishment that I inhibit. You might say that this is a reactionary position. Should I not carve out an independent definition for myself as a woman?’’[

Like Irigary, Spivak suggests that ‘independent’ definitions of woman always risk falling prey to the very binary oppositions that perpetuate women’s subordination in culture and society. The female writes of today have established an identity through their writing.

WOMEN CLAIMING FOR THE DIFFERENCE IN BESSIE HEAD’S TEXTS

Now I come to the point where I get major findings in terms of claiming for space and culture by women. My focus is on a female writer from Africa who wrote very fantastically. Bessie Head left her homeland South Africa and settled in Botswana due to the cruel policies of Apartheid. Apartheid which is a hair rising word for Africans because it was synonymous to cruelty and horrible torture of the Blacks in the hands of White. Apartheid was major cause which brought the sex difference, colour difference, racial bias and cultural difference in African society. People were living a life without culture and surviving without ethnic ground. And Head was very sick of the cruel racial policies. Bessie Head’s works deal with issues of

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discrimination, isolation, abandonment and emotionally abused black women. Bessie Head’s writing has not lost its power even today. Bessie Head is truly a writer with potential to pen down the dark side of colonialism, apartheid very frankly. Bessie head had depicted in her work that every woman would love to read and every man can’t ignore hearing it. And her writing is not inspired by any fancy, fantasy or imagination rather it is closely related to her own experiences which in literary term we call autobiographical work.

As Arthur Ravenshcroft comments on her novel ‘A question of Power’

In A question of power we are taken nightmarishly into central character’s process of mental breakdown, through lurid cascades of hallucination, and a pathological blurring of the frontiers between insanity and any kind of normalcy. Bessie Head tried to claim Identity crisis in midst of alienation. Actually Bessie Head herself was victim of alienation. And it seems that it is very easy for any sufferer to pen down their experiences but it is not like that. In Bessie Head’s writing we see true picture of reality as well as she successfully mirrors the people her own trouble. Head had a genuine sympathy for women especially the Black and oppressed women who were marginalized to the deepest level. Almost many of her works are full of protest of some kind.

Bessie head’s text ‘A question of power’ which was published in 1973 widely discussed about females power and social position. It widely captures the essence of protagonist’s character. In this text Head questions the way women becomes mad. And also elaborates the reason for madness. The protagonist was brought up by a foster mother. And she is sent to missionary school. After that she gets a job as a teacher in Botswana. She goes to Botswana leaving her cheater husband. In Botswana Elizabeth lives as a refugee and questions her identity. And this crisis of identity results her to hallucinate and finally she starts to show signs of insanity. At the end of the novel she is recovered but Head has captured the claim for identity by protagonist very cleverly. Here Head has used Elizabeth as mouthpiece of common females who suffers from identity crisis ideas for their recovery and establishment of peace. I would like to highlight a quote from Head’s novel ‘A Question of power’ where the protagonist Elizabeth is only 13 and her school principal tells her

‘‘Your mother was insane. If you are not careful

You’ll get insane just like your mother.

Your mother was a white woman. They had to lock her up,

As she was having a child by the stable boy who was a native’’. ( Head,1974,p.16)

Elizabeth is shocked after this revelation. Elizabeth’s missionary school principal cruelly reveals this matter and it is very tough as well as puzzling fact for any child as what may be the meaning of White and what is the punishment and crime for having child with Black. Elizabeth was not allowed to play with other children in the school because she was born of a white mother and Black father. She was abandoned and isolated because she didn’t belong to any race. Infact, she was not an ordinary human being. It was not just simply a matter of Black

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and White but it wounded Elizabeth’s thought and stirred her soul. And finally aroused an anxiety disorder .She suffers physical and mental breakdown. I think Head had used madness to deliver the extent of suffering of any woman. This very way of using madness to express angst of identity crisis, race, gender and many maladies like these is the silent weapon of Bessie Head to show protest through her writing. And it can’t be denied that Bessie Head was born with such traumas in her early life. It seems very amazing eyebrow raising fact to know that while Head was actually suffering from traumas in her life meanwhile she was also capturing these feelings in words. And the result is before us in the form of her writings. Majority of her works are inspired by incidents from real life.

Bessie head’s another work ‘‘The collector of treasure’’, is also a dramatic indictment of the male’s thought and actions in her culture towards women. This is a short story about a woman who commits manslaughter and is sent to jail. Dikeledi Mokopi is protagonist and an oppressed wife in this short story. The protagonist of this short story Dikeledi Mokopi who says she used a knife to cut off all his special parts while he was asleep. This shows the deep angst of woman and the position of women in a society that, she feels, has never valued women. Here Head had used murder of his husband to show woman’s crisis and way of overcoming it. This in my view is not focused on a crime called murder rather a deep urge of any women to claim and establish that women also posses’ power and strength and she can go to any extent to prove it, she can even murder her own husband if he troubles her. Frankly, Bessie Head’s use of language and technique was superb. Her works created a deep influence in the heart of African literature and a strong footing in the world literature. What I found with Bessie Head’s writing was not any simple story rather through her works women got attention due to the solutions offered in her work. This is evident in her major works that at the end of the day the protagonist is recovered from psychological trauma and is successful in establishing his/her identity.

CONCLUSION

Women empowerment came with such a big force that no one had ever imagined. And in the literary world women’s writing has miraculously and meticulously occupied its position. It would really surprise the literary lovers to know that the feminist spark which started long ago in France with the writings of Christine de Pizan (Feminist and writer) who first raised her voice against male dominated writings and in England with Aphra Behn, Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf and many such figures has now taken a shape of giant fireball. Their writings in true sense have calibre to inspire common women of the then society and they were benefited by it. No, need to say women have finally come out with their own space, culture, identity which they were claiming for centuries. No one can deny them with what was their own. The time has come when the glass ceilings are breaking very fast. It is due to women’s continuous effort and protest that helped them to achieve what they were denied off from centuries and ages. And in this contemporary postmodern era a giant leap has to be taken by women. According to my opinion in this postmodern era we should only revel and not mourn for the loss in the past then only the gaps in the difference would be filled. Lastly, in my conclusion,

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I would like to sum up with why males need not claim for anything in our society. This is not just a question but an answer to the cause for females claiming differences.

References

1. Beauvoir de Simon, ‘Introduction’, The Second Sex (1949), translated and ed. H.M. Parshley, 1953, reprinted Pan Books,1988, pp.13-19,23-24. 2. Tidd, Ursula. Simon de Beauvoir. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print. 3. Spivak, G.C. (1987) In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, with preface by Colin MacCabe, New York: Metheun. 4. Morton, Stephen. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York: Routledge, 2003.Print 5. Ravenshcroft, Arthur.The Novels of Bessie Head.In aspects of South African Literature,Ed. Christopher Heywood,London Heinemann,1976,p-175 6. Head,Bessie.A Question of Power.Portsmouth. Heinemann.1974. 7. Head, Bessie.A Question of Power. Oxford: Davis Poynter Ltd.,1974. 8. Head, Bessie. ‘‘The Collector of Treasures’’, Other Voices,Other Vistas.Ed. Barbara Soloman. New York: Penguin GroupnInc.2002. 9. Head, Bessie. A question of Power London Heinemann.1974.print

16 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sheela & Rafee: Teen pregnancy in Zindel’s Novels ISSN: 2454-4574

TEEN PREGRANCY, A CHALLENGING PROBLEM IN THE LIFE OF YOUNG

ADULT : A STUDY IN THE NOVELS OF PAUL ZINDEL

Introduction to the Authors:

Sheela. V is a research scholar in English Literature at Bharathiyar University, Coimbtore. She is

an assistant professor, department of English, Arunai Engineering College, Tamilnadu.

Dr. A. S. Mohamed Rafee is an associate professor and research guide, Mazharul Uloom

College, Ambur, Tamilnadu.

ABSTRACT

Young Adult (YA) is a period of transition between the childhood and adult life. It is one of the

dynamic stages of human life. It has been characterised as a period of physical, social and emotional changes. Adolescence is a part of every individual to face challenges in their life to struggle with families, communities etc. YA is the age between 18-22, where teens enter to regulate emotions in their thinking capacities, relationship skills and ability to regulate emotions. Teens has to rebel and it is a part of growing process My paper will investigate how teens handle emotions physical and sexual changes especially teenage pregnancy. Hoe female adolescence are abused.

Paul zindel an american playwright helps the teenagers to make them feel their situation and guide them in a right way. This paper explores the problem of teen pregnancy the clauses leading to it and the solutions suggested as understood from the novels of paul zindel.

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INTRODUCTION

Teenage pregnancy is a serious and controversial issue that affects our society as whole. Teen

pregnancy is a teen gets pregnant out of wedlock before getting into the age of 18. Teen pregnancy

has serious consequences for the teen mother, the child and to society. There is also a serious health

risk for the young teen mothers who have babies at the early age. Common medical problems

among teen mothers include poor weight, anemia and sexually transmitted disease. The major

factor of teen pregnancy tends to single parenthood and poverty. Children born to teen mothers

faces higher risk related problems, insufficient health care, inadequate parenting, they often fall victim to abuse, neglected and also suffer economically like getting poor school performance. The

factual problem in single mother especially teen mother household are more stereotyped problems.

Teenager faces many problems when they face the society. Teenage pregnancy challenges the

country for the socio and economic development so it may the threatening problem for the

develpoed and developing countries.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to investigate teenager problems. Teenagers would receive

factual knowledge from competent knowledge individuals on the various methods of pregnancy

prevention. They improve their self-esteem and learn to be assertive. They should know the

seriousness of parenting and have to realise that premature parenthood has an impact on their future

life. Teenagers will become acquainted with some legal issues surrounding teenage pregnancy.

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TEEN PREGNANCY, A THREATENING PROBLEM

Teen pregnancy is a major problem that every teenager faces in their life. Parents identify violence, gangs, drugs and pressure from peers to engage in unhealthy behaviours as even greater risky behaviour in YA. When an adolescence discover that she is pregnant without wedlock it can be one of the most frightening moments of her life because she is totally unprepared. To add to the confusion she is feeling, she may come under strong censure because people in our society still have mixed feelings and reactions to women who become pregnant outside the marriage. The teenager who finds herself illegitimately pregnant is faced with limited alternatives. She may an get abortion, or she may carry to term and give it up for adaption or she may choose to have the baby and raise it herself. A premarital pregnancy not jeopardizes moral respectability, it lessens the changes for continuing in school and attaining a better life. Young people who become parent while in their teens are more likely than their classmate who postpone childbearing to have their educations cut short. The younger the birth, the greater the educational set back or total loss. Single teenage parent fazes a number of problem.

GUIDENCES FROM PAUL ZINDEL NOVELS:

Paul Zindel’s My Darling My Hamburgers treats the subject of abortion through the eyes of the friend. This novel, written in first person, recounts a best friend’s almost-disastrous experience with pre-marital sex and an illegal abortion. The novels end on a hopeless note for the young

Women who was the coerced into having sex with the boyfriend, and as a consequence had a abortion. Statements like “just let me die” and the characters’ talking about her past tense, and her

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inability to show her face at graduation because of shame magnify that hopelessness. While the

writing is good and fits the bill for good YA fiction, the attitudes are dated. Zindel’s treatments of the boyfriends feeling and attitudes is much stronger than the treatments of the one –domination

characters of the girl friend. Adult readers may sometimes consider such attitudes immature or find the characters are diminished by their adolescent characterization. To the target demography, however, these issues are authentic and compelling. Indeed, a character’s development from an adolescent perspective to a more adult view propels the action of many a young adult novel.

AN OVERVIEW OF TEEN PREGNANCY ISSUES:

The united states have highest rate of teen pregnancy of most industrialized nations.

1) Acceding to a 2006 reports, nearly 750.000 teens aged 15-19 become pregnant

each year in the united states.

2) Atleast one study estimates that 90% of these pregnancies are unintended.

3) In 2006,435,436 infants were born to mother aged 15-19.4 along with obvious

individual consequence for teen parents there are effect associated with the issues

as well.

Teen pregnancy affects all demographics: certain population are at greater risk. children, teen mothers are more likely to drop out of high school. Teen father also has a higher high-school dropout rate. Teen pregnancy can bring physical consequences as well physiologically pregnant teens younger than 17 are at increased risk for poor mental weight gain and a higher maternal mortality rate.

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YOUNG ADULT RISKY BEHAVIOUR:

The extraordinary progress that the nation has made in reducing teen pregnancy and child bearing in the past two decades has been driven by combination of less sex and more contraception. In

2013 National Survey Risk Behaviour survey indicates that among U.S high school students (age

12-19)

 47% ever had sexual intercourse

 6%had sexual intercourse for the first time before age 13 year

 15% had sexual intercourse with 4 or more times during their life

 34% had sexual intercourse with at least one person during 3 months.

 41% didn’t use any birth control pills to prevent pregnancy

 14% didn’t use any method to prevent pregnancy during sexual intercourse.

 22% drink alcohol or used drugs before sexual intercourse.

KEYS FINDINGS

The pregnancy rate for U.S Female Adolescence in 2013 was per 1000. The estimated number of pregnancies dropped to 6,369,000 (4,131,000 live birth, 1,152,000 included abortion and

1,087,000 fetal losses) the data in this report provides a comprehensive pictures and pregnancy outcomes.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that today’s teenager is stepping at the junction of the ecological history.

Adolescence with teenage pregnancy, coping with stress, sexual abuse and peer pressure. In this

21 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sheela & Rafee: Teen pregnancy in Zindel’s Novels ISSN: 2454-4574 current inclination teens extinct for lower socio-economic condition due to teenage pregnancy.

Teen pregnancy is a global problem challenges a country’s growth and development. Personal and social counselling can help adolescence in solving the problems. Adolescence should be helped by teachers in removing their false belief about sex which put them at higher risk. The adolescence should be provided with proper sex education in a n effective manner both in home and school.

Paul Zindel’s novel is an indispensable guide which provide with an experience that allows for self-understanding in order for society as an intact to realize itself.

REFERENCES

1. National center for health statistics: U.S census populations with bridge race categories

(assessed july 2013)

2. National vital statistics report; vol. 60 no 8 Hyattsville, MD : National center for Health

statistics,2012

3. The national Champaign to prevent and unplanned pregnancy prevention. (Washington

DC; NCPTP,2012)

4. Zindel Paul pardon me you re stepping on my eye ball, Hareper and Row publisher,

Newyork

5. Zindel Paul, My Darling My Hamburger, , Hareper and Row publisher, Newyork

6. Zindel paul, I Never Loved Your Mind, , Hareper and Row publisher, Newyork

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23 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Gupta: Child life in anand’s novel ISSN: 2454-4574

A Socio-Psychological Spectrum of Child-Life in 'The Lost Child And Other Stories' by Mulk Raj Anand. Introduction to the Author:

Lalita Gupta is pursuing Ph.D. from Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra,

under Dr. Lucky Gupta, Reader and Head Department of English T.R.P.G. College,

Aligarh. The Topic of her Ph.d. is 'Critical Study of Child Characters in the Fiction of

Mulk Raj Anand’. She has keen interest in fiction.

The fall of imperialism and the growing awareness of freedom brought a change in the society. In the discourse on the fate of marginalized communities, the writers were encouraged to represent the sufferings of women and children. Besides social-political awareness, the development of psychology has modified the perception of life. With these change there came a wave of children's literature. The representation of the children's world has always been a source of fascination for the writers during all ages and all countries. The Indian English Fiction that is not more than a century old has faithfully recorded the challenges and confrontation of values and process of transition and transformation going on in the Indian society. A large number of novels and short- stories from pre-independence to post-independence India present a vivid account of child life. The writers have taken child characters as an instrument to project the social- vices. And there is a strong affinity of these works with the best in world literature. The short stories of Tagore like 'Kabuliwalla and other Stories','Home and the World', R.K. Narayan's 'Swami and Friends',’Malgudi Days', 'Vendor of Sweets' present different dimensions of child life particularly the struggle of children against the cramped conventions of society. In this direction Mulk Raj Anand in English and Prem Chandra in Hindi revolutionized the well knit pattern of literary aesthetics. They made

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efforts to make a representation of the social-evils through the consciousness of their child protagonists. The present paper is focused on the Mulk Raj Anand's short story collection 'The Lost Child and Other Stories'. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first half the focus is made on the Indian short story as a genre its origin and importance. In the second half the focus is on the socio-psychological study of the child- characters presented in the different stories of the collection. I Fiction and short story are the kindered branches of literature and both are related to each other in the same way as the big and small sisters to their parents. If Indian English Fiction originated in 20th century, Indian English short story can't be thought of earlier than this time. Of course the short story is a simpler and more popular form of communication than the wide ranging and complex fiction. A.J. Merson in his introduction to his edited work, dwells at some length on the comparative merits of the novel and the short-story. He observes.

The scope of the novel is usually wide, it may cover themes of several generations and range in its setting from pole to pole. Its main theme is often complicated by numerous side issues, only less important than the central plot, no one of which can be detached from the structure without a certain loss of continuity or of essential detail. The short story on the one hand is conceded with episodes and not with histories....it confines itself to what happened to one person or a small group of persons within a limited period of time and within a limited radius of activity.

The short story is, and always has been disproportionately represented in literatures of colonial and post- colonial cultures. Short story is deeply rooted in our Indian tradion which used to give us folk tales and fables from the earliest time. And this tradition has

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always been enriched by oral as well as written tales. It is unquestionably as old as

Indian society and culture.

The early short story writers of India had mostly found their source of

inspiration and sustenance in the ancient tales of the 'Panchatantra and in the

Buddhistic Jataka Tales, which are usually didactic in tone, gripping in narration and epigrammatical in structure. Both the works may be said to be 'beast fables', in which some animals symbolize human beings and their virtues or vices. There was yet another variety of tales, generally known as 'folk tales', in ancient India, and this variety is well-

preserved in the 'Kathasarit Sagar' (which is based on the Brihatkatha of Gunadhya)

and the Dashakumaracharitam of the noted Sanskrit author, Dandin. Apart from these, the anicient Indian tales are also found in several Upanishads and Purans (like the

Bhagavata and the Brahmanda) and in well known epics called the Ramayana and

Mahabharata. The Jains have not been lagging behind in his genre, and they have added such works to its stock as the Padampurana by Ravisena and the Mahapurana by

Jinasena and Gunabhadra. All these works provided stimuli and motivations to Indian short story writers.

As with other genres so with the Indian short-story in English, the beginnings were made under the influence of Britishers, who had given us not only a steady nation but also an international language. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things to speculate that the Indian short story writer in English is an inheritor of British legacy bequeathed to him by such eminent practitioners as O. Henry, John Galsworthy,

Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling.

To being the history of Indian English short story there is a publicaton of Kamla Satthianandan's stories from Indian Christian life in 1898, while

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Venkataramani contributed two collections of short stories under the titles Paper Boats

in 1921 and Jathadharan and Other Stories in 1937, Nagarjan's 'Cold Rice' in 1945.

In the early twentieth century, Rabindra Nath Tagore was an internationally know

literary personality, who wrote his short stories mostly in Bengali and then translated

them into English. Some of his popular stories are 'The Kabuliwallah', Subha','The

Post Master'.

The twentieth century saw the publication of a genuine artistic work in

the genre, and it is Mulk Raj Anand's 'The Lost Child and Other Stories', which proved

to be 'an immediate success'. With Anand begins era of big names, such as Manjeri

Isvaran, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, Khushwant Singh and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Anand

is with the poor and the down trodden voicing the concerns and predicaments of the

lower classes in our society and siding with the lost ones and the sufferers. The

hummanism of Anand is so evident in his short stories and he lashes at the lies, shame

and hypocrisies of our people with relentless vigour and robust satire. The social

injustices and the high brow prejudices move him most, and he forcefully ventilates his

strong feelings against them, as may be gathered from his stories like 'The Cobler and

the Machine', ’Boots', ‘The Old Watch' and 'The Story of an Anna', In his long short story, 'Lament on the Death of a Master of Arts'. Anand takes to satire to hit at the

rooten in human social customs and conditions-the proud parents, the child marriage, the stubbornness of the elders, hypocrisy, insanitation and cruelty in education and many other things.

II

Every studies opens the new windows for the fresh interpretations and new vision about the text. No literary text has its value without its lingering and repeated

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effect on the consciousness of the critic as this consciousness assumes a new proportion in the shifting modes of social changes. The works of Mulk Raj Anand gives a new insight to the readers being the pillar of Indian cultural heritage. His works have a soothing sense and caste upon the stark realities of society. Anand's concerns for the varied problems that human beings come across in life with a sincere desire to seek solution of these problems made him the writer of all times. His motive is not only to highlight the problems and miseries but the meticulously makes an effort to suggest the ways out of theme. He is a realist in his visionary dispositions about the betterment of the human being. Where Premchand choose his themes from peasantry and humble folk of Uttar Pradesh, Anand selected themes from day to day expressions surroundings around him and select heroes from his environment. He wrote in an unselfconscious way about what he had seen at first hand in the years of his childhood, boyhood and youth.

The collection 'The Lost Child and Other Stories' contains thirteen stories in which Anand depicts his profound concern for the life of children with a psychological insight. His stories deal with the emotions, feelings and psyche of child- characters. The first story of the collections is 'The Lost Child' that is a remarkable example of Anand's dealing with the psyche of a child who is lost in a fair. The story is divided in two parts. In the first part the child goes to a fair with his parents where colourful articles of the fair like roundabout dancing cobra, rainbow-coloured balloons, Gulab-jamun, rasgulla, burfi, garland of gulmohar fascinates the child. He is attracted towards the colourful items of the fair. In this, Anand, very beautifully, presents the happy emotions of the child. The child is very excited when he enters into the fair. His attention is captured by the mustard field, a group of dragon flies and so

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he legged behind. Then his parents called him. ''Come, child, come"9 After the call the

child runs towards his parents. With these simple incidents of the life of the child,

Anand presents a carefree mental state of the child and his concern with the social

environment. The child is only enjoying the beauty of the fair. The natural description

of the fair portrays a picture of human emotions. Children are very sensitive. Each and

every aspect of nature attracts them. The description in the story reveals how the child

is eager to have each article that is present in the wordly fair. Yet the child is conscious of the fact that his parents would not allow him to have all therefore without waiting for their reply he goes forward.

He went towards the basket-where the flowers lay heaped and half murmured, 'I want that garland'. But he well knew his parents would refuse to buy him those flowers because they would say they were cheap. So without waiting for an answer he moved on. (12)

This reveals the obsessed psyche of the child. Today is the world of pressure and

depression. Little children feel pressure of their environment and sometimes become

the victim of depression and sometimes fight with their surrounding. What Anand had

pointed out in his writings has become the issues of post colonial India. The recent

release and Oscar awarded movie Slum Dog Milllenium deals with the predicament of

a child who was born and brought up in slums. The movie was appreciated and accepted

due to the natural presentation of the emotions of a child protagonist revealed in the

story. Again, the story of 'Paa' whose protagonist is a deceased child. It presents

eminently a child-psyche that demands nothing from the society except the union of his

parents. It gives a message that children contribute in the development of the healthy

society.

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The second part of the story lost child deals with the pathetic emotions

of the protagonist when he was departed from his parents when a stranger wanted to

give him all what he desired earlier, he doesn't accpt that, he wants his mother and

father.

The child turned his face from the sweet shop and only sobbed: I want

my mother, I want my father. (15)

The second story of the collection is 'The Eternal Why' that deals with

the curiosity of a child protagonist. Here Anand reveals the child psychology of

questioning. The child wants to know everything. The child is fascinated by the river

Lunda. He puts several questions related to the river and his own reflections in the river.

Then he saw the people bathing in the river. He questioned,

'What is that, mother'? he asked, bewildered. 'They are the holy man bathing in the river, child' his mother answered. 'The are swimming'.

I want to swim, too' he said, and almost made towards the water.

No, no,' said the mother, running after him. Bringing him near her, she began to console him: 'You are too small to swim yet'(19)

The child was a 'bit cross' with his mother for not letting him do what he desires. He wants to know the origin of the river. Like a true little philosopher' he wants to know the last cause of all things, 'Where does the water go, father?' 'It goes to the sea, my son'.

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'But it came from the sea, did it not?' 'Yes my son, it came from the sea: from the boundless, infinite ocean it came, into the vast ocean will it go.' 'Where is the sea, father?' It is on the other side of the world , child'. (22)

The child's thirst is not satisfied he wants to know why is the river this side when the

sea is on the other side of the world. The father ultimately has to surrender before the

eternal whys of the child.

They are really in the same world, child. Only they appear to be separated. The river comes from the sea and goes sweeping incessantly onward to it. But I do not know, Child. I cannot go on answering your eternal whys. (23)

Again, the story 'The Conqueror' is the tale of a five-year-old child who is enthusiastic to his goal. It is a small account of subjugation of a younger child by a groups of a little senior one. There is a group of bright eyed children with shooting arrows and bamboo bows who were not older than ten and not younger than six. There was a higher peak before them that was their fort which they have to conquer. This young child of five years of age was disallowed to take part in the battle because 'he was too small.' Anand presents the eagerness of the child thus,

There was in him a secret, innocent impulse for friendliness, such as is primeval and spontaneous in all things nearest to nature and which had now taken in him the form of a vague eagerness at the prospect of company. (25)

Anand in a very natural manner expresses the emotions and zest of the child to follow

his companions. With enthusiasm the child could not restrain his eagerness and follows

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them saying 'Wait, I am coming.' (25) All the boys decided the child not to follow them

and shouted 'Go back, go back.'

But in the darkness of swiftly approaching night he ran up the hill his bright face showing to his fellows the torchlight of the conqueror.(27)

Anand's one of the best story in this collectin 'The Barber's Trade Union' deals with the

emotions a barber boy of the village. The protagonist Chandu was not good in studies

but he recites good poetry. Anand also points out the caste-discrimination in the story.

While Chandu was of a 'low caste barber' mother does not allow him to play with

Chandu as the narrator belongs to the high class. Chandu wanted to look like Dr. Kalan

Khan as he expressed to the narrator'

I learnt how to treat pimples, boils and cuts on people's bodies from my father, who learnt them from his father before him. (31)

Chandu had an enthusiasm of being socially recognized. Therefore one day he dressed himself in a doctor's attire. Seeing this the village landlord Bijay Chand abuse him saying that he has defile his religion bringing a leather bag of cow-hide and a coat of the marrow of some other animal. Chandu tries to reist that he is wearing the clothes of a doctor but Jagirdar Sahib said,

Go away you, swine, go away and wear clothes befitting you low status as a barber.(32)

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Even Sahukar insulted Chandu by rebutting him on his disguise and does not allow to

cut his hair. Chandu subjugated psyche was realized by the narrator. He suggested him

to go to Pandit Parmanand. But Chandu received the same response from him,

What right has that low-caste boy to such apparel? He has got to touch our beards, our heads and our hands. He is defiled enough by God. Why does he want more defiled? You are a high-cast boy. And he is a low-caste devil! He is a rogue! (33)

But Chandu was not such kind of a boy who could easily be adjusted with the situation.

Anand shows that Chandu resisted with the society making fan of the upper class

Sahukar and saved money, bought new clothes and new tools for himself and opened a

new shop of barber with his qualities of head and heart.

Mulk Raj Anand was the most important writer that activated the new

wave of realism in the colonial and post colonial era. All Anand's short stories are

motivated attempts to expose the agony and misery of the lower castes and classes of

India.

He talks of the casteism, rich-poor drift, problems of those, who are in

economic depravity and problems of those, who face psychologically suffering at one

level or the other. Anand has a plethora of concerns but all have common motive surging behind, i.e. to let the common human beings come up with a resistance against the hardships of their life. Anand's approach is not like that of Renaissance humanism,

which just theorizes the betterment of human life, but he is very realistic in his visionary

dispositions about the betterment of the human beings.

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Works Cited

1. Merson, A.J., Macmillan India Ltd., Modern Short Stories, First Series Bombay, 1981 p. ix.

2. Anand, Mulk Raj, 'The Lost Child and The Other Stories' Orient Paper Backs,2007

(All the subsequent references are from the same edition.

The page no. are given at the end of the quotation.)

34 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sowmya: Shashi deshpande’s dark holds no terror ISSN: 2454-4574

‘Man’ in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror: a Study By – Mrs. Sowmya T.G

Introduction to the Author: Ms. Sowmya T.G. is an MA in English from the Department of P.G Studies and Research in English, Kuvempu University, Shankaraghatta- 577451, Shivamogga, Karnataka. She is pursing Ph.D in English from in the same department. She has been working as Lecturer in English in Government Polytechnic, Vijayapur, Karnataka since 2010. So far she has published two research articles.

Abstract This paper entitled ‘man’ in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror deals with the men characters of the novel. Unlike the female characters the male characters too find it difficult to adjust with the modern society. Being an Indian, Deshpande’s characters are also ‘Indian’. The patriarchy, changed modern life style and empowerment of woman made the men character feel inferior to women characters. Sarita, the female protagonist of the novel is seen strong compared to her husband Manu. Her economic independence and her position as well established doctor made her husband feel inferior. Being the head of the family, he wants to have control over his wife, unconsciously develops a strange behavior which leads to sexual sadism. Deshpande’s men characters are weak compared to her female protagonists. She has not sketched her men characters with a pre-occupied notion but the novelist is successful to depict both men and women characters as the victims of society.

The Dark Holds No Terror is an important novel written by Shashi Deshpande, an Indian

women novelist. This novel explores the trauma of a middleclass working women who has become

a trap in the male dominated society. Deshpande picturises her men and women characters as the

victim of modern society. She has mastery over the depiction of her characters as natural and

genuine. In this novel Sarita is the female protagonist who narrates the story. Through her narration

we can understand her parents, dead brother Dhruva, her husband Manohar and her old teacher

Boozie. Though the female protagonist undergoes certain trauma, dilemma she is strong and she

decides not to protest against the oppression openly through breaking her familial life.

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The novel begins with Saru’s return to her maternal home after a long gap of fifteen years and the novel ends with her return to her family with her husband Manu. This novel projects the typical Indian society, Indian men and women. Indian society expects man as the head of the family, who earns more than any other member of the family, who controls the family in every aspect of life. Saru realizes that always wife should be less or she should be a few feet behind her husband to lead a happy life.

Deshpande’s men characters are not so strong, compared to her women protagonists. The new roles of women as an educated house wife, job holder makes her men characters feel inferior and they find it difficult to the adjust with the changing modes of the family system and society.

The novelist has not written her men characters with a pre-occupied notion but she treats both man and women characters equally. Both of them have their own weakness, shortcomings, feelings which the other can’t understand.

Manohar, Sarita’s husband is purely an ‘Indian man’, who is expected to control the family through providing comfort to his family. When the role of a woman changes from domestic life to a socially established professional, the man or the husband finds it very difficult to cope up with his role. In “The Dark Holds No Terror" the woman protagonist Sarita is a well-known doctor whereas her husband Manohar (Manu) is an underpaid college teacher. In the beginning their life was normal but when Saru became an established practitioner and when people started to respect her, Manu develops a kind of guilty conscious in him. In one of the interviews, a female journalist asks Manu “How does it feel when your wife earns not only the butter but most of the bread as well?” At that time, he laughed with Saru. But this question under estimates his confidence and he feels inferior to himself. So he lets his wounded male pride manifest itself in the form of sexual sadism. He does it unconsciously, because next morning he will be a normal husband as usual1.

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Once, even he asks Saru what happened to her, what are these marks on her body. Manu

does it in order to establish a control on her. The traditionally established role of a ‘man’ in India

makes him difficult to adjust. As his wife Saru has good earnings than Manu, when the society utters the same in a jovial manner in front of Manu, his male pride gets hurt.

Once when both Manu and Saru had planned for a trip to Ooty while shopping they met

Manu’s colleague and his wife. When Manu revealed their plan, his colleague expresses his inability to afford such things, his wife replies he also could have afforded it if he had married a doctor. At this point he is humiliated. These incidents made Manu so violent; he doesn’t behave like a husband in the privacy of their room at night but as a rapist.

In this novel women characters dominate the men characters. Saru controls Manu and

Booze and her mother establish control on her Baba. But compared to men characters, women characters are strong and dominating. After the death of her mother Saru realizes the strength of her father who was literally dumb when her mother was treating Saru inferior to her son Dhruva.

Her father didn’t protest, didn’t comment or didn’t oppose his wife for the same, but he ignored and led a busy life, in which he was busy with his work. Saru’s father was a incapable man when his wife was alive. He never used to oppose her even when she punished Saru for the mistake which was not hers. But later when she returns home she found her father managing everything with ease in the absence of her mother. Now she saw him as a matured, bold man, who listened to her problem patiently.

Sarita through her profession and earnings, made her husband Manohar feel inferior to her.

She made Boozie her teacher to help her in order to complete her degree and to be an established practitioner. In order to hide his homo sexuality, he roams and flirts with Saru. So these men characters seem the victims of the conservative society, where they find it difficult to cope with

37 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sowmya: Shashi deshpande’s dark holds no terror ISSN: 2454-4574 their roles. Apart from pediatrics, she learnt other things from Boozie, he taught her how to speak good English, he has improved her accent, taught her how to enjoy good food, how to read and what to read. She likes his masculinity, attractive laugh etc.

Later she accepts financial help from him to open her own consulting rooms. She never cares about what people spoke about their relationship. She uses Boozie to advance her career, to achieve her goal of economic independence. After achieving her aim she simply neglects him.

While she was still studying she considers her dingy room apartment as ‘a heaven on earth’.

But later when she had a very good life, comforts, status in the society she is not at all happy. Even though, Manu co-operates with Saru, to improve her status, later he himself develops inferiority about himself and his manly pride gets hurt when people come to know that his wife is earning more than what he earns. This inferiority develops in him and makes a way to sexual sadism2.

Boozie the men character has been used by Saru, the female protagonist for her happiness.

Saru tuned and managed them in such a way that their presence and company satisfied her needs.

When she fulfilled her wishes she used to turn her back on them. The best example for this is

Boozie, she wanted money and she wanted to be a reputed doctor, so she encouraged Boozie. She tried to please him allowing him to touch, hug her. She didn’t mind what the other people will think about their relationship, after achieving her intention she just neglected him.

Both Saru and Manu are the victims of patriarchy. To strengthen male characters

Deshpande strengthened, and created female characters in such a way that they are bold and supportive to their husband and family. But in this mechanical world they take opportunity to discuss each other’s problem. So Deshpande tries to bring justice to her male characters through the portrayal of her female characters. Her male characters are the victim of the society, through the helplessness they suffer like women. Even though female characters talk a lot about the

38 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sowmya: Shashi deshpande’s dark holds no terror ISSN: 2454-4574 suffering, their inner trauma, victim of marital rape, the silence of the male characters conveys about their dilemma, suffering, inferiority, and maladjustment. So Deshpabnde not only projects the female as a victim but also shows how equally men characters too suffer and victimized in the society. But at the end, her men and women characters compromise and accept themselves as they are3.

Deshpande sketches the role of women and men of middle class family where the female protagonists are highly qualified courageous and strong, they struggle to cope with the existing norms of the society even though the female characters protest against patriarchy. Deshpande makes them to surrender to circumstances through a sensible compromise within the family because Deshpande supports pro-women but not anti-man, she rejects a separatist stance, aware of the fact that breaking of the bonds of family would result in loneliness and disintegration of the larger social setup.

Deshpande’s men and women characters are caught between traditional upbringings and the longing for freedom in the modern society. Even though the male characters play less important place in narrative, the novelist portrayed them as supportive to female characters.

Her male characters have been sons, husbands, fathers and the head of the family. These are the roles that demand different kinds of responses from men in the name of honour, dishonours, right, wrong, position, and hegemony, away in the context of patriarchy to find ideal manhood. So these male characters are forced to play the role of a controller who controls his family and fulfill his desires. When he failed to perform the established role he too suffers or fears about the society.

As he is a man he should earn more than his wife, he should be in front of his wife because he is a man.

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Sarita protests against the oppression silently but she is not ready to take a bold step like

divorce, because of her Indian mind set. So she patches up the relation with Manu. Totally Saru is capable of managing the male characters to satisfy her needs, wishes fulfilled. So Deshpande projects even the men characters are the victims of the society. Totally these men characters are tradition bound and face the problem of adjustment.

References

1. Mohan Indira JMJ, Shashi Deshpande: A Critical Spectrum, New Delhi, Aadhayana publish and distributors, 2006.

2. Sharma Siddhartha, Shashi Deshpande’s Novels: A Feminist study, New Delhi, Atlantic publishers and distributors, 2005.

3. Singh Jyothi, Indian Women Novelists: Feminist Physiological study, Jaipur, Rawat Publications, 2007.

40 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Dhar & Verma: Children in ruskin bond’s short stories ISSN: 2454-4574

PORTRAYAL OF CHILDREN IN RUSKIN BOND’S SHORT STORIES By - Prof. Ravi K Dhar & Dr. Soniya Verma

Introduction to the Authors:

Ravi K Dhar is a professor and director at Jagannath International Management School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. Dr. Soniya Verma is an assistant professor, Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Ghaziabad.

The remarkable blending of the literary traditions of Indian and English literature is noticeable feature of Bond’s creativity. He is living in Mussoorie for last 5 decades. Since then he has been ceaselessly jotting down with his pen the inexhaustible mysteries of life in a sizeable canon of his creative literature. In his writings, he focuses the individuality of children, their dreams and their adventures like English children’s writing. He captures the innocence of children in his fiction like Indian authors.

The stories like The Angry River and The Blue Umbrella brilliantly amalgamate the traditions of Indian and English Children’s literature. Sita, the young heroine of The Angry River bravely fights the destructive forces of nature. Binya, the vivacious girl of “The Blue Umbrella” successfully overcomes the self-seeking attitude towards life. The readers are motivated in witnessing the indomitable spirit of both the heroines, Sita and Binya, as they fight the external and internal forces of life.

The story The Blue Umbrella is a great example of Bond’s ability to present the intricacies of life with much simplicity. With just an old man and little girl and a few minor characters, he reveals to us all the facets of emotions that make us human – joy, pain, anger, disappointment and hurt and all the tragedies and celebrations that make life what it is. Binya, the child heroine of a moving story The Blue Umbrella from Gharwal hills, is hardly ten-year-old. She willingly lends her pleasing smile to anyone who is unhappy. She possesses the heart of a young lady. On a childish impulse, she quickly gets ready to exchange her charmed pendant made up of a leopard’s claw for a dainty, blue silk umbrella. The umbrella is owned by a wealthy woman who came for picnic in the hills. Binya’s pendant created a stir in the heart of this lady. With a desire to possess the pendant she reluctantly gets ready to exchange her umbrella for it. Binya is very happy, on the seventh

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heaven, after receiving the blue umbrella. She gets enamoured by its beauty. Her passion sees no limit for her prize possession. She carries it wherever she goes and seldom closes it. It accompanies her everywhere protecting her from storms and snakes, as goes the description: “Whenever Binya went out – whether it was to graze the cows, or fetch water from the spring, or carry milk to the little tea shop on the Tehri road – she took the umbrella with her. That patch of sky blue silk could always be seen on the hillside”1.

Binya’s fawn like movements in dale and forest like Wordsworth’s Lucy, her innocence like Tagore’s Mini from Kabuliwala draw our attention and her love for the umbrella enthralls us. Binya enjoys her raised status in the village. The disparity between Binya’s poverty and the richness of the umbrella created a stir of jealousy among the villagers. The school master’s wife, a second class B. A. feels extremely degraded in not having the rich possession. She thinks it was quite wrong for a poor cultivator’s daughter to have such a fine umbrella while she, a second class B. A. has to make do with an ordinary one. Everyone heaves a sigh of longing for Binya’s elegant umbrella

The large heartedness and innocence of children are set in direct contrast with the shrewdness and envious nature of grown-ups. Bond here juxtaposes the two worlds the innocent world of children and the cunning and manipulative world of adults. The children openly admire Binya’s blue umbrella and get thrilled by its sensational touch. It is their sincere appreciation for umbrella that gives them a chance to hold it and experience its thrilling touch. The malicious attitude of grown- ups stopped them to admire it openly. But secretly everyone craves to possess it.

Bond brilliantly here celebrates the innocence of children by setting them against the world of adults. The children sincerely appreciate Binya’s umbrella and give a vent to their true feelings. By criticizing umbrella the grown-ups reveal their prejudice and egotism. Away from pretensions, the children openly praise it: “Unlike the adults, the children didn’t have to pretend. They were full of praise for the umbrella … They knew that if they said nice things about the umbrella, Binya would smile and give it to them to hold for a little while - - just a very little while!”2

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This little girl Binya by her heroic adventures wins our heart. She frees her umbrella from the clutches of a thief Rajaram, an employee of a tea shop proprietor, Ram Bharosa. From the day Ram Bharosa had seen Binya’s umbrella he became so passionate about it that he wanted to own it at any cost. When his all mean attempts to seize it from Binya and her brother Bijju utterly failed, he sent Rajaram to steal it. The villagers got angry on knowing Ram Bharosa’s use of wrong means to get it from Binya. They boycotted him and stopped buying things from his shop. His reputation, business and life all collapsed as time passes by.

The story reaches at its climax. The sympathy is overtaken not by the malice of the villagers against Ram Bharosa but by the sympathy and love of Binya for this forsaken man. She secretly feels herself responsible for the miserable plight of Ram Bharosa whom the villagers and the children have made the target of their taunts and jeers. She questions her own self – a mere object an umbrella is more important to her, or an old man and his feelings.

It is through Binya, Bond raises the pertinent question on the concept of material happiness and futility of the whole process. He highlights the Indian ethics which ignore material wealth before the felling and concern for others. The battle of wills between the old man and the girl takes many unexpected turns. The compassionate heart of Binya wins. She discovers there is more to life than material possession. This little lady, Binya willingly donates her prize possession, the blue umbrella to Ram Bharosa. By her kind gesture, she teaches the great lesson of humanity. Love breeds love. Crooked Ram Bharosa melts. Hel repays her generosity by presenting her a pendant made up of a bear’s claw (more auspicious than leopard’s claw) tied in a silver chain. Who says the world cannot be changed? The present story proves that a child can. The projection of an undercurrent of the inherent moral education is very appealing. The novel pays a tribute to the basic goodness of man and underlines better than any philosophical treatise could, that human voice and goodness are not inborn but a result of circumstances. Who we call villain is not devoid of nobility. A touch of compassion, an ability to share and a sense of justice can turn a heart of stone into a heart of gold. Ram Bharosa’s case is an example of it. He rises like a phoenix from Binya’s kindness, lovely smile and selfless donation.

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Bond effectively blends the tradition and canon of Indian and English children’s literature in this story. By portraying Binya’s free spiritedness, her heroic adventure to save her umbrella from a thief and her passion for it, Bond focuses the individuality of a child as does the English children’s literature. The story highlights the innocence of children and communicates the lessons of kindness, sympathy and brotherhood like the traditional children’s literature in India does.

Bond’s acumen could well be observed in his projection of life-like children. His child protagonists appeal enormously for their love, adventures and inquisitiveness to know the things around them. They pester the adults, at time their friends, with unending and mind boggling questions. They frequently tell lies which are invented truths of their imagination, tease each other, befriend again forgetting the scuffle of one minute before and show concern for peer interests.

The child characters of Bond act and behave as the children do in any part of the world. In their appearance and attire, Bond’s children could differ from the children of the world but not in their attitude and temperament. If Tom Sawyer of Mark Twain steals jam from a pot in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Ranji, Koki and Teju of Bond steal guavas in the story “When Guavas are Ripe.” Tom befools Aunt Polly and so do these three children play tricks on Gopal, the watchman of the guava orchard. Aunt Polly punishes Tom by asking him to whitewash the fence. Tom shows excessive interest and indulgence in whitewashing with the intention to allure his friends to complete his work. His trick works. The gullible friends of Tom not only whitewashed the fence but also enriched Tom by gifts for allowing them whitewashing. Teju, Koki and Ranji flatter Gopal, an ex-wrestler and the keeper of an orchard. They praise his prowess and physique and listen to dull stores of his bravery with the sole interest of procuring guavas in return. The old and lonely Gopal was immensely impressed by children’s flattery. He treated them with the grand feast of guavas from his orchard. Tom and Huck love adventures. They enjoy hunting and fishing and go for expedition to Jackson’s Island. Laurie, Anil and Kamal of The Hidden Pool enjoy themselves the secrete pool on the mountain site. At the pool they fish, build dams, take midnight dips, wrestle and ride buffaloes. They go for trekking up to Pindari Glacier at 12,000 feet above sea level, where no one from their town has gone before. Rusty in The Room on the Roof runs away from his apathetic and strict guardian, Kishen in Vagrants in the Valley from his drunken

44 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Dhar & Verma: Children in ruskin bond’s short stories ISSN: 2454-4574 father, Daljit and Rusty from school. Thus Bond children follow the trend of running away from home or work like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Kim and Huckleberry Finn.

The act of stealing jam or guava, place of expedition on Jackson’s Island or Pindari Glacier, reasons for running away from school or home could differ but not the spirit of Bond’s children from the children in other cultures. Telling lies, stealing things, playing pranks on others and benefiting in their small enterprises are the common activities of Bond’s children. Thus, Bond achieves universality while delineating with accuracy the familiar characteristics of his child protagonists. His close observation of children’s behavior endows his child persona with convincing authenticity: “And here I stand at my window, watching some of them pass by – boys and girls, big and small, some scruffy, some smart, some mischievous, some serious, but all going somewhere hopefully towards a better future”3.

Children have always rated those people high in the list of their favorites who respect their feelings, trust them and stand by them in times of trouble. That’s why indulging and doting grandparents and grown-ups with caring and understanding attitude are always preferred by children to the domination and disciplinarian ones. Bond colors the canvas of his stores with friendly and considerate adults who love children and are loved by them in return. Michael Heyman says that Bond “depicts relationships between adults and children where children are not wiser, and where they rarely challenge the adults”4. Bond is aware of the fact that the tender body and immature mind of children need protection and guidance, to acclimatize themselves in the world of adults. He invokes loving and nurturing relationship between children and adults – not necessarily parents. Loving portrayal of friendly adults and doting grandparents have autobiographical reasons as Bond says: “In some of my children’s stores I have written about fun-loving grandfathers and doting grandmothers, but this was just wishful thinking on my part”5.

The credit of flourishing a separate corpus of literature for children goes in Bond’s favor. He freed children’s literature from the shackles of retold Indian mythology, legends and folklores, adaptation of western stories and also from the mode of didacticism. He nourishes it by setting on a new foot of realism. His writing is marked by an individual signature. His canvas radiates with

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vivacious children who by their individuality captivate us. He is one of the few authors who straddle the gulf between prescribed and popular texts. Praising Bond’s art, Prema Srinivasan writes: “This sensitive story-teller from the hills has been able to set a standard for quality book for children in English which can be read with pleasure by the adult as well”6

Bond’s love for children and his dual British and Indian heritage lend depth to his writing. He selects his style and subjects with the child reader in mind. His first person narrative helps the young audience to identify easily with the narrator child. He displays a fresh outlook while projecting he world of children, their dreams and high spiritedness. He has consolidated the notion of the child as cherished and valued members of the society who has his own aspirations to follow and dreams to pursue. Bond has the uncanny capacity of going straight into the heart of reader and unveiling the layers of childhood – universal in its romanticism. His stories have marked the trail for the future writers.

The cultural code and family matrix of Indian and western society differ entirely. Hence literature, a replica of the milieu in which it is created, is bound to differ. Commenting on the difference between the attitudes of an Indian writer in relation to a western one, Vrinda Nabar points out:

The importance of individualism in distinguishing between the two world outlooks, the Westren and the Indian, cannot be undermined. In spite of a marginal literary move in the Indian languages toward the western mood canon in this respect, both Indian literature and culture have remained largely impervious to its message.7

In Indian family system the children have always enjoyed the friendly and secure company of grandparents. Children reciprocate the love and care of grandparents with the same zeal. The writers with young readers in mind have always exploited this theme. Idgah by Premachand is one such touching tale. Hamid, the young hero overcomes the glamour of fancy toys and mouth watering sweets at the fair to return home with a pair of tongs for his grandmother. Khushwant Singh lovingly talks about his grandmother and the spirited relationship between him and her in the story Portrait of a Lady.

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The strange woman in the story The Woman on Platform No. 8, Aunt Mariam in A Guardian Angel, grandfather in All creatures Great and Small, Mr. Kumar in Ranji’s Wonderful Bat, Bansi in The Last Tonga Ride, Mr. Khushal in Masterji, Keemat Lal in A case for Inspector Lal, grandfather in Grandfather’s Private Zoo and in The Cherry Tree are a few loving adults who become the source of children’s growth and education and self-knowledge. They take care of the child protagonists by their caring attitude. These kind hearted adults command respect. They pass on their wisdom to children and enable them to gain confidence and assume responsibilities. The invigorating relationship between children and adults nurture the young readers with positive vibes. This harmonious relationship Bond himself has experienced and poignantly deals with when the children and grand children of his adopted son Prem become dear to his heart:

“Prem came to live and work with me in 1970. A year later, he was married. Then his children came along and stole my heart; and when they grew up, their children came along and stole my wits”8.

Bond presents two kinds of adult characters: one who acts as possible catalyst and the other who creates hindrance. In general, the adults in Bond’s stories are considerate and contact with them exposes children to new vista and a better perspective. They love and rescue innocent and naïve kids from troubles like the fairy Godmother of Cinderella. The good natured strange woman who gives treat to a lonely child in The Woman on Platform No. 8, caring Aunt Mariam who takes care of an orphan nephew, in The Thief are thoughtful adults who by their positive attitude and loving approach take care of the children and guide them during trouble. They receive deep reverence of children. They pass on their wisdom to children and enable them to gain confidence and assume responsibilities. The invigorating relationship of children with adults paves the way toward happy selfhood.

The story The Woman on Platform No. 8 deals with a boy, Arun and his encounter with a benevolent lady. Arun was sitting on platform no. 8 at Ambala station waiting for northern bound train. He heard a soft voice asking him “Are you all alone, my son?”9 . It was a lady with pale face

47 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Dhar & Verma: Children in ruskin bond’s short stories ISSN: 2454-4574 and dark kind eyes. She was dressed very simply in a white saree. Her dignity and simplicity commanded respect. The lady offered a treat of samosa, jalebi and tea to Arun. The treat strengthened the bond between the strangers. Under the influence of the tea and sweets, Arun began to talk quite freely about his school, friends, likes and dislikes. The lady won Arun by showing her confidence in Arun’s capacity of travelling alone. Arun told her that he could travel alone, she quickly agreed: “I am sure you can’ [travel] … and I like her for saying that, and I also liked her for the simplicity of her dress, and for her deep, soft voice and the serenity of her face”10.

Arun extremely got impressed by the simplicity and caring attitude of this lady. But he disliked his class- fellow, Satish’s mother, an authoritative and overbearing lady. He got infuriated even by her sound advice. He found himself hating her “with a firm, unreasoning hate”11. She looked sternly at Arun through her spectacles. She asked him not to talk to strangers. Arun retorted he would because he liked strangers. Satish enjoyed this verbal fighting between his friend and his mother. He was on his friend’s side which revealed his dissent against his mother’s grinning at me, and delighting in my clash with his mother. Apparently he was on my side”12. Arun’s dissent pleases the child readers as well. Children in general only those stores where the domineering adults are outwitted by children, “where powerful or mischievous characters defy authority and break most of the conventional rules”13 . The glimpse of selfless love between the pale faced kind woman in white saree and the lonely boy at the station suggests the victory of human bond.

The children need love, care, protection and encouragement for their all-round upbringing. Bond’s fiction abounds with caring friends and sensitive adults who fulfill the needs of children. Mr. Kumar, owner of the sports store in Ranji’s Wonderful Bat is one friendly term with Ranji feels relaxed as soon as he enters the shop of Mr. Kumar. He is upset because of not making good score in his last three matches. He will be now dropped from the team if he does not improve in the next game. Mr. Kumar, cheers him up by saying “never mind, where would we be without losers?” and “All players have a bad day now and then”14. Kumar gives Ranji the luckiest of all his old bats with which he had scored a hundred runs. The bat proves lucky for Ranji as well. He scores many runs. One day he loses his lucky bat. All his happiness and dreams were shattered. Mr. Kumar consoles Ranji saying that he could make all the runs he wanted: “Any bat will do”15. In order to

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boost his confidence, Mr. Kumar has given him an ordinary bat, saying it was the luckiest bat. Now when Ranji loses it, he loses all hope of winning any further match. Mr. Kumar discloses the truth. Ranji understands Mr. Kumar’s advice, “… it’s the batsman and not the bat that matters” and “a bat has magic only when the batsman has magic!”16 It is confidence not the bat which Ranji needs. Kumar intends to make Ranji realize that he as a player has always been good, is good and will be no matter whether he loses or wins. Mr. Kumar judges him right. A confident Ranji performs well and wins the next match.

The case of jai in the story The Eye of an Eagle is also like Ranji. He takes his lambs for grazing to the hills. He feels disappointed when his one lamb was taken away by a golden eagle. His grandfather consoles him. He gives jai a long stout stick made of wild cherry wood which he often carries around. He advises jai to swing the stick around his head if the eagle comes near him or attacks his lamb that will frighten the eagle off. Jai hits the eagles when they attack. He loses his stick while fighting the eagles. He was discouraged on losing the lucky stick. The grandfather comforts him and asks him not to worry because “It isn’t the stick that matters. It’s the person who holds it”17. Jai like Ranji comes to realize his own potentiality. Thus Bond’s adults not only provide companionship but also guide and instruct children but not in a preachy manner. The loving and nurturing relationship between children and adults is dealt with exquisitely through a child and his doting Ayah in the story My First Love. It centers on the affection of a child for his Ayah. The child does not like when anyone calls her ugly. He promptly responses: “No she is beautiful!”18. The course of this pure love affair between a child of six and an Ayah of thirty gets broken when she plans to get married. The thought of separation from his beloved saddens the child:

“While my parents considered this a perfectly natural desire on Ayah’s part, I looked upon it as an act of base treachery. For several days I went about the house in a rebellious and sulky mood, refusing to speak to Ayah no matter how much she coaxed and petted me” 19

The child hides himself when the time of Ayah’s moving with her husband comes. The nervous and dismayed Ayah keeps on looking left and right and calling the child with the hope to see him. Unable to bear the misery of Ayah any longer, the child comes out of the hiding place. The Ayah

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gathers the child up in her great arms. Recording the happy moment while parting from his beloved, the child says “… when the tonga finally took her away, there was a dazzling smile on her sweet and gentle face – the face of the lover whom I was never to see again … ”20 . Bond’s story echoes Bapsi Sidhwa’s The – Ice – Candy-Man which also reveals the love between the child narrator and her Ayah. The novel features an eight-year-old girl named Lenny cared by her Ayah, an eighteen-year-old dusky beauty, Shantha. Leny recalls her first conscious memory of her Ayah thus: “She passes pushing my pram with the unconcern of the Hindu goddess she worships”21.

In The Last Tonga Ride the child narrator enjoys the company of a tonga-driver, Bansi Lal. He feels rejuvenated and much more important on being called dost (friend) and enjoys his raised status: “He did not call me ‘chota sahib’, or ‘baba,’ ‘but dost’ and this made me feel much more important. Not every small boy could boast of a tonga driver for his friend!”22 . The boy loves the thrill of free tonga ride with Bansi. He accompanies him even though being scolded by his granny and ayah.

In A case for Inspector Lal Bond introduces a kind inspector Keemat Lal. He is made up of such instrument which is unlikely to be found in his profession. He keeps the sentiment and life of a little girl Kusum above his promotion. He hides all the evidence against her to save and protect her from the cruel law that can put her in a remand home and may have crushed her gentle spirit. Kusum the poor, rustic, innocent and trusting girls of twelve or thirteen is implicated in a foul game of lust and betrayal. In order to defend herself, she has to hit her molester and accidentally who trapped her gets killed.

Rani, a lecherous woman calls Kusum to her house and offers her tea and sweets. Mr. Kapoor, a customer of Rani who was already there starts harassing Kusum. Scared by Kapoor’s amorous advance, Kusum slips away and makes a rush for the door. But Rani catches her and pushes her back into the room. Kusum seizes an axe and in panic she brings the axe down across Rani’s head. The act of the murder by Kusum is done in self-defence. She is not a murderer. Rani receives what she deserves. The Inspector Keemat Lal does nothing even after discovering the truth. He tells the narrator, “I did absolutely nothing. I couldn’t have crushed her sprit”23. Keemat Lal remained

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quiet. The case was closed. It was put in the pending tray and so was his promotion which was solely dependent on his tracking him case of murder. He was disheartened on not getting the promotion. He closed the “file” of Kusum’s case and of his promotion for ever. His success as a human being smiles upon his failure as a professional. That makes him regret, “I should never have been a policeman”24. The act of Keemat Lal may be against the rule of law but not the law of humanity. He wins our heart despite not being loyal to his duty. The readers sympathize with Kusum and Keemat Lal for their decision and are touched by the hind of an emotional attachment between them, even if it is a merely paternal affection. A humane interest in the self of others on Keemat’s part confirms the importance of love in Bond’s work. Bond’s “childlike trust in grown- ups”25 helps him in creating a captivating character like Keemat Lal.

The story A Guardian Angel invokes the loving bond between an aunt and her six-year-old orphan nephew. Aunt Mariam assures the child by her warmth, worldliness and carefree chatter when his mother passes away. The child enjoys on enjoys on being called ladla (dear) by her. Mariam is an outcaste for her family because of bringing disgrace to it by becoming a mistress but for the child, she is an angel. The child is unable to understand why his mother was cold and indifferent towards such a friendly and cheerful person, Aunt Mariam. It is only Mariam who comes to rescue the child with great readiness when his mother dies. Her tenderness and selfless approach fills the void in the life of the child. The boy characteristically recalls her personality. For him, she was a “joyous, bubbling creature – a force of nature rather than a woman – and every time I think of her I am tempted to put down on paper some aspect of her conversation, or gestures, or her magnificent physique”26.

The story Getting Granny’s Glasses focuses on the attachment between a grandmother and his grandson Mani. Mani offers to accompany his grandmother on a two-day journey to Mussoorie where the nearest eye hospital is located, so that she can get a new pair of glasses. The atmosphere of this Himalayan region during monsoon is charmingly described as the two set off on their adventure. They walk through field and forests, up and down mountains, see a river rushing swiftly, pass a mule-driver singing a romantic song and admire a flock of parrots and the hills. The glasses renew Granny’s zest for life. She buys gifts for the whole family, including a bell for the

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cow. With her improved vision, Granny excitedly rediscovers the beauty of her surrounding but her greatest joy is seeing what a fine boy Mani has grown up to be.

Majority of adult characters of Bond are portrayed in positive vein. But still there are some characters like Mr. Harrison, the strict guardian of Rusty, drunkard Mr. Kapoor, indifferent towards the need of his son and caring wife, in The Room on the Roof; Mrs. Bhushan a nosey and overbearing lady in Vagrants in the Valley; Satish mother a domineering and imposing lady in The Woman on the Platform no. 8. The adolescent characters are shown in clashes with adults. They defy the authority and break the conventional rules. Adolescence is a period in one’s life when one becomes very sensitive and opposes protractions, rules and codes of conduct which one cannot absorb. Rusty in Room on the Roof rebels against the restriction of his guardian Mr. Harrison. He defied the rigid social codes of the English which do not allow him to mix with the natives. Harrison beats him for playing holi (an Indian festival) with his friends. Rusty repulses the attack of his guardian, beats him on the rebound and runs away.

The adults in Bond’s stories, in general, are supportive of children. They stand by them, guide them and nurture them with love. They do not obstruct their way rather remove stumbling blocks from their path. Bond enforces healthy relationship through his loving adults. His portrayal of adults differs from Narayan and Dickens. Swaminathan of Swami and Friends suffers the oppressive regime of adults embodied by male authorities: father, teachers, headmasters, doctors and the forest officer. Child heroes of Dickens – Oliver, Pip, Neil, David suffer the ruthless treatment meted out to them by the adults and society. The exploitation, the sad surroundings and miserable life make the process of growing up difficult for Dickens’ children. Bond’s child protagonist also has to face difficulties and vagaries of life. They successfully overcome it. Both Dickens and Bond had unhappy and insecure childhood. The trauma of unhappy childhood is revealed in Dickens, through the suffering world of children. Contrary to Dickens, Bond creates happy-go-lucky life where children enjoy blissful presence of the elders. The relationship of friendship is a very important tie in Bond’s work. This binds his young persona with each other and with the world. Bond remains unsurpassed in his portrayal of friendship, captivating the young

52 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Dhar & Verma: Children in ruskin bond’s short stories ISSN: 2454-4574 minds. The bond of friendship plays a vital role in shaping the personality of young boys. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for security in the life of adolescents.

References: 1. “The River is Eternal: Nature Mysticism and Vedanta Philosophy in Ruskin Bond’s Angry River.” The Lion and Unicorn. 19.2 December 1995: 254-268. 2. Khorana, Meena G. The Life and Works of Ruskin Bond. London: Praeger, 2003. pp. 43-44. 3. Bond, Ruskin Children’s Omnibus. New Delhi: Rupa, 1995. pp 29 4. Bond, Ruskin Children’s Omnibus. New Delhi: Rupa, 1995. pp 40 5. Bond, Ruskin. The India I Love. New Delhi: Rupa, 2004. pp 9 6. Ibid. 253-254 7. Scenes From Writer’s Life: A Memoir . New Delhi: Penguin, 1997. pp 34. 8. Children’s Fiction in English in India: Trends and Motifs. Chennai: T. R. Publication, 1998. pp 52. 9. Ibid. 30 10. Bond, Ruskin. The India I Love. New Delhi: Rupa, 2004. pp 13. 11. Friends in Small Places: Ruskin Bond’s Unforgettable People. New Delhi: Penguin, 2000. pp 3. 12. Collected Fiction. New Delhi: Penguin, 1996. pp 4. 13. Ibid. pp 7 14. Ibid. pp 6

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15. Tucker, Nicholas. The Child and the Book: A Psychological and literary Exploration. London: Cambridge U. P. 1982. pp. 20. 16. Bond, Ruskin Children’s Omnibus. New Delhi: Rupa, 1995. pp 229. 17. Ibid. pp 232. 18. Ibid. pp 234. 19. Ibid. pp 234. 20. Bond, Ruskin. Panther’s Moon and Other Stories.Illus. Suddhasattwa Basu. New Delhi: Puffin, 1991. pp. 83. 21. Collected Fiction. New Delhi: Penguin, 1996. pp 513. 22. Ibid. pp 517. 23. Sidhwa, Bapsi. Ice-Candy-Man. New Delhi: Penguin Books India 1989. pp 3. 24. Collected Fiction. New Delhi: Penguin, 1996. pp 446. 25. Ibid. pp 95. 26. Ibid. pp 96.

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The Dalit and The Brahmin – Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry as World Literature By - Sangeetha Alwar Introduction to the Author: A passionate bibliophile, a tireless blogger and an earnest student, Sangeetha Alwar is currently pursuing masters in English & Communication Studies at Christ University, Bangalore. Her immense interest in the English language has brought her numerous accolades in rengional and state-level debate and essay competitions. She blogs at www.chotisibaatein.wordpress.com. She has presented papers titled Dalit and the Brahmin - Issues of Caste and Subjugation in the Poems of Meena Kandasamy: Problems and Solutions and Synecdoche, New York: A Postmodern Analysis in two national seminars in Bangalore.

Perhaps there is no better definition for world literature than the expanding universe of works that compel us to become that ideal reader, dreaming of that ideal insomnia. - David Damrosch (How to Read World Literature)

My Kali kills. My Draupadi strips. My Sita climbs on a stranger’s lap. All my women militate. They brave bombs, belittle kings, take on the sun, take after me. - Meena Kandasamy

Damrosch states that a piece of literature changes when it stops being a national work and becomes an international work (Wood, 170). World Literature today comprises of works that transcend geographical borders and touch lives of people in all corners of the world. These works not only succeed in their depiction of authenticity, they also employ various techniques such as imagery and surrealism which have not been sufficiently explored by other writers. Damrosch brings in the idea of an “elliptical” approach to the reading of World Literature (13) and states that a literary work never really leaves its place of origin but simply has two foci, one in the host country and one in the original country. Meena Kandasamy effortlessly weaves a sharp social critique of the suppressive nature of caste in India into her poetry. Her poetry, stemming from a mistrust of patriarchy and disgust towards discrimination outlines fundamental problems of the society while extending its critique to realms beyond the geographical borders of the country. In her poems, she also provides solutions to the problem of subjugation - “Sometimes, the outward signals of inward struggles take colossal forms, And the revolution happens because our

55 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Alwar: Meen Kandasamy’s poetry ISSN: 2454-4574 dreams explode.” Through the examination of such paradoxes of caste and religion, she seeks to move towards a more compassionate and egalitarian society, this makes her one of the major writers in the realm of World Literature. Damrosch is of the opinion that a work of World Literature provides a unique window into the culture of the region/country they talk of. He says: A great work of literature can often reach out beyond its own time and place, but conversely it can also provide a privileged mode of access into some of the deepest qualities of its culture of origin. Works of art refract their cultures rather than simply reflecting them. (2) The same can be said of the poems of Meena Kandasamy, when she writes her poem We Will Rebuild Worlds, she not only brings the struggle of a long supprsed section of the society to the fore, she also provides us with their perception of the society around them and their irrepressible desire for liberty. By giving us a sneak peak into individual experiences of the people, she tells us how an entire community suffers in silence. She says: poured poison and pesticide through the ears-nose-mouth/ or hanged them in public / because a man and a woman dared to love/ and you wanted / to teach / other boys and other girls / the lessons of / how to / whom to / when to / where to / continue their caste lines (Kandasamy) Damrosch is of the opinion that any text can be better understood in relation to other works within its realm. He takes the example of Dickens and states that the novelists purpose could be better grasped when the reader has knowledge of the works of Defoe, Austen, Trollope, Eliot and even Rushdie. Reading our way beyond our home tradition involves a more pronounced version of the part–whole dilemma or hermeneutic circle that we already encounter in a single tradition. We have to start somewhere and work outward to a broader view. (Damrosch, 3) Meena Kandasamy deals with similar movements of being influenced by the past and thereby influencing the present and the future. In her poems, we observe undertones of rebellion that are exhibited by Kamala Das. A better judgement can be reached by examining them in comparision. In her poem Freaks, Kamala Das writes: Can this man with Nimble finger-tips unleash Nothing more alive than the Skin's lazy hungers? (60)

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Kandasamy in her poem My Lover Speaks of Rape echoes similar sentiments through the lines: Open eyes, open hands, his open all-clear soul . . . Has he learnt to live my life? Has he learnt never to harm? (29) Chakraborty highlights the ability of Kandasamy to transcend geographical, political and cultural barriers to provide an accurate description of the human condition. Talking of her poetry and activism he says: Meena Kandasamy’s poems may be seen as products of a counter-hegemonic discourse that seeks to scream into the national imaginary those subalternized Dalit voices which lie beyond fringes of political tokenism. Kandasamy seems to echo the words of Frantz Fanon by advocating violence towards the suppresors. Her retelling of famous myths and mythologies bring forth this sentiment. Kandasamy's version of Ekalavya does not accept Dronacharya’s command and vanish into passive oblivion but resists it. You can do a lot of things With your left hand. Besides, fascist Dronacharyas warrant Left-handed treatment. Also, You don’t need your right thumb, To pull a trigger or hurl a bomb. (44) By giving agency to characters that have been deemed inferior, Kandasamy brings back their characters from oblivion giving them a new lease of life. Similar to Aime Cesaire’s Caliban in his play Une Tempest when he lets Caliban speak thus: Underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What’s more, it’s a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, And I know myself as well. (87) Damrosch continues his notion of the elliptical approach to works of World Literature to state that it is necessary for them to be embedded in their own culture while appealing to a global audience. He says: Its relative freedom from context does not require the work of world literature to be subjected to anything like an absolute disconnect from its culture of origin. when we

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read in the elliptical space of world literature, we don't exactly understand the foreign work on its own terms, and a leap of the imagination is still needed. (297) Keeping this in mind, the poetry of Kandasamy evokes a different memory based on the reader of the same. To elucidate this better, let us consider the poem Aggression: Ours is a silence that waits. Endlessly waits.

And then, unable to bear it any further, it breaks into wails.

But not all suppressed reactions end in our bemoaning the tragedy.

Sometimes, the outward signals of inward struggles takes colossal forms And the revolution happens because our dreams explode.

Most of the time:

Aggression is the best kind of trouble-shooting. (16)

If an African-American were to read this poem, his thoughts would immediately form a connection to the poetry of Langston Hughes who proclaimed in his poem Democracy:

I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread. (248)

The same poem of Kandasamy’s when read by a Jew could conjure up images of the Holocaust and the poetry of Niemöller who penned the famous lines:

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. (Hockenos, 94)

On the other hand, the very same poem echoes the images of partition and viloence in the minds of a Pakistani reader similar to the sentiments expressed by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. When read by

58 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Alwar: Meen Kandasamy’s poetry ISSN: 2454-4574 a Russia, it reminds them of Szymborska’s poetry while a Spanish reader might be reminded of Neruda’s devotion to his homeland and an Afghan woman might reminisce about the poetry of Farrokhzad who says:

In the homeland's loving bosom,

my pacifier: glorious historical traditions,

my lullaby: civilization and culture,

my toy rattle: the rattle box of law.

ah,

my worries are over now. (Darznik, 22) The essence of World Literature can be understood in through the words of Goethe, who said : I am more and more convinced that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. The epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach. (Eckermann, 30) Vajda talks about the universality of World Literature and proceeds to list out certain features that is characteristic of it. He says that it is “A common product of humanity and of human spiritual integrity” (29). This aspect is seen in Kandasamy’s own words in an undated interview where she elaborates: The annihilation of caste is a historic necessity, and at the same time, it is a historic inevitability as well. So, I am sure that it is a dream that I share with thousands of others. I think that such a change can come about only through a social revolution . . . And I think it is in the hands of writers to make people think about it. Writers have the power of the written word, and they can plead with people to unite for change. (3-4) Dionyz Durisin's concept of World literature in his book Theory of Literary Comparatistics gives us certain parameters that can be applied in the study and analysis of World literature where he talks about the “interliterary” (19) nature of the text also supported by Konstantinovic (141). Redefining Goethe's idea, Carols Fuentes is of the opinion that works of World literature are

59 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Alwar: Meen Kandasamy’s poetry ISSN: 2454-4574 involved in “reading, writing, teaching and learning aimed at introducing civilazations to one another” (Prendergast, 15). Kandasamy thus embodies the spirit of “everywoman” in order to highlight the problems of the society. Her being a woman furthers this agenda of awareness. As explained by Sagar who says: Resistance by women takes various forms of expression and comes up in their lives and in societal productions like art, literature, speech, and different modes of popular culture (34).

The very act of writing by women signifies that they pronounce their ideas in the public space. Writing also signifies their attempt to move beyond the spaces allotted to them. (Sagar, 110) Sarangi, speaks of her poetry as revolutionary and says: “The poems of Kandasamy resist colonial acts of authority and oppression through their textual transmission.” Through her poetry, Kandasamy bridges the gap between India and the World. Her versatile poetry is effective and expressive, is rooted yet universal. Kandasamy’s work is a work of World Literature because by thus assuming the role of a consciously political poet, who is aware of her historical responsibility, she authors a poetic discourse that not only castigates the prevalent modes of subjugation but also resolutely strives towards futures that are yet to be born.

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Works Cited

Chakraborty, Abin. "Venomous Touch: Meena Kandasamy and the Poetics of Dalit Resistance." Postcolonial Text 4.4 (2008): 3. Damrosch, David. What Is World Literature? Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003. Print. --- "World Literature Today: From the Old World to the Whole World." Symplokē 8.1/2, Anthologies (2000): 7-19. JSTOR. Web. 05 July 2016. --- How to Read World Literature. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print. Das, Kamala, S. Harrex C., and Vincent O'Sullivan. Kamala Das: A Selection with Essays on Her Work. Bedford Park: CRNLE, Flinders U of, 1986. Print. Durisin, Dionyz. Theory of Literary Comparatistics. Bratislava: Veda, 1984. Hockenos, Matthew D. "Martin Niemöller, the Cold War, and His Embrace of Pacifism, 1945- 1955." Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 27.1 (2014): 87-101. Web. Hughes, Langston. "Blues on a Box." Poetry 69.5 (1947): 248-49. Web. Jasmin Darznik. "Essay: Forugh Farrokhzad: Her Poetry, Life, and Legacy." The Women's Review of Books 23.6 (2006): 21-23. Web. Johann Peter Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens, trans. John Oxenford as J. W. von Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann, repr. North Point Press, 1994. Kandasamy, Meena. Touch. Mumbai: Peacock, 2006. Print. ---."Aggression." Meena Kandasamys Poetry. Wordpress, 01 June 2008. Web. 28 July 2016. ---. “We will rebuild worlds”. Meena Kandasamys Poetry. Wordpress, 01 June 2008. Web. 28 July 2016. ---. Interview for Orupaper.com with Dr. Krishna Kalaichelvan, n.d. 28 Oct. 2011 Konstantinovic, Zoran: "Response to Claus Clüver's 'The Difference of Eight Decades: World Literature and the Demise of National Literatures'." Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 35 (1988): 140-42. Sarangi, Jaydeep. "Jaydeep Sarangi Reviews Touch by Meena Kandasamy." Http://mascarareview.com. N.p., 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 July 2016. Vajda, Gyögy M. "Contemporary Trends in Comparative Literature". Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1986. 193-202. Wood, Michael. "What Is World Literature? (review)." Comparative Literature Studies 41.1 (2004): 168-72. JSTOR. Web. 3 July 2016.

61 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Bhardwaj: Home & identity in monica ali’s brick lane ISSN: 2454-4574

Redefining Home and Identity in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane

By – Sonia Bhardwaj

Introduction to the Author:

Sonia Bhardwaj is a research scholar doing her Ph.D in Literature.

Abstract

The evolving trends of immigration and the shrinking international borders have given a chance to the contemporary world inhabitants to explore world as the stage of their action. The modern diaspora are more equipped, emotionally strong and progressive to contrast the earlier conception of émigré as powerless, nostalgic, homeward looking individuals. The new nomads willingly move into the dynamics of empowerment by challenging the possibility of any superior race, culture or ethnicity. In the postmodern times cultures are constantly evolving to give way to a multiethnic, multicultural scenario. The phenomenon of diaspora in the postmodern century is affecting not only the life of diaspora who struggle to accommodate into the fabric of host society but also the broader notion of home. In the present analysis of Brick Lane (2003) the author pronounces the dynamic notion of home where the diaspora is no longer looking backward to the lost shores of mother nation but are making strides in the adopted nation. The co-existence of Home and Host countries in life of diaspora is giving rise to a fresh concept of ‘home’ which is not a geographical setting rather an idea where people evolve and form their unique self.

Key Words – Nostalgia, Homing Desire, Acculturation, Diaspora, Patriarchy, Cultural

Assimilation, Hegemony, Globalization and Threshold.

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Monica Ali in her seminal work Brick Lane (2003) has presented the point of view of its central

protagonist –a Bangladeshi woman diaspora Nazneen. The novel is about Nazneen’s journey from the lush green grounds of her home town Gouripur in Bangladesh to the concrete apartment in

London’s Brick Lane. She immigrates to London as a companion to her husband Chanu Ahmed.

In an arranged marriage Nazneen is bonded to Chanu-a man much older to her in age and

thereafter, she undertakes a metaphorical journey into an unknown land and later undertakes the

to explore the hidden potential of her individual self. Away from her familiar home she grows out

of submission to assertion. The complex personality of Chanu and his inability of assimilating in

the host society confound her. The upbringing of Nazneen and the dominant notion of patriarchy

forbids her to express her discomfort on Chanu’s failure and accept the subordination within the

confines of her concrete apartment by patriarchal standards.

Life of Nazneen is a maze where she crosses the barriers laid by her parenting, society, nation and individuality to cut a niche for herself and her daughters. Nazneen’s mother was dominated by

father who never gave her the opportunity to speak up her mind and feelings. Nazneen’s mother

tries to mould the personality of her daughters Nazneen and Hasina by teaching them the

importance of fate and submissiveness in women’s life. Nazneen’s life and her birth itself stand as the testimony of her mother’s believe in fate.

As Nazneen grew she heard many tales of this story of How You

Were Left To Your Fate… Fighting against one’s fate can weaken

the blood. Sometimes, or perhaps most of times, it can be fatal.

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The place where Nazneen is born signifies closed confines of cultural boundaries and conventional

set up that treats women as subordinate.

The multicultural ambience of the West gives Nazneen the audacity to challenge the hegemonic

practices of both East and west. She is uncomfortable with her cramped life in the concrete quarters

of Brick Lane. Away from the open skies of Gouripur in the initial years of her advent in the

foreign nation she feels stranger. There is a constant ghost of home following her. In her dreams

she always finds herself hand in hand with her sister Hasina. The only solace in her mundane life

is the company of ghetto which is a closed cultural group. In the party of Bangladeshi women, she

gets a chance to speak in her own language, celebrate home festivals and discuss with nostalgia

the memories of land left back.

Nazneen’s household revolves around Chanu. She keeps herself busy entire day by keeping the apartment clean, preparing meals and looking out of her apartment’s window either watching the by-passers or the ‘tatoo lady’. Nazneen is an embodiment of all those women who accompany their husbands into the foreign land not in pursuit of any personal endeavor but to fulfill the social responsibility of wife. Like a mute animal following its master, Nazneen follows Chanu to London.

She is a complete outsider without any knowledge of foreign language, its people and the challenge of assimilation.

The scope of novel revolves around the metamorphosis of Nazneen along with her journey in the foreign land. She marries a man older to her due to social obligation. It is only in the open environment of west that she gets the confidence to exercise her agency as a potent individual who has the capacity to challenge the gendered divisions of work and society in her home. She gradually

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develops confidence to explore to world of earning finances, giving voice to her hidden sexual

desires with Karim-a young Bangladeshi boy and to evolve emancipated from all barriers.

The augmentation of Nazneen’s persona undertakes with her the experiences of loss, happiness,

motherhood, friendship and the final rejection of subordinate status. The novel is divided into two

phases that signifies Nazneen’s individual growth. The first period ranges from her advent in

London and ends with the death of her first child Raqib. The next phase of empowerment vary

from the birth of her two daughters Shahana and Bibi, affair with Karim, Chanu’s difficult time at

job and ends with Nazneen’s financial evolution in foreign land stand to fulfill her daughter’s

dream of assimilation. The transmutation of Nazneen from subordinate to equal participant in

society is fuelled by her friendship with Razia. All traditional Bangladeshi women characters of

this novel flutter in the confines wreathing to have a slice of West. It is the contest of home

confinement and inherent zeal to experience the whirlpool of progressive West that gives impetus

to the Bangladeshi women diaspora of Brick Lane to challenge and claim emancipation from

gendered roles.

The difference in the female status in West and East is a glaring reality for women diaspora. A critic Janet Momsen comments that, ‘for all societies, the common denominator of gender is female subordination. For women of contemporary Third world the patriarchal attitudes are exacerbated by economic crisis and legacy of imperialism.’ (Momsen 98). The limited exposure in the host nation and the restrictions that women have to face in the host society springs from the patriarchal idea which considers women as incapable subordinate who are, ‘ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition bound, domestic, family oriented, victimized.’ (Bahri 45). The impact of the social consideration acts as a binding chain for the women even in the host society where they are

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at liberty to exercise their will and potential. The traditional diaspora carries along with the

memories of homeland the cultural germs that haunt them even in unrestricted ambience of host

land.

The persona of Nazneen is surrounded by the walls of fate, culture, religion, racial discrimination

and patriarchy. It is only when she challenges all these frontiers that she transforms form an

insignificant housewife to a revenue generator. The initial life of Nazneen from her birth till the

death of her son Raqib is dominated by the philosophy of fate, ‘What could not be changed must

be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything has to be borne. This principle ruled

her life. It’s a mantra, fettle and challenge.’ (Ali 12).

This mantra of submission is dared by Nazneen when she comes in company of Razia. Razia is

the mouthpiece for all those women diaspora who have the will to survive independently in the alien country. She instantly realizes the urgency of her circumstances that demands her to break free from the narrow ridges of her culture. After the death of her husband she doesn’t waste time

in mourning rather challenges the dominant notions of Bangladeshi traditions of limiting women

endeavors to home. She transgresses the boundaries of home to venture out into the flux of society

and starts learning English language. She stops wearing saree, crops her hair short and initiates her

undertaking foe empowerment. She sheds off her Asian markers and adopts the role of man in her

family.

Razia has a positive influence on the identity formation of Nazneen. She encourages Nazneen to

move out of her concrete apartment and the confines of culture. Razia awakens her about the

futility of looking back to Bangladesh as home. The notion of home for Nazneen changes when

she realizes the benefits of living in the West. It gives them financial security, pension, medical

66 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Bhardwaj: Home & identity in monica ali’s brick lane ISSN: 2454-4574 facilities and child care. The discomforts of living in Bangladesh and its fossilized image get a jolt for Nazneen. The strenuous circumstances of Razia life fail to break her determination. She resolves to take charge of her life and grow independent. She transforms her loss of husband into her strength and becomes a western woman metaphorically, ‘since gaining her British passport she had acquired a sweatshirt with a large Union Jack printed of the front, and in a favorite combination paired it with brown elastic-waisted trousers.’ (Ali 188). In the crunch of times, lack of finances after her husband’s death Razia confidently relies on her and makes the best use of her abilities to earn money for her children.

The notion of traditional Bangladeshi ghetto is reinforced by Mrs. Islam-an elderly and most powerful woman of Bangladeshi community in the Brick Lane. The respect she commands in the group arises from her persona of sophistication, wealth and as a preserver of tradition. Chanu considers her as a ‘respectable type’. The existential quest and greed for status and money in the foreign land turns her into a Usurer. Razia discloses this secret to Nazneen and bewares her from falling into the trap of taking loan from her. Mrs. Islam exploits the financial urgencies of people in the Brick Lane and lends the money at a high rate of interest.

Mrs. Islam has an influence in the Bangladeshi community. No one tries to disobey her. When

Nazneen first son Raqib was born, Mrs. Islam tries to dominate her household by teaching her the norms of parenting. Nazneen dreads these lessons. The invisible tension between both comes to surface when one day Mrs. Islam forces Nazneen to lend her Raqib for some hours so that her niece may play with him. Nazneen boldly refuses this by confidently stating that, ‘No, he’s staying here. With me.’(Ali 88).

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This daring step of Nazneen is punished by Mrs. Islam years later when out of financial turbulence

in family Chanu borrows money from her. Mrs. Islam is a cunning lady who keeps accounts not

just for money but for grudges as well. When the news of Chanu leaving with his family to

Bangladesh becomes talk of neighbour she threatens the family to return the debt. Mrs. Islam uses

her two sons as her shield to scare Chanu and his family. The original amount is well paid back

but Mrs. Islam is not ready to give away the interest. She hovers over Nazneen to return the entire

amount one time, ‘Give it to me. How much is there? A thousand pounds still owning, and you are

going to run away? Give me the rest.’ (Ali 253). The persistent pressure from Mrs. Islam infuriates

Nazneen when she pays the last visit to demand the payment. She in rage thrashes Mrs. Islam and

condemns her as a Usurer. In the fit of fury Nazneen challenges Mrs. Islam to swear in the Holy

Qur’an about the truth of money left. Religious fear and sanctity of God forbids her to swear on

The Holy Book. The trepidation of confrontation renders Mrs. Islam exposed, with this incident

the episode of Mrs. Islam finishes off. This event proves to be a turning point in the self-

actualization of Nazneen who crosses the social limitation and patriarchal image of docile and

mute female and emerges empowered for her family and future.

The transition in Nazneen’s persona is a systematic progression of events. She keeps reeling back

into insignificance but the quest to learn helps her bounce back in her personal endeavor of re-

forming her awakened self. The relationship with Karim electrified her. She could give voice to

all the hidden fantasies of her personality. The relationships break the binary of inside and outside

for Nazneen. Her expression in physical intimacy astounded her. She is full of passion, aggression and feels a sense of completeness that has always been missing I her life with Chanu. Her relationship with Karim metaphorically represents a journey within the hidden zeal to live in

Nazneen’s life. She learns to take charge of her decisions, her future and life ahead.

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The bond of marriage with Chanu, however, remains the centre of her life. This duality of loyalties

towards Karim and Chanu leads to her nervous breakdown. The tussle is not confined to her sexual

relationships abut also to her allegiance for home values and western liberty. The involuntary

comparison between Karim and Chanu aggravates her predicament. Karim’s presence in her life

filled the void in her life where she wants to celebrate her womanhood and re-forms herself into

an equal companion in sexual encounters with him. ‘Nazneen danced attendance. It was thrill..’(Ali

248).

The self-affirmation transforms her and she starts to take lead in her decisions. She starts spending more time with her daughters Shahana and Bibi and is thrilled to be a part of their intellect. The heart of mother jumps with joy to learn the expectations and dreams of her daughters, ‘She spent more time talking to her daughters, and they surprised her with their intelligence.’(Ali 248). The hunt for evolved identity awakens her to the needs of her daughters who are at home in London.

They do not want to be the part of Chanu’s plans of shifting back to Bangladesh.

Nazneen’s final hurdle is to boldly take lead of her own life and the future of her daughters. She refuses to be the part of Chanu’s journey back to Bangladesh. She takes full responsibility of the future of her daughters in the foreign nation. When Karim proposes her for marriage she refuses to succumb in his offer and secure social status to explore the world on her own. Departure of

Chanu and Karim from her life lands Nazneen into the flux of society where Razia emerges as her savior.

The task of needle work and sewing that represents the art of women in her home Bangladesh gives the platform to ensure existential survival in the adopted nation. Nazneen plans to educate

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her daughters and to secure the life of her sister Hasina who has been brutally treated by men in

her own country- Bangladesh.

The secondary status of women and the objectification of women body are ridiculed by Ali in her

novel. Hasina is a beautiful girl who dares to love in her own country. The act of eloping with the

son of a villager lands her into the dynamism of the sexist world outside the secure embrace of her

mother. She is beaten by her husband, mauled and made to run from her married life. The physical

beauty of her body forbids her easy assimilation in the society. All men she encounters treat her

as an object to satisfy their physical needs. She is raped, turned into prostitute, a maid, secondary

individual and gradually becomes a mourner. In the final episode she is shown once again eloped

with a fellow servant to fulfill her dream of belonging and home.

Hasina remains a diaspora in her own home and Nazneen on the other hand evolves self-dependent

and empowered in the adopted nation. Ali through her stimulating work hints at the possibility of

transforming the crunch of immigration into an agency of self-actualization. The role of women as the one fulfilling the ‘expectations from their family, society and community’(Mortada 53) gets altered into the metamorphosis of the main protagonist who evolves to form, ‘own definition of feminity’ (Hussain 52.)

In the final section Nazneen is seen taking charge of her life and boldly skating through the

unexplored ice of her identity. The concept of home and homelessness changes for her. Now she

is assimilated in the fabric of the once host nation and Bangladesh forms the part of her fond

memories not of longing. The notion of home now represents Brick Lane where she independently

lives with her daughters and friends.

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Works Cited:

1. Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. Great Britain: Black swan, 2004. Print.

2. Bahri, Deepika. The Human Rights of Middle Eastern &Muslim Women: A Project For

the 21st Century. Cambridge: United Kingdom UP, 2004. Print.

3. Hussain, Yasmin. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity,

Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. Print.

4. Momsen, Janet Henshall. Women Development in the Third World. London: Routledge.

1996. Print.

5. Mortada, Sayeda Samara. “ The Notion of Women as bearers of Culture in Monica Ali’s

Brick Lane”.BRAC University Journal. Vol.vii No. 1&2. 2010. 53-59. Print.

71 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Gaur: Taslima nasrin’s french lover ISSN: 2454-4574

Theme of Self-Actualization in Taslima Nasrin’s French Lover

Introduction to the Author:

Sona Gaur is a research scholar, department of English, Himachal Pradesh University.

The birth of a ‘new woman’ in Indian literature connotes an attitudinal shift in the writings of

contemporary women novelists, who challenge and deconstruct the traditional image of a woman

from a silent and submissive one to an awakened and an assertive individual. A comparison of the

early women novelists and the contemporary novelists depict the definite continuity in the trends

and approach but with bolder themes. The ‘new woman’ is educated, awakened, assertive,

economically empowered and articulates her needs to attain a complete control over her life and

body in the Indian patriarchal society.

Taslima Nasrin is a Bangladeshi contemporary woman novelist, who projects this image

of a ‘new woman’ in her works. Nasrin, through her works reveals the sufferings of a woman

caught in the web of religion and traditions. She views marriage as the most oppressive social

institution that exploits a woman as an object for pleasure and procreation. French Lover is her

novel that projects the destructive effects of male-hegemony on the life of her female protagonist,

Nilanjana Mandal or Nila that leads to her subjugation. Nasrin, through the character of Nila has explored, that how a woman after bearing the atrocities in her marriage is eventually awakened to her exploitation that motivates her to assert her individuality. This self-actualization urges Nila to defy the patriarchal norms of marriage and lead her life independently at her own terms.

French Lover is a fine example of women’s oppression in marriage, where the novelist delineates the predicament of Nila, resulting from the hard and oppressive nature of her husband, Kishanlal. After her marriage in Calcutta, Nila settles in Paris with her husband and

72 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Gaur: Taslima nasrin’s french lover ISSN: 2454-4574 with many colourful dreams of love and romance. Her dream, however, pulverize when she is treated merely as an object of pleasure by her husband. According to Simone De Beauvoir:

In the early years of marriage the wife often lulls herself with illusions, she

tries to admire her husband whole heartedly, to love him unreservedly, to feel

herself indispensable to him. (496)

Kishanlal’s cold and indifferent attitude shatters all the dreams of Nila. He spends no time with her except for the night. Nila, however, adjusts with his harsh nature as she is aware of the fact that she will never receive any support from her family as she has always been a liability for her father.

Kishanlal looks down upon Nila as his slave brought from Calcutta to serve him by looking after his house and his needs. One day she discovers the secret about his first wife, Immanuelle and feels betrayed. When she questions Kishanlal about it, he accepts it by justifying, as it earned him a French citizenship. When Nila expresses her anger before him, he insults her by pointing out at her pre-marital relationship with Sushanta and says, “Because Sushanta, the great lover, had ditched you and I didn’t marry you, no one would. News travel far and fast” (62).

Taslima Nasrin points out through the subjugation of Nila, that marriage is just the promised end in a patriarchal society that becomes an enclosure, restricting a woman’s movements towards her self-autonomy. “Social structural aspects of the society- a different distribution of men and women in specific social roles and gender hierarchy- are the main contributors to sex typical behaviours” (Hinshaw 883). Nila is gradually awakened to her subservient status and undergoes the dilemma of ‘identity- crises’ that motivates her to be self- reliant. She, therefore decides to be economically empowered. Her decision, however is shunned down by her husband, which provokes Nila to affirm her decision by saying:

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You should have married a dumb girl who’d silently do the housework and never protest at

anything, who doesn’t have a soul to call her own and cannot read or write. (56)

Nasrin’s novels echo the assertive voices of women who articulate their choices and defy the

patriarchal norms of marriage to silently succumb to the decisions of men. Nasrin has criticized

this patriarchal norm of the society, which confines a woman indoors and restricts her economic

liberty. Betty Friedan criticized this gender norm by pointing out, that it is perceived that, “Truly

feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights, the independence and the

opportunities” (13). Nila, eventually finds a job in a factory of packing computers in boxes. This

self-reliance motivates her to leave her husband and his house as she is awakened to her

subjugation and now wants to live independently.

Nila being all alone in Paris comes across Danielle in the same factory and the two gradually become good friends. Danielle after knowing all the bitter experiences of Nila in her marriage offers her help by asking her to share her apartment. Danielle is a homosexual woman,

who gets physically attracted towards Nila and expresses her emotions for Nila. Nila too

reciprocates her emotions, as she gave her shelter and is the only one, she relied upon. This

homosexual relationship continues for a while but gradually when Danielle begins exerting her

domination on Nila, she decides to terminate it.

Nila, after walking out of her husband’ s house is all alone until one day she comes across

Benoir Dupont, a Frenchman on her flight from Calcutta to Paris. Nila gets attracted to him and he

too is fascinated by her looks. On reaching Paris, both of them express their emotions to each other

and enter into a forbidden relationship, termed as, ‘extra-marital relationship’. Nasrin describes the state of mind of her woman protagonist as,

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“She had never got such pleasure in all her twenty-seven years. She never knew she would ever

feel such pleasure” (170).

Benoir, therefore, becomes Nila’s ‘French Lover’, as the title suggests. Ironically, she mistakes his emotions as love for her that is later discovered as lust by her. Nasrin, by citing this forbidden relationship has pointed out at the root-causes of a woman’s sexually liberated behaviour, that compels her to look for love outside her marriage. Desire for love is a natural instinct in every individual, irrespective of her biological identity, therefore, this instinct cannot be suppressed and need an outlet for gratification.

Nila, though walks out her marital home but is yet not divorced from her husband, therefore, Benoir becomes the ‘other’ man in her life. She becomes committed to him and begins staying in a live-in- relationship with him. This decision of Nila is condemned by her family in

Calcutta, especially here father, Anibarn, who warns her by saying, “There is still time to mend your ways, come back to India and live a life that won’t have so many people point fingers at you”

(252). Traditionally, sexual defiance is a male prerogative and sexual fidelity is a necessary female construct. The male-hegemonic society like India has always been liberal in its attitude towards men, who indulged in extra-marital relationships than a woman who is criticized and condemned.

In India, “Marriage ceases by the infidelity on the part of the wife; but no such forfeiture of marriage right occurs to the husband in the event of his infidelity” (Krishnaraj 277). Nila, however, pays no heed to the warning of her father and continues to stay with Benoir and releases herself from the fetters of cultural stereotypes.

Nila, gradually becomes very possessive of Benoir and one day when she is sure of her pregnancy she informs Benoir of it. She asks him to leave his wife and marry her, as she does not want her child to be called as an illegitimate child in the society. Benoir, however, refuses to

75 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Gaur: Taslima nasrin’s french lover ISSN: 2454-4574 comply with her wish and makes it clear to Nila that, he can never give divorce to his wife and want her to adjust with his marital status. Nila, at this point in her relationship confronts the self- centeredness of Benoir. She realizes that all men are same, who believe in exploiting a woman in the name of love and that Benoir is no different than her husband, who too exploited her physically.

Her illusion of love for Benoir shatters and she decides to abort his child. She tells Benoir, “You love yourself, Benoir, your own self. No one else” (280). When he requests her to give birth to their child, she refuses his wish and ends all her ties with him. At this point all alone in her life, she calls Danielle for help and aborts the child. She attains a complete control over her life and body and this sexual right of a woman is a chief feminist view of Nasrin, as she believes that until a woman has a complete control over her body, she can never be liberated completely.

Nila at this phase of her life is left with two choices, either, to revert to her family or marriage or move ahead in life alone. She is a ‘new woman’ of Nasrin, who does not feel shattered by her loneliness or betrayals. Her bitter experiences of life instead of making her weak usher tremendous confidence in her to move ahead in her life all alone, according to her own terms. This transgression of Nila is an example of self-actualization of a woman in the male-chauvinistic society. She, therefore, takes the help of her friend, Marilu and finds a room in Sandali. “Nasrin introduces Nila as an apostle of the liberation movement, advocating freedom from the tradition bound women” (Sigma

2). Nasrin’s women like Nila in French Lover, follow their conscious raising voice and are not defeated by the hardships of life.

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References:

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Trans. H.M. Parshley. London: Vintage, 1953. Print.

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971. Print.

Hinshaw, Stepahn, ed. Psychological Bulletin. 137.6(2011) 883. Print.

Krishnaraj, Maithreyi, ed. Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment. New

Delhi: Routledge, 2010. Print.

Nasrin, Taslima. French Lover. Trans. Sreejata Guha. New Delhi: Penguin, 2001. Print.

Sigma, G.R. “Feminist Themes in Taslima Nasrin’s French Lover.” Criterion 12 (2013). Print.

77 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016

Ramya: Chinua achebe & his techniques ISSN: 2454-4574

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES USED BY CHINUA ACHEBE IN HIS NOVELS

Introduction to the Author:

K. Ramya is a research scholar at PG & Research Department of English, National College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu.

ABSTRACT The voice of African literature tries to unbind Africa from its literary stereotype. Africans do not radically separate art from teaching. African writers, take their cue from oral literature, use the unique technique to help communicate important truths and information to society. Chinua Achebe, the major exponent of the modern African novel, is greatly concerned with the two realities of social man- his individuality and group identity. He is also concerned with the use of English as the medium of expression of African experience defining the relevance of colonial and post colonial experience to the present and the commitment of the writer to his society and African art which is both functional and communal. Though Achebe writes in English, he captures the cadence of the Ibo people, particularly noticeable in the book’s dialogue. In the narration, Achebe keeps it simple, directly to the point, and centred on nature. His goal is to use language to depict how the Ibo view their world. In addition to the cadence and content choice, Achebe also uses a ton of proverbs and as well as lots of tiny stories which is favourite form of African Oral tradition. This journal paper is attempted in exploring the major techniques as storytelling and native modus operandi used by Chinua Achebe in his novels.

Key words: Storytelling, Oral literature, folktales, Igbo culture

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Ramya: Chinua achebe & his techniques ISSN: 2454-4574

STORY TELLING: The literary works of Achebe would always have an origin of Igbo people’s oral tradition. He weaves folk tales into the structure of his anecdote, illuminating community values in both the content and the form of the storytelling, for example the tale about the Earth and Sky in Things Fall Apart (1958). According to David Carroll “the novel is narrated in the third person there is no suggestion of all-wise observer evaluating the customs and habits of this Igbo community. The voice is that of wise and sympathetic elder of the tribe who has witnessed time and time again the cycle of the seasons and the accompanying rituals in the villages”. In fact the narrator discreetly merges two voices, one of which is village-world and a further is more urbane Nigerian of 1958.Achebe, through elaborate descriptions of native rituals and customs, has depicted in the first part of Things Fall Apart (1958) the ceremony of innocence of pre-colonial Igbo society. Depicting Okonkwo as a structural device to show the people’s condition and their loss of power to struggle. The events of the novel are skilfully arranged by Achebe to bring the communal moral issues to personal confrontation. Achebe has shown his evolution from a man of action to a man of thought. Achebe’s novel is developed by exposition and not by the dramatic rendering of scenes. Achebe rarely depicts the events and shows his hero in action. The theme of Arrow of God (1964) has elaborated the destruction of the tribal world but through a more sustained character. Achebe in alternating chapters depicts the two worlds which could never come closer. Native folk tales and legends woven into the novel do not have much relevance to the plot but create the atmosphere to strengthen traditional life. The role of Whitman in the collapse of the traditional society is conceived as much symbolically as historically. Achebe has combined the two strands of the individual and social drama into perfect unity in his novel.

Achebe has chosen a different pattern for No longer at Ease (1960). The novel opens with Obi’s trial scene in a court of law. No longer at Ease is not just about Obi’s crime, but about the reason behind it. The structure of the novel provokes the reader to analyse motives and examine every event responsible for Obi’s fall. The novel speaks of the confusion between good tradition and ugly superstitious tradition. Achebe’s describing the life in Lagos also paints a moving picture of traditional rural life suffering the bombardment of modernity. The ending of the novel is far more than a mere case study of an individual named Obi.

A man of the People (1967) is Achebe’s new commitment. The novel is about the legacy of colonialism and reflects’ the breakdown in the continuity and unity at tribal life vested in the intricate balance between the pursuit of material things and observance of religious customs and tradition. The novel is narrated from the fastidious point of view of Odili Samalu, a school teacher who intends to justify his own actions and values as he maligns the motives of Nanga, The narrator tries to analyze the events in

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Ramya: Chinua achebe & his techniques ISSN: 2454-4574 which he is involved, as he does Josiah’s eventful career. Achebe portrays on a grand scale the infectious nature of corruption in Nigeria- in politics, in the army, in civilian life and in the whole environment- rural and urban as well. Achebe seems to be cynical about his new Nigerian society. This novel is his first attempt to completely dissociate himself from the solutions and figures he creates. He does not take sides nor does he exhibit his preferences in the novel. He is rendering and not telling, and the story is telling itself, it is dramatic telling.

In Anthills of the Savanah (1987) Achebe is unfolding developments of Nigerian history through autobiographical accounts, poems, traditional myths and legends, folk tales and lectures to document the specific social predicament in Kangan, a fictional military state in Africa closely resembling modern Nigeria. As in other novels, political theme in Anthills is rooted in postcolonial compulsions. The storyteller an old man from Abazon, at one level takes his audience into the contemporary world of African power politics and also to experience that world, both as victim and victimiser, narrating about the major characters. The signification of storytelling rather than writing is witnessed in two chapters as in chapter nine: Views of Struggle,” the old man of Abazon celebrates the act of storytelling placing it above war or history. In chapter twelve: Ikem Osodi narrates to Basa University students the same traditional story of the tortoise and the leopard to tell of the risk involved for the storytellers are threat. Achebe as the solicitous postcolonial tells through story tellers using traditional oratory skills, the story of Nigeria, its tyrannical political history and of its women in need of freedom and dignity.

NATIVE MODUS OPERANDI PROVERB AND FOLKTALES One of the strong beliefs of Achebe, is that the culture can be passed to the next generation through folklores, many problems and questions of the existing generation can be answered using such folklore, consequently folklore which is an important feature of the Ibo culture, is appropriately used by Chinua Achebe in his novels. In No Longer at Ease (1964), most traditional values have disappeared but some of the proverbs that explicate moral and spiritual wisdom remain with the people. For example (1) "Wherever something stands, another thing stands beside it" (145); (2) "He who has people is richer than he who has money" (72). (3) The impatience and the foolhardiness of the Obi Okonkwo's are compared to that of "the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come" (10). In A Man of the People (1967), Achebe's fourth novel, has a number of proverbs that clearly trace the decay of cultural values in Nigerian society. The general motto of the Achebe’s fictional leaders is, "Ours is ours but mine is mine." Achebe's characters make use of these myths to make their arguments strong to illustrate the moral values. The story of the little bird NZA occurs both in Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. Through the folklore the fact is taught that a man should never provoke his

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Ramya: Chinua achebe & his techniques ISSN: 2454-4574 fate. Where to draw a line of limit in his pursuit of power is to be known by his oneself. The perceptions marked are alike in the story of the bird Eneke-nti-Oba (TFA, 38) and the story of the wrestler (AOG, 26). Achebe makes use of the didactic creatures’ tale in almost all his novels. In Things Fall Apart. The tales of the wily tortoise (38, 67) expose the wicked nature of being, and the story of the mother kite shows the folly of the people of Abame (98). Men's and women's stories illustrate male and female values. While Okonkwo's stories exemplify warfare and violence in order to inculcate courage in children (TFA, 53, 37), Ekwefi's stories of the mosquito (TFA, 53), Obiageli's unending chain tale (AOG, 65) are expected for distraction. PROVERB Proverb is a yet another tool in the fictional art of Achebe with his delicate use of English to suit the African sensibility. Achebe (1958) also comments on the importance of the use of proverb among his people, he says” among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly and proverbs are the palm oil with which the words are eaten” furthermore, the use of proverb is inevitable because they are highly prized in the traditional African society and are used to portray certain actions or events in picturesque manner. A unique African style of speech is witnessed in Ezeulu's conversation to Oduche. “I want one of my sons to join these people and be my eye there. If there is nothing in it you will come back. But if there is something there you will bring home my share. The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well you do not stand in one place. My spirit tells me that those who do not befriend the white man today will be saying Ehad we known' tomorrow." (AOG, 45-46). “I am sending you as my representative among these people --- just to be on the safe side in case the new religion develops. One has to move with the times or else one is left behind. I have a hunch that those who fail to come to terms with the white man may well regret their lack of foresight." POETRY African poetry is an integral part of the life of Africans and a common heritage shared by the offspring. There is intrinsic fusion of intellect and imagination in African poetry. In communal celebrations song reaffirm the unity of the community and the importance of the individual in the collective. African traditional poetry is a collective experience initiated by one in a group and shared by the rest. Achebe has shown in the song of Ikemefuna in Igbo how playfully sentimental and superstitious Africans are. Ikemefuna sings in Things fall Apart.

Eze elina, elina!......

Ebe Uzuzu nete egwu Sala. (54)

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He walks to the beat of the song. He thinks if the song ends on his right foot his mother would be alive and if it ends on the left she would be dead. The song ended on the right and he thinks his mother is alive and well. Ikem in Anthills of the Savannah scribbles his prose-poem “Hymn to the Sun” in chapter no.3 which is recalled in the end when Chris travels to Abazon as the sight of the scorched anthills reminds Chris of the hymn prophesying of the disaster to come. “Chi”in Igbo Cosmology

“Chi” has two distinct meanings in the Igbo language. It is translated as god, guardian angel, personal spirit, soul , spirit-dou-ble. It also means day or day-light, commonly used for twilight between day and night. ‘Chi’ is a powerful concept, elusive and enigmatic and central in Igbo religion and thought. The concept of chi is discussed at various points throughout the novel and is important to our understanding of Okonkwo as a tragic hero. The chi is an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo’s tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi—a thought that occurs to Okonkwo at several points in the novel. For the clan believes, as the narrator tells us in Chapter 14, a “man could not rise beyond the destiny of hischi.” But there is another understanding of chi that conflicts with this definition. In Chapter 4, the narrator relates, according to an Igbo proverb, that “when a man says yes his chi says yes also.” According to this understanding, individuals will their own destinies. Thus, depending upon our interpretation of chi, Okonkwo seems either more or less responsible for his own tragic death. Okonkwo himself shifts between these poles: when things are going well for him, he perceives himself as master and maker of his own destiny; when things go badly, however, he automatically disavows responsibility and asks why he should be so ill-fated. In Igbo religion there is a constant interaction between the world of the living and the dead, between the visible and invisible the material and the spiritual. ‘Chi has a special hold on the individual and this is exemplified ina proverb: “No matter how many divinities sit together to plot a man’s ruin it will come to nothing unless his”Chi” is there among them. In an interview of Achebe with Lewis Nkosi, he clarified the problem in translating the word “Chi” into English, because trying to translate a word like”Chi”always carries its own obstacle as when the word ‘personal God ‘ is uttered it is not perfect but it’s as close as Ivould get. Now I think the best translation would be ‘personal spirit’ not ‘personal God but a ‘God within’ is just trash. Achebe in an essay on ‘Chi in Igbo Cosmology’ in Morning Yet on Creation Day has defined the idea and its centrality and the notion of duality in Igbo thought. ‘Chi’ becomes the individual’s identity and it corresponds to ‘Isha Daiva’ or the personal god in Hinduism for it is creative and has an important relationship with the individual. CONCLUSION

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As the saying goes “Old wine in a new Bottle”, the attempt is made to discuss on the methods and techniques used by Chinua Achebe. With reference to all his works and the available secondary sources online and offline the article is complied. Achebe’s frequent inclusion of folk songs and descriptions of dancing in his work like; Obi, the protagonist of No Longer at Ease, is at one point met by women singing a "Song of the Heart", which Achebe gives in both Igbo and English: "Is everyone here? / (Hele ee he ee he)" In Things Fall Apart, ceremonial dancing and the singing of folk songs reflect the realities of Igbo tradition. The elderly Uchendu, attempting to shake Okonkwo out of his self-pity, refers to a song sung after the death of a woman: "For who is it well, for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well." This song contrasts with the "gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism" sung later by the white missionaries. Like his novels, the short stories are heavily influenced by the oral tradition. And like the folktales they follow, the stories often have morals emphasising the importance of cultural traditions.

Reference: 1)Abrash.Barbara.Black African Literature in English Since 1952. New York: Johnson.1967 2)Bashier.Mubarak.”Chinua Achebe: An Individual” Sudanow,2,10,1977.256 3)Carroll,David.Chinua Achebe.London:Macmillan.1980 4)Dennis Duarden and Cosmo Pieterse.ed African writing TalkingLA collection of Radio Interview. London: Heinemann,1972 5)Wren.Robert M.Achebe’s World: The Historical and Cultural Context of the Novels of Chinua Achebe. Washington,D.C.,Three Continents press 1980 6)S.A.Khayyoom. Chinua Achebe A Study of His Novels. 7)https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=dbDmV5bjBMeL8QeYj5vQBQ#q=methods+and+techniq ues+used+in+chinua+achebe+novels 8) http://classroom.synonym.com/narrative-technique-achebes-things-fall-apart-21488.html 9) http://www.postcolonialweb.org/achebe/jvrao2 10)http://www.postcolonialweb.org/achebe/jrao1 11)https://wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/manofthepeople.htm 12) http://maldivesreformwatch.tripod.com/id25.html

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83 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sharma: Utopia & Dystopia ISSN: 2454-4574

An article on Utopian & Dystopian Literature by Nidhi Sharma, Sr. Editor at Ashvamegh "All utopias are dystopias. The term "dystopia" was coined by fools that believed a "utopia" can be functional." A.E. Samaan Literature, over the ages, has been influenced by the psychologies of people living in changing times. That is how literature is classified into various genres. The utopia and its derivative, the dystopia, are two such genres (opposite to each other) of literature that explore social and political structures. Where Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos and is portrayed as having various attributes that readers often find to be characteristic of that which they would like to implement in reality or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Whether in Dystopian fiction, the opposite is the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos and is portrayed as having various attributes that readers often find to be characteristic of that which they would like to avoid in reality, or dystopia. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can explore, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres, and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction. "Utopia” and “dystopia” are actually two sides of a coin. Generally, these picture a science fiction setting of two extreme points. Literature also explains the two in a more profound way. But by definition, “utopia” is a society or community setting wherein the people experience the ideal and most perfect life possible. There are nothing called rules; humanity is given full freedom to explore everything possible (except imperfections). By contrast, “dystopia” highlights the complete opposite, which is a place of extremely unpleasant living and working conditions for most people. Most or all of the societal and governmental systems are bad in a dystopia. “Utopia” is what many would think as a paradise. The term was first coined by Thomas Moore in his official publication entitled “Utopia” back in 1516. In his utopia, he described an imaginary and solitary island where everything seems to be running smoothly. It’s like looking at blue skies, warm and bright sunlight, working in clean, spacious buildings, living with friendly individuals, going to work happily, and harmoniously coexisting with everyone. However, there’s a reason why many acknowledge a utopia as a pure work of fiction. It is because the idea of utopia itself seems to be impossible. A real, material world of perfection cannot truly exist. As a matter of fact, “utopia” is translated literally as an imaginary good place that does not physically exist. This kind of world is not just unrealistic but also impractical. By contrast, a dystopian world, also known as anti-utopia or kakotopia, is totally rundown. “Dystopia” was also coined at the same time as “utopia.” However, its usage became known only in the late 19th century. In a dystopian world, the skies are dull. The sun may not be shining, and the buildings are mostly in ruins. The people (if there are any left) are annoying and unfriendly. Going to work is always a painful experience, and everyone seems not to have settled their differences yet. A dystopian world is like the setting of the popular film “I Am Legend” wherein the main protagonist (Will Smith) appeared to be the only survivor of a ruined civilization.

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Concepts of utopia and dystopia represent imaginary societies in which people live their life either in a perfect environment, governed by the laws that provide happiness to everyone, or in an oppressive society that is ruled by the repressive and controlled state. Origin of these concepts can be traced to the year of 380BC when Greek philosopher Plato released his influential political dialogue called “Republic”. In it, he first postulated the main themes of utopian society and his visions of the perfect Greek city-state that provided a stable life for all of its citizens. Authors of the mid-20th century were the first to envision futuristic societies in which people lived in a repressive and controlled state that only from the outside resembled a Utopia. These dark visions of the future represent a great vehicle for the investigation of concepts such as individuality, freedom, class distinctions, repression, religion and advanced technology. In the context of literature, the term dystopia, generally, connotes a scrupulous description of some country which runs on a certain system the author finds 'better' than any other possible means. Some of the earliest and influential works of dystopian fiction can be contributed to the authors H.G. Wells (Time Machine), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four or 1984). Their works paved the way to the numerous other authors, who even today manage to envision some new aspect of life in dystopian societies. In addition to the literature, dystopian themes found its life in many other types of mediums, such as comic books (most notably V for Vendetta, Transmetropolitan, Y: The Last Man and Akira), music, video games (Fallout, Deus Ex, and BioShock) television series (The Prisoner) In our modern environment, works of fiction that are focused on the futuristic visions of dark dystopias are common and widespread. These visions of futuristic worlds produced some of the most famous novels, movies, comics and music of our time. Numerous philosophers and authors imagined the dark visions of the future where totalitarian rulers governed the life of ordinary citizens. Their works explored many themes of dystopian societies - repressive social control systems, government coercion of citizens, influence of technology on human mind, coping mechanisms, individuality, freedom of life and speech, censorship, sexual repression, class distinctions, artificial life and human interaction with the nature (and often the consequences of its destruction). For example, you can look upon Tron Legacy, Terminator (series), Total Recall etc. "I would love to change the world but they won't give me the source code." Thus where utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities. Dystopia is the vision of a bleak future. To conclude, we can say that through dystopia, authors express their concerns about issues of humanity and society and warn the people about their weaknesses. Authors use dystopia as a literary technique to discuss the reality and depict issues that might happen in future. Thus the role of dystopia in literary works is to educate and give awareness to the audience in 'a however' negative way. Dystopias also serve as warnings about the current state of affairs of a government, or of those in power. In a dystopia, authors point out the wrong doings in a society or a system – the reason that it is often called a critique. And no other than Stephen King has predicted long ago that:

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"In the year 2025, the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives. . . ." Stephen King, The Running Man

86 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sharma: Gandhian perspective about women literary ISSN: 2454-4574

GANDHIAN PERSPECTIVE ABOUT WOMEN LITERACY

Dr. Deepika Sharma is an assistant professor in the English department of MGM PG College, Sambhal.

One of the noteworthy results of Mahatma Gandhi’s life-work has been the awakening of women, which made them shed their deep-rooted sense of inferiority and rise to dignity by getting educated. He laid emphasis on women education on two grounds. If a woman is literate, only then she can attain equal rights and position in the male-dominated society, as well as, an educated woman can transform her children into responsible ideal citizens of the country. To bring a revolutionary change in the status of women he put emphasis on the need for their education. As he himself has written in a journal named ‘Harijan’, “I believe in the proper education of women.” About woman, Gandhi wrote that besides the biological differences, woman is not different from man but religion, customs and laws from times had relegated woman to the backyards of civilization. These customs have been taught women to regard themselves as slave of man. Women from ages have tolerated domination of men in the society. They have suffered an oppressive social-system and became a victim of it. Gandhi pleaded for women by saying that women must realize their full status and play their part as equals of men. In one of his speeches, he said once, “Woman is gifted with equal mental capacities and therefore she has equal rights. However, due to the force of customs; ignorant and worthless men have been enjoying superiority over women.” According to Gandhi, it is only education which can empower a woman so that she can be able to uphold her natural rights. He had clear notion about the different spheres of men and women. He had an opinion that men and women are complementary to each other. Man is supreme in outward (extra-mural) activities but home-life and domestic affairs (intramural

87 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sharma: Gandhian perspective about women literary ISSN: 2454-4574 activities) combine to form the sphere of a woman so both of them must have knowledge related to their spheres. Hence, education imparted to both men and women should be according to their preordained stations in life. Gandhi pointed out that it is not proper for men to deprive women or deny them equal rights on the ground of their illiteracy. Education is necessary for enabling women to uphold their real position in the society. According to Mahatma, “Men and women are of equal rank. They are peerless pair being supplementary to each other, each helps the other. Without one, the existence of the other is not possible, so if anything impairs the status of either of them it will result in the equal ruin of both of them.” Thus, keeping this cardinal truth in mind, education of both the life- partners becomes compulsory. Man needs more extensive knowledge and a kind of education that can help him throughout his life as he is supreme in outward activities. In the case of women, the condition is same. A woman has to bear so many domestic responsibilities such as upbringing and education of her children, so she ought to have more knowledge based on family ideals. Thus, Gandhi ji had a clear notion about the illiteracy of women. He believed that main cause of women illiteracy is not her laziness or her disinterest in study but her status is the major factor which obstructs her to gain education. In ‘Harijan’ he wrote, “A more potent cause of woman illiteracy is the status of inferiority with which an immemorial tradition has unjustly branded her. Man has converted her into a domestic drudge and an instrument of his pleasure, instead of regarding her as his helpmate and ‘better-half. The result is semi-paralysis of our society.” Gandhi was of the opinion that women are superior to men in their moral and spiritual strength. They had great power of self-sacrifice and suffering. On this account, women are capable of infinite strength which they only needed to realize through gaining proper education. With the backing of education and the discriminating use of their political rights, women could affect the process of decision making in the nation and could initiate appropriate changes to promote the values of social and economical equality. Gandhi not only exhorted women to undertake the tasks of their own ‘uplift’ by gaining proper education but also to attack the scriptures, social customs and conventions that had devalued their status and upheld women’s social, political and legal equality. As far as his perception of women as instruments of social

88 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Sharma: Gandhian perspective about women literary ISSN: 2454-4574 change was concerned, he felt that women could play a dynamic role in society by contributing through their revolutionary thoughts and actions. There is something in Mahatma’s ideas that is essentially radical. Gandhian perspective of change was a comprehensive one. Through educating woman, he wanted to bring a surprising change in her social, political and moral position in the Indian society. Thus, Mahatma’s purity of thought and honest intentions about women and their education are highly commendable and true and applicable in today’s perspective as our present Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi is also much concerned about protection, education and development of the female section of the society. He has started various schemes like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Andolan’ for protection and awakening of women so that they can shed their illiteracy and deeply existed a sense of inferiority and rise to dignity and self-confidence. It seems that not only Mahatma, in the past but also Mr. Modi in the present, have spread the same message in our society that, “When woman, whom we all call ‘Abla’ becomes ‘Sabla’ by gaining proper education; all those who are helpless, will become powerful.”

89 Ashvamegh: Vol–II: Issue XXI: October 2016 Kanchana V: Inner exploration in literature ISSN: 2454-4574

Self-discovery --- The Ultimate Destination for Inner Exploration in Literature By – Devi Kanchana V

The theme of self-discovery is the ultimate achievement in any Literature. The inner journey of the self in Literature reaches the final destination called self-realization. This article deals with the inner exploration of the characters and the changes that occur in their life. Self- realization has to occur at some point in life. It occurs at a young age for some people; during the middle ages for some others and at old age for others. The inner exploration helps a person to identify his true potential to achieve his goal in life. Identity further encourages the self to aspire for the purpose in life. Purpose pushes the person to the reality which is an inevitable fact that the self has to accept and it forces the self to a complete transformation. This is the transfiguration of the soul which in turn provides wisdom for determination and judgement.

Literature is life and humanity. The perception of life is understood by the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The theory focuses on the self and the life of the self. Also, the notion is widened to the society which in turn reaches the people all over the world. Literature is not calculative as Mathematics. It is not filled with equations as in Science. Rather, it is mankind. Thoughts and feelings become the actions of characters. This reveals the true nature of the self. Consequently, the conceptualization of any work is the urge for the power, purpose and the authenticity of life. These notions are the predominant factors that analysed the different periods to state the life of people, society and also about the world.

The journey of self-discovery exposes the moral and monetary discipline of various periods through Literature. It exhibits the physical and psychological dilemmas of people belong to different kinds of society of all periods. The different genres of Literature reveal the mind and heart of humanity. Values of life are perverted due to economic development. Luxury is the seductive for people all over the world. The present generation is in search of identity; it earns more money but values are often murdered. This is due to the circumstances and also due to the power of reasoning that revolutionize the world. The pitiable fact is that values are disregarded for utter selfishness. This can be changed with the transformation of the self which in turn change the society.

The inner exploration is necessary for a better person, life and society. It is vital for individuals to gain strength. People develop healthy and strong mind through their experiences in life. Due

90 to the complicated reasons, experiences and problems, decision-making has become a crucial consideration for people. Literature discusses and describes the circumstances that individuals face and also contributes solutions to the puzzling experiences of life. This article aims at the purpose of self-exploration for life. The goal is to make people think about the life they live; to examine the past and the present and to determine a better future.

Though the scope is extensive, limitations are considered to discuss the various genres of Literature. Psychoanalysis plays an important role in individual’s life as it has become the major problem for people because of the emotional stress they experience in different phases of life. It judges an individual’s behaviour and attitude towards the self and others. It questions whether the transformation is essential for the self. It also asks whether the journey of self- exploration is unavoidable for people. This paper puts forward the reviews of different authors upon the theme of self-discovery. The reviews state that self-discovery endows identity of the self; the wide range of accomplishments and also the limits to live a life of virtue.

Introduction:

Literature reflects the self. The inner exploration of the self exhibits the truth about an individual. Human life is a framework of obligations, goals and accomplishments. Self- discovery is the enlightenment of an individual in the journey of life. According to Aristotle, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Human beings are obsessed with emotions and feelings. These qualities rule over or dominate human mind and heart which in turn close the eyes of consciousness.

Self-discovery occurs at any moment. It transforms an individual into an entirely different person. It becomes the dominant factor and it leads the life of every individual. Literature being the treasure house of knowledge plays an important role in the self-discovery of an individual.

Self-realization is the final destination for a fickle soul. It empowers the mind and heart of human beings and lightens the path to follow; it emerges from within and lit the lamp of consciousness. The ultimate goal of self-realization is to discover the fact about an individual’s life and its relation to the world around them which pushes them to live a life of virtue.

Acceptance and transformation internally is the achievement of self-discovery because an individual is reborn with the inner journey. Success and failure are the two main objectives of any work of literature. A life of reason and perfection begins with self-discovery. It is a dawn

91 on the dark of ignorance; it is a divine light upon the world of fantasy. It is achieved by the characters only through the inner journey.

The important concept of self-discovery is transformation. This is the basic idea that drives the journey of self-exploration. It is wrapped up with notions of power, purpose and authenticity. Literary works bring to light all theories that enable the inner journey of human beings. The key concepts provoke the characters to identify their self, life and the world around them. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the inner journey to gain power. “To be or not to be” is the question that eats him eagerly through the entire play. Hamlet is torn between pressure and expectation as his primary duty is to acquire the power of Denmark. He has to avenge his father’s death, but reality is entirely different. The soliloquies in the drama expose the inner journey of Hamlet. The perception of power is achieved by Hamlet only in the end.

Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre” is the inner journey of life. The novel portrays the experiences of Jane Eyre and unfolds the purpose of life not only for Jane Eyre but also for the readers. Jane Eyre’s expedition unveils knowledge and wisdom that are essential for the journey of life. Shashi Deshpande’s “Dark Holds No Terrors” discloses the authenticity of life. The protagonist Saru alarmed by her husband Manu went to her father’s house. The news of her husband’s arrival inflicted anxiety upon her, but her consciousness of real life overpowered her fear.

Consequently, the concepts evolved in literature unveils a person’s true potential. It encourages the person to follow the path of honesty and morality. Values of life are the concepts of self- discovery. According to the proverb “Art is long but life is short,” longliving literature renew the short lifespan of humans.

Humans are fugitives in the world today. The journey of life is not an achievement unless we find the true self that prevails dormant within. According to Rainer Maria Rilke, “The only journey is the one within.” This is the journey that unmasks the consciousness and brings to light the consciousness. When awareness ensues humans turn sanguine about life and its challenges.

“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.”

------E.M. Forster

92 The narration of thoughts and feelings of the characters contributes to the self-discovery of the readers. Authors employ various techniques to portray the characters. The most admired and famous style is the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique. It is defined as the flow of thoughts in the minds of characters. The reminiscences from the past into the present flows like a stream and it reveals the self-reflection of the characters. This method sheds light on the plot of the novel, which in turn sheds light in the minds of the readers. Reading the thoughts and feelings of the characters escorts the readers internally to the thoughts and feelings of the self.

Life in current world deals with success and failure. There is no mutual understanding between people in personal and professional life. Money is the prominent factor that drives human life. The race for money pushes people into a puddle. The only way to come out of the puddle is the stimulation of the consciousness. It transfigures the mind to the path of virtue. It revolutionizes the mind to realize the self and the real world. It aims not only for success but also for the journey that changes life into something unique.

The predominant goal of self-discovery is to create self-awareness. Self-realization is a remedy for all vices within the self and the world. It boosts the confidence to face the reality; it motivates the characters to take correct decisions. It enables to confront with the emotional and intellectual challenges of the self and the world.

The dilemmas and experiences of life reconstruct the mind, thoughts and feelings of the character. Accordingly, characters should possess virtuous thoughts and feelings. The goal of self-discovery is to bring a drastic change within the self which in turn revolutionize a crucial change in the society and the world.

The prominent purpose is to ignite the obligations that everyone has to rebuild the self, society, and the world. Upbraiding others can be eradicated entirely with the knowledge of responsibilities. Duties appear as challenges during perverse periods. Self-discovery excludes the qualms that control the emotions. It unveils the true abilities. It imparts the love for humanity. It consolidates the mutual understanding among people. The voyage of self- exploration scrutinizes the skills for determination. It helps to select genuine pathway and encourages in strong determination. Apparently, choosing ethical values and determined approach brings victory to the self, society and the world.

Consequently, an individual’s thoughts and feelings is Literature. Literature is the mirror and the window. As a mirror it reflects the self and as a window it exposes the lives of other people.

93 It empowers the concealed powers. This is the voyage that purifies the mind and feelings, awakens the consciousness and facilitate the way to attain perfection.

The different genres of Literature play an important role in arousing the consciousness of the self. The awakening discloses the genuine nature of the characters. It is a reflection in the mirror. It provokes the characters to follow the psychological path which in turn ignites the inner journey. It augments the conversion of the self. The regenerated thoughts and feelings are beyond the scope of knowledge. It reaches the greater altitude called wisdom.

Knowledge enriches life of the self and society. Wisdom endows judgement with respect to the facts. Assessment of self and society is possible with wisdom. Literature empowers thoughts and feelings of humans with knowledge. The psychological journey of the self- imparts wisdom to lead a life of virtue. Enthralling life holds manifold enigmas.

Experiences empowers people. Psychoanalysis of the self-digs into the depth of unconscious awareness. As literature is the mirror, it reflects the thoughts and feelings of the self; it is also the window through which we see others’ life. The reflection in the mirror is not always the desired one. The ungraceful reflection enables to contemplate upon the intellectuality and wisdom.

Observation of the life of others through the window stimulates the quest for wisdom. Wisdom is the realization of truth. Judgement is achieved by wisdom. Knowledge should be accompanied by wisdom. Life is futile without wisdom. The vast literature is the study of knowledge and wisdom. The range for the study of literature and the themes of literature is limitless. The scope is beyond what is expected. Exploration is not expectation. Though the scope is of wide range, the study of a particular theme unfolds the mysterious journey of miraculous lives.

Everything in the world has its own limitations. “Patience has its own limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice” ----- George Jackson.

Sky is the limit for aspiration. Accomplishing aims and aspirations has become the priority of life. But realizing the limits of the self, society and the world, it must be reconsidered for the better life of the people. The journey of self-discovery exposes the bitter truth that limits and restrictions pacifies people to accept reality. Shashi Deshpande’s novels “Dark Holds No Terrors” and Roots and Shadows” depicts the traditional norms and beliefs of people. It portrays the restraints imposed upon women. The protagonists Saru and Indu

94 protests the limits and choose their lives. Eventually self-discovery persuades them to accept real life.

Authenticity fulfils the quest for self-discovery and it answers the questions about limitations enforced upon women. Shakespeare’s Hamlet deals with acquiring power internally and externally. Hamlet lacks inner strength which is vital for judgement. Subsequently, Hamlet is in ambiguous situations and is bewildered in considering an appropriate decision. Hamlet achieved power only at the end. Hamlet is well-read and knowledgeable. The limitations in Hamlet are confined to attain inner power which in turn can secure the power of Denmark.

Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” describes the purpose of life. It illustrates the journey of Jane Eyre at three different stages of life. The novel is confined to the purpose of life. It is implied by the portrayal of Jane Eyre. Literature itself is endowed with limitations for exploration. The voyage of self-discovery is endless. Limitations are set to accomplish a significant goal which is the ground for the journey of self-discovery.

The theme of inner exploration in Literature is the topic of this article. This article deals with the journey of self-discovery to achieve power, purpose and authenticity in life. Shakespeare’s Hamlet illustrates power. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre reveals the purpose of life through journey of the self along with the journey of her life. Acceptance of reality is described through the inner journey of the protagonist Saru in Dark Holds No Terrors by Shashi Deshpande.

The research article “Women in the novels of Shashi Deshpande: An introduction” by Bala Suman discusses women’s quest for identity in a male-dominated society. The author puts forth the fact that the women discovered themselves and accepted the reality after all the sufferings they faced in their life.

According to Paul A. Jorgensen in “Lear’s self-discovery,” Hamlet is a thinker who focuses on the object rather than the posture of thought. It is well-noted in situations such as revenge, morality, suicide, action, honor and guilt. Additionally, Hamlet reflects the ideas such as human nature, lust and self-realization.

Christina J. Inge examines the society in which an economically dependent woman suffers and speaks about the reality envisioned by her. The critic Maggie Berg puts forth the view

95 that Jane Eyre exhibits a society where self-identity was discovered by new and different ways.

Every human being’s way of life is strongly related to their thought process. Literature helps in righteous and positive thought process which enables self-realization in individuals’ to attain perfection and to live a successful life which can be achieved only through the amalgamation of mind and heart.

References: “Women in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande: An Introduction. “Ed. Suman Bala. New Delhi:Khosla, 2001.

Paul A. Jorgensen, Lear’s Self-discovery (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967).

The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English: Volume 1 Fall 1999. (Article 2)

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