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10 - Chapter 5 PDF
10 - Chapter 5 PDF
10 - Chapter 5 PDF
CHAPTER-V
-Agarwal, Sinha
plot of more or less complexity” (2) and Walter Allen says, “Novel is a
working model of life” (1). To make the novel a working model of life
explanation” (228).
The concern with the technique has been slow to evolve in the
Indian English fiction. In the thirties when the Indian English fiction
Anita Desai, Arun Joshi, Shouri Daniels, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.
Narayan, Attia Hosain has been an experiment and Anita Nair has
made her way in the same experiment. She has used this technique
the modern novelist distils in its essence, the entire life of her
thoughts flow between the past and the present. As Ester Fialova
avers, “The novel does not have a linear progress. There is a playful
village Kaikurussi where he has made his living at present and of the
In the same chapter Bhasi’s thoughts are taken back to his past. He
narrates how before eight years he was in the train and how it had
Anita Nair in her maiden novel The Better Man has used this
But one would think what a painter like Bhasi could have to do with
one reads about his past, the perplexity about Bhasi is cleared and
This is not easy, the delving into the past that I had
So Bhasi unfolds his past of some fifteen years back, when he had
student called Omana and how the affair had met with a failure. By
Bhasi had tried to read Mukundan’s mind and heal him of his
repression. But Mukundan never let him do that. Only after Bhasi
To suit the stream of consciousness technique Anita Nair has used the
language of the interior, that is the language of the heart and mind.
fully and become more interested in the character. In the novel, such
the novelist has used interior monologues to bring out the thoughts in
his in-depth mind. These monologues disclose the fear in his mind.
could not help it. To quote the relevant passage from the text:
(11).
narration moves forward and backward in time and space. All the
characters in the novel have come across the same experience that
has taken place in the three periods of time: the past, the present and
the future. And this enables us to dive a greater depth into the
of the protagonist’s mind and its interaction with the other characters
board the Kanyakumari express. There when she reads the board,
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the board. This is revealed through the interior monologue, “but why
reveals that she is standing in the threshold of living a life of her own.
Anita Nair has also used flash back technique in the novel
Ladies Coupe. It is the story of five women who are connected with
Akhila the protagonist in the train. The novel opens with a third
person narrator. Among the stories of five women, the stories of two
Margaret unfolds her past of her love with Ebenezer Paulraj, their
marriage, the abortion of her first child, the tyranny of her husband
and how she had overcome her tyrannical husband, Akhila gets the
confidence that her decision of leaving her family and lead a life alone
women. In anger she began telling her story to Akhila. She was angry
because according to her all the four women have made a fuss of little
things. For her she was the most tragic woman and the ever strongest
The story of her past strengthens Akhila’s confidence and as she gets
Using myths Anita Nair recounts various experiences in life. Her quest
Paramasivan States:
Anita Nair handles myth in her novels to interpret man and his
the Greek mythology of Zeus and Hera to interpret the marital life of
Giri and Meera. Zeus and Hera’s marriage was tumultuous and Giri
against her husband Zeus’ words. Meera thinks that she is like Hera
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who can puff the sails and winnow the fields against him but it is of
no use with women like her, as women are the same everywhere and
time immemorial:
that Hera can puff the sails and winnow the fields. Or
Giri made the laws at home. He chose everything for Meera least
bothered about her desires. And Meera was silent and quiet, pusing
aside all her desires as she was frightened of his fanged words:
Meera has not known the true colour of Giri till he demanded her for
her Lilac House. She has nursed him with her love and only love as
she believed that he too had the same love for her. She, like Hera had
wooed the cuckoo warming it in her bosom, without knowing its true
followed almost the same path. Like Hera, she too has
eaten and drunk its fill, nestled in her warmth and love,
Zeus humiliated and hurt Hera by his constant infidelities. When Giri
disloyal to his love. But immediately she asks herself if Hera too
would have thought the same whenever Zeus disappeared. Anita Nair
Meera did not suspect Giri when his colleagues Neruda and
Pushkin sat on Giri’s bedside and when Giri stepped out for twilight
walks out of her sight with his mobile hidden in his breast pocket as if
it contained a rare pearl. “She pretended not to see” (39), the changes
the morning and last thing at night. She believes that nobody else
could offer such love and elegance as Hera thought that no other
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Zeus:
wellness, sweat and soul. She had cut a quarter off the
half and run it along her limbs, gathering into its juice all
with her lips. His tongue snaked out of his mouth and
fed from hers. They feasted off each other and Hera
aged man who has had his head turned. Meera tells
protectress of the family. Even then she longs for protection and that
be a Greek word for ‘lady’ could also mean Herwa (Protectress)” np.
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Though she is the protectress, the winds being originally the property
of Hera, in the battle between giants and the Olympians, when she
forgets that she is a protectress and longs for her husband Zeus to
protect her. Meera too is the same. She wishes that Giri too comes to
always been there. All these years Meera had Giri to lean
In the absence of Giri, when Meera lets Soman into her, she is
ashamed of her passion. She could not believe if it is she who had
not. She even tells herself that it is the false Meera like the false Hera.
But suddenly she asks herself why couldn’t the real Hera too have
this metaphor in order to bring out the inner conflicts of Meera in her
This isn’t her, Meera, she tells herself. This is the false
Meera. Like there once was the false Hera. When Ixion
Later when Meera sought for the love of Jak she was
overwhelmed at it, because all these years she had been a perfect wife
like Hera who responded whenever Zeus sought her body. Giri was
the same as Zeus who had never asked her if she had her desires.
Then she decided to live a life that would weigh for her desires too:
her body, she responded. She was his for the taking,
life like that of an unpredictable cyclone. The novel is divided into five
cyclone expert. By making him say about the facts of a cyclone, the
novelist has made use of the cyclone metaphor effectively. When Jak
predicted. But the only thing that is certain about it is that it triggers
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unexpected disaster” (np). Meera never expected that Giri will forsake
responsible not just for her children Nayantara and Nikhil, but also
her mother Saro, her grandmother Lily and the running of Lilac
Jak, the cyclone expert had never expected that his daughter
Smriti will meet with such a tragedy. In a bedroom in his house lies
holiday in a small beach side town in Tamil Nadu to make her so. By
a series of coincidences, Meera and Jak find their lives turning and
cyclone:
In stage two, Jak tells how humans deny the very presence of a
hides the eye of the cyclone. The human mind is capable of self-
how Meera deceives herself because of her profound love for Giri. And
Jak too deceives himself thinking that his daughter Smriti would be
In stage three Jak says how human beings are deceived by the
bands of convective cloud spiraling from which emerge heavy rain and
squalls. But that isn’t where the real danger lies. For the spiral
bands are master deceivers. They make us believe this is the extent of
celestial forces and acts of God! The tipping point is yet to come”
(166). Jak experiences the same with his daughter. He thinks that he
could find the truth behind the tragedy of his daughter, but as he
collects about his daughter. In the life of Meera too this happens.
She manages to make up herself and her family after Giri leaves, but
Smriti, who has been his life has been furiously attacked:
Here comes the story of Smriti, in which she is unaware of the danger
(317).
At the end, Jak defines the state of calm. He calls it either the
quiet before the storm or after the storm. At this one finds both Meera
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and Jak, as the days pass, they experience a stillness in their life and
only endings. That is why in the last stage Jak says, “it is either the
Thus the novel Mistress is a deeply moving exploration into the search
heart can feel, the novel is divided into three books, each
dancer who has retired and the novel weaves together, his past and
the present involving his niece Radha and her husband Shyam. Anita
Nair draws on the techniques of Kathakali and uses it to tell this story
interview with Aruna Chandaraju, Nair herself admits, “What are the
was, in a sense, the catalyst for Mistress, and a recurring theme in it”
(np).
finds that his life lies in Kathakali. More than just a backdrop for the
novel, Kathakali forms the structure of the book and it has been
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for the genuine love of her husband Shyam, but Shyam is weak in
has her on her, he’ll kick her. Then I think Radha is wise
The other story runs around Sethu, Koman’s father who experiences
love from everyone like Dr. Samuel and Sister Faith, Hope and Charity
slowly understands that she is inclined towards Chris and just she is
“Karunam. All of us have known sorry some time or the other” (104).
man much older than her. This leads her to despair as the man hides
dismay and sorrow she had to agree to her marriage with Shyam as
Radha says:
he rapes Radha as she is not willing to have sex with him then to
mood!, She said. ‘I’ll get you into the mood’, I said . . .
Chris, “That evening I saw Chris and I felt a ray of calm suffuse me.
Shyam might think he owned me but he didn’t. I was never his. And
I never will” (165). While Shyam poured out his anger by raping her,
how the intimacy between Chris and Radha grows day by day to the
extent that both of them feel that nothing can come between them.
They are courageous, not to give it up, though they are aware that
Shyam has come to know about it. Moreover when Radha catches
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his face that it was he who has to check his fertility and not her as
Perhaps you need to find out if you can father a child, she
Radha draws courage to be more and more close with Chris, as she
This chapter, also tells the story of Sethu who returns to his native
children. Then he gains courage to bring his son Koman with him to
the village and have him in his own house with his wife and children.
Shyam’s fear of losing Radha. Shyam says, “I sit here, Radha, looking
at you. Again and again. And thus we sit together fear and I. All
night we have not stirred. Inspite of all his attempts, he is not able to
draw Radha towards him. The more he tries, the more she moves
Chirs:
This chapter also brings out Koman’s fear of being alone. As he grows
vesham the artist brings out the feeling of disgust. In this chapter
Shyam feels disgusted at the sexual affair with Chris. Even Radha
feels disgusted of what she was doing to Shyam, “I feel disgust for
much longer can I do this? This cheating, lying and pretence” (290).
Shyam comes to know that Radha’s uncle Koman had a role in Chris
and Radha’s affair as he had hidden it from him. As Meena Devi says,
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when he gave his fullness to the art, but then when he seldom
performs he is recognized:
(336). Hence the chapter shows how unexpected events can change
the entire course of life. This chapter tells how Radha is perplexed at
embarrassing situation of who the father of the child would be. She is
a voice asks me. Don’t forget you made love again, two
nights after the rape. It was the last day of your safe
not Chris’ father. He lived with Angela but soon they got separated”
(350).
life. When all is done, that is what we all aspire to Shaantam” (397).
This chapter narrates how Radha comes to take terms with her life.
Radha could not escape both the thoughts of Shyam and Chris
because when she thinks of Chris she sees the shadow of Shyam and
when she thinks of Shaym, she sees her chance of escaping with
Chris. But she is so certain that she cannot live with one or the other.
As Meena Devi says, “She finally decides firmly that she should lead a
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life of her own with her child, leaving both Shyam and Chris. She
knows that both the men will be hurt by her decisions. But both
Shyam and Chris accept her decision silently without making any
qualms.
we can find out that there is an external bond between art and life.
Agrawal and Sinha present their views about the Indian writers’
Koman tells Chris about his love with Angela he compares himself to
and goes off to London for the sake of his love. They were there to
make a new life in London. And as Koman says, “We were still
Damayanti and Nala, trying to make a new life. Though it had been
Kathakali librettos:
She says this to Chris as she understands that she is love with Chris
and Chris too has got the same for her. There runs a thought in her
mind that she is Ahalya and Chris is Indra, the king of Gods and
Gautama is Shyam:
Thus in her novel Mistress Anita Nair has skilfully woven in design the
Indian sensibility and feelings” (40). There by the novel has attained a
desired effect.
novelist who has successfully employed this in her novels. Her novels
classifies herself as water. Like water she accepts her life with her
at the same time she says that the same water has the power to
He has named them James and Joyce for the male and female
respectively. One day when Margaret finds James floating dead she
says:
male-egoism.
had invited Pramod to take advantage over her body. Though this had
taken place long back she is not able to come out of its guilt. But
when Prabha Devi watched the children swimming in the pool she
wonders at them, “Prabha Devi watched the children. She saw how
they kicked the surface of water raising glittering rainbows. How they
stretched their arms. How their legs propelled them forward” (189).
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them forward” symbolize that soon Prabha Devi will overcome her
life:
significance of characterization:
life-like (237).
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between the plot and character. Her novels have an artistic unity as
an artistic unity”(198). Her characters in all the four novels are life-
like that they are most enjoyable. All the four novels enable to identify
ourselves not only with the protagonists but also other characters.
present. Janaki of the past and Sheela Vasudevan of future. Not only
these three women but even the minor characters are universal types
protagonist Akhila and ending with the Chettiar’s insane wife are
women. The five women whom Akhila meets in the train, give a valid
works and in Kaikurussi Anita Nair has created on, that could become
Kaikurussi is well crafted by Anita Nair that she has created another
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which Anita Nair has presented the character of Bhasi, though not the
characters who refuse to leave our memory even after finishing the
art” (np).
or wherever (207).
he pours his anger over Radha through words and then attacks her
him:
The servants will hear us.’ ‘You are my wife. I want you
dialogues. She changes their tone and style to match her characters
Meera, when he is vexed that she is not able to understand the needs
of the present:
make life fit those lists you are making all the time. You
don’t see it, do you? That your lists are all about the past
This dialogue sounds almost as if he hated her because Giri had never
spoken to her like that. His tone was that as if she had trapped him
Anita Nair has thus showed off her mastery of an alien language
symbols.