RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LAW, PATIALA, PUNJAB

ENGLISH - I

COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO NOVELS: A MATTER OF TIME

AND A FINE FAMILY

SUBMITTED TO: Dr Tanya Mander

SUBMITTED BY: - Group –IInd

Year: 1st Year (1st semester)

Group Members Name: Nikhil Suresh Parikh- 502

Angshuman Hazarika-512

Tribeni Ramchiary-522

Dewangana Chillar-532
 CONTENTS

1. Introduction.......................................................................................
I. Background
II. Motivation
III. Comparision of background and motivation
2. Characters and comparison between the two books..........................
3. Themes..............................................................................................
i. Language and style
ii. Symbols and metaphors
iii. Comparison
4. Conclusion ........................................................................................
 CHAPTER: 1

Introduction

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Shashi Deshpande is an award winning novelist born in Dharward in Karnataka in 1938 as

the second daughter of famous Kannada dramatist and writer Sriranga. She pursued her
education in Dharward, Bombay and Bangalore. The received degrees in economics and law
and was a gold medallist. When she was living in Mumbai, she did a course on Journalism at
the Bharatia Bidya Bhawan and took up a job as a Journalist in the magazine Onlooker. She
worked there for a couple of months. While working at the magazine she began writing her
first short stories and published them in 1978 and her first novel, “The Dark Holds No Terror
was published in 1980. She won the Sahitya Academy Award for the novel “That Long
Silence” in 1990 and the Padmashri Award in 2009. Shashi Deshpande has written four
children’s books, a number of short stories, and nine novels, besides a several perceptive
essays.

BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR

Gurcharan Das is an Indian author, commentator and public intellectual. He is the author of
The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma which interrogates the epic,
Mahabharata. His international bestseller, India Unbound, is a narrative account of India
from Independence to the global information age, and has been published in many languages
and filmed by BBC.

He is a regular columnist for six Indian newspapers in English, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi,
and he writes periodic pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times,
Foreign Affairs, and Newsweek.

Gurcharan Das graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy and also in
Politics. He later attended Harvard Business School where he is featured in three case studies
He is the author of the international best seller "India Unbound". He was also the CEO of
Procter & Gamble India and Vice President or Procter & Gamble Far East between 1985 and
1992. Prior to P&G, he was Chairman and Managing Director of Richardson Hindustan
Limited from 1981 to 1985, the company where he started as a trainee. In 1995, after a 30-
year career in 6 countries, he took an early retirement to become a full-time writer. And thus
starts his writing career. He writes a regular column on Sundays for the "Times of India" and
"Dainik Bhaskar" and occasional guest columns for the "Wall Street Journal," "Financial
Times" and "Time" magazine. Penguin has recently published his book of essays called "The
Elephant Paradigm." In addition, he currently consults with a number of companies on global
corporate strategy and is associated with a venture capital fund.

ABOUT HER WRITING

Shashi deshpande is one of the famous contemporary novelists in India. Her novels mainly
deal with the inner world of the Indian women which are realistic in nature and their situation
in contemporary India. She writes about the conflict between tradition and modernity in
relation to women in the middle class society. The main points in her novels are the desires,
efforts and failures of women in the Indian society which makes it clear that she is not a
complete strict feminist which sees man as the cause of all the troubles. Her novel A matter
of time is an exploration of a woman’s inner life and generally her novels like the dark holds
no terror, that long silence etc explore a woman psyche. And in case of this novel woman’s
inner life is not the only subject, here the inner life of woman emotionally isolated from her
family is reflected and how her daughters react to it. She presents a world which consists of
socially complex relationship i.e. how men and women journey across their life in different
stages. Her novels present two to three generation living together and modern Indian
womanhood in her novels. Deshpande has concentrated upon women’s changing perspective

and their search for bonding within family as a mode of strength in order to present the social
reality experienced by women. She mostly mentions about the clash of tradition and
modernity which is reflected in the generation gap and conflict between women. For instance,
in ‘a matter of time’ the way Kalyani, Sumi and her daughters behave with each other in
certain cases. The younger generation portrayed in her novels rebel, reject and seek freedom
from traditional way of life and the portrayed generations presents the difference between
traditional and modern society. Shashi deshpande is a writer whose writing comes mostly out
of her own experience of what it is to be a woman in our society and deals with gender-
related experiences.

ABOUT HIS WRITING

Gurcharan Das is now mainly known for his two best-selling books, India Unbound and The
Difficulty of Being Good. India Unbound, is a narrative account of India from Independence
to the global information age, and has been published in over a dozen languages and filmed
by BBC. The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma (Penguin 2009) examines
contemporary moral failures through the lens of the 2000 year old epic, the Mahabharata.
Apparently he spent nearly 7 years researching the book at the University of Chicago. It uses
quotes from the Mahabharata yet also other ancient works such as The Illiad etc. and cites
examples as recent as the financial crisis.

Gurcharan Das began to write soon after college. He wrote three plays in his twenties, which
have been published as an anthology, Three English Plays (Oxford University Press, 2003). It
consists of Larins Sahib, a prize-winning play about the British in India, which has been
presented at the Edinburgh Festival; Mira, which was produced off-Broadway to critical
acclaim from New York critics; and 9 Jakhoo Hill which has been performed in major Indian
cities.

He wrote a novel in his thirties, A Fine Family, which follows the stories of several
generations of a Punjabi family beginning with the Partition.

The Elephant Paradigm is a book of essays which ranges over subjects as varied as
panchayati raj, national competitiveness, and the sacred and philosophical concerns of the
average Indian consequent to India’s entry into what the author calls the ‘age of liberation’.
While India may never roar like the Asian tigers, Das argues, it will advance like a wise
elephant, moving steadily and surely, pausing occasionally to reflect on its past and to enjoy
the journey.

SUMMARY OF A MATTER OF TIME

This book tells us about a family which mentions three generation and starts with Sumi,
whose husband Gopal, walks out on her and her three daughters Aru, Charu and Sheema.
There was no concrete reason behind why he had walk out on her, on the other hand Aru
considers herself to be responsible for her father’s act as because she was rude to him when
he resigned from university teaching job. Sumi along with her daughters return to their
ancestral house, but initially her daughters find difficult to settle in a new environment. It was
the house of Sumi’s parents, Kalyani and Shripati, who did not shared a good relation where
Kalyani has been living in strange oppression and silence for nearly 40 years with Shripati,
since they had lost their only son in an incident after. Even Manorama, who sometimes didn’t
liked Kalyani for not being a male child, blamed her for her father’s (Vishwasrao’s) death.
Every members of the family hoped and tried to make their condition like before and starts to
settle within that environment. But later there is a realisation that it was of no use in trying to
make their condition better. Gopal who himself had suffered loses, also sometimes gets
disturbed by his father’s act i.e., marrying his brother’s widow. Later when the reality behind
Kalyani comes in front of Aru, she tries to find out why she didn’t claim that it was not her
fault. The story turns into a direction when Sumi and Shripati were killed in a road accident
and after their death everybody gets into their own way.

BACKGROUND OF A MATTER OF TIME

First of all Deshpande divided this book into three different parts i.e., The House, the Family
and The river with the help of which she enables a reader to understand the story, about the
house of the family and what incidents leads them to live in such way and later how they goes
into their own direction by their destiny. This story by Shashi Deshpande is mainly about the
existence of men and women in an intricate relationship and also about societal norms.
Deshpande poses, they discover new and clearer ways to think about their own status as
mothers or daughters or wives. Analogies from Hindu belief and myth make clear that
Deshpande writes for readers in India first and foremost. But her careful exposition renders
literary and historical reference no more a barrier to comprehension than the characters’
unfamiliar names. Published in India in 1996, this novel places Deshpande in distinguished
international company; readers who enjoy Anita Brooknern or Isabel Allende may find
distant analogues here. In her first, somewhat charmless book to be published here, Indian
writer deshpande tells a story familiar to readers in the west: a family crisis is triggered when
a husband walks out on his wife.
It is a story encompassing four generation of women project four variants of ideology within
the same family charting the course of social history and ideological change. The experiences
which they had to face are inescapable even in reality.

Later she gives vent to her long suppressed feelings as her relation with her daughter and
grand daughters develop, opening up the gates of her memories through which the family
legacies pours out. While going through the book, other than mentioning about what actually
happens with all the family members, it also keeps retelling stories of their past, specially
about the ancestral history and about the past of Sumi and Gopal. This book mentions the
battle of the Peshwas and its victory because of the miracles of the idol of Ganpati and how
Vishwasrao is related to the Peshwas. And unfold the family histories which are rich in
abandonments and betrayals.

This book is also reflects a society in transition. The change in society is skilfully elaborated
through the different generations in this book; Kalyani who couldn’t complete her study in
high school just because her mother didn’t allow her after coming to know about the feeling

of a boy towards Kalyani, Sumi who is educated but doesn’t work outside the house, keeping
beside her dreams; Sumi’s sister Premi who is a successful doctor, and the young girls Aru,
Charu, and Sheema, who all aspire for careers and independence.

SUMMARY OF A FINE FAMILY

Bauji is forced to flee India by the violence and instability unleashed by Partition. Bauji has
lost everything in the transition, and when hbis daughter Tara gives birth to a son, everyone's
hopes are pinned on the child to revive the family's fortunes in an independent India.

A fine family is the extraordinary chronicle-rich in passion and incident-of several

generations of a Punjabi family.Bauji,a successful lawyer in Lyallpur is forced to flee India
by instability unleased by Partition.Bauji has lost everything in the transition and when his
daughter Tara gives birth to a son,Arjun,everyone’s hopes are pinned on the child to revive
the family’s fortune in an independent India.Together the voices of the various generations
tell the story of a fine family and a great country as both to struggle to build a new future in
in difficult circumstances.
MOTIVATION

Shashi Deshpande’s A Matter of Time is a continuation of her exploration into the many
facets of feminine experience in writing. She has written this so that it gives the readers
insight into a woman’s life in a middle class society of India. Deshpande is from Karnataka
and she has spent most of her life around Bombay and Bangalore and this may reason of why
she has written this story in a south Indian background and where she mentions about places
like Bombay and Bangalore. The fact that most of the today’s women are facing problems in
their familial relationship which is clear from her writings is meant for the readers to know
about the plight of women. Being a woman she is conscious about how women are looked
upon by people in an Indian society with a stereotype attitude and is being disturbed by such
views of people and by writing such novels she expresses her feelings. But one thing which is
clear from her writings is that she is not a feminist who only favours writing about the
problems of women.

BACKGROUND OF A FINE FAMILY

`A fine family` is a remarkable book on Indian urban middle class. This is a creation of
Gurcharan Das. Indian urban middle class has lost the most as they expected a lot from
democratic India born out of the British Empire. The class of Indian society has given more
than it has been rewarded. This book traces one such `khatri` family through World War I. It
has also concentrates on different aspect as the Rowlatt Act of 1919, the softening of British
Empire, the Quit India Movement, the error of Gandhi and his time in jail, rise of Jinnah and
the two nation theory. He also gives importance to Lord Mountbatten and the Radcliffe Line,
the ensuing riots on both sides of the border, the perceived loss of Hindu`s. In his writing,
idealistic dreamer named Nehru, Indo-China ties, the rise of the Indian bureaucrats, the
convoluted democracy led in succession by Nehru family, tyranny of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay
inspired emergency and search for spirituality among the new Indian middle class has come
up in an excellent manner. In this book the author relates the life of Bauji, who is a `khatri`
lawyer from East Punjab. She represented the pre-independence progressive Indians. These
people used education to further the development of their people, who will lead India from
freedom to glory. But Bauji got caught on the wrong side of the Radcliffe Line and did not
believe that his countrymen will turn the joyous occasion of their freedom to one of the most
hateful episode of communal riots in the modern history. Like many other unfortunate but
brave souls with similar experience, Bauji builds his life again in free India. And his life was
better than his more fortunate countrymen. His grandson, Arjun, carries his torch of middle
class honesty, stubborn sense of justice and good-natured industry. The boundaries of a rigid
Hindu society are extended by these bold, sensuous `khatri` males.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE BACKGROUNDS OF THE TWO BOOKS:

A MATTER OF TIME AND A FINE FAMILY

A Matter of Time is a book about a family belonging to a middle class society whereas a fine
family is a novel belonging to a urban middle class. Shashi Deshpande being women mainly
focuses on women plights and issues centralized towards women however Gurucharan Das
focuses on the problems faced by the people during the partition of India. Shashi Deshpande
has a particular view regarding the relationship between a man and a woman whereas
Gurucharan Das has a generalized view focusing on the society as a whole. A Matter of Time
is a novel reflecting the culture, religion and background of a south Indian society even if the
story has a familiarity with the western world whereas A Fine Family mainly reflects the
culture and society of a north Indian Punjabi family.
 CHAPTER: 2

Characters

A MATTER OF TIME

The characters in this story reflect the reality behind family norms, values and about those
things which are sometimes ignored by us. It is in this stifling atmosphere the characters
evolve and come to a newer understanding of their lives. Kalyani who tries very hard not to
let her daughter and her grand daughters know about her secret of her past and she wished
that her daughters would be free from the life she had lived. Even in real life a mother who
has suffered so much in her married life would never let her daughters to suffer the same. The
way she tells about her ancestors to her family makes it clear that she finds pleasure in telling
about her family history. Sumi who wanders in search of job shows how women thrive for
fulfilling their dreams. Both the males who finds problem to carry on with their family are
shown in a slightly different way by Deshpande like if for Gopal it is something as bizarre as
existential fury that drives him away from his family, for Sripati it is the inner fury of loss.
From this, it is clear that its not easy for a man to live with a family of females.

The relation of father and daughter i.e., that of Premi and Sripati is yet another relation which
takes the reader deeper into the complex web of human relation. The unconscious inheritance
that passes from one generation to another can be clearly understood when Deshpande
mentions about Manorama and her relation with her daughter Kalyani and Kalyani with
Sumi.

Deshpande is at her best using allusions to portray the development and inner turmoil of her
characters. As the women’s secrets and strengths are revealed, so are the complications of
family and culture, catching each in turn in the cycles of love, loss, and renewal that become
essential to her identity. A matter of time reveals the hidden springs of character while
painting a nuanced portrait of the difficulties and the choices faced by women especially
educated, independent in today’s India.

In case of children Sumi’s three daughters are also portrayed in three different ways like the
relationship that Aru and Charu shares is different from that of what they share with Sheema
because of their age gaps. It can also be seen in most of the families in our society and the
intimacy which they share with each other. Aru and Charu who were shown in their teenage,
represents the difference that lies among every teenage of today’s society. The way Sheema
behaves with everybody and remaining self-centred reflects the character of a child resulting
from the treatment by the family members. Deshpande shows the importance of a male child
in our society by mentioning about the big ceremony which was held after Premi’s son
(Nikhil) was born and the treatment of Manorama and Sripati towards Kalyani after losing
her only son.

Deshpande has presented the character of Aru in a very natural manner like the way she
responds to her family member, especially with her mother and how she reacts. Anyone of us
would have the same experienced if one has to face such situation and where he or she is the
eldest among the children of a particular family.
 CHAPTER: 3

Themes
A Matter of Time

The base of this story is about a family with the help of which the author is representing the
reality where destiny plays a major role. With this novel she takes the themes of silence,
gender differences, passive suffering, and familial relationship into much deeper realms.
Fury, role of destiny, gender differences are some of many themes around which Deshpande
weaves her tales. This novel of Deshpande attracts most of the readers even it is set in a
particular region, milieu, culture and gender, because of its universal theme.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF A MATTER OF TIME

This story is set in present day Karnataka, rich with south Indian culture, landscape, folk tales
and history. The characters mentioned in this story are familiar with three languages i.e.,
Kannada, Marathi and English. Deshpande portrays the characters of this story specially
women in a typical south Indian manner which is clear from the dressing style of the girls, the
way they interact with each other to their food styles. Even the views and perspective has a
little familiarity with it.

SYMBOLS AND METAPHORES

Shashi Deshpande used quoted lines from A.K. Ramanujan’s translation of early classical
Tamil poetry in Poems of Love and War and translated verses from Upanishads by Dr S.
Radhakrishnan taken from The Principal Upanishads and from The Thirteen Principal
Upanishads by Robert Ernest Hume*. Even to describe and express the feelings and emotions
of different character various quoted lines are used like for instance the joy of Gopal when he
was with Sumi was compared to the supreme joy Purandaradasa has found in his Lord,
Vithala.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OF A FINE FAMILY

The story of three generations of a Punjabi family in a drastically changing world. A

prominent lawyer in Lyallpur than India, now Pakistan is drawn into the upheveal that comes
with the creation of a new nation. Even more his daughter, Tara, who prefers to work as a
schoolteacher, not quite the profession of a member of an upper class family. When India
gains independence from Britain in 1947 Lyallpur becomes part of the new Muslim country
of Pakistan. This family and millions of non-Muslim Indians must emigrate and adapt to a
complete change in lifestyle.
 CHAPTER: 4

Conclusion

A MATTER OF TIME

A matter of time by Shashi Deshpande is a story which is based on reality of life and which
tells us that whatever we are destined to, we cannot escape from it. We know that sorrows
and miseries are always there to come in every path of our life journey and nothing remains
permanent in this world but still we try to ignore the fact and hope or expect everything
would be fine. It’s a story which is trying to make us understand that we have to accept the
reality and everything does not happen according to our expectation. A very small example to
this fact is that, while reading the story many readers might have expected that there would
be a happy ending which is rather opposite.

After reading this novel we can say that it gives us a rich insight about the reality but besides
the brighter side of the book, there are some drawbacks which Shashi Deshpande might have
ignored. She has introduced the character of this novel in an abrupt manner unlike other
novels where one can easily understand how a particular character is linked to the main issue
and how they are related to each other. It is only after reading the whole book thoroughly and
minutely, one can understand the role of the characters. Moreover there were few characters
in the story, whose relationships with the main characters are not mentioned properly or how
they are linked to each other. Infact it is only after coming to the middle of the story that you
get acquainted to the method of introducing the character by the writer. Given the complexity
of Sumi’s family tree, Deshpande’s failure to clearly demarcate her characters-readers will be
hard-pressed to say what any of them actually looks like-makes for a thinly presented present
time, through which recollections dart quickly into view.

Another thing which we can point out is that, there are few chapters and paragraphs which
are not in a proper sequential manner like ending in a particular point but the next starts from
another which has no relevance with the earlier part. Moreover the fragments of the history
mentioned in the book are often moving, but they seem to loose jumble, lacking the particular
flavour of a specific perspective.

There are many issues which are left unresolved i.e. which starts with something but later
there are no more mentioning about it. Even the end of the novel is an unexpected surprise.
As Shashi Deshpande is a female writer, a little biasness towards woman is obvious which is
clear from the fact that the whole story concentrates mainly on females, their pains and
experience and those of males are quite ignored.

A Matter of Time interestingly traces the transformation of the ideology from the stage of the
internalization of patriarchal values through awareness of the value of female bonding and
self identity to assertion of women’s right.

A FINE FAMILY

This book, A fine family` by Gurcharan Das definitely inspires us not to get involved in any
sort of religion based politics and riots. This will stop politicians, from asking the people to
be Hindus, Tamil, Muslim, etc., before being human. This story has a backdrop as pre
independence as well as the partition time. The traumatic situation of that time is depicted in
a nice manner. Because of the partition many people had to adapt a new lifestyle. They
suffered many problems. All these are extra-ordinarily expressed in this book.

FAMOUS QUOTES BY GURUCHARAN DAS

 "You need two things: you must have the hunger for success and the desperation to
achieve it. It's as if your life won't be complete until you succeed. That fundamental
discontent has to be there. Got it?"
 "I could say I believe in the religion of man, rather than of God!"
 "In life, action is more important than thought."
 "How a rich country became poor and will be rich again."