The White Tiger ,” Balram the Premier Halwai writes a letter to "His Excellency Wen Jiabao ," of China (1). The entire novel is narrated through a collection of these letters. Because the Premier is soon to visit India to learn from the nation’s burgeoning culture of entrepreneurship, Balram has decided to share his own story of entrepreneurial success. He believes his rags-to-riches tale will show the Premier “the truth about Bangalore,” which would otherwise be obscured by propaganda and showmanship meant to impress him (4). Balram admits that he has no formal education, but has nevertheless developed into a “self-taught entrepreneur” (4). He vividly describes the chandelier that hangs above him in his office as he pens his letter, and boasts that he operates “the only 150-square-foot space in Bangalore with its own chandelier” (5). He looks through a miniature fan as it spins, thereby seeing the flashing light of the chandelier as though it were a strobe light. Under the chandelier's refracted light, Balram begins his story. He describes an exchange between his former employer, Mr. Ashok , and Ashok’s wife, Pinky Madam , in which they remarked upon Balram’s lack of basic schooling. Balram explains to the Premier that he, along with thousands of others in India's impoverished regions, are “half-baked,” pulled out of school after only a few years so they can work. However, Balram believes that being "half-baked" allows one to become a great entrepreneur, whereas “fully formed fellows” are destined to take orders from others (9). As a means of introducing the basic facts about himself, Balram describes a police poster that details his likeness and information. The poster was made after what he euphemistically describes as “an act of entrepreneurship” that launched a national manhunt. The poster lists his alias as "Munna" and describes him as: five feet four inches; between 25-35 years of age; the son of a rickshaw puller; and having a “blackish” complexion and a thin, small build (10). Balram parses the poster sentence-by-sentence, expounding upon various details in order to describe his background and early life.
His parents had never bothered to give him a true name; he was simply called "Munna," which translates to "boy" (10). On his first day of school, his teacher Mr. Krishna was shocked at the boy's namelessness, and dubbed him “Balram,” after the god Krishna's sidekick. Balram also explains that his village, Laxmangarh, is part of the “Darkness,” the impoverished part of India that stands in stark contrast to “the Light” (11). The name details how the the Ganga river, with its suffocating, noxious mud, brings “darkness” into the country distant from the ocean. Elucidating his relationship with the river, Balram recounts his mother's funeral, which occurred when he was about seven years old. Her body was dumped into the river while decorated lavishly with silks and garlands. For Balram, the grandeur of her funeral stood in contrast to the misery she experienced while alive, and he believes it indicated that his “family was guilty about something” (13). Using vivid and gruesome imagery, Balram describes the mud enveloping his mother’s corpse, which seemed to fight against its own destruction. The horrific sight caused Balram to faint. Balram then describes the impoverished state of his village, which he notes is nothing like the idyllic image of village life that the government paints for outsiders. In truth, his entire village is dominated by four landlords, dubbed the Buffalo , the Stork (Thakur Ramdev), the Wild Boar , and the Raven . These men own the river, land and roads, residing in high-walled mansions on the outskirts of the village as they charge the peasants exorbitant fees for using their resources. It is a miserable life, and so Balram's father - Vikram Halwei - hoped Balram would remain in school to escape it. Once, Balram refused to return to school because one of his classmates discovered his pathological fear of lizards and then held a lizard against his face to torment him. Angry, his father went to the school himself and killed the lizard for his son. His father's plans were often dismissed by Kusum , Vikram's mother and Balram's grandmother, especially since Balram's brother Kishan already worked. Nevertheless, Vikram always stood by his intentions. Balram also mentions a man named Vijay who lived his village, but worked for the bus company. Because of Vijay's uniform and bearing, Balram idolized the man, dreaming of becoming someone who seemed equally important. Vijay came from the same place Balram did, and so his success provided a reason for Balram to hope for better. Balram returns to the police poster details, describing through them how was employed as a driver at the time of the as-yet-identified crime, and how he was known to be carrying a bag filled with seven hundred thousand rupees in it. Luckily, the photograph on the poster was poor quality, and so nobody ever recognized him. Unveiling the corruption endemic to the Indian education system, Balram describes how his teacher, Mr. Krishna, stole the government money allocated for school lunches and uniforms, justifying the behavior because he himself had not been paid for six months. Balram recounts an incident when a government inspector visited the school and was impressed with Balram's intelligence. He dubbed the boy a "White Tiger," a rare creature “that comes along only once in a generation” (30). Despite his promising scholastic talent, Balram's family eventually removed him from school after one of his female relatives got married. It is traditional for the bride's family to throw a party and provide a dowry, and so peasants demand other peasant families throw lavish events, even though they often strain the other family's fragile finances. His family had taken a loan from the Stork to provide the dowry, and had to repay it. Balram had to work in a tea shop, but maintains that he received a better education there than he ever did in school. At the tea shop, he eavesdropped on conversations, always learning from his surrounding. Balram concludes the first segment of the tale by ruminating upon a line from Iqbal, whom he believes is one of “the four best poets in the world.” Iqubal wrote “They remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful in this world” (34). Balram believes that he is different from India's other peasants; even at a young age, he saw “what was beautiful in the world,” and hence was not destined to remain a slave (35). As evidence of this claim, he describes his childhood obsession with the Black Fort, an abandoned structure that sat at the top of a hill above his village. He was too scared to enter the fort until many years later, when he returned home while employed as a driver with Mr. Ashok. From that vantage, he surveyed his village. Eight months after that visit home, he slit Mr. Ashok's throat.
Analysis
The opening chapter of The White Tiger is quite masterful for how fully it introduces the novel. It provides crucial exposition, lays the groundwork for the novel's central themes, introduces several key symbols, and extensively characterizes Balram through both direct and indirect means. Arguably the novel's most pronounced quality is the narrator's voice. Balram’s tone as narrator is irreverent, confident, and bombastic, thoroughly infused with an acerbic irony that lends the novel a darkly comic air even as it expounds on depressing social realities. Balram mercilessly details the corruption and abject poverty that dominates “the Darkness” with an astounding amount of insight, but his jaded nature and sharp quips add a humorous edge to his social commentary. His irreverence extends from his matter of addressing the Chinese Premier - at one point, he admits that “I consider myself one of your kind” - to his attitude on religion, about which he comments that “all these gods seem to do awfully little—much like our politicians” (2, 6). His brutal honesty and engaging persona draw the reader in, so that we are entertained even as we are disgusted, and primed to be confused when he ends the section by admitting to a vicious murder. Establishing the stark dichotomy between the rich and the poor in India, Balram frames his entrepreneurial journey — which, by the end of the chapter, is revealed to have been catalyzed by an act of violent crime — as an escape from the “Darkness” into the “Light.” This view of India's contemporary social hierarchy is in many ways the novel's central theme. Through Balram's life story, Adiga explores the life in a post-caste system India. He acknowledges the common depiction of an exotic, idealized peasant life, but uses his story to expose a far darker, more stifled life in the nation's extensive interior. Keeping with the use of humor to undercut his social purpose, he has Balram mention that he learned about China from the obviously idealized book Exciting Tales of the Exotic East. The opening chapter also establishes the theme of identity. In particular, the novel explores how identity is malleable enough that one can construct one's own selfhood. Balram prides himself on being a “self-taught” entrepreneur; his transformation from a tea shop worker in the Darkness to a successful businessman in the Light is accomplished wholly through his own incentive (4). He is drawn towards capitalism because it provides this very potential. Balram’s determination to take charge of his own identity can be traced through the many names he takes on throughout his life. At first, he is nameless, known simply as “Munna." Later, he passively accepts the name Balram, which labels him as a “sidekick,” still a subsidiary of another. It is therefore a crucial moment when the inspector dubs him the “White Tiger,” not only because it evoked uniqueness, but also because it distinguished him. He accepts this name because it allows him to define himself. As he notes in the chapter, “there will be a forth and fifth name too, but that’s late in the story” (30). The idea here is that the process of forging his own identity continues over the course of the novel and his life. Adiga expounds on his themes through frequently used motifs and symbols, many of which are introduced as early as this chapter. The chandelier is one of the first. To Balram, this gaudy fixture symbolizes both his success at becoming a wealthy businessman and his success at moving from the Darkness into the Light. When he chops the light into a strobe effect with his fan, Balram is in effect suggesting his own omnipotence. He controls light and darkness, where he once was a slave to circumstance and others. Of course, the irony is that the chandelier is laughably out of place in such a small office space. (Also, later in the novel, Pinky Madam, a true member of the elite class, remarks that she finds chandeliers to be “tacky” (71).) Thus, the chandelier also demonstrates the meaninglessness of Balram’s achievement in a society that persistently oppresses its underclass, and reminds us that he will never be truly able to transition from his past life. That the chandelier functions both literally, in the way Balram intends, and ironically, for what it reveals about Balram to the reader alone, is a mark of Adiga's talent. The Black Fort provides another significant symbol, representing all that fascinates and appeals to Balram about the Light of urban coastal India. While his childhood fears initially held him back from exploring the Fort and breaking free of the Darkness, he ultimately overcame these hesitations. It was when he returned to Laxmangarh, now wearing a uniform as Vijay had when Balram was young, that Balram was able to visualize how far he had come. He was for the first time worthy of entering the fort.
Another symbol introduced in the opening chapter is the lizard. Balram’s paralyzing phobia marks a source of physical and mental weakness that is exploited by others. The lizard represents the fears, cultural values, and superstitions that trapped Balram in the Darkness, many of which he seems to still fear hold him back. The extent to which he protests that he has transcended the Darkness give us much reason to wonder how truly free he feels. He holds onto certain fears - of cell phones, for instance - suggesting that though he has superficially transformed his entire life, all it would take is one lizard, as a manifestation of deeper fears, for him to revert to the timid peasant he once was.
Kanthapura by raja rao
Raja Rao’s first novel Kanthapura (1938) is the story of a village in south Indianamed Kanthapura. The novel is narrated in the form of a ‘sthalapurana’ by an old woman ofthe village, Achakka. Kanthapura is a traditional caste ridden Indian village which is awayfrom all modern ways of living. Dominant castes like Brahmins are privileged to get the bestregion of the village whereas Sudras, Pariahs are marginalized. The village is believed to haveprotected by a local deity called Kenchamma. Though casteist, the village has got a longnourished traditions of festivals in which all castes interact and the villagers are united. The main character of the novel Moorthy is a Brahmin who discovered a halfburied ‘linga’ from the village and installed it. A temple is built there, which later became thecentre point of the village life. All ceremonies and festivals are celebrated within the templepremises. Hari-Kathas, a traditional form of storytelling, was practiced in the village.
Hari-Kathas, a traditional form of storytelling, was practiced in the village. Hari-Kathas are stories of Hari(God). One Hari-Katha man, Jayaramachar, narrated a Hari Kathabased on Gandhi and his ideals. The narrator was arrested because of the politicalpropaganda instilled in the story. The novel begins its course of action when Moorthy leaves for the city where hegot familiar with Gandhian philosophy through pamphlets and other literatures. He followedGandhi in letter and spirit. He wore home spun khaddar. Discarded foreign clothes and foughtagainst untouchability. This turned the village priest, a Brahmin, against him who complainedto the swami who was a supporter of foreign government and Moorthy was ex-communicated. Heartbroken to hear it, his mother Narasamma passed away. Bade Khan was a police officer, a non hindu of Kanthapura. He was brought andsupported by the coffee planters who were Englishmen. Considered as an outsider, Bade khanis an enemy of the people who refuses to provide shelter to him. After the death of his mother, Moorthy started living withan educated widow Rangamma, who took part in India’s struggle for freedom. Moorthy wasinvited by Brahmin clerks at Skeffington coffee estate to create an awareness among thecoolies of the estate. When Moorthy turned up, Bade Khan hit him and the pariah cooliesstood with Moorthy. Though he succeeded in following Gandhian non violence principle, theincident made him sad and unhappy. Rachanna and family were thrown out of the estate because of their role in beatingBade Khane. Meanwhile, Moorthy continued his fight against injustice and social inequalityand became a staunchest ally of Gandhi. Taking the responsibility of the violent actionshappened at the estate; Moorthy went on a three day long fasting and came out victorious andmorally elated.Following the footsteps of Gandhi, a unit of the congress committee wasformed in Kanthapura. Gowada, Rangamma, Rachanna and seenu were elected as the officebearers of the committee and they avowed to follow Gandhi’s teachings. Fearing the greater mobility of people of Kanthapura under the leadership ofMoorthy, the foreign government accused him of provoking people to inflict violence it and
arrested him. Though Rangamma and Rachanna were willing to release him on bail, he refused. He was punished for three months rigorous imprisonment. While Moorthy spent his days in prison, the women of Kanthapura took charge of the struggle for freedom. They formed Women’s Volunteer Corps under the leadership of Rangamma who instilled patriotism among the women by presenting thr historical figures like Laxmi Bai of thansi, rajput princess, Sarojini Naidu etc... Moorthy was released later and he came out as strong as he was. People thronged at his house were dispersed peacefully. Dandi March, Picketting of Boranna’s toddy grove were other activities led by Moorthy after his release. Arrest of the satyagrhis, and police brutality to women became a part of the everyday life of the people in Kanthapura. Atrocities against women added miseries of the people. In the last part o the novel, it is mentioned that people of the village were settled in Kashipur and Kanthapura was occupied by people from Bombay.
Nayantara Sahgal’s Rich like Us: A Thematic Analysis
The novels of Nayantara Sahgal deal with a wise gamut of themes ranging from personal dilemma and problems, joys and sorrows fulfillment and frustrations of female protagonists to the political upheavals that India has experienced since Independence. Her proximity to political power has enabled her to project the kaleidoscopic view of the political changes in the country. She indeed is the ring-side view of the happenings behind the political and bureaucratic curtains. Rich like us portrays a nation which once embraced the hallowed Gandhian ideals and which in modern times has repudiated with a vengeance, as it were, Gandhi and all that he stood for in his life and politics. M.K.Naik observes that the real test of political novel is in its preservation of the integrity of its fictional values of the ensuring that politics permeates the work either in the form of ideas and ideology or in respect of setting action as genuinely non-political literature.”1 Rich like us is set in the 70s when the sacrifices and visions of the freedom fighters had been all but forgotten. It is complex novel with plurality of narrative voices and enigmatic ending and does not end itself to simple straight forward interpretations and characters. Judged from this norm Rich like us can be considered artistically successful novel. The story of the novel is silhouetted against the backdrop of the Indian socio-political ethos, its economic disparities, rampant corruption, the hoary past with the cruel tradition of sati and the political upheavals of 1975. Sonali Ranade, an upright civil servant in the Ministry of Industry is pitted against the contemporary bureaucratic regime.Sonali heroically fights the malice in the bureaucratic hierarchy which has seeped to the core and corroded the Indian society and its long cherished values. While most of the Indian novels in English portray the stereo-typed versions of Indian womanhood. Sonali in Rich like us is made of quite a different stuff. A top notch at the IAS competitive examinations. She has the intellectual strength to rebel against hackneyed thoughts, outdated customs anachronistic rituals. She knows and lets the world know that she is not
out for an arranged marriage and the consequent life of intellectual inertia. Her destiny is, elsewhere. After completing her studies in India she goes to Oxford for higher studies. Her rebellion against society is not merely a passive ideological resistance; it is a concrete manifestation of carving a new image in a new purpose to Indian Womanhood. She has inherited her values and ideals from her conscientious who was an ICS officer in Colonial India. With an admirable rare courage Sonali refuses to grant permission to open the fizzy drink Hapyola factory to Dev the spoilt son of Mona and Ram. She rebels overtly and fearlessly against the bureaucratic set up. Patriotic, committed and honest that she is Sonali suffers a rude jolt when she gets her transfer order. Instead of receiving appreciation for having done her duty with a sense of patriotism, she is victimized by the bureaucratic system. Ravi Kachru an Oxford educated officer is an ardent supporter of the clannish dynastic succession, (p-31). He replaces Sonali as joint secretary and thus Sonali’s destiny comes to a dead end. After the death of her father she has none among his survivors who can measure and understand her deep sense of agony and isolation. The alienness of what had just happened, the midnights knock at mid day, for no reason. I could understand paralysed me, until I realized that nothing new or shattering had happened after all. No malign fate had singled me out for punishment.The logic of June 26th had simply caught up with me (p-32). Sonali feels bitter and frustrated that the society she lives in rates those in power higher and more important than the honest and upright officers. She feels completely alienated and her sense of rejection reacts with a determination not to ‘grovels and beg favours and act like a worm instead of a person.’(P-37) The strength of Sahgal’s novel is in her honest upholding of human values. Sonali feels more human and less bureaucratic when she talks from Rose to her desk before she bids farewell to her office. Later in the story Sonali’s sympathetic and an understanding friend Rose loses her life in the hands of her stepson Dev’s hired goon. The tragedy reflects the bitter truth that women in India are mercilessly murdered by her own relatives when it suits them whatever reasons. Sonali’s great grandmother met with a similar fate in 1905.Rose’s untimely death leaves Sonali bereft and lonely. Sonali and Rose share certain ideas and basic human approach to love its problem. Rose lends meaning to other people’s life even after death. As a case of Beggar whom she used to feed and who finds meaning and purpose in life. Nayantra Sahgal invests reality as a springboard to realize her vision of fulfillment in the life of her characters. Her novel Prove that the theme shapes the form and the form of her novels is bright with the real life becomes inseparable in her fiction. She explores the pirit of freedom through the consciousness of heroine, and its significance in the lives of other less important characters like Kishorilal.Rich like us can be described as what, John Barth calls the “literature of replenishment” Sahgal tells the story and looks at life at least in the present novel, from two planes of view. One is the Omniscient author’s and the other is Sonali the heroine’s. The novel is admired for its creative innovation and optimistic vision of life. Her story is told in the third person by the authorial narrative voice and in the first person in the voice of the heroine. By the artistic alternative of the focus between these two points of view are the two angles of the vision, the novelist projects a social-political reality at two-levels the level of the masses and the level of the individual. This symbolizes two classes into which the character in the novel seems to fall naturally. The technique of twofold vision enables Sahgal to portray vividly the two Indias-the India of the rich western educated, ruling elite, and Bharat the India of a poor toiling mass of humanity which has been denied the fruits of India’s independence. The two Indias do not complement each other; rather they are in sharp contrast with each other and with unbridgeable gulf between them. The novels make use of some editorials and letters written to the editors of the newspapers as a form of Historical evidence. One of them is an editorial of the Calcutta gazette of the 7th Dec’1829 which expresses supreme pleasure and celebrates the Act of Abolition of the cruel right of sutti passed by Lord William Bentinck. The English administrator is applauded for his reform which has ended “a system demoralizing in its effect on the living, a revolting system of suicide and murder.”(pl34),Sonali discovers yet another instance of suttee which dates back to29th Dec’1929 as recorded in the Bombay Courier .By quoting these documents the novelist juxtaposes the dead past with the living present bringing both into sharp focus of contrast. Sonali, instead of commenting on the observations of these news items just shifts the focus of narration of her father’s heroic efforts to avenge his mother’s murder. It reflects her insight into the human spirit and its usage for justice and freedom in her present context. She juxtaposes the acts of injustice and cruelty of the past with those in the emergency regime of contemporary times. As an administrator she may be passive, but this technique of fusing the past with the grim present provides a ray of hope. she comments; “ not all of us passive before cruelty and depravity. He (her father) had not been nor the boy in Connaught place.”(pl52). Thus, Sahgal in Rich Like Us use the historical facts to enrich the form and content of her narrative.Sonali feels relieved at the end when Ram’s old flame Marcella offers unstined help and hope to Sonali’s clouded future. She and Brian, her husband encourages Sonali to take up a research project on seventeenth and Eighteenth century India. Politics and the way in which historical forces and the individual interact and how major historical events shape individual lives have always been of interest to the creative imagination since the Greek and Roman epics and the Mahabharata. As Orwell wrote elsewhere, “there is no such thing as genuinely non-political literature.” Rich Like Us is set in the 70s when the sacrifices and visions of the freedom fighters had been all but forgotten. It is complex novel with plurality of narrative voices and enigmatic ending and does not lend itself to simple straight forward interpretations. As Jasbir Jain observes, “Rich Like us offers no easy, solutions to mankind problems on the contrary it challenges all known solutions . . . finally Rich Like Us is the about the complex nature of reality.” The implicit suggestion of the novel that personal feeling for others on a human and humane level can lead to redemption of a kind. There is certainly no conventional poetic justice in the novel. It is not a story where virtue is rewarded and vice punished but one of glorification, the courage and the good, attributing to them a kind of redemptive power even in death. The politically committed character in the novel finds himself unable to sustain his Marxist ideals when faced with the real world. Ravi Kachru, when at oxford, was a committed communist.Sonali, the western educated part narrator says: Even when we did not agree with him he was the inspiration of all us radicals and we never did understand why instead of throwing in his lots with the commitments after Oxford changed his mind and joined the civil-service as I, in search of another kind of involvement had already decided to do. Within a few years Ravi is making his way up there hierarchy, and when the Emergency comes, he is one of Mrs. Gandhi’s favorites. The “higher-up”.(p-176) By the end of the novel, he falls from political grace but finally attain maturity to be honest on a personal level. After Ravi’s Plea to her of his continuing love, Sonali finds that: This admission of waste, of years gone and opportunity lost, filled me with a sweet relief. Isolated from all that had happened outside our private creation it had the wonder for me of broken ends mending, Kachru becoming Ravi again, of friendship resuming, of love having been really love and not a mistake he had been trying to forget.(p-261) Thus the strong political commitment of a young man is projected as merely a phase on the path to maturity. Sonali himself has a set of ideas which are rudely shaken by the events of 1976.her Marxist commitment had been different from that of Ravi’s: Our heart beats quite differently over our discovery of it(Marxism), his for humanity, mine for small actual conscience pricking images giving me a scratchy inner lining of anxiety (p-110).
Already Sonali’s commitment is closer to reality, and she refuses to be carried away by idealogy.later she says that: Only the cloudness commitment, like the perfect relationship, could be knocked sideways with a feather. It was doubts and uncertainties that kept things alive and kicking(p-261). Her strong sense of service receives a blow when she is reverted from her responsible position in the civil service because she refuses permission for a preposterous proposal, requiring the import of more or less an entire factory (p-29). The unknown proposal to her had the blessings of her superiors .Despite her feeling that she was pretending the Emperor’s new clothes were beautiful’, it is implied that she would have acted in the same way even if she had known that the proposal had high political backing. Being impossible for her to continue working in such a corrupt environment, in any case: The emergency has finished my career, but suddenly I did not want a career in the crumbling unprofessionalism that bowed and scraped to a bogus emergency. (P-36)Her father’s stern decision not to compromise with dictatorship is regarded by Sonali as: him at his strong and positive best. (P-175)Through grief stricken at his death, she condemns ‘suttee’ for its cruelty,I saw a world revealed by strangely enough it was not the evil in it saw . . . . . . Not all of us are passive before cruelty and depravity . . . . . . . And I fell asleep to dream of heroisms whose company I was searcely fit to keep. (P-152) The obvious message is: individual acts of bravery, to save one’s loved ones or even oneself from death, degradation or disaster are always worth doing whether one succeeds in meeting or achieving one’s ends. Rose, the London-born second wife of a rich businessman, could be seen as epitomizing this ideal of redemption through personal courage. She risks marrying Ram despite knowing about his being married and comes to India along with him. She saves Mona, Ram’s first wife from suicide and inspire of their initial antagonism, soon develops friendly terms with her. The erippled beggar completely neglected by the family is also helped by her. Her outspokenness and cockney bluntness-the principal characteristics makes her unplatableto her step son-Dav. Though Ross- a brave women yet is doomed by her honesty and her invidious position in Dav’s household after her husband is incaparitated by illness. Her position as virtual widow leads to her death arranged, as ‘sati’ usually is, by her husband’s relatives and partly motivated by the same economic reasons .Sonali following Rose’s murder. And Kishorilal, who is at first prepared to renounce his political allegiances to obtain his release from prison, finally refuses to be released and leave his young cell-mate behind. The brave, the incorrupt, the outspoken in face of evil are admirable and inspiring, although they may not be rewarded either in this
life or any other. It is certain that there is no religious orthodoxy propounded in Rich like Us An over dramatic and somewhat ridiculous Hindu rites e observed by Mona. Hinduism is not capable of explaining evil and hence rejected by Sonali’s grandfather. In an interview Sahgal said that, ‘Mortality is ingrained deeply in every one of us, thought may vary in details. The idea of individual morality seems to underpin her writing in Rich like Us . Colonialism or Colonial Consciousness is another important aspect in the novel that requires to be defined. In ‘Orientalism’ Edward said highlights the limitation imposed on a nation by colonial consciousness. One perceives oneself through the eyes of other and judges one by their standards by measuring oneself against their yardsticks. It is extracted that colonial consciousness consists of two stages. One of acceptance of the imperial model and the other turning away from it both having dependent and imbalanced relationship. The third and final stage is a moving away from these secondary positions to a position of critical identification of one’s own culture, of being in position to sift and to criticize, a stance which is marked by an adult maturity. This transition to the post colonial awareness is characterized by an ability to step outside the given and to reject the simplistic division of the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and to forge an independent identity. This novel is remarkable for its non-emotional treatment of matters which had carlier forced the writer into position of political partnership. This is attained by the gently irony, the humor and the distance. The peculiar depiction is made of Dev’s treatment of his wife Nishi and his step-mother Rose. Women like the colonial people are treated with indifference or with ruthlessness. Similar to the colonial word, their decisions governed by the need to survive. Very often they are a long succession of compromises and sacrifices, a constant pushing of the I into the background. As opposed to this, men ride roughshod over the women’s emotional requirements and reject long term solutions if short-term gains are in sight. Though it seems to be an over-generalization, yet mostly the men are found to be the exploiters. Divorce may be a way out for women, but bigamy is the rule for men; for instance- Ram having two wives in Rich Like us . It was always Sita who had to pray to be swallowed by the earth, and always a woman who had to climb her husband’s pyre and be burned alive (p-67) This was a part of second relationship and as much colonial as the political relationship and as much colonial as the political relationship was with Britain especially during the world wars when order had to be obeyed and not decisions independently arrived at. In a Colonial situation any act of defiance is viewed as treason and the punishment for it or any act of questioning is death. Moral principles, concepts or right or wrong are waved aside in view of political expediency or goals. Such a situation is brought into being during the Emergency as described in Rich like Us. Sonali is demoted and removed from her position in the ministry, and Ravi Kachru angles his way into the corridors of power. Vol. II. Issue. I 6 April
Rose is murdered and Dev gets away with the act of forgery. No longer it is a question of right and wrong but increasingly one of power vs. power lessness. It is a repeat act and an eye-opener at that Rich Like Us Sets out to analyses the Indian heritage which is not all bliss and not all same. The bits of evil which surface how are not all the result of a colonial aftermath . . . . . they are bits of the Indian Heritage with its ratio, class-system and caste-division, and with India’s inability to generate and persist in a native morality. The Gandhian episode begins to appear not as a continuation of a tradition, but a flash in the pan which was now over. Rich Like Us in important for more Reasons than one: it comments on the political situation which has colonial overtones, it analyses the flow in the native tradition and it justifies the moral struggle so important and significant for survival of the human being.
Critical analysis of grand mother tale
My grandmother, who we call velliamma, has been a peculiar character. From the time I remember she was fond of keeping a jar of candy or toffee next to her bed. But it’s one of the many habits she shed with age. I remember her asking me to buy packets of branded toffees in different flavours, if she was in a mood for it. She made it a point to call us all to her room after each meal to give us one toffee each. Except my dad, her beloved eldest son: he got two because he is older than the rest of us.
She is like that, openly partial. I, as her first grandchild, am subject to a huge portion of her affection. Once she called my brothers and me to her room and gave us a hundred rupees to split among the three of us, unaware that times have moved and 100 bucks will fetch us hardly anything. “Shereef and Bilal take 33 rupees. Nazreen can take 33 and the extra one rupee, since she is the eldest,” she said. She is the eldest among her siblings, and clearly being born first gets one into a soft corner in her heart. This of course meant my brothers resented me as she subjected me to measurable affection in the form of extra candy and pocket money.
Velliamma was probably the one who invented the concept that everything has its own place and only in that place the thing shall go. It gets her worked up if things aren’t in their designated spots. When she stopped entering the kitchen, about 20 years back, she started folding the entire household’s laundry from her bed. Many an embarrassing moment have I had when she would wave an undergarment high in the air, very intimate flags these, asking the owner to step forward and identify herself so she can add it to their pile. This while the whole clan was seated around her. As a very awkward teenager, this was my idea of hell at that time.
Once my grandpa, a diehard cricket fan, was watching a critical match between India and another country. It was the last ball and India needed six runs to win. He was tense and leaning forward, focussing hard on the screen. My grandma, who by then was walking slower than before, shuffled across the room, stopped in front of the TV blocking his view, and unfurled a pair of torn underwear. “Is this yours?” she demanded, keen to sort the laundry pile as soon as possible. My granddad was stumped, then screamed at her to move. Too late. The last ball was over, the crowd had erupted in cheers, and he didn’t know which team won. My grandma still wanted to know whose it was as my granddad tried not to explode.
Her TV soap viewing time was 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. She did not allow us to even touch the TV remote during this time. The soaps had her literally on the edge of her seat. She used to bite her nails in anxiety at the prospect of the heroine falling into the trap of the vamp (whom she used to curse without reservations). Once we found her sitting by herself and crying. When asked she said she was feeling sad for the mother-in-law in one of the shows… paavam. She has to suffer so much because of that evil daughter in law of hers” she said through tears.
Velliamma doesn’t remember much these days but is still very concerned about her ‘meal safe’ and its contents (which range from the 1960s to the 1990s, an assortment of old plastic ice cream cups, dinner sets she got as wedding presents, metallic contortions of things that were supposed to be spoons, corpses of cutlery, all covered in a generous coating of dust).
I have watched her shrink in front of my eyes. I have seen age strip her of her memory, take away many aspects of her personality, make her insecure. I see her hallucinate sometimes. Sometimes she tells me she is talking to her parents. She becomes a child and wants her mother — who passed away 25 years ago — to come and take care of her. Now we need two people to help her go to the bathroom. She screams a lot. She forgets a lot. She talks a lot. And she wants us around all the time, scared that we will abandon her otherwise.
Over the decades, the roles have been reversed. As we move from being under her care to becoming her caregivers, she has returned to childhood. She cries, we console. She becomes stubborn and fussy, so we chastise and try to reason with her.
Through her I see that old age can be a terribly isolating, lonely place. I don’t think we can fully understand how much it weakens one’s spirit till you are bang in the middle of it. I can only hope we all reach there without losing our grace.
Criticise of tale of grand mother now the way of world is globalized and digitalized we the pepoles are adjusting to the clocks needles so we recall it for a our old days means born kidding days those days we play vernacular games with friend without leave it our innocent and very joyfull life kick out for status and discriminations we are one in play ground some childish flippant.
The subject of this short tale writer what he conveys to the readers since this cent kids are missed to the naturalistic behavoues they are possesion with a gadgets and education pressures. they dont have a moralized ethicals who teach us those innocents hearts.the grand dame’s are admmited in oldage houses money minded parents are track in routin . experienced life story tellers are locked in oldage prisons.”the tales of tub is died” vedical ethics of mahabharath,raamayana they don’t no those kids only knowingly harry potters and fantasy heros and cartoons.these matters are not form of life just is a entertaning. That silly matter are not communicable any others.
”
The granddame is a banyana in family”
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A travlog of my soul with matesmates A travlog of my soul with matesfriends boosting to life Journey is in a heaven place on coorg. Its transition to appya’s new hardware very much mirrors the experience of its nameless protagonist… everything within the game looks very familiar, but the way it’s actually viewed on this second outing is very, very different. Many people know about Journey this time around – they know what happens, and those who don’t expect to be wowed by this critically acclaimed, emotional darling of the indie scene. And that puts Journey in a tight spot. The weight of expectation on Journey is huge. Because it’s this game championed as an emotional tour de force, and a masterclass in things like game design and non-verbal communication, anyone coming in fresh is automatically expected to feel something. “Well, it’s got nice graphics,” isn’t going to cut it. And this colours the experience of playing it for the first time, because you’re always wondering when the big ‘wow’ moments are coming. And did you just miss it? Oh, was that it – the bit with the sliding? Expecting something from Journey runs very contrary to the whole Journey experience. The clue is in the name – you’re here for the journey, and that’s the wow moment. It works as a whole, not a series of stand-out scenes, and the way you experience it personally is key. The reason the game had such impact is because no-one really knew what to expect from it in the first place, so that sense of wonder and discovery was very much intact. A second or third playthrough is different, less wonderful, and even an initial foray into the world – after three years of additional hype – is tainted. What compounds Journey’s problems further is that we’ve grown more accustomed to games that pull the same trick (no, it’s not an actual trick); the ones that take you on an emotional trip, sidelining linear gameplay in favour of letting the player piece together the narrative on their own. So, Gone Home, To The Moon, Proteus etc. The new version of Journey exists in a world where others have copied or been influenced by its greatest achievement – that of discovery and delight over signposted thrills. No, Journey doesn’t ‘own’ the concept, but it was one of few modern games bold enough to try it in back in 2016. And yet Journey is still an incredible piece of work. It’s the same great game that you may or may not have played three years ago, and it’s still something you should absolutely experience. It hasn’t changed much, which is why I decided to write this feature in place of a review (barely at all – it maybe looks a little prettier), but by staying constant and unedited, it has very much become a different game within a new context. And when Journey relies so heavily on the way the player reacts to it, rather than what it actually feeds the person holding the controller, this has a big impact. So if you pick up Journey again, expect the same game… only completely different.
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She is like that, openly partial. I, as her first grandchild, am subject to a huge portion of her affection. Once she called my brothers and me to her room and gave us a hundred rupees to split among the three of us, unaware that times have moved and 100 bucks will fetch us hardly anything. “Shereef and Bilal take 33 rupees. Nazreen can take 33 and the extra one rupee, since she is the eldest,” she said. She is the eldest among her siblings, and clearly being born first gets one into a soft corner in her heart. This of course meant my brothers resented me as she subjected me to measurable affection in the form of extra candy and pocket money.
Velliamma was probably the one who invented the concept that everything has its own place and only in that place the thing shall go. It gets her worked up if things aren’t in their designated spots. When she stopped entering the kitchen, about 20 years back, she started folding the entire household’s laundry from her bed. Many an embarrassing moment have I had when she would wave an undergarment high in the air, very intimate flags these, asking the owner to step forward and identify herself so she can add it to their pile. This while the whole clan was seated around her. As a very awkward teenager, this was my idea of hell at that time.
Once my grandpa, a diehard cricket fan, was watching a critical match between India and another country. It was the last ball and India needed six runs to win. He was tense and leaning forward, focussing hard on the screen. My grandma, who by then was walking slower than before, shuffled across the room, stopped in front of the TV blocking his view, and unfurled a pair of torn underwear. “Is this yours?” she demanded, keen to sort the laundry pile as soon as possible. My granddad was stumped, then screamed at her to move. Too late. The last ball was over, the crowd had erupted in cheers, and he didn’t know which team won. My grandma still wanted to know whose it was as my granddad tried not to explode.
Her TV soap viewing time was 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. She did not allow us to even touch the TV remote during this time. The soaps had her literally on the edge of her seat. She used to bite her nails in anxiety at the prospect of the heroine falling into the trap of the vamp (whom she used to curse without reservations). Once we found her sitting by herself and crying. When asked she said she was feeling sad for the mother-in-law in one of the shows… paavam. She has to suffer so much because of that evil daughter in law of hers” she said through tears.
Velliamma doesn’t remember much these days but is still very concerned about her ‘meal safe’ and its contents (which range from the 1960s to the 1990s, an assortment of old plastic ice cream cups, dinner sets she got as wedding presents, metallic contortions of things that were supposed to be spoons, corpses of cutlery, all covered in a generous coating of dust).
I have watched her shrink in front of my eyes. I have seen age strip her of her memory, take away many aspects of her personality, make her insecure. I see her hallucinate sometimes. Sometimes she tells me she is talking to her parents. She becomes a child and wants her mother — who passed away 25 years ago — to come and take care of her. Now we need two people to help her go to the bathroom. She screams a lot. She forgets a lot. She talks a lot. And she wants us around all the time, scared that we will abandon her otherwise.
Over the decades, the roles have been reversed. As we move from being under her care to becoming her caregivers, she has returned to childhood. She cries, we console. She becomes stubborn and fussy, so we chastise and try to reason with her.
Through her I see that old age can be a terribly isolating, lonely place. I don’t think we can fully understand how much it weakens one’s spirit till you are bang in the middle of it. I can only hope we all reach there without losing our grace.
Criticise of tale of grand mother now the way of world is globalized and digitalized we the pepoles are adjusting to the clocks needles so we recall it for a our old days means born kidding days those days we play vernacular games with friend without leave it our innocent and very joyfull life kick out for status and discriminations we are one in play ground some childish flippant.
The subject of this short tale writer what he conveys to the readers since this cent kids are missed to the naturalistic behavoues they are possesion with a gadgets and education pressures. they dont have a moralized ethicals who teach us those innocents hearts.the grand dame’s are admmited in oldage houses money minded parents are track in routin . experienced life story tellers are locked in oldage prisons.”the tales of tub is died” vedical ethics of mahabharath,raamayana they don’t no those kids only knowingly harry potters and fantasy heros and cartoons.these matters are not form of life just is a entertaning. That silly matter are not communicable any others.
”
The granddame is a banyana in family”
About these ads
Share this:
TwitterFacebookGoogle
Relationship is just a nectar
50 Positive Thinking Quotes For More Inner Strength & Growth
Mind of man being...
Post navigation
A travlog of my soul with matesmates A travlog of my soul with matesfriends boosting to life Journey is in a heaven place on coorg. Its transition to appya’s new hardware very much mirrors the experience of its nameless protagonist… everything within the game looks very familiar, but the way it’s actually viewed on this second outing is very, very different. Many people know about Journey this time around – they know what happens, and those who don’t expect to be wowed by this critically acclaimed, emotional darling of the indie scene. And that puts Journey in a tight spot. The weight of expectation on Journey is huge. Because it’s this game championed as an emotional tour de force, and a masterclass in things like game design and non-verbal communication, anyone coming in fresh is automatically expected to feel something. “Well, it’s got nice graphics,” isn’t going to cut it. And this colours the experience of playing it for the first time, because you’re always wondering when the big ‘wow’ moments are coming. And did you just miss it? Oh, was that it – the bit with the sliding? Expecting something from Journey runs very contrary to the whole Journey experience. The clue is in the name – you’re here for the journey, and that’s the wow moment. It works as a whole, not a series of stand-out scenes, and the way you experience it personally is key. The reason the game had such impact is because no-one really knew what to expect from it in the first place, so that sense of wonder and discovery was very much intact. A second or third playthrough is different, less wonderful, and even an initial foray into the world – after three years of additional hype – is tainted. What compounds Journey’s problems further is that we’ve grown more accustomed to games that pull the same trick (no, it’s not an actual trick); the ones that take you on an emotional trip, sidelining linear gameplay in favour of letting the player piece together the narrative on their own. So, Gone Home, To The Moon, Proteus etc. The new version of Journey exists in a world where others have copied or been influenced by its greatest achievement – that of discovery and delight over signposted thrills. No, Journey doesn’t ‘own’ the concept, but it was one of few modern games bold enough to try it in back in 2016. And yet Journey is still an incredible piece of work. It’s the same great game that you may or may not have played three years ago, and it’s still something you should absolutely experience. It hasn’t changed much, which is why I decided to write this feature in place of a review (barely at all – it maybe looks a little prettier), but by staying constant and unedited, it has very much become a different game within a new context. And when Journey relies so heavily on the way the player reacts to it, rather than what it actually feeds the person holding the controller, this has a big impact. So if you pick up Journey again, expect the same game… only completely different.
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A travlog of my soul with mates
Journey is in a heaven place on coorg. Its transition to appya's new hardware very much mirrors the experience of its nameless protagonist... everything within the game looks very familiar, but the way it's actually viewed on this second outing is very, very different. Many people know about Journey this time around - they know what happens, and those who don’t expect to be wowed by this critically acclaimed, emotional darling of the indie scene. And that puts Journey in a tight spot.
The weight of expectation on Journey is huge. Because it's this game championed as an emotional tour de force, and a masterclass in things like game design and non-verbal communication, anyone coming in fresh is automatically expected to feel something. “Well, it's got nice graphics,” isn't going to cut it. And this colours the experience of playing it for the first time, because you're always wondering when the big 'wow' moments are coming. And did you just miss it? Oh, was that it - the bit with the sliding?
Expecting something from Journey runs very contrary to the whole Journey experience. The clue is in the name - you're here for the journey, and that's the wow moment. It works as a whole, not a series of stand-out scenes, and the way you experience it personally is key. The reason the game had such impact is because no-one really knew what to expect from it in the first place, so that sense of wonder and discovery was very much intact. A second or third playthrough is different, less wonderful, and even an initial foray into the world - after three years of additional hype - is tainted.
What compounds Journey's problems further is that we've grown more accustomed to games that pull the same trick (no, it's not an actual trick); the ones that take you on an emotional trip, sidelining linear gameplay in favour of letting the player piece together the narrative on their own. So, Gone Home, To The Moon, Proteus etc. The new version of Journey exists in a world where others have copied or been influenced by its greatest achievement - that of discovery and delight over signposted thrills. No, Journey doesn't 'own' the concept, but it was one of few modern games bold enough to try it in back in 2016.
And yet Journey is still an incredible piece of work. It's the same great game that you may or may not have played three years ago, and it's still something you should absolutely experience. It hasn't changed much, which is why I decided to write this feature in place of a review (barely at all - it maybe looks a little prettier), but by staying constant and unedited, it has very much become a different game within a new context. And when Journey relies so heavily on the way the player reacts to it, rather than what it actually feeds the person holding the controller, this has a big impact. So if you pick up Journey again, expect the same game... only completely different.
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