CHAPTER-V TECHNIQUES AND STYLE

Transcription

1 177 CHAPTER-V TECHNIQUES AND STYLE A critical assessment of any work of art requires a study of its matter and manner, of its what and how. And it would be incomplete without exploring the major technical devices used by the author in his works. -Agarwal, Sinha For the Indian English novelists, a novel is a means of expression borne of their total understanding of man, nature and God. Their expression becomes effective and appropriate through language, form and technique. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary defines a novel as, a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of real life are portrayed in a 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 and portrayal of real life the novelist employs narrative techniques. In the words of Agrawal, By technique we mean the pattern, coherence and sense of perspective imposed by the novelist s selection and 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 attained its maturity, the novelists started employing new experiments

2 178 in the techniques of novels by assimilating the innovations of modern European novelists and adapting them to suit the treatment of Indian traditions and ethos. In the post-independent period the novelists were attracted to new techniques in plotting, narration and characterization. Anita Nair has been recognized for her skill in handling the modern fictional techniques such as flash backs, interior monologue and stream of consciousness. Indian writing in English has a very few writers dealing with the stream of consciousness technique. As Swain says: Very rarely does an Indian writer in English succeed in showing human life in all its wide variety and fluctuating mood manifesting themselves in myriad forms trough the ebb and flow of the protagonist s consciousness (251). The stream of consciousness technique as employed by writers like 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 to portray the inner nuances of the consciousness of her characters. Like Anita Desai she has given a typically Indian stream of consciousness revealed through the inner turmoils of an Indian character in a typically Indian situation. Stream of consciousness is a narrative device used in literature to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through

3 179 the mind. As the Wikipedia sates, In a psychological sense, the stream of consciousness is the subject matter, while interior monologue is the technique for presenting it. Interior monologue always presents a character s thoughts directly (np). In Anita Nair s maiden novel The Better Man, Bhasi is the first-person-narrator. There is a stream of consciousness throughout the novel, with the undercurrent of reminiscence, instincitive awareness and intuition as indicated in phrases, words and thoughts. Raj kumar says, By employing the psychological method of retrospection and anticipation, the modern novelist distils in its essence, the entire life of her characters by catching them at particular moments (np). Bhasi s thoughts flow between the past and the present. As Ester Fialova avers, The novel does not have a linear progress. There is a playful crisscrossing into different segments of time. The story does not follow the direct manner in time sequence and narration of happenings (np). As the novel opens Bhasi gives a description of the village Kaikurussi where he has made his living at present and of the important characters in the village. He says how he is looked upon by the people of Kaikurussi: They have a name for me in this village. They call me Painter Bhasi. They look at the tools of my trade and think they have fathomed my mind. My advice is never solicited. My opinions are mostly ignored. All I am

4 180 considered fit for is just dipping a brush into a can of paint and slapping it on, this way and that (7). 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 met with an accident and how it had brought him to Kaikurussi. Flashback is a writer s technique in which the author interrupts the plot of the story to recreate an incident of an earlier time. This device is often used to provide additional information to the reader. Anita Nair in her maiden novel The Better Man has used this technique effectively. Bhasi the first-person-narrator opens his past to Mukundan, the protagonist and Mukundan too does the same to Bhasi. Bhasi is presented as a healer of human minds in the novel. But one would think what a painter like Bhasi could have to do with the healing of human minds. In order to provide the readers more information about him, he is made to open his past to Mukundan. As one reads about his past, the perplexity about Bhasi is cleared and one is prepared to believe that Bhasi could fathom the mind of Mukundan and relieve him of his terrific past. Bhasi finds it difficult to delve into his past. But he unfolds it to Mukundan though he has sworn never to reveal his past to anyone. Bhasi does it in order to make Mukundan believe that he could heal him from his repressed thoughts:

5 181 This is not easy, the delving into the past that I had wrapped in many layers of blankness and hidden in an unused drawer on my unconscious. But I will try. For I would like you to understand why I painter Bhasi, onescrew-loose Bhasi was ordained to heal you (95). So Bhasi unfolds his past of some fifteen years back, when he had been a lecturer in a college, where he had fallen in love with his student called Omana and how the affair had met with a failure. By revealing this to Mukundan he makes him understand that every human being would have a past repressed in his unconscious mind. Bhasi had tried to read Mukundan s mind and heal him of his repression. But Mukundan never let him do that. Only after Bhasi reveals his past he is willing to do that: I tried to read the workings of your mind. Your fears, your likes, your dislikes. But you were a snail refusing to be coaxed out of your shell of solitude. You ignored all the overtures I made, resisted every attempt of mine to make you reveal the hoard of deep-rooted anxieties that lie buried in you (109). 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. Speaking about interior monologue, R.S. Sharma says, These passages are of much intensity, exquisite to inform and evocative,

6 182 render a peculiar quality (14). Such interior monologues are presented beautifully by the author to make the reader understand fully and become more interested in the character. In the novel, such monologues vividly manifest the working of Bhasi s consciousness. As Bhasi oscillates between his present and past we find that the novelist has used interior monologues to bring out the thoughts in his in-depth mind. These monologues disclose the fear in his mind. Though he seems to redeem others from fearful memories, he himself could not help it. To quote the relevant passage from the text: When I reach home, I like to pick up my little son and toss him in the air. I like to do so without wondering if someday he will be as brusque and callous with me as one of my customers was towards his father in my presence. I like to lie in the easy chair and watch my wife clean the rice. And it bothers me that I begin to worry if she s planning a tryst with my handsome neighbour. Damaged lives fill my world as much as flaking paint does (11). In the words of Swain: A novelist s narrative technique is very important to bring in the quality of readability which is a desirable quality of a novel. A novelist may adopt the first person narrative or the third person narrative. It is often observed that it is

7 183 easier for the novelist to use the third person narrative method as it allows the novelist the scope to go deep into the minds of the character. It enables the author to explain their acts and also present views on men and matters in an objective way (3). Anita Nair s Ladies Coupe has multi narrators. The main narrator is a third person. As the novel has used a third person narrator, it enables her to explain her perception on men and matters in an objective way. The main narrator is a middle aged spinster, Akhilandeswari. She is the narrator protagonist and in her lies the central consciousness of the novel. As the narrator narrates the story there is an oscillation between the present and the past. The 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 consciousness of the protagonist. This technique has been used in the novel in order to realize her objective of presenting a vivid picture of the protagonist s mind and its interaction with the other characters and the milieu. Hence the stream of consciousness is the work of mind and flash back is a person s narration in which the past is unfolded in a straight forward manner. The novel opens as Akhila is waiting in the railway station to board the Kanyakumari express. There when she reads the board,

8 184 Ladies, Senior Citizens and Handicapped Persons (6), there is a turbulence in her conscious state. She is angry at these wordings in the board. This is revealed through the interior monologue, but why spoil it all by clubbing women with senior citizens and handicapped persons? (6). This conscious of her that arouses in favour of women 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 women namely Margaret Shanthi and Marikolanthu are told by first person narrators. As Margaret and Marikolanthu tell their life stories to Akhila they flash back and tell it straight forward to Akhila. As 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 is not a predicament. Margaret Shanthi starts telling her story as: I, Margaret Shanthi, did it with the sole desire for revenge. To erode his self-esteem and shake the very foundations of his being. To rid this world of a creature who if allowed to remain the way he was, slim, lithe and arrogant, would continue to harvest sorrow with a single-minded joy (96).

9 185 Marikolanthu was a silent observer of the stories of the four 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 woman who had overcome that tragedy: I thought, these women are making such a fuss about little things. What would they ever do if real tragedy confronted them? What do they know of life and the toll it takes? What do they know of how cruel the world can be the women? (209). The story of her past strengthens Akhila s confidence and as she gets down the train, she has become a powerful woman. In her novels Anita Nair has used metaphor as a literary device. Metaphors are used by writers for the purpose of conveying complex concepts in an easy way. Fowler defines metaphor as follows: Language is deeply metaphorical because people find it difficult to grasp new concepts unless they are expressed by a concrete model. Not surprising then, metaphor-the co-operative fusion of meanings appears to be the most important device of creative literature. Creative literature is characterized by live metaphors that offer a rich compound meaning (11).

10 186 Anita Nair in her novel Lessons in Forgetting, has used myth as metaphor to interpret man and his emotions in various situations of life. Levi-Strauss says, Myth is a device for mediating contradictions or oppositions as experienced by men. It recounts certain events. Using myths Anita Nair recounts various experiences in life. Her quest for classical myths could be revealed in the novel. As Muthulakshmi Paramasivan States: Myths with their inevitable archetypal connotations are helpful in interpreting the peculiar permutations and combinations in which human mind reacts and responds to various situations in life. The human mind with its intractable depths is plumbed by a writer to locate answers for certain questions that obviously have no answers, yet which have puzzled and tantalized all creative writers from time immemorial (27). Anita Nair handles myth in her novels to interpret man and his emotions in various situations of life. She has a quest to use the classical myths in her novels. In Lessons in Forgetting she has used 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 and Meera s marriage too is similar. Meera compares herself to Hera who has always been silent against her husband Zeus words. Meera thinks that she is like Hera

11 187 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: The wind is Hera s own. But it is only when Zeus smiles that Hera can puff the sails and winnow the fields. Or what use in the wind to Hera? Wives are the same everywhere. When Giri smiles, so does she. A wife in love. She is the Meera Hera (5). 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: Zeus, whose bidding even the heavenly bodies obeyed, would tolerate no interference. He made the laws. She, Meera Hera, listened. Or he would hurl that vicious thunderbolt of sullenness. Silence and quiet, Meera. she was always that Hera (4). 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 shape until Zeus took to his shape and ravished her: Where is her Zeus by the way? Meera thinks again of Hera. How strange that the trajectories of their lives have

12 188 followed almost the same path. Like Hera, she too has gathered a bedraggled cuckoo into her bosom. It has eaten and drunk its fill, nestled in her warmth and love, and now it wants her home (5). Zeus humiliated and hurt Hera by his constant infidelities. When Giri disappears, Meera consoles herself saying that Giri is not Zeus to be disloyal to his love. But immediately she asks herself if Hera too would have thought the same whenever Zeus disappeared. Anita Nair beautifully employs this metaphor here to make an in-depth study of Meera s conscious that had become suspicious of Giri s fidelity to her: My Giri is not Zeus. He does not frolic with nymphets or even goddesses. He is prone to fits of rage; he is ambitious. But he is eminently trustworthy. Meera hears again the censorious voice in her head: That s what exactly Hera must have thought each time Zeus disappeared from her horizon (10). 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 in his wardrobe or hear his mobile as it beeped a spell first thing in the morning and last thing at night. She believes that nobody else could offer such love and elegance as Hera thought that no other

13 189 goddess, nymph or mortal creature could do as she had offered unto Zeus: Had Hera sat thus? Meera asks herself suddenly. Hera who had a wedding night that lasted three hundred years. Here had known how to core the golden apple, scooping a hollow in each half. Into it she had poured all of herself: her fragrance and breath, spite and mucus, milk and wellness, sweat and soul. She had cut a quarter off the half and run it along her limbs, gathering into its juice all the sweetness of her youth and hop, and fed it to Zeus with her lips. His tongue snaked out of his mouth and fed from hers. They feasted off each other and Hera thought, what other woman will offer him this? What goddess, nymph or mortal creature can match the extent of all I have given unto him?..... Besides Giri is not Zeus. He isn t a compulsive philanderer, merely a middleaged man who has had his head turned. Meera tells herself, don t panic, who else can offer him this cornucopia of elegance? Which other woman can lay his table as I do, or make a home for him as I do? (40). Meera is an abandoned wife. But then she becomes the protectress of the family. Even then she longs for protection and that protection from Giri. As Robert Graves says, Here, usually taken to be a Greek word for lady could also mean Herwa (Protectress) np.

14 190 Though she is the protectress, the winds being originally the property of Hera, in the battle between giants and the Olympians, when she was strangled by Porphyrion, unconsciously searches for Zeus. 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 her rescue as Zeus did for Hera: For Zeus had always been there to rush forth to her rescue. And so in the battle between the giants and the Olympians, when Porphyrion place his enormous hands round her neck and began strangling her, Hera s last thought wasn t: I am dying. Instead it was the harried but secure wife s anger that made her wriggle: Where is Zeus when I need him?... Meera the masquerader. The abandoned wife pretending to be protectress. Giri has always been there. All these years Meera had Giri to lean on. Only now, Giri is gone (100). 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 done that. She has a conflict whether to indulge in such pleasure or 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 such gratifications. But she decides whether Hera or Meera, no woman could be unmoved of such passion. Anita Nair has employed

15 191 this metaphor in order to bring out the inner conflicts of Meera in her relationship with Soman. This isn t her, Meera, she tells herself. This is the false Meera. Like there once was the false Hera. When Ixion the ingrate planned to seduce Hera, to pay Zeus back for his perfidies, Zeus created a Hera from a cloud. It was this Hera whom Ixion pleasured and sought pleasure from, while the real Hera lay untouched elsewhere. I am the false Hera. None of this is really happening to me. And then on its heel, another thought: what of the real Hera? What woman, whether she was Hera or Meera, could remain unmoved when mouth trailed a line of wet kisses down her spine? (221). 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: Oh Jak! She whispers... Meera leans into him... All these years she chose to bury herself as Hera, the perfect wife. When Zeus sought her body, she responded. She was his for the taking, never asking herself if she could know desire. Silly Hera,

16 192 who thought it was men who delighted in the sexual act and all a woman had to do was acquiesce (322). In an interview by Veena Venugopal Anita Nair says: I was a very cautious writer in the beginning, I didn t know if I had the stamina to innovate with form like I finally did in Lessons in Forgetting. In Lessons in Forgetting I like structuring the book around a metaphor. In Lessons in Forgetting, it was cyclones, it helped visually to translate the form into the metaphor structurally. I didn t know if I had the gumption to write about something unpredictable like a cyclone. When I began writing the book, I kept telling my editor and my agent that I am going to bring in a cyclone but I don t know how. But it fell into place (4). There by in Lessons in Forgetting Anita Nair has used the metaphor of cyclone to bring out the unpredictable turn of events in life like that of an unpredictable cyclone. The novel is divided into five parts, each narrating the five stages of a cyclone which a man experiences in his life. In the novel, one of the protagonists Jak is a cyclone expert. By making him say about the facts of a cyclone, the novelist has made use of the cyclone metaphor effectively. When Jak says about stage one, it is that the intensity of a cyclone cannot be predicted. But the only thing that is certain about it is that it triggers

17 193 the entire atmosphere. Cyclone is an unexpected disaster. The Financial Express says, Meera and Jak both are caught up by unexpected disaster (np). Meera never expected that Giri will forsake her and go somewhere. As he leaves her, her life becomes a despair. Overnight, Meera, disoriented, emotionally fragile Meera, becomes responsible not just for her children Nayantara and Nikhil, but also her mother Saro, her grandmother Lily and the running of Lilac House, their rambling old family home in Bangalore. Jak, the cyclone expert had never expected that his daughter Smriti will meet with such a tragedy. In a bedroom in his house lies his nineteen-year-old daughter Smriti, a tragic embodiment of memory of the past violence. He didn t know what had happened on her 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 twisting together, with the unpredictability and sheer inevitability of a cyclone: For with no real warning, with neither portent nor omen, it is quite possible for a quiet wave to begin within what is considered a closed system. A stream is activated. When the wave turns counterclockwise, it does so by turning on its head, all that is known and understood, causing a deeply intense and unstable atmosphere. When despair strikes, it is the same. There is a mad scramble to make sense of what is happening. The mind whirls, turning

18 194 every event over, seeking an explanation, a reason. The only certainty about a cyclone or despair is the uncertainty it triggers. And as with despair, the cyclogenesis of a tropical storm is seldom announced. What is certain is the resultant turbulence (np). In stage two, Jak tells how humans deny the very presence of a cyclone as an exhalation of a lofty white fleecy cirrus is formed, that hides the eye of the cyclone. The human mind is capable of selfdeception, that hides the forth-coming disaster. In this part, we read how Meera deceives herself because of her profound love for Giri. And Jak too deceives himself thinking that his daughter Smriti would be safe in India, least aware of the danger lurking her. 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 the storm. He says, How utterly gullible we are when it comes to 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 learns the truth he is shaken by the unimaginable incidents 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 is disoriented by the death of her mother Saro.

19 195 In stage four, Jak says, it is the penultimate stage of a cyclone. He explains it with a painting. Jak has owned a painting. It is a fantastic swirl of colour trapped with geometric forms. As Carl Jung has said, it is a representation of the unconscious self. But Jak could not achieve wholeness emotionally when he meditated on it. Instead it showed him the penultimate stage of a cyclone. He is afraid that the storm would blow on him furiously. As he is afraid his daughter Smriti, who has been his life has been furiously attacked: But the truth is, my Buddhist painting frightens me. When I look at it, what I see is the penultimate stage of a cyclone. It s most terrifying aspect. From the heart of the storm spins an outward directed force of fury. Vicious as a herd of monsters, it raises a ring of violent storms (241). Here comes the story of Smriti, in which she is unaware of the danger that awaits her. She is brutally attacked by three thugs: The three brawny men. As they walked towards Smriti. One of them gestured with his hands. Another lit a cigarette... The casual stripping of her clothes. The scream of terror that turned into a catena of howls as they, one by one, quickly and methodically entered her (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

20 196 and Jak, as the days pass, they experience a stillness in their life and they step ahead to take second chances, where there seemed to be only endings. That is why in the last stage Jak says, it is either the quiet before the storm or after the storm (321). Therefore Lessons in Forgetting is crafted by Anita Nair to echo the turbulence of life by comparing it to the stages of a cyclone. Anita Nair in the interview with Veena Venugopal says, My other book, Mistress was written around a dance performance (1). She compares life to a performance of Kathakali where the artists play innumerous emotions as men come across these emotions in life. Thus the novel Mistress is a deeply moving exploration into the search for meaning in art and life. As Meena Devi states: Anita Nair has an undeniable flair for storytelling and an admirable grasp of her subject. The novel brings alive the magic of the land through its insight into the world of Kathakali and those who live by it. Writing a novel with Kathakali as the backdrop needed heaps of meticulous research and so Nair enrolled herself for a short course at a Kerala dance school. She learnt quite a bit about the dance form and was very comfortable using its metaphors extensively in her book (343).

21 197 In Mistress two stories are unfolded and this shows the innovative narrative technique of the novelist. The entire novel revolves around four main characters. As given in blogspot: Within a perfect framework of the nine emotions that a heart can feel, the novel is divided into three books, each consisting of three emotions. Illuminating explanations from life, nature and dance go with the nine emotionslove, contempt, sorrow, fury, valour, fear, disgust, wonder and attachment (np). The novel plays around with the motif of art as a demanding mistress. One of the protagonists Koman is a renowned Kathakali 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 in many voices while attempting to decode the language of Kathakalithe language without sounds. As quoted by Meena Devi, in an interview with Aruna Chandaraju, Nair herself admits, What are the compromises that an artist makes in order to survive? That question was, in a sense, the catalyst for Mistress, and a recurring theme in it (np). Koman is from time to time in search of his identity. At last he 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

22 198 borrowed from the intricacies of the complicated dance form. In an interview with Sharabonti Bagchi Anita Nair says: I am an orderly person, and something about the formalized structure of Kathakali appealed to me. It was quite a challenge to structure my novel in a similar way. It takes a lot of craft and it s very satisfying to be able to fulfill this challenge (np). The novel is divided into nine chapters based on the navarasa in Kathakali, namely Sringaaram (love), Haasyam (contempt), Karunam (sorrow), Raudram (fury), Veeram (valour), Bhayaanakam (fear), Beebhalsam (disgust), Adbhutam (wonder) and Shantam (peace). Each chapter begins with an introduction to the rasa concerned. The first chapter is Sringaaram. It brings out Radha s longing for the genuine love of her husband Shyam, but Shyam is weak in expressing his love for his wife, as he is a business-minded husband whose only aim is to raise his status in the society: Love. Let us begin with Sringaaram. Sometimes I think Shyam is Bheema. A great, big, good-hearted creature whose goodness Radha makes use of whose gaucherie she flees from. And sometimes I think that perhaps he is Keechakan. All he wants to do is possess her. He hides his conniving behind a mask of besotted love and when he

23 199 has her on her, he ll kick her. Then I think Radha is wise to keep him on a leash of unreciprocated longing (30). The other story runs around Sethu, Koman s father who experiences love from everyone like Dr. Samuel and Sister Faith, Hope and Charity after he had left home. The second chapter is Haasyam which means glee. Radha slowly understands that she is inclined towards Chris and just she is leading a life of matrimonial ritual with Shyam. She is gleeful towards her emotional attachment towards Chris. Radha could not find anything emotional to do with Shyam as he weighed anything and everything by virtue of money. He even tried to pacify Radha through expensive gifts, which only annoy her: I lie next to Shyam, unable to sleep. We have our bedtime rituals, Shyam and I. We have been married for eight years, after all and there is no escaping the ritual of routine. I can t say that I am unhappy with Shyam. If there are no highs, there are no lows, either. Some would call this content, even. I think that for Shyam, I am a possession. A much cherished possession. That is my role in his life. He doesn t want an equal, what he wants is a mistress... It s only been one day since Chris arrived. I close my eyes and see again that image of him

24 200 in the station, light trapped in his hair, a shadow of smile on his face (55). The third chapter is Karunam which means sorrow, Karunam. All of us have known sorry some time or the other (104). This chapter narrates the story of Radha s premarital affair with a man much older than her. This leads her to despair as the man hides the fact that he is a father of three sons. She feels betrayed. In dismay and sorrow she had to agree to her marriage with Shyam as arranged by her father. Though Shyam is happy about this marriage initially he is at sorrow as he feels he is not able to make her happy even after eight years of marriage: Radha says: I wanted to hide myself in a place where there was none of this deceit or compromise. I felt betrayed. I felt used. I felt foolish. More than anything else, I knew that if I stayed I would find a way to excuse his lies and continue to be his playmate. That was the measure of how much I had yielded to him (113). There is another story in this chapter which tells the sorrow of Saadiya s family, as she is very stubborn in marrying Seth, a Hindu. Her father because of her decision, takes a sorrowful decision of disowning Saadiya from the family and the community.

25 201 The fourth chapter is Raudram which means anger, The common fallacy is to think raundram as a synonym for anger. Nothing wrong with that for, raudram wears the countenance of anger (151). This chapter portrays how Shyam becomes furious, knowing the growing intimacy between Radha and Chris. Outrageous he rapes Radha as she is not willing to have sex with him then to ensure that she is his wife, and his possession: She sat on the bed. I touched her shoulder. The blouse she wore had a deep neckline. I ran a finger down her back. She shrugged me off. No Shyam, I am not in the mood!, She said. I ll get you into the mood, I said... Don t I have a right to say no? she demanded furiously, trying to get up.. Then I fucked her (163). This brutality of Shyam, made Radha seek solace and comfort in 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, Radha showed her anger by strengthening her intimacy with Chris. The fifth chapter is Veeram, veeram means valour. It tells us 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

26 202 Shyam for calculating her periods, she musters up courage to tell to his face that it was he who has to check his fertility and not her as she has become pregnant once before marriage: The red crosses are my periods, aren t they? Why are they here? On your calendar? If anyone should keep tabs, it should be me. Why are you like this Shyam?... I was pregnant once. So it isn t that I can t conceive. Perhaps you need to find out if you can father a child, she said before walking away (203). Radha draws courage to be more and more close with Chris, as she contended to say, Nothing matters. What feels so right can t be wrong. This is what I have to draw courage from, to go on (221). This chapter, also tells the story of Sethu who returns to his native village after the death of Saadiya. He marries Devayani and bears 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. The next chapter is Bhayaanakam. This means fear. It shows 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 towards Chris. In this chapter it is also shown how Radha starts

27 203 experiencing the fear of the predicament of her relationship with Chirs: Fear clasps itself around my ear lobes. Fear makes one do things one would never do otherwise. Fear lets you compromise. Fear will even let you seduce your husband so that he thinks he imagined your transgression, your betrayal and that you still are his (253). This chapter also brings out Koman s fear of being alone. As he grows old he fears that he has nothing to do with his art, as he says: I feel fear then. This is a fear I have never known before. It isn t as though I have not been acquainted with fear. I have been swamped by fear, different kinds of fear. The fear of not belonging. The fear that accompanies a decision. The fear that every artist feels-will I be able to fulfil the expectations of my art (260). Next comes the chapter Beebhalsam which means disgust. In this 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 what I am doing. Can anything be worth this repugnance? How 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,

28 204 He wants to hurt him and so he announces that he is going to host a Kathakali performance at his resort to draw the westener s attention. This makes Shyam disgusting in everyone s eyes (349). Koman too feels disgusted when the State Government announces an award for him. This is because he wasn t recognized when he gave his fullness to the art, but then when he seldom performs he is recognized: I find it utterly pointless. There was a time when an award or even a felicitation, would have helped prop my self-esteem. Those days I was working relentlessly at my art, giving it all I had.... Now when I seldom perform, when age and time have made me more secure as an artist, I don t need public recognition or those stupid expressions of appreciation (295). The next chapter is Adbhutam. For Adbhutam is wonder. And wonder is immediate. It cannot be premeditated or calculated (336). Hence the chapter shows how unexpected events can change the entire course of life. This chapter tells how Radha is perplexed at her discovery of becoming pregnant. At first she is happy about becoming a mother, but soon it fades away as she is put to the embarrassing situation of who the father of the child would be. She is torn between the two men Chris and Shyam:

29 205 What am I to do now? It must have happened the night when Shyam raped me. Shyam will never let me go if he knows I am carrying his child. No Shyam will never let me go if he knows this. What would Chris say if he knew? How can we even think of life together with me carrying another man s child? Are you entirely sure it is Shyam s, a voice asks me. Don t forget you made love again, two nights after the rape. It was the last day of your safe period. Accidents are known to happen (340). Koman is also wonder-struck when Chris asks him if he remembers Angela. He is at the height of wonder when Chris says that Angela is his mother. Koman wonders to think if he should have a son like Chris. But as in the statement of Meena Devi, He is sure that he is not Chris father. He lived with Angela but soon they got separated (350). The final chapter is Shaantam. That is Shaantam. Detachment. Freedom. An absence of desire. A coming to terms with 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

30 206 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. Anita Nair is not merely interested in writing about Kathakali, but unravels the identity and inner emotions of the characters through the art. Through the nine primary emotions of Kathakali, Anita Nair portrays some characters in her novel Mistress, in whom we can find out that there is an external bond between art and life. Agrawal and Sinha present their views about the Indian writers usage of myths as: In fact the consciousness of myth has very slowly evolved in Indian English fiction. As most of the Indian English novelist of the pre-independence period, happened to be men or women who were more exposed to Western culture than to Indian, if not in real life but at least in literary tradition and they were less interested in finding any meaningful pattern Indian myths for use of myth in the Indian English novel (200). But it is interesting that a writer like Anita Nair, of the postindependence period has used Indian myth in her novel. As the novel is devised with the metaphor of Kathakali art, a dance form which is entirely based on the epics, one of the

31 207 protagonists Koman looks upon mankind with a wisdom drawn from the heroes, princes and villains of the Ramayana and Mahabarata. As stated in blogspot, he recognizes every nuance of emotion as once he has experienced, as part of a vesham, or a role in Kathakali. When Koman tells Chris about his love with Angela he compares himself to Nala and Damayanti to Angela (np). Koman follows Angela to London as he had loved her so dearly. Even he leaves of his dance institute 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 three months since they ve come to London, Koman is not able to make an income. He feels guilty of this and above all Angela s indifference to him. So he decides to leave Angela in her country and go back to his native village: That night I couldn t sleep. I thought of Nala in the forest. Nala who lies awake while Damayanti sleeps. She doesn t deserve to suffer for my sins, he tells himself as he creeps away. In her father s kingdom, she will be cherished again. She will have food to eat and clothes to wear, gardens to walk in and the softest of beds to sleep in. She will know happiness again. Nala was carassed with unhappiness and guilt. Even Damayanti, the love of his life, was a burden, a reminder of his worthlessness (394).

32 208 Shyam, who sees Chris and Radha wrapped in each other in a tableau of intimacy at a beautiful night when the moon has gone behind a cloud, Shyam is reminded of a scene in Uttara Swayamvaram. It is a love scene like many others that speckle Kathakali librettos: But tonight I understand what the scene is truly about. Duryodhana, the cruel Kaurava prince, and his wife Bhanumati are in a beautiful garden. It is night. The combination of the beauty of the moment and the loveliness of his wife arouses in Duryodhana a great desire to make love to her. He turns to her with the nakedness of his desire showing. Bhanumati doesn t coy or hide the intensity of her longing (128). Shyam is stirred at the intensity of their intimacy and completeness of desire by Radha and Chris. In Mistress Radha too refers to an Indian myth from Ramayana. 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: Well anyway, there is this episode of Rama stepping on a stone and the stone coming to life and becoming Ahalya. The story is that Ahalya, the wife of Sage Gautama, was

33 209 discovered by her husband in bed with Indra, the king of God and so he cursed her to become a stone (57). Thus in her novel Mistress Anita Nair has skilfully woven in design the Indian myth to make vivid of situations and relationships of men. The words of Muhammad Ghannoum become true with this, English has been appropriated without losing its universal appeal to convey the Indian sensibility and feelings (40). There by the novel has attained a desired effect. Characters and objects in the novel are simply something on a wider range, or suggest psychological or spiritual concepts in a wider range and they are called symbols. An extended symbol is called metaphor. Symbolism is one of the devices used by postindependence Indian English novelists. Anita Nair is one such novelist who has successfully employed this in her novels. Her novels are rich in an array of meaningful symbols. In the novel Ladies Coupe, the character Margaret Shanthi, classifies herself as water. Like water she accepts her life with her male-egoist husband, she forgets his aggressive behavior towards her at the same time she says that the same water has the power to dissolve and destroy. As she says this, it is a foreshadowing symbol that she will destroy the male-egoism of her husband: I classify myself as water. Water that moistens. Water that heals. Water that forgets. Water that accepts.

34 210 Water that flows tirelessly. Water that also destroys. For the power to dissolve and destroy is as much a part of being waters as wetness is (96). Ebe, Margaret s husband reared a pair of goldfish in his house. He has named them James and Joyce for the male and female respectively. One day when Margaret finds James floating dead she says: A dead fish. James floated on top with his belly split open. I stared at the dead James and the living Joyce who seemed sleeker and friskier, frolicking happier than I had ever seen her (132). Here the dead fish is a symbol of Ebe s male-egoism and the happy Joyce, a symbol of Margaret s happiness at the death of his male-egoism. In the same novel, the character of Prabha Devi suffers from a sense of guilt of enticing Pramod, her husband s friend. Her entices 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).

35 211 The phrases Raising glittering rainbows and their legs propelled them forward symbolize that soon Prabha Devi will overcome her guilt, propelling herself forward in the life pool. In the novel Lessons in Forgetting, Anita Nair has used the symbol of pomegranate. According to Greek mythology, pomegranate is a symbol of death and promise of resurrection. Pomegranate is the favourite fruit of Meera, the protagonist too. It symbolizes the death of Meera s agonies, despair and tragedies and the resurrection of a new life: Meera thinks of her favourite fruit the pomegranate. Of how she savours it best when she eats it seed by seed rather than as a handful thrown into her mouth. She will take a cue from that. Of how resurrection is to be fashioned one day at a time (360). Agarwal and Sinha have the following to say about the significance of characterization: Aristotle laid utmost emphasis on the plot in a story, later on, this emphasis to character. Now what is more important is plot and character are set in equilibrium. A great novel enables us to identify ourselves with hero or heroine and enjoy characters we neither like nor envy. The most enjoyable fictional characters seem to be very life-like (237).

36 212 It is undeniable that Anita Nair has maintained an equillibrium between the plot and character. Her novels have an artistic unity as Narasimhaiah says, Characterization, setting, story, symbol and style- all of them are functionally related to each other so as to create an artistic unity (198). Her characters in all the four novels are lifelike that they are most enjoyable. All the four novels enable to identify ourselves not only with the protagonists but also other characters. In Ladies Coupe Akhila and Prabha Devi could represent of the present. Janaki of the past and Sheela Vasudevan of future. Not only these three women but even the minor characters are universal types in their aspirations. The character Karpagam is given a little space in the novel. Yet this character seems to be the primary inspiration of Akhila. Every woman character of the novel starting with the protagonist Akhila and ending with the Chettiar s insane wife are neatly woven and structured by Anita Nair to show the plight of women. The five women whom Akhila meets in the train, give a valid message of hope not only to Akhila but to the entire world. In her novel The Better Man there is a little fictious village named Kaikurussi. Neeru Tandom rightly says, The first fictional village Malgudi was made literally famous by R.K. Narayanan in his works and in Kaikurussi Anita Nair has created on, that could become just as well known (np). The village of Kaikurussi could be taken as a character itself, where the important human characters live in Kaikurussi is well crafted by Anita Nair that she has created another

37 213 homestead that could become just as well known. The manner in which Anita Nair has presented the character of Bhasi, though not the protagonist of the novel, makes us question if he is the protagonist. This is because of her sharp characterization of the characters. In her novel Mistress all are lively colourful characters. As the Asian age reviews, It is an ambitious first novel teeming with colourful characters. All the characters in this novel are quiverful characters who refuse to leave our memory even after finishing the novel. It is a better mix of the characters as she has portrayed them in relation to impersonal objects, their relation to public affairs and art (np). Dialogues occupy an important place in the texture of the novel. They throw light on character. It is of importance that style, dialogues, etc. should vary almost from page to page, in order to differentiate characters according to their, age, sex, religion, class, education, occupation, social life and so on. The style in dialogues varies with every novelist. Most of the contemporary Indian English novelists use dialogues as a device of characterization. For instance in Ladies Coupe, the dialogue of Karpagam is so sharp, natural and straightforward that it inspires Akhila and gives her a ray of hope. The words cascaded out of her mouth with ease: I live alone. I have for many years now. My daughter who is just twenty-three does as well. We are strong Akhi. We

38 214 are if we want to be. Live alone. Build a life for yourself where your needs come first. Tell your family to go to hell or wherever (207). In Mistress as Shyam is angry about Chris and Radha s affair, he pours his anger over Radha through words and then attacks her physically. There is realism in his dialogues as he is hurt of his disloyal and disrespectful wife and in Radha as she speaks against him: You are drunk she said. And I am not a bloody object. You are my wife. My voice rose. Do you have to shout? The servants will hear us. You are my wife. I want you to show me some respect. What do you want me to do? Lick your feet? (163). In Anita Nair there is an uncanny skill of framing natural dialogues. She changes their tone and style to match her characters and situations. This could match the dialogue spoken by Giri to Meera, when he is vexed that she is not able to understand the needs of the present: You know what your problem is Meera? You want to 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 or the future. Pending chores. Things to do. What about