Ghatashraddha: A Review

The last rites..

‘Ghatashraddha’ a Sanskrit word for the last rites of a person, is the story about a young Brahmin student; his teacher’s widowed daughter Yamuna, and the Brahmanic society. This short story, written by the renowned writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, is set around the 1930s in British India, though there is no direct reference to that in the story. It is situated in the center of an orthodox upper caste Brahmin community in Southern Karnataka. The story seems to suggest that the particularity towards the brahmanical laws and edicts is a part of the community’s social fabric and world view. Life in such a community is depicted quite vividly in the story which exhibits the various layers prevalent in such a society. The social and political dynamics of the society are starkly brought out in how this community conducts itself in the course of this story. The discriminatory attitude of this community towards the lower castes, their perceptions about women as wives and widows, the role of the man and his status in this society, the adherence to rituals were some of the most prominent characteristics of this society which are brought out beautifully by the author.

 Anathamurthy had ownership of this context because he hailed from it. He was born into an orthodox upper caste Brahmin family. He was educated in a Vedic school like the one mentioned in this story and taught to follows the rules and laws of this community. He, like Nani, followed the rituals of Brahmanism until, like Nani he began to question it. One wonders if the character of Nani is drawn by the author in his own image, for Nani is shown to question what is acceptable in this society and what isn’t. Where a young widow is not allowed to remarry and is deemed a slut for engaging in an affair, and her father is deemed an honorable man for taking a wife at an old age: this is problematic in Nani’s mind and perhaps such instances were problematic for the author compelling him to critique his community. The story reflects the elements Ananthamurthy found problematic in the Brahmanic community and is represented in layers that are complex and nuanced.

 The story is narrated through the experiences of this young boy, Nani, who has come to study from Udupa, a Brahmanic teacher. The story begins with Udupa leaving on a journey for about three months on religious work. He leaves instructions with his daughter to take care of his three students. Nani is the youngest student in his gurukul and seems quite attached to the Acharya’s daughter who he calls “Yamunakka”. At the beginning of the story we get to know that Yamunakka is pregnant from her affair with the village school teacher. She does not want people to know about this secret but people in the community already suspect. The neighbors, her father’s students and others in the community seem to be spying on her activities and she is oblivious of the same. Nani sees these events unfold and is unable to understand its implications or people’s reactions.

 As Yamuna’s condition becomes more apparent and she is unable to hide her secret its consequences begin to emerge. The upadhya who was entrusted with looking after the education of the students in Udupa’s absence stops coming to their house, his classmate Ganesh is taken away by his father and Shastri, the oldest of the students leaves the house and begins living with his friend the Sahukar’s son. Yamuna is seen to disconnect herself from the community and withdraw further into her grief and worry. The teacher who impregnated her refuses to take responsibility for his actions and instead convinces Yamuna to abort the child, and she is hell bent on killing herself.

 Nani hurtles through these events confused at their unfolding and how it constantly disrupts his idea of the world he knows. He is unable to make sense of the degeneration of his comfort zone. He has seen his only ally in an alien environment, Yamunakka fall apart, he has had to seek the help of the lowest caste, Kateera, to save her, he has defiled his purity by stepping foot in the house of a shudra when Yamuna goes to abort her child. Nani faces a maelstrom of emotions and sensations that he can make no sense of and the nature of events reflect in the reader the frustration that that small boy must be feeling, not for the breakdown of his world but for the ridiculousness of the logic driving the Brahmanic world. The story ends Nani being taken away from Yamunakka by his parents and her excommunication from her society where her father performs her last rites – Ghatashraddha.

This story evoked a string of responses. They all seemed to be in the same line of thought where most agreed that they did not like the way the story panned out. They were uncomfortable with its trajectory and the reasons behind this were given by the other members.

 I was unable to attend the discussion that took place in the class however I read through all the reviews posted by my group members to get a sense of where their discussion might have taken them.  I realized that all of us had noticed the significant aspects of the text and largely been affected by that. Everyone had written about how the distinction in caste and the gross discrimination didn’t sit well with them. They noticed the hypocrisy and the blatant disregard for human life in the behavior of the Brahmins. Many said that the edicts of the brahmanical culture were meant to propagate different ideals from what the community here propagated. One of the team members mentioned the three stages in the life of a Brahmin boy was meant to be a method to gain deeper understanding of human life. This practice deteriorated and became rigid and students just followed it without understanding why. Hierarchy and caste structure were brought up by everybody. One of the members related stories from his childhood and how discrimination towards the dalits or the blind following of rituals was not practiced by his father and thus enabled him to look at these systems with a critical eye.

 Sexuality was a topic of discussion as well and the unfairness that was shown and justified by the community in the story. Yamuna who was young was not expected to desire physical companionship but it was ok for her father to marry a much younger woman to keep house.

This sparked a series of comments in our group where one member was angry with the kind of woman Yamuna portrayed to be and another with how she was behaving. They believed she could have been more assertive and demanded her rights but she behaved like a pushover.

This story is more nuanced than it appears in the first read. However the reader also recognizes the many layers that contribute to the complexity of the story. During the first read the obvious element were noticed about the structure of the society, the blatant discrimination, the orthodox attitudes, but a deeper read allow the reader to see the darker underbelly of this system. The story seemed to be more than just the words for me. It made me uncomfortable with what I read and this was voiced by the other members in my team as well compelling them to share with everyone their own views on the same this could be considered transactional criticism and mentioned by Wolf in her book. Here a transaction of ideas had taken place where the readers were sharing their views and experiences to better explain and understand the text.

Another form of criticism was genetic criticism where it was visible that the author was the strongest critic of this system that he was a part of. He saw the disparities while in the system and used a literary text to bring this out. Knowing about the background of the author thus helps us also look at his other work and compare with this to see the similarities in ideas and thoughts that have been influenced perhaps by a similar critical lens. This also puts the text in a larger literary framework where other texts allow us to criticize the text and better understand its literary stand and value

  

The element in the story evoked many questions about human nature for me and though I knew about the issues it talked about I had not experienced anything like it. The style and content of the text allowed me to feel what the author wanted to say. I felt Nani’s frustration and for me that made a powerful impact on my mind.

As a reader I realized that I needed to read something at least twice to get an essence of the text. I grasped the larger themes in the story but a closer reading helped me distinguish the deeper undertones of the issues at hand. It was a frustrating read at first not because the text was difficult but because as a reader with my particular cultural context I was connected to the context of the story. I was connected with it at multiple levels as opposed to a reader who is from outside the context.  I also realized that it is difficult to not report on the text as opposed to build on it. Even though I was not a part of the discussions I could tell that my responses to the text were initially one of reporting. Then having read the other reviews I realized that I was also critical as a reader. I was critical of the story, the world it represented and how others saw that world as well. It was a learning experience that changed how I looked at myself as a reader.

Children also identify themselves as readers quite early into their educational careers. They have a certain image of themselves as readers based on how well they are doing and many time compared to others in the class. They have to be guided as they read. Their understanding of the text can be gauged though discussion and debate about the text. Their critical senses need to be tested and honed through engagement with the text and encouragement towards accountable talk. We haven’t learned to do accountable talk because we were never made to engage with the idea. We were trained to comprehend and report as opposed to engage with the idea. The ideas for literacy learning have evolved to better strategies which if used could create a very different generation of readers and educators. 

Fin..

GATASHRADDHA (Ejournal- Final)

About the story

It’s been long since I’ve come across a literature which brings out the ethnicity of a community to the fullest whether to appreciate it or to criticize it. U R Ananthamurthy (Udupi Rajagopala Acharya Ananthamurthy), the late writer, activist of Kannada literature has done total justice by penning down the intricacies of Indian caste, culture and traditions through a very simple story. When I initially read the story I felt it had nothing new to offer, all the elements brought out in the story like caste, gender, societal pressure were all already seen, read, heard and rusted. But a deeper discussion in the small group helped to unravel many issues which I haven’t touched upon.

With a structured plot, simple language and suspense elements the story create a cozy environment to read. We have been taught to find morals in stories from our very childhood, and there are quite a few morals in the story as well, but I wish to consider it as something more than that. It was a story which had all the elements to arouse my senses, both inner and outer. Thus I like to categorize it as a piece which is worth reading and pondering upon.

Gatashraddha is the mainly a story of two characters; one is the narrator of the story, a young Brahmin Vedic student named ‘Nani’ and the other Yamuna who is the daughter of his master Uduppa. The word ‘Gatashraddha’ means last ritual in Kannada. Being a widow in a conservative Brahmin community Yamuna was bounded by caste and societal chains. She came from her in-laws’ to look after her father and his home. When Uduppa goes off to perform the final rituals of Yamuna’s husband a series of events happen which becomes the plot of the story. Yamuna who is pregnant with another man’s child stays isolated inside the house with the boys who came to Uduppa to learn the rituals and mantras. When she finds out she can no longer keep it a secret she was forced to abort the child. But the whole community gets to know about Yamuna and she gets cornered. Finally all the boys were taken to their homes including nani, the Brahmin community excommunicates her, Uduppa does her last rituals while she is still alive and remarries.

Through the story, the author has tried to bring out some of the worst practices of our society. If you look at the story from a reader’s perspective it is an innocent piece of art, a story which tells about a weak and depended woman under suppression but if you study the author’s previous work or his background before reading it you get the real essence of his writing. Patriarchy, caste conflicts, socio-political issues were all explicitly questioned throughout the plot. URA who has always challenged the brahminical practices and traditions brought out the prevalence of terrible ideologies over human values.

It is interesting that the author chose a child to narrate the story rather than an adult who would have aggravated the story’s basic theme with more prejudices and biases. But this helps us understand that a child as we see as an innocent and non-biased creature is not really so. A child is not living isolated of what is happening in and around him/her. He is also a part of the society; he could think and be influenced by the society as well. Nani, the narrator of the story is going through events which gave him enough opportunity to leave Yamuna and go back to his home, but he chooses to stay back and help her out. This shows the two very complex sides of a child’s mind. One is the innocence with which he accompanied her to do abortion and the other is choosing to stay behind even though that is the most difficult of decisions to make. This shows that the moral side of the child is still strong even in a crisis. This makes children good literary devices.

The setting of the story might be 1950s or 60s, after independence when the country is still in the aftershocks of the British rule and partition. South India which is comparatively less affected by the Independence struggle and the following dramatic events might be in a much safer zone but the height of communal displays was very much prominent. Brahmins and Dalit were two entirely different species of people back then (and even today). The boy Kari who helps Nani later in the story is a Dalit who tries hard to stay away from Nani and is even afraid that he might touch him and degrade Nani’s community by doing so. A strong sense of power is being explored in the story. But it is surprising to notice that even a ‘higher caste’ woman is not free of oppression. Let it be a Brahmin or a Shudra, 1950s or 2010s woman are always the weaker section who needs support and cannot take independent decisions. It was ironic that Yamuna wasn’t allowed to be with another man after her husband’s death but Uduppa her father was allowed to marry another woman to take care of his home even at an old age. I could make out an immediate connection between this power equation and the Sati system, were women are forced to jump into the burning pyre of their husbands in order to be one soul and spirit after death. It might be also be seen as a practice to curb her desires and avoid situations like the one in the story.

The story will definitely make us question the authoritarian intent. Is the author a real anti-Brahmin or is he strongly advocating societal equality and justice? Anyway, the take away would definitely be stirred emotions, and thoughts and questions over our own traditions and beliefs.

Responses

I was bit disturbed the way the character of Yamuna was portrayed in the story. Her’s is a character which we may stumble upon somewhere at some point in our lives. I wish she could have taken control of her own life and reacted timely. It is surprising that even now; in the 21^st century women face such issues of alienation, suppression, oppression, lack of recognition and grave abuse. 

The peer group discussion brought in more of similar issues. The group had both similar interpretations of the story as mine as well as different ones. People had instances from their personal lives to bring into the table. 

Reflections

The literacy circle task helped me to understand how to constructively dissect a literature to find nuances which you might have never paid much attention to otherwise. I used to read all kinds of literature but never felt the need to review it critically but after the task I feel like going back and critically analysing all that I have read so far.

For me any book, any poem which arouses my senses and makes me completely engross in it was a good literature. After learning what a ‘good literature’ can be I started questioning myself. I think we should give information like this to children as well so that they develop a habit to choose ‘good books’ instead of just ‘books’. If I get a chance to practice this in field I would definitely take this activity to my classrooms.

One more take away from the exercise would be that:

I have always felt ashamed to show my unfinished writings to anyone else, this activity gave me a different perspective of getting feedbacks about your work, rewriting it, and reviewing and critically analysing it. I learned that this will make your final piece a much better product than you could have ever imagined. 

E-Journal (final) - GHATASHRADDHA.

Ghatashraddha is a short story written by U.R.Ananthmurthy. In my sense U.R.Ananthmurthy belongs to that genre of writers, albeit for reasons best known to them, who have vehemently opposed the Brahminical tyranny with its replete ascendancy into the ills of the degenerative caste system.

Set in circa British era in late 1930’s, the story revolves around an Acharya who runs a gurukul, his widowed young daughter Yamuna and a child novice named Nanni.

The story begins as a narrative by Nanni, who perhaps chosen by the writer, as one being a child and the story unfolds from the lens of a child. I wonder, what would the story sound like had it been from an adult’s narrative.

Life seems to go on as usual in the gurukul with the day starting early, complete with the rituals for the day and the prime essence being transmission of the Vedic knowledge as part of the oral tradition, until one day when the acharya leaves the village on work. Nanni develops a special bond with Yamuna; fondly calling her as ‘akka’. Yamuna in due course develops a relationship with a man in the village and gets pregnant and this is the crux of the plot. While the man who impregnates her refuses to take ownership and suggests abortion, Yamuna feels tormented and greatly worried of the consequences. Nanni is a witness to the entire episode of her abortion, her pain, and her helplessness. While the disciples of the ashram appear to be going about doing their usual work in reciting the ‘Vedas’ and in spiritual quest, little does Yamuna know that every movement of her’s was spied by these very disciples of the ashram. As quickly as it can get, the word spreads and when the acharya returns, he learns of the happenings and seems very distraught. The disciples are taken away from the gurukul terming the place to be decadent and inhabited by unscrupulous beings.

In the mean time, the acharya choses that the best recourse to this situation is to expel his daughter through a ritual – Ghatashraddha, which is considered as a rites of passage symbolizing death of the person. The acharya after the symbolic ritual gets married to a woman, just so that his needs be taken care of.

Before, I go further I wish to dwell upon the kind of learning that seems to take place in ashrams such as this one in the story.

The ancient tradition talks about the three steps of learning being Sravana which is listening to the instructions of the teacher, to the words or texts in the form of utterances; the second step being Manana which entails the important process of meditating upon the subjects taught in terms of deeper understanding and the third step being Nididhyasana that entailed critical engagement and realization.

However the latter periods saw much of ‘learning’ restricted to mere memorizing and recitation of words with no love for wisdom - that has the inherent power to transform beings and society. The caste system became more pronounced in terms of supremacy of the Brahmins, rigid division of people and fragmentation of the society, and at its best served to promote the vested interests of certain groups.

Gradually the Varna system and the jatis became a formidable force to reckon with.

The caste system has been a great reflector of aspects of culture in India among others. Much has been already said about the maladies of the caste system, with the power relations and exploitation of the ‘weak’. To pronounce the aspects of power, untouchability is used as a tool when Kateera, a ‘low- born’, runs away from Nanni calling himself as an untouchable is but one instance. The ideas of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ and as much of ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ are widely pronounced in these scenes depicting the relations with people of the lower castes and matters relating to widowhood. Despite his position in the social order, Kateera becomes the arbiter of ritual and purity to a child of the priestly caste, forbidding the touch that would ‘pollute’ Nanni. The mere touch undergoes certain symbolic transformations that bespoke fear, desire, denial that hold deep meanings in the plot.

What is more compelling to the reader is the idea of widowhood in the Brahminical patriarchy. The identity, role and status of women, particularly that of the widow is well depicted in Ghatashraddha. From the evidence of the classical texts it is clear that the upper caste Hindu widow was an anomaly in traditional Hindu society.

Ordinarily the wife occupies an important focus of attention as a symbolic value, with rituals and customs gaining completeness with her presence. On the contrary the wife isolated from her husband, especially in the event of the death of her husband has no recognition or identity of her own in the Brahminical patriarchy. She is overtly despised and unwelcome in any of the “auspicious” ceremonies, and hence dies a social death on becoming a widow. Yamuna, the character in the story who is a widow is subject all of the moral and social restrictions the widows are bound by. Add to this the suppression of her sexuality where she is required to keep her sexuality repressed and forcibly contained as prescribed by tradition. At this juncture a pregnant Yamuna living in a gurukul, belonging to the priestly caste is viewed as blasphemous. Here again the onus of the “sin” falls on Yamuna alone while no one seems to care about the person who impregnates her, who is out of the loop and thus pronouncing gender issues as well.

Control of the sexuality was not in her hands but in the hands of the men, family and the patriarchal structure.

In a way, the caste, class and patriarchy play out together to organize and structure social relations and thereby the social fabric of the society. The story seems to accurately throw up questions that need a religious inquiry – that of the supremacy of the upper castes, repressive measures against the lower castes, what constitutes education or a learned being, identity of beings and bearing on the construction of the society.

 What seems more evident is the caste structure and hierarchy with its inherent norms, sanctions, mores, belief systems,

 customs, tradition is less resilient, but at this point the one question that seems to surface is – Isn’t a transformation of the human consciousness possible, that which transcends the boundaries of gender, caste, class,creed, race, religion or even nation for that matter? Education in its holistic perspective ideally must bring out this in beings where rationality prevails, which brings about a more sustainable and a just society.

Response /Interpretation:

The story was quite an intriguing story for me, with a powerful plot and interesting characters. At the heart of the story lies the depiction of the nature of human bonds created by the self and the society, also in them being intense as well as fragile at times! Most aspects with reference to the social structure of a Hindu society, the apathy of the woman in a Brahminical society, the caste and gender specifics were seen and interpreted on similar lines by the rest of the group members. However, in the beginning there was one member of the group who did not seem to appreciate the plot since much of the story involved a woman mired in situations which she could barely extricate herself from - owing to superstitious beliefs. In my sense, this literary  work does compel the reader to open one's eyes to the maladies of the caste system, which is the central theme of the story. A chary introspection would help the reader to reflect upon the glaring social issues that we, more often than not, choose to overlook!
As mentioned earlier, the story begins as a child's narrative with him seeing life unfurl as he goes about it. One begins to wonder, what would be the story like had it been an adult's narrative; also how would an adult male look at it and would it be different from an adult female's narrative? Perhaps this is something, I ordinarily would not have thought of as a casual reader - I see the changes myself as a student of the Literacy pedagogy course!
I see the worth of the intellectual engagement while reading a text that should be imbibed in children, that helps them become good critics of the text. As Wolf (2004) mentions in Interpreting literature with children, that literary engagement is cognitive work (pp.18). In as much as literature provides pleasure and stirs up imagination in the young, Wolf argues that it is essential to look at literature in terms of children's intellectual engagement (Wolf, 2004). She further goes on to cite Perry Nodelman (1996) who argues that the pleasure experienced represents recognition, connection, and reflection; adding " …the pleasure of recognising forms and genres - of seeing similarities between works of literature; as well as 'the pleasure of understanding' - of seeing how literature not only mirrors life but comments on it and makes us consider the meaning of our own existence" (Nodelman, 1996 cited in Wolf, 2004). This to a great extent sums up the rationale behind a deep engagement in texts which could well prove to be a cognitive work.
In the same spirit, guided by the critical perspectives as put forth by Wolf (2004), I'd like to support my engagement with the text; using the particular forms of literary criticisms such as : a) Genetic criticism, b) text-text criticism, c) transactional criticism, and d) socio-cultural criticism. (Wolf,2004)
Genetic criticism highlights the critical stance taken in viewing the author's life and times which is reflected in his literary work. U.R.Ananthamurthy, a Brahmin by birth, gets into a spirit of inquiry as he goes about writing different literary works, questioning the authority of the Brahmins, the patriarchal society, the role and status of women in society, the caste system and the like; that which is seen as a reflection of his times and beyond in this work - Ghatashraddha. In this piece of work, I think the author stretches a bit beyond what he has experienced being a part of the Brahminical society. Hence, it is a representation of his experience and a stretch of imagination - but a thin line between the two.
Text-text criticism suggests the reader to base interpretations taking into account the literary text - the way it fits into the broader body of literature, comparison of the text with other texts by the same author, in the same genre and with similar stylistic features that help make connections. Taking this stance, yet another work titled 'Samskara' written by U.R.Ananthamurthy bears a similar theme - that of the caste system and superstitions. The ending of both the stories have close parallels in the death of the main characters- while one being a symbolic death in Ghatashraddha; further one can see close parallels in terms of the titles given to the two works - Samskara and Ghatashraddha - which refer to the rites of passage.
Further, transactional criticism takes the individual/reader experiences which guides and shapes the understanding and interpretation. Our literary circle consisted of four members in all, who brought up their life experiences that further shaped our understanding of the text and in as much as engaging at a deeper level, more so with the social issues at hand. Further, this enabled an aesthetic appreciation of the text. Going by Rosenblatt's continuum; we could see ourselves moving from efferent reading to aesthetic reading ( Rosenblatt (1994) cited in Wolf, 2004). However, what is important while we go about transactional criticism, is not to judge the subjective interpretation of the text - but the success lies in the justification and returning to the text without digressing.
Finally, taking the socio-critical stance we were able to delineate the voices within the text - those that were dominant and those that were silenced. The established patterns of authority - power structure and stereotypical representations of women and children, that was so well embedded in the text was put under question.
In sum, these perspectives aided our discussion to engage at a fairly deeper level.

Participation in Literary circles:

Participation in the literary circle helped in more ways than one. Firstly, we were able to listen to different interpretations of a single text within the group. Secondly, we were able to unravel the deeper hidden meanings, which may not have been possible if each of us did it independently. While we went about discussing, we did refer to certain theoretical principles that further informed our discussion in terms of critiquing the text. Since the language contained a lot of Kannada words, the other members scouted for more information just to understand what the writer was trying to say, but as we moved on we were able to go beyond mere information seeking to appreciation of the text and responding to it aesthetically. Finally, the discussion was made more interesting with the personal experiences of the members that aided our understanding and took it to a deeper level.
I also wish to add at this point, that I think we got a bit overtly critical at times!

Reflections:

As for me, analysis of literary texts perhaps would have worked at the subliminal level, but not as explicitly or consciously as it is being done now. As a reader what I understand is that writers craft their stories and characters with deliberate choices in terms of the style, genre, tone and language. These elements in addition to other things like plot, characters, and the like seem to be put together to bring about some interesting and powerful themes. Children's literature in particular has always fascinated me. For one, the various eternal verities that children are exposed and introduced through literature is remarkable. I can't think of a captivating medium that could do the job, so wonderfully as literature does. As for me, literature plays its role in preparing the young to face their fates - alone- by weaving stories around such moments! For example, take Maurice Sendak's Where the wild things are where a little boy leaves home to a place where he faces monsters; or Kyo Maclear's Virginia wolf that depicts a story of a little girl and her mood swings.
In terms of critiquing literary texts, I learned a more structured way of doing it, while being conscious that one need not be limited to these alone. Through group discussions what was enriching was that we could see the text from different lens; which indeed is a learning experience.
Literary engagement for children could be an exciting and a richly rewarding experience. They can be taught to make a transition from superficially engaging in a text to critically responding to it in the very many ways put across by people like Rosenblatt, Wolf, Nodelman and others. Engaging them in high quality literature enables them to enter the textual world and construct meanings in rich ways, apart from the pleasure it provides. This involves a conscious and careful orchestration of the various elements like the plot, characters, time, space, style, genre, theme and the setting among others in the literary text; to make it a rich piece of work.
As a language educator, such literary discussions carry a lot of weight as it helps the children to respond to texts in a critical manner; much of which is lacking in the schools that we see. I reiterate to add that literature, besides providing the fun element, will enable children to engage deeply with the text, take up a critical analyses of the texts, and engaging in 'talk'. Children seem to respond better when they feel they have been given an ear to, when they are confident that their opinions too matter and their experiences count. Literature enables young learners to engage in such accountable talk; which otherwise may have been difficult. Further, this equips children to deal with fictional and non-fictional texts  and issues in a much more profound and critical manner; that could help resolve much of the life's issues and that of the society!
At the end of it, the literary circle experience was an enriching one as I could see it through the lens of my other team members as well, gaining perspectives that I would have not thought of before!

E-Journal 1

A memory called Ammachi - A short story written by a Brahmin women writer whose nick name is Vaidehi which is given by Sudha (Kannada weekly magazine) for her first publication in the literary world. She is from a Kota Brahmin community which is widely distributed in Udupi. Vaidehi steers clear of jingoistic announcements of feminist positions, but presents the perspective of women as it affected them, from the politics of everyday life. Her story mostly captures the women’s real world, her real experiences, and the various aspects of self-fashioning, without taking overt, ideological stances. The work has real life narration so she didn’t want to publish the work but finally publisher gave a nick name and published the story. “A Memory called Ammacchi” is a real life story about her, which she did not want to be published in her real name so the publisher published the book in the name of “Vaidehi”. She grew up by writing stories which she thought that if her brothers would come across her writings they would make a fun of her. She used to see her surrounding

and write her stories based on the lived realities of women. Women whose husbands had run away, child widows, those women who spent an entire lifetime working in other people's homes, Brahmin widows with shaven heads and red saris braving to the courts to claim pension, zany women, prostitutes… how can I forget that woman who threw her sister-in-law's new born baby into the well because she couldn't conceive.

I had chosen the story “A Memory called Ammacchi” written by Janaki Srinivasa Murthy whose pen name is Vaidehi. This story is related to a girl who would be of the age 10-12 years, no specific age of the girl is mentioned in the writing piece, and we in our literacy discussion came up with the age by having a common discussion after going through the story. Ammacchi was six months old when her father died. Ammacchhi was taken care by her mother and a male care taker named Venkappayya who was six years old and started staying in the same house where Ammacchhi lived. He always imagined that when Ammacchi would grow up he would marry her, and this was not idolized by Ammacchhi at all. She had never in her dreams thought that she would marry him, rather she hated his interference in every small thing that she did. There is a character named Shambhatta whom Ammacchhi really likes and her going to his place for Satyanarayan puja was just because she likes him; however it is not explicitly mentioned in the text whether he likes her too. Ammacchhi character in the text has been depicted as a very strong character; she did not have friends of her age, as other girls were sure to be rebuked at home if they were spotted in Ammacchhi’s company. Ammacchhi’s mother always told her to respect her as he was the only man in their life who had taken care, because of which Venkappayya always tried dominating and humiliating Ammacchhi whenever he got the opportunity. His over indulgence in family affairs was not liked by Ammacchhi at all. The author shares shared intimate relation with Ammacchhi and narrates that her company made her feel good and she would not have been anywhere if the author was not there with her. The author shares an incident which really irritated Ammacchhi, she had gone to Rama teacher who is also a tailor, so when Ammacchhi asks her to switch her a blouse with back button then Rama laughs sarcastically, and says that that she could stich it for her but what if Venkappayya creates a scene? She is not able to understand why everyone in the village is treating Venkappayya as her husband. Venkappayya used to go to Tirupathi every year, and this year also he had gone to worship, and when he was away, Ammacchhi went to his room and found a shirt hanging from the peg, the touch of the shirt was very repulsive to her and fetched a scissors to cut the back of the shirt. When Venkappayya returned and saw his shirt he got very furious and started abusing Ammacchhi, and caught her hair and dragged her into the room, to teach her a lesson. When the door opened her face was aflame and blood was oozing from her lips, we all in the group did discuss on this incident and came to a conclusion that might be Ammachhi was raped by Venkappayya. The author was resent at that moment when this sin had taken place, and was asked by Ammacchhi’s mother not to open her mouth to anyone in the village to what she had seen. However the villagers came to know, which lead to Ammacchhi’s and Venkappayya marriage. After marriage they both settled to Tirupathi. After few days, Ammacchhi returns to her place and tells her mother that Venkappayya has hanged himself. The brave character that has been depicted by the author in the story really influenced me, since when I read the ending of the story I felt that Ammacchi was happy when she was giving the death news of Venkappayya to her mother. Even in the group discussion we came to a conclusion that it might be that she would had killed him by her own.  

In our group discussion, we all had different perspectives perceived by all individuals. I was very disturbed with the way Ammacchhi was looked upon and treated by Venkappaya. I think that nobody can forcefully gain anyone, however Venkappaya with his sinful deed tried acquiring Ammacchhi. On this we all had a discussion that the sin that he had done was not correct, Venkappaya just took Ammacchi as a commodity and thought that he only has complete right on her. The author did not explicitly mentioned in the text that what had happened in the room, however as a group we all had one conclusion that Ammacchi was literally raped and that Venkappaya showed his power upon her. This time Venkappaya had crossed all the limits, and this time he would had thought that she would have no other option to marry to anyone else apart from him, as Venkappaya was insecure at Ammacchi liked going to Shambhatta, and was sure that she even likes him. Ammachhi did not like Venkappaya at all. She was a bold girl, who like dressing up and going around the village which was not liked by Venkappaya. In our literary circle we felt that the narrator might have experienced this situation when she was a child. We did not know the age of the narrator; however we all came to a conclusion that it might be that the narrator would be of the age 7-8 years old. The narrator loved being around with Ammacchi and spent most of her time with her.

When I read this story, I could relate this to my mother’s life event which she used to tell her about her brothers. She was the youngest among the siblings so how she was suppressed by her elder brothers, she was not allowed to dress up like other girls, she was asked to stay back when her brothers were going for some marriage ceremony. If she said that she also wants to come along, she was shown eyes and was asked to stay back as girls going to others marriage was not good. People would see her with a different eye, which her brothers would not tolerate, and my mother was always asked to respect her elder brothers as they were the one who would be taking care of her in future. In Ammacchi’s case I felt that her mother was repeatedly telling her to respect Venkappaya, as he would be the one to take care of her.

After marriage when Ammacchi returns to her mother’s home she gives the news that Venkappaya has hanged himself her mother started weeping, we assumed that the narrator was also present at that moment since the way she had illustrated that after giving the news Ammacchhi looked at her with the corner of her eyes. The narrator has shown the boldness character of Ammachhi several times, and we all were in a conclusion that this time also Ammacchhi would had killed him and taken revenge to the sin that he had done over him. I was happy with the conclusion that at the end Venkappaya died, since as it would be very difficult for a women to live with that person who would had hurt her soul.

Thank you ma'am for giving us this platform to get our-self into literacy circle, where we did share different perspectives of one single story and then took our discussion further on a single note.  

For Esme-With Love & Squalor

                                  For Esme with Love & Squalor by J.D. SALINGER

  Summary

The story begins with the author J.D.Salinger, receiving an invitation of marriage of a friend named Esme in Devon, England whom he met while at the ending day of his pre-invasion training in Devon. He first saw her at the church where she was singing as a group member of the choir & later met her at a local private coffee shop. As of curiosity and because the narrator was an American whom she, has seen in the church when she was singing in the choir group, she went to his table to have a chat with him and socialize herself. During the conversation between them, as she came to know about him that he is a sort of writer, she asked him to write a squalid story, which is not childish, for her. She also took his address so that she would be able to write to him and thus remain in contact with him. After that the author, as Sergeant X, went for the war in Germany where he fought in the D-Day & in subsequent five campaigns of the war along with a companion, corporal Z. The war had a very negative impact on his physical & mental health. He wasn't able to come through the war with all his faculties intact, the war has disturbed him severely. Because of his bad health he visited hospital two times and has lost a considerable amount of his weight. He came to his centre at Gaufurt, Bavaria after spending two weeks at the hospital. The next starting scene of the later & I think, the important part of the story begins with when he was sitting at the wooden chair and their was a table which was messed up with letters, parcels which were not been opened for quiet long time. The Narrator disguised as Sergeant X, took his brother's letter & started reading it who was asking him to send some bayonets & swastikas. In frustration of his health and because of his brother's demand of materialistic things which were unimportant for him, he tore his brother's letter and threw it in the dustbin. After that he had a long interaction with his friend corporal Z. When Z went, he took his typewriter from the floor and put it on his table and thus made place for it by removing the letters & parcels aside. After sometime his eyes fell on a parcel with a green covering, which was sent by Esme. The parcel had Esme's dead Father's watch in it, which was sent by her on June 7, 1944 while he received it very late i.e. 2-3 months late in August after the end of the D-day when armistice was reached and the war was over with the German force. The parcel also contained a letter, when he read it; it greatly satisfied him and further helped him to sleep, a sleep which he was longing for long time and was not able to get because of the trauma he has suffered through-out the war time. It helped him in becoming a man with all his faculties intact i.e. fully making peace with his mind.

Author Background

The author of the story J.D.Salinger was considered as the most influential American writer of the 20th century, who was also known for his reclusive lifestyle, especially when he tried to run away from the utmost fame which he received after writing the Novel- Catcher in the Rye.   

For Esme with Love- written by J.D.Salinger is a story which reflects the trauma suffered by the soldiers, not only belonging to the axis but also from the allied or winning side like American soldiers. Salinger himself fought in the Second World War and it had a traumatic effect on Salinger health, as he suffered from a nervous break-down which was due to the war impact & of visiting the concentration camps and seeing the condition of people in concentration camps there in Germany. According to me this story is directly an outcome of his experience in the war. Another Novel of his ‘Catcher in the Rye’ also reflects the trauma effects on the people after the post-world war. This novel brought him literary fame. Such was the impact of this novel that it has become an integral part of most of the American's Psyche and was also introduced as a text curriculum in many of the schools in the US. 

Reflections of the story

I had chosen this story, as it appeared to me as a kind of love story. When I had read it first, it totally didn’t appear to be a love story. But, when I read it twice and thrice then I came to understand the inherent love within the story. Then, it appeared to me a fascinating and moving story which I was able to cherish it finally. This was apparent in the story when first, while being getting separated in the restaurant Esme forced her younger brother to kiss the Author and at second when she wrote the letter to author mentioning Charles loves you.There were two words, s-l-a-i-n & f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s and squalor or squalid which were given emphasis in the story. The former word ‘slain’ was used when her father was slain-ed in Africa. The word ‘faculties’ was used two times at first by Esme while wishing the narrator that he comes safe from war with all his faculties intact & the second time when the narrator himself described that how her letter & the watch had helped him to regain all his faculties. The narrator’s use of language appears to be sophisticated but later on due to an Army kind of environment he uses vulgar and abusive language along with Z at some point. The girl, Esme appeared to be much older than from her original age in the story as she used high vocabulary words in her language, her lady like closed mouth yawn and was also clear from her strong liking of squalid stories.  The story at first appeared to be emotionless, but after careful and again reading it appeared to me full of emotions. One of the most moving part of the story was when he was reading the inscription written in a book by a German lady whom he arrested few weeks earlier which said “Dear God, Life is hell” instantly with far more zeal than in the past few weeks when he was suffering, he took a pencil and wrote down under the inscription in the form of scribble- what is hell? It’s the suffering of being unable to love. 

Literary Elements

Plot

The plot seems clear while, when they (Narrator & Esme) first saw each other in the church & then their subsequent meeting at the restaurant, their separation at the restaurant, tearing down his brother’s letter by the Narrator because of being vexed by unimportant demands of swastikas & bayonets by his brother, coming of corporal Z and conversation with him about how Z killed the Cat and other things, in the room who was his companion all through the D-day & five campaigns & finally, finding Esme’s father’s broken watch & reading of the letter sent by Esme which gave him relief and finally a deep sleep.

Character

There are two main characters, Narrator who later on is presented in the story as Sergeant X & Esme. The other sub characters are Corporal Z, Esme’s brother, aunt & Governess, Z’s Mother, Z’s girlfriend Loretta, narrator’s wife & mother in law.

Theme

The main theme is love which is not conveyed explicitly but is conveyed implicitly. It is also about the war impact on people not only on their physical health but mental trauma which people suffer during war time.

Setting

The time-frame of the story begins before the narrator goes on for the D-day invasion in the Year 1944, after his pre-invasion training at Devon, England. At Devon he meets the girl & promised her for writing a squalid story for her. The second part of the story the Narrator described himself as Sergeant X, a person suffering of the mental trauma due to the war impact on him, physically weak, sitting on a chair in a dark room as he was also having problem with the light. 

Interpretation of the story in the group

We all felt that the story was very bizarre, incoherent in nature particularly at the later part of the story when the narrator describe himself as X. Most of us were questioning about, what was the need for him to hide himself as Sergeant X and not letting the story to move smoothly as the first part while his meeting with Esme at Devon. Why he has made the later part of his story a mess as was his table messed up with paper, letters, parcels & books? What was the need to make it incoherent? He himself said before starting the second part of the story as “I’m not at liberty to disclose. I’ve disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader wouldn’t be able to recognize me”. He may have disguised himself because of the war situation at that time. Other thoughts which were reflected in our discussion were that the story is a blend of many genres such as it is not only a love story as it may seem but it has war like situation, the trauma which people suffer in such situation such as the trauma suffered by German lady & the narrator himself while there are some who show their strength in such situation like Corporal Z. Another question which was raised in our discussion about the narrator’s own experience of war linked to the story. When I have searched about the narrator who himself have participated in D-Day and has suffered through mental trauma. I felt it correct that he would have related his experience of war in this story or this story was an outcome of his experience of war like situation. For this reason this story appeared to me as an example of, which involves the Transactional criticism. While reading the story I experience the transactional process between the text and I as a reader was highly personal, which I think was also true for my group mates in the literary discussion where I think each one of us was linking their own Individual experience with the text. This was evident when in the discussion when we had dissimilar kind of thoughts about the interpretation of the text. For example, some were saying that the story was a result of the Author's experience of war while some were saying, that one can write such a story without having prior experience of war, so the story has nothing to do with the author's experience.

I enjoyed the plot part the most and how the character presented themselves, which also gave me an essence of how personality of a person differs from one person to another, How some things which are important for one are unimportant for the other one. As for Corporal Z for whom life is meant to be lived with fun, who seeks love in enjoyment, dance, music & radio programs. In contrast to Z, X sought love in silence, with reading of the books, text & his writings. This was apparent from the 2 incidents, first while when he himself wrote under the inscription written by the German lady in her book & second when he saw the broken watch & the letter of Esme. For X emotions were his energy with which he sees the world & live his life.

A word ‘Squalor’ which means similar to morally degrading, appeared very interesting to me as I have for the first time came across this word. For the first time when I have read the story the latter half of the story really appeared as squalid but when I read it twice & thrice then it appeared to me a remarkable and fascinating story which has been disguised so beautifully. 

Being part of the circle helped me in knowing different perspectives among us of the same story. I enjoyed the agreement & disagreement among us, but I think there was far more which the story wants to say, but we were reiterating our own interpretation seeming my point is the only right point and ending up with that. I think that's the beauty of a good literature, a good story which says make out what you want to make. If we agreed to our peer's perspective we had a new & different perspective & if not, then we are left with the same perspectives of the story. This also applies to children's literature as in it there is a message, a world of aesthetics, but who can enjoy & appreciate it? Only those who do have an experience of it, As a text about real world & real things makes much sense to children even adults rather than the text which talks about the virtual world.

Reflections

The story with its title gives a cue that it's a gift by the author to a girl named Esme. While reading the story for the third time I was moving with the story, as if it was me who was one of the participants in the story. I felt the story, the trauma suffered by Sergeant X and after that though I much wishing to not being able to go for Esme’s marriage. Literary discussion helped each one of us to put our thoughts & most of us were coming up with the similar kind of thoughts. But, according to me we all were not well able to connect with the story. We all, at various point of our lives suffer from mental trauma; we want to forget it, as we live our days we want to remove it from our mind. The important thing is to draw connection, a kind of linkage through these stories. We all do have a lot of stories beneath our heart & we should share it & connect with what we read.  According to me, only then, the lesson of the reading could last in our hearts and minds forever. 

After participating in this process, I have understood that there are multi-perspective of the same story but there is one common theme which link each perspective with one another like the sun surrounded by the nine planets. As a reader I have understood that reading a story or a literature once & then forming opinion about it is not fair, I need to read it twice & thrice, thus would I be able to see & experience it in a new & better manner. Literary discussion has its own significance but it has limitations too. As it's been said, words represent the world. Though we live in one world but each one of us has his own world, with which one view & creates one's perceptions. Literary discussion can help us to know different, surprising perception which can leads to social cohesion and a more democratic environment where everyone is seen as Equal.