(draft) The Bet

Literary circle discussion

My group had chosen the short story "The bet" by Suchitra Bhattacharya. We started our discussions with the technical aspects of the story like plot, setting, theme, characters and the background of the author. We also criticised the text through the genetic, text to text, formal, transactional and socio cultural forms of criticism.

Initially, I believed that since all of us had read the same story, we would all be in the same page when it comes to understanding the various aspects of the story. But it was a surprise to find that we all had different opinions and saw the story from different perspectives. We noticed things that would have been otherwise gone unnoticed and we tried to read between the lines and think about the unspoken messages in the text. We even had a heated discussion when it came to understanding the characters. The diversity in the group also helped us in having enriched conversations. And not all of us shared the same feelings about the book. Some felt that it was too dramatic and unrealistic, a few of us felt it is a very scary depiction of an arranged marriage gone wrong, some felt that it might just be a mix of both.

The story is about the author's account of her married life. It takes place in Kolkata in the mid 60s, where the protagonist is a young educated woman from a middle class family who gets married to an older, uneducated man from an affluent family. They have nothing in common and do not get along or even try to get along from the beginning. How they outsmart each other to get their way form's the rest of the story.

They are both very prideful as characters and don’t give in at any cost. There are no instances of compassion, sacrifice, compromise or understanding as seen in most normal relationships. Some of my group mates believed that the wife was unreasonably stubborn and vengeful. I don’t think the husband was any better. There can be no contest with these characters on who is best and who isn't. Both of them are flawed and imperfect. Dominant and unsympathetic to each other for a long time in their marriage.

We had a heated debate on the topic of whether these two characters really "Loved" each other. Several of us felt that they might love each other in the way they hate each other. Their form of love might just be hating each other. But the real issue was whether who loved whom. And we could not agree that the husband loved the wife in the conventional way we call as love. I argued against this idea saying that for the husband, his wife was just another possession to be admired and stared at. She was not a person with feelings and passion. He disregards and puts her down in many instances. His actions did not really speak to me as being that of a loving person. Later in life he does go beyond just thinking of her as an object and more as a person, but in that case, this change also occurs in the wife. So this topic was complicated for us to come to a conclusion on.

This text evokes a certain fear of arranged marriages in me. It talks about how bad relationships can go if you do not understand the other person. I am not sure exactly what the author is trying to say. I can sense a lot of mixed messages. She might be warning people off marriages in general and arranged marriages in particular. She might be talking about how no matter who you marry, you will eventually begin liking that person. The message might also be that when two people with huge differences in age and education come together, disaster might strike. 

Jump Puddles- Allan Marshall

This story is the autobiography of the author Allan marshal. In the story writer talks about his own childhood, as a handicapped child. But while going through the plot of the story it is clear that the child is not by birth handicapped, but may at some stage of his childhood his caught by a disability in leg. Well according to the history of the Allan marshal from the age of 6 he was suffering from polio. The story talks about the struggle and obstacle come in the child way when he decided to ride the horse. The story includes strong characters  whether it is the boy, his father, bob, his mother. Every character in the story has strong part, even if the story focused more on the boy and the horse but the influence which boy has because of his father declaration that " you wanted to ride like me but you can't". This influence can't be replaced by anything and also his friend bob, for the boy it won't be possible to learn the ride unless that "drinking work" is  accepted by the bob. So, every character in the story played an important part.

The setting which is shown in the story look like the rural setting with field, grasses, ponds etc.  And also could be the place where horse riding is in culture, because the boy wasn't the only one who like to ride the horse but there were other children also who like riding and also boy's father was a rider. The story doesn't shows the change in the setting, it remains the same, the same school, same place where boy take's starlight for drinking and boy's house. The story keep revolving around these setting only one once in the story the boy talk about a new road with a lot of  fences. The story is optimistic in nature the way the boy managed to ride the horse even with lots of struggle and obstacle, and the kind motivation which he had to show his father that he could also ride like him couldn't be possible unless and until he believe in himself. And that is the theme of the story that is one's believe in their abilities.

 In this story one can look at it from the angle of  genetic criticism as the story reflects the author life during the childhood period.  And also give the reasons behind the authors motivation to write the story and also the sociocultural criticism, form the plot of the story it is clear that horse riding is an important part of the boy's culture and everyone in the society and also boy's family gives an important value to it.

As the reader of this story in starting it was hard to understand the text as the text used a no. of vocabulary and terminology related to the horse riding. And the techniques which were explained by the author to make himself comfortable while riding the horse is something which is hard for us to imagine. And even the group have agreed that the story is different from our socio-cultural life. And it is also difficult to imagine in our society a child being so passionate about the horse riding that he was hurting himself in order to prove his father that he can still ride.  As a conclusion point, the autobiography is not only showing one's struggle to get back his skill of horse riding but might be one's struggle in order to become the part of the society in which he is leaving. The boy struggle and fight with all the obstacle in his path, in order to show his father and everyone else that he can also be regarded as a " good rider"

Silver Water by Amy Bloom

Silver Water by Amy Bloom

Silver Water is one of the short stories of the book called, “Come to Me” by Amy Bloom. It is the story of a family, written from the point of view of one of the daughter of the family. The story revolves around parents and the two daughters ‘Rose’ and ‘Violet’. The story is about how Rose became psychotic and how the family struggles, remaining intact throughout to give full care and support to Rose. Rose’s father was a psychiatric, he tried every possible way to bring her child get back to normal, the mother was a musician who supported Rose every time. Violet, the narrator of the story, speaks about their experiences after Rose got her first psychotic attack which changed their whole life, their experiences with different psychiatrists who treated Rose, and how the condition got worst after the death of Rose’s favorite Psychiatrist. The story progresses in great sorrow of the family, and ends with the heart breaking death of Rose.

Amy bloom is an American writer; she has practiced psychotherapy, and recently is the University Writer in Residence at Wesleyan University. Amy has used the name of various drugs which have been used for psychotic patients, as she herself is a psychotherapist she knows the name of the drugs, and also know what a psychotic patient goes through. This could be one reason that Amy was able to write the story so nicely making it true at every instance.  At no point of time in the story you will feel dis-connected from it. Her psychotherapist skills added a realistic flavour to the story.

I like the story, as I could connect to it very much. It does not look like a fiction to me. The manner in which the story has been told, the pain of the family members, the portrayal of every setting was very realistic. While reading I was actually imagining each and every character and the settings. Though the story was very sad, I liked the courage with which the family members supported Rose. They tried to give her every possible element for leading a normal life, like letting her join the choir group in the church. The best part of the story to me was when Rose was behaving inappropriately in front of the doctors and the family members were laughing to it, accepting to what Rose is like. “Mr. Walker read Rose’s file in front of us and then watched in alarm as Rose began crooning, beautifully, and slowly massaging her breasts. My mother and I laughed, and even my father started to smile. This was Rose’s usual opening salvo for new therapists”.  This showed their acceptance to the condition of Rose and rather than getting sad they were all very courageous and supportive.

Another incident which touched me was when violet came back home on Sunday and was doing gardening with her father, the way she had explained the whole scene was so realistic that I could actually imagine them doing gardening on happy Sunday afternoons. “I came on Sunday, in the early afternoon, to help my father garden, something we had always enjoyed together. We needed and staked tomatoes and killed aphids while my mother and Rose were down at the Lake. I didn’t even go into the house until four, when I needed a glass of water”.  Though I could feel the hidden sadness in their life at that point but I liked the way they were tackling with the whole situation.

My interpretation of the story did not really match with other group members, as I did not liked the fact that by the end of the story they were all very sad and distressed, all the courage and determination they had in the beginning was fading away by the end, though they were all very closely bound to and were also consoling each other but, that utter sadness and the silence in the house was bothering me while reading the story. With every drop in Rose’s condition, there hope was also dropping. I felt that they had given up to the situation and were filled with immense sorrow and pain. In the discussion among the group members it came out that, it is human nature of getting sad and distressed, as they all knew that nothing can be done to improve the condition of Rose, it was humane to get sad and hopeless. The discussion helped me to see the story through a different lens, which I was not applying earlier. Before discussion my understanding of the story was very linear but after discussing it with the group members I could actually think about the story differently.

As a reader I could not really interpret much about myself, as there was no different approach which I used to read this story, whenever I read any novel or book, I gets engaged totally in the story and feels every emotion, and even makes imaginary characters, same thing I did while reading Silver Water. I was actually imagining every situation happening in front of me with imaginary characters and me getting sad and happy with the happenings of the story along with the characters.

Neech ( Low born)

Razia Sajjad Zaheer paints a poignant picture of the lives of two women whose paths cross for only a little while yet invoking emotions which will probably linger on even after they have gone their separate ways. This is what the story does to you as well. Neech will probably remain with me for quite some time, questioning and standing as a reflection of a lot of my thoughts.

The story begins with Sultana, an educated, middle class woman who comes to stay in a house where she meets Shyamali, the helper. Shyamali is the one who is a low-born, has left her husband and is now having an affair with Ram Avatar, the security guard. Sultana is mesmerised by Shyamali and her thoughts about life. She is taken aback at the ferocity and determination with which Shyamali takes her decisions and forges her relationships with people. Sultana is often seen to be fighting any prejudices that crop up in her mind regarding the fact that Shyamali is from a low caste. The story takes a turn when there are objections raised by people as to the Ram Shyamali affair, and Ram is threatened that he will lose his job. Sultana takes it upon herself to go talk to Bada Sahib and settle the issue but to her complete surprise Shyamali leaves the place without even informing her, abandoning Ram, abandoning Sultana’s hopes of convincing Shyamali that she does understand her. The story ends with a chance encounter of Shyamali with Sultana, where Sultana derides her for her actions and is stunned by Shyamali’s reasons for leaving. Shyamali did not want Ram to lose his job, did not want Ram to one day rue the decision of marrying Shyamali and blaming her for his misfortunes.  Sultana finally gets the understanding and in some way Shyamali also knows that Sultana understood her as well, even though she was a “neech”.

Given the times in which Zaheer was writing in, we can assume that she was a woman of immense character and ahead of her times. Her daughter describes her as spending her time smoking and drinking coffee while she wrote. The image in itself sheds light on the kind of woman she was, liberated, free-spirit, not afraid to pursue her dreams and interests. Her writing reflects this strength of character, her forward thinking and self-sufficiency. I could see a lot of Sultana in Razia and it felt quite autobiographical. The fact that both Sultana and Zaheer’s husbands were away from them is also a huge parallel in their lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, the era that it evoked, the strong sentiments that it projected and the questions that it left the reader with: Would Shyamali and Sultana ever meet again, would Ram Avatar move on, would Sultana do anything about the image that people have about low-caste people?

The literary element that stood out for me were the characters: their descriptions (both physical descriptions and the kind of people they are) and how each character was fleshed out. All the main characters seemed to be well rounded and had a graph. I could relate to the character of Sultana and her moral dilemmas: how she both identified with Shyamali  and yet was so different from her that she sometimes yearned that kind of freedom and abandonment. Shyamali is an extremely interesting character who seems very different and at the same time highly progressive, she reminds me of a caged bird who has been set free and likes it but still sometimes longs for the entrapment again, even though she fights these longings away, escaping into another world.

My interpretations overlapped with a few others but there were major differences too. While they thought that Shyamali was an extremely sorted out character who knew exactly what she wanted, I differed from them. To me she did not really know what is it that she wanted, she kept escaping instead of staying and fighting for something. I also felt that there was a certain attraction between Sultana and Shyamali, in the way the author describes Shyamali through Sultana’s eyes, Shyamali’s beauty, her elegance and grace and the way she carried herself, the way she played with Sultana’s child. This view was shared by a few while others negated it.

Being part of the literary circle definitely helped me know the story from different perspectives. I also think that I will remember the story for a much longer time because of the discussions that were carried out in the group. I realized that I usually tend to remember stories through the images that flash in my mind, and I remember more about what the author made me feel rather than the words itself.

As a language educator, since I have taught in a classroom before I understand the positives of having a literacy circle as the students engage in the material a lot more, the story gets ingrained in their minds and also makes the students an integral part of the teaching-learning process. It may become difficult with a classroom of varying reading levels and care should be taken to bring in simple stories but not simplistic ones.

shivani

Umr Qaid - A life sentence

Umr Qaid is an interesting story – it is a story set in an upper-caste Hindu family, told from the perspective of a man, and written by a Muslim woman, Hajira Shakoor. It was first published in 1977.  

Contextualization

The story itself does not mention any dates. The way it is written though, we could assume that the story is set in the "here and now".  From the story, it is evident that the narrator married Janaki 27 years ago, i.e., sometime in the 1950s. India had received its independence 3 years earlier, and the constitution came into effect in 1950. The educated youth that had been active during the freedom struggle carried on their do-good zeal to better the country. As the narrator himself mentions, “I was from the very beginning preoccupied with the ideas of social reform and the desire to achieve something. In those days, the strongest desire of us college kids was to do something truly constructive.” This do-good attitude causes the narrator to step in as a hero and rescue the girl's family from the humiliation that would ensue if the bride was not married then.

Synopsis

The narrator is the youngest son of a well-educated jagirdar. He marries the neighbor’s daughter in a heroic gesture when the intended groom’s family creates a fuss just before the ritual, demanding more dowry. In the story, the narrator is reflecting on his marital life as he observes his youngest son’s interactions with his newly wedded wife.

The narrator, whose name the reader never learns, thinks back to the almost uni-dimensional relationship he had with his now dead wife. Though he “rescued” her from an unpleasant situation, he never took an effort to get to know her, or make her feel at home. On the contrary, as he reflects back, he thinks that he made her feel forever indebted to him – a debt she tried to repay by doing all the work in the house and refusing to accept any privileges and rights that she might by being married to him. He realizes the indifference with which he treats her only after her death, when he feels her absence. “My person, protected and surrounded once by a wall of attention and care, now feels exposed and shelterless.”

Response/Interpretation

Hajira Shakoor brings the story to life with her words. Though I could not relate to Janaki’s character much - she has lived a life I can only imagine, the author’s words helped me empathize with Janaki. Even viewed through the lens of her husband’s eyes, the reader can understand her perspective and reasons for behaving the way she does. It makes one wonder how one might have reacted in a situation like that. Her words, even when translated, bring out the mood of the story. When she writes describing the marriage setting when the protagonist enters the bride’s house “In the courtyard a lightbulb – for which a makeshift connection had been taken from somewhere – emitted a sickly light. A few shapeless bits of bunting hung desolately across, and an old record was playing. Those present were mostly silent.”, it evokes a sense of foreboding. Indian marriages are among the noisiest in the world. The scene describes a wedding like none that I have been to – there is no sense of happiness in the event – almost like an omen of what is to come, not just in the story, but also in Janaki’s life.

I found the way the author has described her main characters quite interesting. For instance, though the main character, the author has not described many facets of Janaki’s character. The whole story revolves around her, but by telling us the story through the memories of her husband, the author leaves her character a mystery. It leaves the reader wondering what she really was like – was she really as stoic and duty-bound as her husband portrays her to be? In 20 years of married life, her husband never really cared to understand her, and his thoughts about her now are colored with the guilt of how he feels he treated her. He believes that Janaki considered even taking care of their kids as just another chore, like doing the dishes or washing the clothes. But if you consider that her last thoughts, as she lay dying, was of her daughter, it seems to belie that idea.

The husband’s portrayal too is a bit puzzling. Here is a man who makes a grand gesture by offering to marry a girl whose family is being hassled for additional dowry just before the wedding. He goes on to have four (or more) children with her, but in the twenty years that he is married to her, he does not make any effort to really get to know her, to understand her desires, or even to just make her feel welcome in what should have been her home. He seems to believe his heroic gesture ended when he married Janaki. He sees, but ignores, the state in which Janaki keeps herself – wearing only old clothes, doing all the work of the house to extent of helping the maid with her job if she has finished her chores, etc. He wants his mother and siblings to never feel that his house is not theirs, but he does not notice that the person he is expecting to make them feel at home herself never feels at home. The author does not completely define her main characters, which makes it easy to sympathize with both of them.

Perhaps due to our own personal experiences and characters, I felt that the members of the circle interpreted the story slightly differently. We placed emphasis on different events within the story, which led to our understanding the story and the characters differently. For instance, while I felt that a big part of how Janaki behaves after the wedding is due to the indifference shown by her husband, there were others who felt that Janaki was shown to have a naturally self-effacing character, and that perhaps even if the husband had behaved differently, she might not have taken over as the mistress of the house. I felt that the part of the story where her husband tells her to dress up a bit nicely for the picture and compares her with his younger sister, who is loved by her husband, who dresses nicely as specially relevant to my interpretation. The sad smile Janaki gives seems to ask her husband whom she should dress up for, since she does not feel loved. For the others, a paragraph in the beginning where the narrator describes Janaki as a “very quiet, very shy girl… her whole being was so subdued and unobtrusive” seemed to support their interpretation of Janaki’s character.

Discussing the stories with the other members of the literary circle made me aware of their experiences, which allowed them to relate to the story better. Having always lived in an urban, nuclear family, my understanding of the story was completely intellectual. Hearing the perspective of others, some of who have been part of a joint family in a rural context brought an understanding to the story that I would not have had otherwise. 

All the women I know from that generation (and earlier) have been very strong characters. Unfortunately, I never knew my grandfathers, so I do not know what the dynamics of their relations with their spouses, but my grandmothers have been very outspoken women who literally ran the family. Of course, their families, though a joint family, were set in urban contexts (Bombay), and perhaps that impacted the group dynamics in some form. After my marriage, I got to meet my husband’s grandparents who live in a joint family in their village. My grandmother-in-law is also a very strong lady – the matriarch of the family. I cannot imagine her ever being in a similar state as Janaki. Given this background, Abhinav’s comment on my blog added some perspective to the story. As Abhinav mentioned in his comment, in traditional settings in the village, many women would consider their husbands their God. He did not find it surprising that Janaki’s husband seemed to hardly ever communicate with her or bother to understand her perspective.

Reading others blogs also added to the perspective. For instance, Abhinav’s blog, where he compares Janaki to Sita and Droupadi, commenting on the lack of independence that women have. It got me thinking of the similarities that can be seen between Janaki and Sita, starting with the name. The narrator sees their 20 years of marriage as Janaki repaying a debt, but it could just as well be seen as banishment from happiness. Both have husbands who make decisions that impact their lives without taking their feelings, let alone opinions, into account.

Reflections

Being a part of the literary circle taught me a few things:

• ·       The success of the literary circle depends on whether or not all members of the circle have read the story or not. We spent the first 10-15 minutes of the story ensuring that everyone had read the story. 
• ·       It might perhaps be better if there is heterogeneity in the composition of the literary circle. I understood more about the story from people who had a different set of life experiences as compared to mine, than from the people I find it easier to relate to due to our similar backgrounds.
• ·       A literary circle is a good way to dig into the depths of the story. We were building on each other's insights into the story to get a better idea.
• ·       Until I actually try it out with children, or watch one of my peers do it with children, I am not too sure if it would actually work with them. The story we used was one with some depth, and we are all mature adults who have been, over the course of the literary pedagogy course so far, been slowly inducted into the idea of literary discussions. This made it slightly easier for us to participate. Even then, we had starting trouble, and it did take some time before our discussions became interesting. All this makes me wonder how easy or difficult it might be to do this with younger children.

Swati’s observation that a well-conducted literary circle would help children become nuanced thinkers is valid though. I guess my point is not on whether or not literary circles would be a useful technique to use with children but more about how difficult it would be to prepare them for one.

Gatashraddha: A critical review

It’s been long since I’ve come across a literature which brings out the ethnicity of a community to the fullest. 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 does 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 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 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 the 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. 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 that 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 inorder to be one soul and spirit after death. It might be also 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.