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Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balance'
2007-08-21 13:56:00 I just finished reading Rohinton Mistry's 'A Fine Balance'. I have here attempted to present my views about the novel. It is a heart-rending account of the suffering of the poor at the hands of the so-called upper-caste people and those who had the power. The condition of the slum-dwellers is pitiable ? the conditions in which they live, the way they are treated. Life takes a turn for the worse for the two tailors, Ishvar and Om, when they are taken away by the officials to a work site mistaking them to be beggars. Even earlier they had suffered too much. First in the village because they belonged to a lower caste; then their struggle in the city. But the torture they have to undergo towards the end of the novel, in the name of the Family Planning Programme, is more than a human can bear. One doesn?t expect them to be alive till the end of the novel. But they are fighters just like their former employee, Dina Dalal. Both Ishvar and Om take to begging as their profession.Even Dina...
By: Literary Jewels
Feeling of Alienation in 'The Namesake'
2007-08-03 06:33:00 Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake' is a story of Indian immigrants in the United States the effect the immigration has on their offsprings. There is a feeling of alienation, a feeling of being lonely in the crowd all through the novel. Only once does Ashima Ganguli, Gogol mother, feel attached to America because of the memories of her husband after his death. She doesn't want that the house should be altered after it is sold to someone else. Her husband had made his living in this country.The situation of Gogol is no better. He is a child who is born to Indian parents but is brought up in America. He is neither able to become an American at heart nor remains an Indian. He does not fully belong to anywhere. He is a 'nowhere man'.He tries to break away from the Indian traditions followed by his family. Once he had resented the trips made of Calcutta but finally he comes to wonder 'how his parents had done it ...All those trips...how could they have been enough?' This was the real...
By: Literary Jewels
Characters of R.K. Narayan
2007-06-23 14:58:00 The novel 'The English Teacher' by R.K.Narayan is autobiographical. The protagonist of this novel Krishna is a lecturer in English at the Albert Mission college. Earlier he had enjoyed many years of bachelorhood but later his wife and child move in with him. Later one day his wife, Susila is taken ill with typhoid and dies from it. Same was the reason of death of Narayan's wife, Rajam.The death of Krishna's wife in the novel 'The English Teacher', just as Raju's meeting with Rosie and his subsequent term in jail in 'The Guide'(another novel by Narayan), in the most important event in the protagonist's life that changes his perspective about life forever. In most of his novels, through various characters, Narayan has tried to depict the vision of life, how we look at life, how the events of life influence us no end.Narayan has in his novels depicted his characters in different circumstances as a common man. The character of Raju in 'The Guide', Savitri in 'The Dark Room...
By: Literary Jewels
R.K. Narayan
2007-06-21 17:38:00 R.K. Narayan, one of the most celebrated Indo-English writers, was born in 1906 in Madras. He graduated from Maharaja College, Mysore in 1930. His father was a humble school teacher and had a large family to support, so Narayan had to contribute to the family income soon after his graduation. He tried several jobs but his ambition was to become a writer.After about a month he left the job and devoted his time totallyto writing. He created the imaginary town of Malgudi, where realistic characters in a typically Indian setting lived amid unpredictable events.He married in 1935 but his marital bliss was short-lived. His beloved wife died of typhoid fever in 1939, after barely four years of marriage. After this incident he achieved inner enlightenment which increased his knowledge of life. He did not write a novel for six years after this personal loss. His earlier novels were: 'Swami and Friends' (1935), 'The Bachelor of Arts' (1937), and 'The Dark Room' (1938).After the death of...
By: Literary Jewels
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