Abstract:
Anjana Appachana’s first collection of short story Incantations and Other stories was published in 1992. Her collection Incantations and Other stories is about the different issues of woman, Indian woman. The collection is of the women, for the women and by the woman. She has constructed the image of Indian women in her stories. Mother daughter relations, Family and kinship, husband wife relations, roles of woman as, daughter, sister, wife, daughter in law, sister in law, mother, aunty, girlfriend, friend, etc., are major thematic pre occupation of her major stories.
Key Words: Woman, Family, Identity, Kinship, Home,
“My Only Gods” is the story in which there is no name mentioned by the narrator, which lights on the affection between mother and a daughter who has care for her mother and has a possessive attitude towards her mother. Her father was an army man and she and her mother were living at the home of her grandparents. The story is about the inner feelings of the young girl who understands her mother’s identity very well. However, she also explains the nature of her mother and the image of her mother is highlighted in the following narration.
I loved my mother passionately, obsessively, and jealousy. I was well behaved only so long as no one made overtones to her or to me. She was careful not to show anyone affection in my presence. On the rare occasions she slipped – kissed a sister, hugged a friend – the house resounded with my screams. (I 4)
Due to some unknown reasons her parents’ relationship is disturbed and later for five days her mother disappears for a few days but soon she comes back because of her as her grandparents informs her: “She was back only because of you. She couldn’t live without you”. (I 10) Mother daughter relationship is discussed in this story from the child’s point of view. The story focuses on the effect of parents’ dispute on the upbringing of the child as well as family construction in Indian society.
“Bahu” is the story about a girl who gets married with a boy to whom she loves and after marriage, she is unable to spend more time with her husband as she did before marriage. Here the Indian joint family system is presented from the Bahu’s point of view. Bahu has a central place in the family construction in the Indian joint family system. Moreover, the role of a girlfriend and wife differs from each other. She narrates her inner feelings in following narration:
I told Siddharth mournfully, we have little time together, we never talk. He seemed surprised. We’ll never have more time than this, he said, and you must spend more time with all my relatives, they are anxious to get to know you. I did spend time with them, but it was never in addition to the time spent with Siddharth, it was instead of... We never seemed to have time for my own relatives and friends. (I 20)
However, later, she accepted to be a mother against her wish and according to the wishes of her husband and her in-laws. As Sidharth blamed on her for her miscarriage instead of consolation to her, and silence of Sidharth in home made her hurt and finally thinking to leave the home. She thinks about her future and her identity after leaving her home and her husband.
Where would I go? Not to my parents. They would urge me to go back and tell me……it is not easy for a divorced woman in India. What will people say?...What would it be to stay on my own? Just me and my room, my books, my music, my friends? Some men would think I was easy game. What would they say at work? We always thought she was such a nice girl. One wouldn’t have expected this of her. (I 30-31)
Sidharth also teaches and makes her understand about the things which are happening in the home. He tries her to convince to not to leave the home:
Don’t think I don’t understand, Siddharth said. But what can be done about it? This is the way things are. You have to learn to accept it. (I 32)
Finally, she leaves the home by saying to Sidharth: ‘I’ll wait for you’ (33). The family members of Sidharth need a traditional Bahu and they are accepted as modern households according to the feminism and concept equality by her Bahu. Her mother in law treats her in her own traditional way, which made her the bird that is caged. She thinks that at least Siddhartha should understand her and protects her from all the conflicts as she confines:
"He could have stopped it, protected me. Only he could do that. I needed protection. I needed him... He just had to say to them, she’s tired, let her rest… He could have said.” I’ll help you with the work and so will my mother and sister.” Instead, he said, “You never smile.” (I 20).
Before their marriage, she has a different image of Sidharth in her mind, but after marriage, Sidharth is quite changed as she says: "He was what I had always dreamt of, the man who would be my friend, my companion, my lover.(I 14)
But at last she is unable to live in that home with her identity as a Bahu so she finally decides to leave home and she moves away from her husband and his family author presents the last image of their departure very significantly.
I sat inside. He put his hand over mine. He said, I’ll wait for you. I shook my head. It began to rain as the taxi moved forward, and I breathed in deeply-at last, the smell of wet earth.(I 33)
“The Prophecy” is the story of two teenage girls, Amrita and Hemalatha. Both are living on their own and break the strict rules of the warden of the college hostel. They both spend the time with Rakesh. However, Amrita becomes pregnant, they go for abortion but the situation becomes critical during her abortion so her shocked parents took her with them.
However, Rakesh supports her and even he is ready to protect her from her parents also. The Later prophecy teller changes the stars of Amrita after the ritual and performing the puja. She is told:
“You will marry a handsome, fair, rich, influential man’. You will have two sons….. You will also travel abroad many times”. (I 52)
After a few years, Hema gets the letter of Amrita and she informs her that really the prophecy teller changed her stars. She has two sons and her husband is a very nice person. They are going abroad soon. She does not mention Rakesh or her past life. Now she is happy with her new identity in her own home with her family.
"When Anklets Tinkle" presents the scenario of Indian society. Namita, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Srivastava, is an engineer working in Madras. She is an educated and modern girl who is independent and individual. When she comes to Delhi to her parents, she comes to know about new tenant Mr. Rao. Namita does not like the double standard of her mother towards the girl and the boy.
Once Mrs. Rao sees Namita coming from the room of Mr.Rao, and her mother asks her to marry with Mr.Rao, she refuses because "he wasn’t a virgin”. (I 86). Her mother is shocked that after the physical relations with Mr. Rao is not ready to marry him. Yet finally, Namita falls in love with him and decides to marry him. Yet the story depicts the back of being an independent and individual. As every time Namita argues to her mother what happens if her brother or any male does the same things project the new interpretation of being educated and individual towards the former generation with the help of western feminism approaches.
The shy and modern women in Indian society are narrated in Incantations. Sangeeta and Geeti belong to a middle class Indian family. The family is celebrating the marriage of Sangeeta with Nikhil, a C.A. and nice boy. Both the families are happy to arrange the marriage of Sangeeta and Nikhil, both move out for movies and shopping. Sangeeta says to her younger sister Geeti that she was raped by Nikhil’s brother Abhinay two days ago. She also told her not to tell anybody else. Later Abhinay comes to live with his brother and when Nikhil goes away, he takes advantage and rapes Sangeeta daily.
She told me that every morning when Nikhil was away at work, Abhinay raped her and at night, Nikhil did. ‘No didi, don’t’. Abhinay does it every single day. And at night, after coaching him for his exams, Nikhil does the same things.(I 120)
Sangeeta is a traditional woman and mature Bahu. Finally, she frustrated from the situation and committed the suicide but she killed Abhinay too, before she died. The incident shows the limit of toleration of Indian women. As the narrator narrates: “Before she killed herself she cut off Abhinay’s …thing and he died bleeding… (I 129) Later the last note of the Sangeeta reveals the truth from the viewpoint of the Sangeeta. The Note says:
‘Today Abhinay raped me for the fifty second time. I am pregnant. I can hear him and I like the sound………There was a bottle of Ganga water on the side table, which she had drunk before stepping on to the chair.(I 129-130)
At last when Geeti reveals the secret to the Nikhil about the fact he realizes and says:
I will have to pray. I will go to Amarnath next month to pray that I can atone for her in next birth. (I 135)
Geeti is kind of in between characters. Only Mala Mousi can understand her as she says that her husband says her ‘Mad obsessed’ and Crazy to her sister when she told him about the things.
Yes I am in between, not married, fat, discontented and accepting like my mother, or unmarried, uncompromising and independent like Mala Mousi, but separated for the time being from my uncomprehending angry husband, having shed my old fantasies for another – that of empathy, tenderness and companionship. (I 133)
“Her Mother” is a short story about the mother daughter relationship. In the story, mother and daughter both are presented without names. Both have their different representation, mother represents traditional Indian woman and her daughter represents modern and educated Indian girl.
The story is about a daughter who is shifted to America for her PhD in comparative literature. Her mother is worried about her. However, she is aware about her identity in the home and in the society as she confides to her modern daughter who is educated and knows the rights of the women.
With all your talk about women’s rights, she wrote, you refuse to see that your father has given me none. And on top of that, he says that I am a nag. If I am a nag, it is because he’s made me one. (I 168)
Her parents’ marriage was love marriage so she advised her daughter to go for the arrange marriage as she says:
In an arranged marriage you will not be disillusioned because you will not have any illusions to begin with. That is why arranged marriage works. (I 171)
She is also afraid of the western culture. As her daughter is living abroad alone, she indirectly suggests her to find a suitable boy from India or Indian:
Whatever your father’s faults, infidelity isn’t one of them. Now these Americans, they will divorce you at the drop of a hat. They don’t know the meaning of the phrase, ‘sanctity of marriage’.(I 171)
Even her mother informs her about her sister’s marriage before five years that was completed in the registrar office and they didn’t celebrate that in an Indian traditional way. She also supports her sister. Jabir Jain is rightly opines:
Women have the ability to relate to two homes simultaneously. She also brings out the static quality which nostalgia confers upon a culture and the manner in which self imposed ghettoization interrupts the process of acceptance of and by the host culture. The experience of migrancy varies from person to person, depending upon the level of education, age, background and point of entry. But neither dislocation nor absorption can be total; there has to be an ongoing involvement with reality. (Jain 2007)
Miss Das in the story “Sharmaji” is depicted as a modern Indian woman who has equal strength of being independent and individual. She is the superior of the Sharmaji, but a smart and decent woman. Unlike Indian traditional women, she never takes the decision. Even though she is married, she uses the prefix Miss with her name which was shocking for the Sharmaji.
Anjana Appachana in her stories depicts women’s world. First story of the collection is about the condition of a courtyard woman observed by her own daughter. Bahu of the story Bahu finally left her husband and his family to live independently and peacefully in her life, as she is unable to adjust herself as a wife in the Indian joint family. Amrita and Hemlathaa, smarter teenage girls faced the problems during their student life but finally solved it and settled with their husbands and ran their respective homes as responsible wives successfully. Namita is the modern Indian girl while her mother is a traditional Indian woman. We find the generation gap in the story but finally the story ends happily and the author succeeds in presenting that the ways are different of the generations but the destinations are the same. The title story is tragic as Sangeeta, a responsible and ideal wife of a joint family prefers to end her life in frustrations and depressions to overcome the tortures from her brother in law. In Her Mother we find the narration of the worries of the mother whose daughter is abroad for study. Miss Das is kind of the professional woman who takes care of the company as well as the welfare of the employee. She never discusses family or personal problems in the office.
References:
All the references to the text Incantations and Other stories is referred to by the acronym: I
- Appachana, Anjana. Incantations and other stories, Penguin books, India 2006
- Chandra, Sharad.; Family and Marriage in Shoba De’s Socialite Evening, Indian Women Novelists, Ed. R.K. Dhawan, New Delhi: Sterling Publications 1990, 244. . Print
- Jain, Jasbir. “Problems of Postcolonial Literatures”. Problems of Postcolonial Literatures and Other Essays. Ed. Jasbir Jain. Jaipur : Printwell, 1991. 1-15. Print.
- -----------------..”Introduction”, Writers of Indian Diaspora, Eds. Jasbir Jain, Rawat Publication, Jaipur, Reprint 2007. P 16, Print
- -----------------“ Geographical Dislocations and the Poetics of Exile: Ashish Gupta and Michael Ondaatje” Writers of Indian Diaspora,Eds. Jasbir Jain, Rawat Publication, Jaipur, Reprint 2007. P 101-102, Print
- Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism. London: Granta Books. 1991. Print.
- Shulman Polly. “Home Truths” in ULS 66, June 1988, 19. Print