|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Winner of the Sahitya Academy Award, Anita Desai’s Voices in the City is a novel based on the life of middle-class intellectuals. The story is woven around two sisters, Monisha and Amla, and their brother, Nirode, caught in the cross-currents of changing social values. Indian social milieu in transition—holding on to the traditional views, yet inclining towards the forces of modernity—is in focus. The voices of the various characters have been juxtaposed meaningfully with the larger canvas of the city of Calcutta. Desai’s keen observation on interpersonal relationships highlights the intricacies of human nature. The novel provides us with an intimate peep into the angst-ridden psyche of women suffering the bitter consequences of incompatible marriages. The protagonist, Monisha, is one such woman. Her unhappy married life is revealed to us through her diary. She is an intellectual whose wardrobe contains books of Kafka, Hopkins and Dostoyevesky instead of trivialities dear to an ordinary woman. The narrative exposes how in the absence of mutual understanding, appreciation and reciprocal care, she feels maladjusted and suffocated in the joint family system and the absurdity of the routine life. Her husband, Jiban, fails to give her the love that according to her must be offered, "by itself, silent, discreet, pure, untouched, untouchable". What Monisha lacks in life, she seeks in her brother, Nirode. It is this symbiotic relationship through which she seeks sustenance. Unable to solve her problems, she looks towards Nirode. He is unable to compensate and help her in any meaningful way, for he too is struggling to wriggle out of the labyrinths of his existentiality. Lack of will to realise her individuality and consciousness of her wretched state afflict her with defeatism. With deft touches, Desai exposes Monisha’s emotional turbulence. Her inability to bear children and Jiban’s indifferent attitude gives her a feeling of rejection. This triggers depression verging on neurosis, and feeling isolated, she relegates herself to silence, refusing to communicate with the others in the family. Jiban’s upholding the false charge of theft leveled against her by his mother and others is a final blow. Lacking courage to break free from the sanctioned pattern and unable to express her anger against the others, she converts it into self-hatred. Her withdrawal and the impotence to combat the sinister situation leave her with no other option but to limit her choice between "death and mean existence," of which she chooses the former. The novel can be read along the lines of female bonding as well. Amla, a commercial artist, understands the cold resistance of her sister, who had "turned sleep-walker, ghost, some unknown and dread entity". She sees through the existential anguish of her sister caught in the narrow confines of a traditional Hindu family. Likewise, Monisha too does not want Amla to tread into the forbidding domains of conventional family and would like her to "go in the opposite direction", carefully keeping out of the love that implies strings, demands, extortions and even untruths. Desai dexterously weaves
the unhappy marital lives of the other minor characters—Dharma and his
wife Gita, Nirode’s parents—parallel to Monisha’s. The uniqueness
of Anita Desai as a novelist (who, like a capable surgeon dissects the
components of human psyche) is the highlight. She enquires, explores the
deeper realms, the psychic life, its turbulence, complexities and brings
out the invisible inner world. The realistic delineation of characters,
subjected to the buffetings of life and the force of her powerful,
convincing and lucid prose make the novel even more interesting. |
