Friday, February 16, 2007

The aftermath...

124 WAS SPITEFUL. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims. The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old--as soon as merely looking in a mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny band prints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard). Neither boy waited to see more; another kettleful of chickpeas smoking in a heap on the floor; soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the doorsill. Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed. No. Each one fled at once--the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time. Within two months, in the dead of winter, leaving their grandmother, Baby Suggs; Sethe, their mother; and their little sister, Denver, all by themselves in the gray and white house on Bluestone Road. It didn't have a number then, because Cincinnati didn't stretch that far. In fact, Ohio had been calling itself a state only seventy years when first one brother and then the next stuffed quilt packing into his hat, snatched up his shoes, and crept away from the lively spite the house felt for them.
Baby Suggs didn't even raise her head. From her sickbed she heard them go but that wasn't the reason she lay still. It was a wonder to her that her grandsons had taken so long to realize that every house wasn't like the one on Bluestone Road. Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead, she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it, let alone the fright of two creeping-off boys. Her past had been like her present--intolerable--and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color.
"Bring a little lavender in, if you got any. Pink, if you don't."
And Sethe would oblige her with anything from fabric to her own tongue. Winter in Ohio was especially rough if you had an appetite for color. Sky provided the only drama, and counting on a Cincinnati horizon for life's principal joy was reckless indeed. So Sethe and the girl Denver did what they could, and what the house permitted, for her. Together they waged a perfunctory battle against the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars, smacks on the behind, and gusts of sour air. For they understood the source of the outrage as well as they knew the source of light.
Baby Suggs died shortly after the brothers left, with no interest whatsoever in their leave-taking or hers, and right afterward Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth the ghost that tried them so. Perhaps a conversation, they thought, an exchange of views or something would help. So they held hands and said, "Come on. Come on. You may as well just come on."
-Toni Morrison (Nobel Prize winner) (Book:Beloved- Pulitzer Prize winner)

1 comment:

Idolator said...

Dear Geetha,

Read the narrative of Molu, that ‘non-conforming’, ‘rebel’ lady from the ‘ancient, aristocratic, affluent , agrarian , Syrian Christian family with 1900 year old heritage.’

Bold attempt. Simple narrative with a sprinkling of esoteric words like prissy, poetaster, bouderie etc.

At times we are made to feel by the author that Molu is secretively proud of her ancestry, and the ‘fact’ that they are the descendants of “Brahmins’ converted by no less a person than St.Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus. (Did not the Pope(Roman Catholic) make some noises about this very recently.? Being the rebel she is, why she left these stories unchallenged? This story had been taken too far, and once reached a flashpoint.(Nilackal issue))(Author has a wider responsibility in pursuing TRUTH)

‘Molu’ further highlights the touchy subject of Caste practices in Christianity, which that ‘civilizing’ religion could not overcome in India, and even fell victim to it. So there are separate congregations for the untouchables.(page 41) But Molu puts the blame on this’un-christian’ practice within the Syrian Christian community, on their ‘Brahmin’ ancestry . (Page 41)(maligning Brahmins?) Or is it to be blamed on those ‘paganish tendencies” (page 49) (called Hindu-ism) which could not be completely exorcised by the cross. I should say the Syrian Christian community carries a very complex burden.(Did Annammachi's life got spoilt because of the Caste system?)

Anyway the ‘new’ generation Molu, a post graduate (like many of us who had this ‘Western Type’ of education ) whose daughter Laya, grows up with “Suzy’ dolls , is very practical, down-to –earth and professional to the core , believes that ‘academic achievements & high-powered careers” (page 138) will only matter now. (The USP “A novel by yet another IIT ian”) She also strongly feels that, a person is not judged based on his pedigrees , but on his personality, and that the old concepts that her great-grandfather had passionately clung to will be overpowered.

Contradictions! contradictions! , and Molu is acutely aware of it. (page 127). Molu has not given a thought to how personality develops.

Molu has grown up in the same mileu in which we were also born, brought up and educated ,and could be judged so by the mindless usage of such most quoted phrases like “nothing is permanent but change’, “survival of the fittest”, “Darwins theory of evolution”. (page 25, as told by Annamma), which our generation has internalized. (unfortunately.)

Further she voices through Unni ‘Did not the British do so much for India and Indians, -“ So what , if our conquerors had taken away our natural resources and our freedom; hadn’t they given us technology and progress? Weren’t the postal service and the railways the gifts of colonialism? Hadn’t they abolished India’s social evils like child marriage and widow-burning? The presence of the British in India was, indeed , an absolute necessity for the rapid technological modernization of the country. (In which subject Molu did her PG – any engg. subject?) The so-called freedom fighters of India had simply failed to understand the noble intentions of the British! “(page 60) Even though there is “a fine thread of satire “ in the last sentence, I felt Molu should have strongly contested the “actions of the British for the upliftment of Indians”. Most of our contemporaries believe in the benevolence of the British and I think Unni is speaking on their behalf.

Geetha had devoted close to one and a half pages , describing the Onam myth, and like all Malayalees, could look at it only wearing Marxian Glasses, but does not like what she sees through those glasses. So an element of satire here. The last but one paragraph in yellow ink on the back cover of the book carries the clue of the Onam myth - “ taking the family from glory to imminent degradation and decay”. (Is the degradation and decay faced by the family because of Molu’s marriage to a low caste –doctor, and also because of Annamma’s son sired by a pulaya? Don’t you consider this a positive change?)( Onam signifies the law of Entropy. This is explained in the Puranaas, in terms of the Four Yugas. Now this is Kali yuga where Dharma has been reduced to a quarter and further declining. At the end of it all is pralaya, and again the cosmic process is repeated. Therefore even the righteous King Mahabali could not stop the Wheel of Dharma turning full circle.(My interpretation of this myth.) )

From a humane point of view, we are moved by Annammachi's story. (The Burning Candle). We are also touched by the characters - Mathen(the granddad), his man-Friday , Yoshua. Thoma could have walked away without accepting anything from the patriarch. But then he is practical.!!!!

A short , crisp and readable novel.

Chennaivaasi