MOTHER BONDING IN CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI’S SISTER OF MY HEART
MOTHER BONDING IN CHITRA BANERJEE
DIVAKARUNI’S
SISTER OF MY HEART
I.Elsie Diana
PhD
Scholar (Full Time)
PG
Department & Research Centre in English
Alagappa
Govt. Arts College
Karaikudi
Women life in India undergoes many changes from time
memorial. They are being marginalized. Despite of the oppression they started
to emerge as a separate class as equal as man. Indian women writing can be
divided into two sections. The first one deals with the problem of women and
the second deals with dreams, hopes and ambitions of women. The women who
belong to the first category are being represented as old, traditional and
submissive, while the second focuses about the new womanhood.
Motherhood is the greatest joy in the world. Every
woman cherishes about this relationship. It is a gender specific relationship.
The future of any society depends on the way a woman as a mother brings up her
children. Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai and ManjuKapur are some novelists who
deal with mother daughter relationship, relationship between an individual and
society, relationship between siblings, friends and casual acquaintances. This
study traces the motherhood concept in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart.
Mothering and motherhood is the cultural phenomena
in Indian context. The relationship between mother and daughter, and mother and
son cannot be separated. In India, all mothers and daughters got a mutual
lifetime bonding with each other. This must be analyzed to have a proper
understanding of mothering and motherhood in Indian context.
In this novel the three mothers strive hard to run
the family. Gowri Ma is Anju’s mother and she is the head of Chatterjee family.
Nalini is Sudha’s mother and she wants to lead a luxurious life. After the
death of Chatterjee men these two women are burdened by the death of their
husbands. Pishi is the mother-in-law of both Anju and Sudha. She is their aunt
but she plays the role of mother to them. A mother is the one who supports her
child in all ways. She should also provide the emotional support when the child
needs. In a motherly relationship, the child must share everything to her
mother and vice versa.
Anju and Sudha receive such bonding only through
Pishi who is their aunt.
She shares everything to Anju and Sudha. She tells
them the stories and plays a main role in upholding the prestige of Chatterjee
family. “But most of all Pishi is our fount of information, the one who tells
us the stories. Our mothers will not, the secret, delicious, forbidden tales of
our past”(16).
Anju and Sudha’s love for Pishi can never be changed
into hatred: “And nothing could ever make me hate you”(33). A child can never
hater her mother. However she loves her more than anyone in the world. Many
time, in Pishi’s life she feels that she is not able to give birth to a child
likeAnju and Sudha and also she tells, through them she is able to experience
the blessing of motherly-love, and for this she thanks God.
Because you and Anju are the daughters I
was not lucky enough to give birth to. Through you the Bidhatapurush has
allowed me to experience the blessing of mother-love, and for that I always
thank him.(112)
Pishi
has become widow at her age of eighteen. She has not given birth to anyone and
so she longs for a child’s love. This has been fulfilled by Anju and Sudha. She
takes care of them so well. She is the one who is much cared that whether they
are suitably dressed for school in one inch below the knee uniforms. She makes
them to fill the missing pages of homework. She also makes their favorite
dishes such as potato and cauliflower curry cooked without chillies; thick,
sweet pays made from the milk of Buddha-cow. And on holidays Pishi plaits
jasmine into Anju and Sudha’s hair. Both Anju and Sudha are more comfortable
towards Pishi than their own mother. As life moves Anju and Sudha got married.
Anju marries Sunil a computer scientist and Sudha marries Ramesh, an officer of
the Indian railways.Anju and Sudha are very happy by knowing that they both are
pregnant at the same time. Anju communicates to Sudha the happy news of her
pregnancy “I’m going to be a mother too! Oh, Anju, how I wish we could be
together now!”(223).
Sudha
undergoes a test and it establish as Sudha will deliver a girl baby. Mrs.
Sanyal forces Sudha to undergo an abortion. Sudha is shocked. No one is there
to resue her even her own husband. The attitude of Mrs. Sanyal and her husband
made Sudha to leave their house. Sudha is not willing to abort the foetus just
because it is a female. Ramesh couldn’t convince his mother. She behaves that
she doesn’t have any bond towards that child. At this moment Sudhadeceides that
she should do something to protect her baby. She leaves her husband’s home and
moves to her home in Calcutta.
Sudha
is considered as the perfect example of being a good mother as she has stood up
to save her daughter’s life. Mrs. Sanyal has planned for a divorce for her son
from Sudha and she has a plan to get Ramesh married again. The final divorce
papers are sent to Sudha. She is more practical. She does not break down like an
ordinary Indian woman. Indian woman are considered as tto be emotionally weak.
She signs the divorce paper. Sudha observes: “:We were starting a new, my
daughter and I, and because there were no roles charted out for us by society,
we could become anything we wanted”(257).
Now
Sudha has to face another complication. She meets Ashok, her first love, who
wants to marry her. He is ready to marry Sudha but he is not ready to lose her
daughter for anyone.Sudha moves away from the house of Sanyals as they plan to
abort the child. Now, Ashok meets Sudha and requests her to be away with the
child. But she is not willing to sacrifice her daughter and so she leaves Ashok
and moves with her daughter. The mother is the person who is directly
responsible for the daughter’s independence.
Sudha is someone who is very different among all
charecters. Nalini, the mother of the most beautiful Sudha, she is a woman who
is doubly handicapped in attitude. She does not worry to sacrifice her own
daughter’s happiness, or even her first grand daughter’s life. She is furious,
“I told her to grit her
teeth and put up with it, and try for another pregnancy. A woman can have many
children, after all, but a husband is forever … what will we tell our
relatives? She’s smeared kali for ever on the Chatterjee family, to say nothing
of my ancestors”(266).
In
Anju and Sudha’s life from the age of their childhood, Pishi is the upholder of
family tradition. Now she stands by the side of Sudha. She didn’t leave her
alone to face her problems. Pishi gives moral support to Sudha. She
rescusesSudha but Nalini is not pleased about her daughter’s arrival. Pishi and
Gouri Ma extend a warm welcome to Sudha. Gowri Ma allows Sudha to make her own
decision and she too supports Sudha. Aunt Pishi instructs Gowri Ma to sell the
traditional Chatterjee house inorder to support Sudha and her child. Pishi
consoles Sudhaby telling that the Sanyals have not realized the worth of Sudha.
It is not Sudha who have lost out the relationship of Sanyal instead it is
Sanyals who have lost out.
At
this situation even her mother is not by the side of Sudha but Gowri Ma and
Pishi are with her throughout and strengthen her always. One can understand the
motherly love shown by Pishi by her very words,
Come Sudha Ma, let me see how pretty
you’ve grown, now that you are about to become a mother. Oh, how happy I am to
see you! But Ramur Ma’s right, our son-in-law shouldn’t have let you come all
by herself. You look terribly tired. She rubs my back and gratefully I let my
head sink onto her shoulder(265).
This
paper has presented the glimpses of motherhood briefly. Motherhood has been a
common experience in Indian context. Indian writers have talked much about
motherhood. The mothering and motherhood is a cultural entity of Indian culture.
References:
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Sister of My Heart. London: Black Swan, 1999. print.
Padmashini.A,
“The Polemics of the World of Woman: A Sudy of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’sSister of My Heart” -Voices of the
Displaced. Print.
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