Hello and welcome to the Discourse. A Handful of Rice was a realistic novel written by Kamala Markandaya that was published in 1966. Like her other novels, A Handful of Rice can also be categorized as a Diasporic novel because, in this novel, Kamala yet again depicts the probable life and realistic story of her protagonist in Indian settings while expertly expressing the clash between Indian traditions and westernization. The story depicts the loss of human morals and qualities in the wake of industrialization and ensuing materialism. Kamala dealt with the issue of poverty and unemployment in the Indian subcontinent that often lead people to face the problem of conscience while they continued to engage in the tug of war between traditional values and modern life. The novel shows how poverty and hunger can manipulate the psychology of a person and how his traditional values continue to offer him the strength to stand and fight again. However, alienation leads to the fall of man.
Characters of A Handful of Life:
Ravi is the protagonist of the novel who is the son of a poor tenant peasant from a village. Famine forces him to venture into something new in the big city of Madras. However, he observes that there is no hope for the poor villagers in the city too and they suffer similar poverty and scarcity in the city. The weakest of these villagers, the elderly people, and the babies, often fall prey to various diseases and die of starvation. Ravi is adamant though to struggle and make a better future. Ravi represents the Indian youth who is perplexed by the changing norms brought about by industrialization and commercialization. While Ravi still holds the traditional values and morals, hunger and starvation force him to adapt to the meaner ways and he faces a moral dilemma as he struggles to safeguard his personal self. Nalini is Ravi’s wife. She is a hard-working, loyal, and morally strong girl. Kannan is a friend of Ravi, a blacksmith who is helpful to him. Damodar is a criminal, a gang leader of smugglers, bootleggers, and black marketers. Damodar is the result of the commercialization of values. He represents the unholy mixture of eastern values and western materialistic ideals. While Ravi still strives to preserve his inner self as his conscience stops him from following the path of crime, Damodar has no sense of right or wrong. Appa is an old tailor, the father of Nalini. Raju and Sonu are the twin sons of Ravi and Nalini.
Summary of A Handful of Rice:
The novel is written in an autobiographical manner with Ravi, the protagonist telling his story. It is a realistic novel and thus, the author doesn’t offer any moral solution to the social troubles shown in the story, rather she depicts the realistic probabilities in all their dark colors.
The story begins as Ravi, a young man, the son of a poor peasant in a village arrives in the city of Madras in search of a better and sustainable life. Ravi is a bit educated but he finds it difficult to find any job in the city. He is an outsider in the city with nowhere to live. He left the village for lack of food and respect and the city offers him nothing else. Along with him, many other poor migrants left their villages in hope of a better life but struggled to find any solace. Life appears to be more troublesome in the city where the weakest, the old and the babies die too often suffering various diseases while the main cause of their death is starvation.
Ravi observes that while it is almost impossible for him to sustain the traditional values of truthfulness, and honesty, he can survive and make a good living if he succumbs to the enchantment of crime, corruption, and thievery. He meets a local goon named Damodar who is involved in smuggling, bootlegging, and black marketing. Like Ravi, Damodar also belongs to a village but unlike him, he is not in two minds as he has already embraced the immorality and unhuman attitude in the modern westernized city. Ravi feels that the city is like a modern jungle with the rule of survival of the fittest. He overcomes the resistance of his conscience and starts participating in illegal activities as a henchman of Damodar. One night, while he was running away to avoid being caught by police, he breaks into a small house owned by Appa, an old tailor. He breaks the rusty bars of the window and demands food. Appa lives with his wife and a young daughter. Appa’s wife hits Ravi with a stick that causes bleeding but Ravi insists that he is too hungry and wants food and shelter. Appa decides to help him and Nalini, Appa’s daughter offers some food to Ravi. As Ravi’s hunger is satisfied, he starts feeling the warmth in that lower-middle-class house. Ravi thinks that this is all he ever hoped for, and it becomes his dream to achieve A warm house and a wife to offer him food is all he ever wanted. He learns that Appa is a skilled tailor who earns his living through stitching clothes. Ravi starts visiting Appa’s house regularly as he is attracted to Nalini but he is still involved in petty crimes. When Ravi expresses his desire to marry Nalini, Appa insists that he must get rid of his criminal past and should accept his apprenticeship to become a skilled tailor so that he may make an honest living. Appa finds in Ravi the heir of his job. He accepts the proposal of Ravi‟s marriage to his daughter Nalini as he sees in him the support of his old age. Appa too is facing poverty and he doesn’t have any better options. The marriage offers Ravi a new life and for the next few years, he continues to work hard as a tailor under Appa’s guidance. He no more faces starvation but poverty is still there. Ravi still hopes to make more money and have a better living but has consciously avoided Damodar's company. He makes a new friend Kannan who is a blacksmith. Along with his individual desires, now he wants a better life for Nalini too. On the other hand, their marriage results in the expansion of the family as Nalini soon gives birth to twins. More people require more food and this disturbs the financial condition of Appa who is already facing troubles because of modernization and industrialization. Despite being a skilled tailor, Appa cannot compete with machine production. The shopkeepers too prefer readymade clothing while they try to exploit the tailors. As Ravi discovers this exploitation, he raises his voice in revolt. However, Appa contains his anger while teaching him the law of survival of the fittest. Appa suggests to him that it is better to live than die.
Situations continue to deteriorate as Ravi finds it difficult to buy milk for his twin sons. The death of Appa further breaks him and he finds it difficult to continue with the tailoring job. To improve production, he takes a loan to buy a new sewing machine but fails to find enough orders. Ultimately, he returns to Damodar for some financial help. Damodar is sympathetic towards Ravi and offers him a job in black marketing. However, Ravi’s conscience doesn’t allow him to return to the path of crime again and he returns back home empty-handed.
Financial troubles continue to frustrate Ravi who starts drinking and beating Nalini every now and then. One day he accuses Nalini of adultery that Nalini can’t bear and she leaves home to live with his elder sister. At home, Ravi continues to fail in the fight against poverty. The cries of his twin sons for the want of milk becomes unbearable to him. His frustration continues to break him further and one day he attempts to rape his mother-in-law, the widow of Appa. On the other hand, Nalini finds that she cannot live with her sister for long who is also suffering the same ills of poverty, and thus, she returns. As Nalini returns, Ravi gathers the strength to fight against poverty again and he engrosses himself in his tailoring work. He gets too indulged in his work and starts ignoring other responsibilities. One of his sons gets ill but Ravi ignores his fever of Raju as he doesn’t have enough money to pay the bill to the doctor. However, Raju’s condition deteriorates and Ravi is forced to call the doctor. He hopes that Raju will survive but it is too late and the doctor fails to save his life. Ravi is too sad as he realizes that poverty is the biggest sin. He again turns towards Damodar but this time, when he asks for some work, Damodar refuses any work to him and ridicules him saying that a man with no gut cannot get involved in his business. He rather suggests Ravi go back to his village as he is a misfit in the city.
Frustrated, Ravi walks back towards his home when he sees a crowd of people protesting against poverty and price rise. He hears the shouts and slogans of “Rice today, rice. Rice today, rice!‟ he realizes that there is no food at home so he joins the protestors. His friend Kannan is also marching with the crowd heading toward the government godown. Soon Kannan and Ravi realize that the crowd’s intentions are to rob the government godown. Kannan is hesitant to do so and informs Ravi that it is a crime to rob the government godown. However, the sight of rice turns Ravi mad. He thinks that it is his right to take enough rice to feed his surviving son while he has already lost Raju. As Ravi moves forward, trying to grab a sack of rice for himself, he listens to the police siren and runs away without a handful of rice. He comes back on the streets, and he sees another crowd of people he thinks that this is another group of protestors trying to get rice from the Governmental godown and joins the mob. However, he soon realizes that this crowd includes too many hooligans who are planning to attack and rob private rich shops. Ravi decides not to assist the mob as he finds it insensible as it will give him neither rice nor grain. He returns back to his home, empty-handed.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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