Characters of The Management of Grief:
Shaila Bhave is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is a 36 years old immigrant married woman living in Toronto, Canada who gets the news of the Sikh terrorist attack on Air India Flight 182. She learns that probably all the 329 people aboard the plane died during the terrorist attack. Her husband Vikram and two sons Vinod, and Mithun were on that plane. In shock, anxiety, grief, and fear, she takes Valium while facing the situation. Kusum is another Indo-Canadian lady, a neighbor and friend of Shaila whose husband Satish and younger daughter were also on the same plane. While Kusum is more traditional and rooted in Indian culture, her elder daughter Pam is a Westernized girl who holds no values of Indianness. Naturally, Pam isn’t close to Kusum and blames her for favoring her younger sister who is more traditional. On the other hand, Pam is closer to Shaila. Dr. Ranganathan is a renowned electrical engineer working in Montreal who too lost his entire family in the attack. Judith Templeton is a Canadian government official social worker who is unaware of the political nuances of the Indian diaspora. She asks the help of Shaila to communicate with the relatives of those who were killed in the attack.
Summary of The Management of Grief:
The story begins as Shaila Bhave and Kusum are sitting on the staircase of Shaila’s split-level house, holding hands. Both women are nervous and shocked. They recently heard the news about the air bombing of Air India Flight 182. Initially, they do not know much about what exactly happened. However, Shaila’s both sons, Kusum’s younger daughter, and the husbands of both women were on traveling on the same plane. The radio and TV news informs that the airliner fell into the ocean approximately 190 kilometers off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard. Shaila’s house is filled with solicitous Indian friends who have taken charge: the women are in the kitchen making tea, and the men and boys are tuned to different radio and TV stations, and relaying the latest news and developments. It appears that irrespective of their geographical position, they are in India. Shaila is known as a strong-willed woman who is beyond the initial conflicts of immigration and has settled well in Canada. She doesn’t consider herself Indian anymore but recognizes herself as Canadian in all senses. However, the news of the death of her husband and both sons is too much for her to bear. Thus, she takes valium to maintain a stable appearance, but inside she feels “tensed” and “ready to scream.” The boys murmur that it was a Sikh terrorist attack. Shaila is deeply heart by knowing this. Her family left India to lead a peaceful life. She laments, “We, who stayed out of politics and came halfway around the world to avoid religious and political feuding, have been the first in the World to die from it.”
Kusum, on the other hand, is too disturbed and fails to show her disappointment in having lost her younger daughter whom she preferred more. Her elder daughter is Pam who is a westernized girl. Pam works in Mcdonald's, preferring Wonderland to Bombay, dating Canadian boys, hanging out in the mall, and wearing tight sweaters. Her relationship with Kusum is too strained. However, Pam gels with Shaila well as both are more Western than Indian. In her despair, Kusum tells Pam, “If I didn’t have to look after you now, I’d hang myself.” Pam gets deeply hurt by that remark and says to Shaila, “You think I don’t know what Mummy’s thinking? Why her? That’s what. That’s sick! Mummy wishes my little sister were alive and I were dead!”
Meanwhile, Judith Templeton, the Canadian government’s official social helper visits Shaila’s house to seek her help. Templeton has the job to help the mourners and aid them in moving on with their life. However, she is unable to converse with many of the mourners who barely speak English. She asks Shaila to help her in the impersonal work of processing papers for relief funds to the mourners. Judith says that she has learned that Shaila is hailed as a strong woman with a very calm demeanor in her community. Shaila tries to explain that her seemingly cool, unaffected demeanor is hardly admired by her community, who expect their members to mourn publicly and vocally. She tells her that her calm affect is not a mark of maturity, but of strangeness. Juditch compliments her while she discusses her own idea of grief and says that grief proceeds in orderly stages and that it is an emotion to be controlled rather than given in to. Shaila promises her to help her with the job after returning from Ireland, where she has to go to identify the remains of her family.
In Ireland, Kusum identifies the body of her husband. Shaila too checks the photographs of the dead bodies but fails to find a match for anyone she knows. Shaila visits the coast with Kusum and Dr. Ranganathan, a renowned electrical engineer from Montreal who too lost all his family in the plane crash. Dr. Ranganathan is an optimistic man and he says that the plane fell into the ocean and it is possible that if someone survived the blast, and if he is a strong swimmer, he might not have died. Shaila remembers that Vinod is a good swimmer and it fills her with hope. An Irish police officer approaches Shaila and shows him a photograph of a dead body which he believes is her older son Vinod. Shaila looks at the photo and sees that because of drowning, the features of the body in the picture were distorted. She doesn’t recognize that picture too. Shaila is unable to accept the death of her family.
Kusum decides to take her husband’s body to Haridwar to offer the last rites. Shaila too decides to accompany her to India. In India, she meets with her elderly parents. Her parents are rich, modern, and progressive. Some of their Sikh friends visit them to offer their condolences. While her parents calmly receive them, Shaila feels a hidden anger against them. Shaila’s grandmother is a traditional woman who got widowed at the early age of sixteen and since then she led an ascetic life considering herself a ‘harbinger of bad luck.’ However, her mother doesn’t approve of such regressive traditions and says that such behavior is mindless mortification. Shaila observes that many widows and widowers of her age are being matched with new spouses. However, she is of an age where nobody is asking her for remarriage and she is relieved by that.
Shaila’s family decides to take her on a tour of India to visit various Hindu temples and shrines so that she may get some diversion. In a deserted Himalayan temple, Shaila has a vision of her husband. He tells her: “You must finish alone what we started together.” Knowing that her mother is a practical woman with “no patience with ghosts, prophetic dreams, holy men, and cults,” Shaila tells her nothing of the vision but is spurred to return to Canada.
Shaila maintains a connection with Kusum and Dr. Ranganathan and learns that Pam is planning to leave Toronto for California to do modeling work or open a “yoga-cum-aerobics studio in Hollywood” with the insurance money of her father. Kusum decides to sell her home in Canada and decides to move into an Ashram in Haridwar. Shaila doesn’t approve of this and says that it is like running away from reality. After returning to Toronto, she maintains a good relationship with Dr. Ranganathan who continues to be a source of comfort for Shaila. Both have not remarried and he calls Shaila twice a week from Montreal. He considers himself and Shaila as “relatives,” joined together by race, culture, and now this mournful event. He takes a new job in Ottawa but cannot bear to sell his house in Montreal that he turns into a shrine of his late family.
Judith visits Shaila again and informs her about her progress with the Canadian Indian mourners. She says that these people are in the second or third stage of their grief which she calls ‘depressed acceptance.’ Judith asks Shaila to accompany her to a particular old couple who barely speak English and cannot understand her. She says that the old couple is too stubborn and is not ready to sign the papers for relief, She further informs them without signing the papers, they won’t get any money which they already lack. Shaila is willing to help but then she learns that the couple is Sikh and says that they may not listen to her because she is a Hindu. Judith insists that their Indianness is enough connection. As they reach the apartment, Shaila feels as if she has visited some old part of India and she doesn't like it. She sees women in sarees waiting for a bus and it reminds her of Bombay. Anyhow, she visits the house of the old Sikh couple with Judith. Shaila explains that if they sign the documents, the government will give them money, including airfare to Ireland to identify the bodies. The husband emphasizes that “God will provide, not the government” and the wife insists that her boys will return. Shaila fails to convince them and returns after thanking them for the tea. Judith gets exasperated and complains about Indian mourners. She says that the next woman whom they had to meet is “a real mess.” Suddenly, Shaila feels that she doesn’t wish to continue with Judith and takes her leave. She says that everyone has their own way of grief and it cannot be formulated in Judith’s sterile, textbook approach to grief management.
Shaila continues her quiet and joyless life in Toronto. She sells her big house at a profit and buys a small apartment. Kusum continues to write to her and informs her that she has seen her daughter’s reincarnation in a Himalayan village. Dr. Ranganathan continues to call her twice a week. One day he informs that he has sold his house in Montreal and has shifted to Texas, America where he wishes to tell nobody about his previous loss and grief. One day, Shaila goes to the mall for shopping and while walking back to her new home with the package of things she bought, she sees a vision of her family for the last time. Her husband tells her, “Your time has come, . . . Go, be brave.” Shaila leaves the package on a nearby park bench and continues walking aimlessly while feeling the freedom that she just gained from the unproductive attachment to her husband and sons’ spirits. She is not clear where this new life will take her, but she is determined that she will mourn no more.
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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