Chapter-4

Manju Kapur

Like her predecessors Shashi Despande and Githa Hariharan,

Manju Kapur is a celebrated novelist. She is a popular novelist with a
considerable impact of her writing on society. She was born on October
25, 1948 at Amritsar in Punjab. She is married to Gun Nidhi Dalmia who
belongs to the affluent family of Dalmias. She has three daughters and a
son - Kapur has taught English literature in Miranda House, Delhi
University for fourteen years and took voluntary retirement to devote
herself completely to creative writing in English. Her first novel, Difficult
Daughters was published in 1998 and won international acclaim with the
commonwealth writers prize for the first book awarded to it. Her second
novel A Married Woman came out in 2002 and was shortlisted for
Encore Award. Home, her third novel, appeared in 2006 and it was also
shortlisted for Hutch Crossword Award. Her fourth novel, The
Immigrant appeared in 2009 followed by her fifth novel Custody a
couple of years later in 2011.

Kapur's novels follow the popular trend of contemporary Indian

women's writing in English. The central focus of her novels concentrates
around woman characters within the territory of home and society. Like
her illustrated contemporaries, Kapur too has foregrounded women's lives
in her novels which depict both the external and internal dimensions of
female-community. Out of her five novels, only three novels - Difficult
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Daughters, A Married Woman, and Home incorporate the theme of

female bonding in varying shades and degrees. These novels offer a
fascinating glimpse into women's consciousness and their interrelations.
Her female protagonists forge bonds or make attempts to do so as a
strategy of survival and empowerment in the contemporary society
marked by unforeseen social change. Her novels orchestrate a wide range
of theme related to women's live in context of patriarchal society:
Women's Lives within the family, their relationships with the male and
female members, their ambition for education and independence, their
conflicts with other women and men and men in their journey towards
self-realization, their desire to have and possess children and finally their
bonding with other women as a means of emotional support, survival and
empower.

Kapur's debut novel, Difficult Daughters centers around a young

woman Virmati, born into an Arya Samaji household in Amritsar. The
story is narrated by Virmati's daughter Ida who seeks to reconstitute her
mother 's history. In this task, she visits people who were related to
Virmati and those who had known her intimately. For more accurate and
reliable details, Ida personally visits the places where her mother had
lived. As Ida narrates Virmati's life-history, we learn how Virmati was
torn between family-duty, the desire for education and illicit love. This is
a story of sorrow, love, compromise and suffering.

Difficult Daughters is set around the turbulent years of World

War II and partition of India. It depicts the women of three generation,
Kasturi, her daughter Virmati and Virmati's daughter Ida. The central
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fours of the novel is on Virmati, the difficult daughter of the second

generation. Virmati was the eldest among the eleven children of Kasturi
and Suraj Prakash. As the eldest child, she is burdened with the duties
and responsibilities because of her mother's incessant pregnancies. She
lost her childhood while mothering her younger siblings, and her mother
Kasturi never gave her the emotional security through affection and
bonding. Thus, Virmati was emotionally starved from her childhood and
whenever she tried to forge a bond with her mother, she was snubbed.
Kasturi always told Virmati that marriage is the ultimate goal and destiny
of a girl. Though Kasturi herself was moderately educated, she did not
favour higher education for girls. Her daughter, Virmati has firm
conviction that only higher education can grant her an individual identity
and standing in the society. She achieves her ambition by obtaining B.A.
from A.S. College Amritsar and B.T. from Lahore. While she was doing
her B.A., an Oxford-returned professor named Harish entered her life. He
lived as a tenant in Virmati's house. The professor cast his charms on
Virmati and started to woo her on the pretext that his illiterate wife was
not a suitable companion and he yearned for stimulating intellectual
partner. The secret romance between them continues and Virmati
attempts suicide when her family arranges her marriage with a canal
engineer, Inderjeet. After this traumatic event, Virmati refuses to marry
on the pretext that she wants to study further. To avoid any scandal and
humiliation, Virmati's younger sister Indumati is married to Inderjeet on
the appointed time and date. On Virmati 's insistence followed by the
approval of her father Suraj Prakash and her grandfather Lala Diwan
Chand, she is sent to Lahore to study further for her B.T. degree. The
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professor is relentless in in his pursuit of Virmati and arranges

clandestine meetings with Virmati at the house of his Muslim friend.
Their illicit love-making results in Virmati's becoming pregnant without
the professor knowing it. As he was away, she could not communicate
this to him. Instead she shared this problem with her room-mate Swarna
who managed the abortion of the unwanted pregnancy.

Virmati 's practical sense weakened when she was with the
professor who always talked of romantic love and made love to her.
Realizing the illicit and guilty nature of this love, Virmati insisted that the
professor marry her but he was evasive, giving the excuse that he could
not leave his wife and family because he was already married to Ganga.
After her return from Lahore when she had completed B.T. Virmati
waited for the professor to marry her but he was timid enough to
undertake such a bold step. In the neantinme, the Diwan of Sirmaur, a hill
state in Himachal Pradesh visited Amritsar to seek a suitable woman
candidate for the principal' s post in the girls' school started by the
Maharani of his state. He knew Lala Diwan Chand and discussed the
matter of Virmati's appointment. The disappointed and broken Virmati
saw a golden opportunity for herself and agreed at once. Her stay at
Sirmaur as the Principal of girls School was the happiest and the most
productive period of her life. But the professor followed her there too as
her nemesis and his second furtive visit caused Virmati's doom as she was
dismissed from her job. Virmati received a rather dry farewell from the
staff of her school and she left Sirmaur for Shantiniketan where she had
decided to spend the rest of her life.
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However, difficulties still lay in wait to divert her from the chosen
path. On her way to Shantiniketan, she decided to stay for a while at the
house of a poet-friend of the professor. When the poet learnt about
Virmati's final decision he immediately wired the professor to reach
Delhi. On the fifth day of Virmati's stay, he arrived and was hastily
married to her with the poet's parents performing the kanyadaan. Thus, a
new chapter in Virmati's life began but marriage proved a disaster as the
professor's first wife Ganga along with her mother-in-law waged a silent
but perpetual war with Virmati who felt a stranger in the family. Ganga
poisoned the minds of her children, and her sister-in-law Gudiya against
Virmati. When she conceived, her mother-in-law changed colours and
started to take case of her in the hope that Virmati might bear a son.
Unluckily Virmati had a miscarriage which left her weak and distraught.
Even the job she had taken up in a primary school failed to stabilize her
mind.

Besides her misery and suffering in professor's household, Virmati

also felt the pain of being disowned by her parental family. Two
successive tragedies in her parental home shook the entire being of
Virmati. Her father Suraj Prakash succumbed to an assault by some
unknown miscreant on the occasion of Hindu Mahasabha rally which was
banned by the British government. Her mother Kasturi grew hysterical
with rage at her sight when Virmati went to mourn Suraj Prakash's death.
A few days later Virmati's grandfather, Lala Diwan Chand, who was
completely broken by his son's death, passed away. Virmati found herself
uprooted and felt diesoriented as she belonged to nowhere. She was
equally unwelcome in her parental family as well as in her husband's
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house who decided to send her to Lahore to do an M.A. in philosophy.

This two-year stay at Lahore kept at bay the humiliation and suffering in
professor's house but the pain of being ostracized by her parental family
persisted and she could never reconcile herself to it.

In short, Virmati realized that her education and love affair failed
to give her a stable identity and autonomous existence. She had, in fact,
paid a much too heavy price for her independence. All her life she longed
for the love of her mother who never allowed herself to be emotionally
together with her daughter. Her emotional needs were fulfilled only to a
small extent when she was with her husband, the professor. Despite the
obstacles and frustrations, Virmati's efforts at forging bond with women
had vented an oasis in the otherwise dreary desert of her emotional Life.
In her later days when she became the mother of a daughter called Ida,
Virmati was so emotionally dried up that she remained a sad and silent
individual unable to forge an emotional bond with her own daughter.

In fact, Virmati alone is not to be blamed for her failure in female-

bonding. She had an abundance of emotions like love, affection, care and
a spirit of togetherness with other women. Her daughter Ida's statement in
the opening line of Difficult Daughters carries a significant import : 'The
one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother '. (Difficult
Daughters, 1) Ida means to convey the message that she would not suffer
in silence like Virmati who bore the burden of her unhappy life. Ida is
childless and a divorcee. She asserts her independence as a single woman
who has equipped herself to fight the battles of life alone. Moreover, Ida's
final decision to unravel and reconstitute the history of Virmati's life
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clearly explains her bonding with the mother with whom she could not be
intimate as long as she was alive.

Ida narrates the story of Virmati, gathering its different strands

from the relatives and acquaintances of her mother. Virmati's brother
Kailash Nath offers his unconditional support and co-operation in the
undertaking of unearthing the details of Virmati's past and connecting
them together in a logical pattern. The story begins retrospectively with
the seventeen-year- old Virmati supporting her mother Kasturi who gave
birth to eleven children. But Kasturi was a stereotype of a traditional
married Hindu woman who believed that a daughter is meant to be
married off as soon as she reaches adolescence. Virmati 's longing for
emotional closeness with Kasturi stands as a prototype of traditional
Indian female subject to the overpowering rule of patriarchy. As such, the
possibility of female bonding is forestalled, by the influence of
patriarchal norms. The noted theorist, Luce Irigaray, has pointed out :

In patriarchal system, man is the legal head of the family or state, a

fact which coincides with the weakening of female-female bond and
especially the dissolution of mother-daughter relationship. (Irigaray, 10)1

However, despite the failure of a bonding between Kasturi and her

difficult daughter Virmati, Ida has a passionate longing to connect to her
mother, Virmati, a fact substantiated by Ida' s own reflection :

Amritsar was a place I associated with my mother. Without her I

am lost. I Look for ways to connect. (Difficult Daughters, 4)

1
Irigaray, Luce. Le Temps La Difference, Paris : Libraire General Francaise.
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Ida feels the acute pain of loss she suffered as a daughter. She
could not develop an un understanding with her mother during her
lifetime and after Virmati's death this realization brings about a feeling of
loss and guilt in Ida. So she sets out on a journey into her mother 's past
to seek a woman she could know, understand and reach out to in
retrospect. Ida undertakes to recover Virmati 's past to connect with her
and make for the loss which had to devastating impact on her life.

For Ida, the recovery of her mother's past was not an easy task. She
tried and asked about Virmati, the way she was before she knew her. She
came to learn that Virmati's parents had eleven children. The girls :
Virmati, Indumati, Gunwati, Hemavati, Vidyavati and Parvati. The boys :
Kailashnath, Gopinath, Krishnanath, Prakashnath and Hiranath. Ida
noticed that her relatives were polite, respectful to the dead. As Ida was
not satisfied, she continued her successive and insistent enquiry and they
revealed reluctantly :

You know, our mother was always sick (due to successive child-
births), and Virmati, as eldest, had to run the house and look after us.
We depended on her, but she was free with her tongue and her
hands. One tight slap she would give for nothing.
She would lash out if we didn't listen. We used to run from her
when she came. She was only our sister, but she acted very bossy.
We were scared of her.
She was so keen to study, bap re.
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First FA, then B.A, then BT on top of that. Even after her marriage, she
went for an MA to Government College, Lahore... The Oxford of the
East.
She studied more than any other girl in family. Bhai Sahib - your
father was very particular about education (Difficult Daughters, 4-5)
Ida realizes that her relatives gave her one view whereas she
wanted another - a real and full view of her mother's life. Virmati's
childhood, as Ida tells, was not a usual happy childhood under the wings
of her mother Kasturi. 'Ever since Virmati could remember she had been
looking after children. It wasn't only baby Parvati [her youngest sister] to
whom she was indispensable, to her younger siblings she was second
mother as well.' (Difficult Daughters, 6)
Virmati was so heavily burdened with the care and responsibility
of her younger siblings that she was almost always tired and harassed.
She had almost forgotten tenderness as she received none from her own
mother :
At times Virmati yearned for affection, for some sign that she was
special. However, when she put her hand next to the youngest baby,
feeding in the mother's arms, Kasturi would get irritated and push her
away. 'Have you seen to their food - milk - clothes- studies ?'
Clearly enough, Virmati felt emotionally deprived of her mother's
affection. She has to accompany Kasturi to Dalhousie where she went for
a while to recuperate from ill-health. Physically, Virmati was now much
closer to Kasturi and her youngest sister Paro but her 'attempts to spin
webs of love` through devotion were met by exasperation.' That is,
Kasturi reciprocated Virmati's gestures of love with anger and foul
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temper. She always exhorted Virmati to do some domestic work in order

to make herself useful. To add more to her hardships, Virmati's aunt,
Lajwanti arrived these to have a change of climate and mood, writing to
her daughter Shakuntala to visit them in the meanwhile.
Shakuntala visited Dalhousie soon after Lajwanti's arrival.
Shakuntala was the eldest child of Virmati's household. She was the
daughter of her taoji Chandra Prakash and aunt Lajwanti. She had
obtained an M.Sc. degree in chemistry from Lahore and taught there in a
college. Virmati was highly impressed by her glamorous cousin's free air,
sophisticated manners and her higher education.
Virmati's stay at Dalhousie proved fruitful in the sense that it
created an opportunity to meet Shakuntala who enlightened her about the
broader spectrum of women's lives in Lahore. In Amritsar, the family
considered marriage as the ultimate goal for girls. On the contrary,
Lahore was resonant with the air of freedom as Shakuntala tells Virmati :
'These people don't really understand Viru, how much satisfaction there
can be in leading your own life, in being independent. Here we are
fighting for the freedom of the nation, but women are still supposed to
marry, and nothing else.' (Difficult Daughters, 17)
In fact, Shakuntala opens up new vistas of women' s lives in
Lahore, where women conduct political meetings, demonstrate and join
rallies. But she feels sad as her mother, Lajwanti considers marriage is the
only choice in life. She tells Virmati about her activities in Lahore: We
travel, entertain ourselves in the evenings, follow each other's work, read
papers, attend seminars. One of them is even going abroad for higher
studies.' (Difficult Daughters, 12)
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For Virmati, her cousin's words were the most vivid thing on the
horizon. Shakuntala appeared to be the embodiment of all that Virmati
aspired to be : an educated, independent woman with no inhibitions. By
following Shakuntala around, Virmati made a close study of her cousin's
personality and was fascinated by Shakuntala' s free spirit, and firm
conviction in herself :
She watched her ride horses, smoke, play cards and badminton, out
without her mother's advice, buy anything she wanted without thinking it
a waste of money, casually drop in on all the people the family knew.
Above all, she never seemed to question or doubt herself in anything.'
(Difficult Daughters, 18)
No doubt, Shakuntala's brief stay at Dalhousie brought Virmati
closer to her. When Shakuntala began to leave for Lahore, Virmati clung
to her. She was so powerfully charged with a flux of emotions and
ambitions ignited by Shakuntala's personality and her approach towards
life. She expressed her ambition to study in Lahore and Shakuntala
encouraged her by patting on the back. Virmati felt almost breathless with
admiration and love. This clearly indicates the beginning of a female-
bonding which grows further when Virmati goes to Lahore for her BT
accompanied by Kasturi, her mother.
There is a brief interval of friendship with professor's wife who
lived as a tenant in the other part of Virmati's house. Virmati's youngest
sister Paro (Parvati) always accompanied her as her shadow. The
professor's wife was the first to extend a hand of friendship by inviting
and treating the girls with eatables. After a few visits Virmati and the
professor's wife became quite friendly, with Virmati taking her for a tour
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of Amritsar city in her father's tonga. This woman also becomes friendly
with Virmati's mother and assured Kasturi that Virmati's future was quite
safe in AS college.
Of all her siblings, the youngest Paro is most closely attached to
Virmati who is terribly busy with twin responsibilities : domestic chores
and her studies. But young Paro often forced Virmati's attention and care
to herself. This is exemplified by a small incident when Paro was hurt.
While Virmati was busy with her studies, Paro complained of her hurt
and Virmati tried to ignore the younger sister, telling her that the hurt was
not so bad, Paro snatched the book from her hands and threw it on the
floor. Virmati slapped Paro for this who burst into tears and fled. She did
not stop crying and wailing until came and comforted her.
Virmati's love-affair with the professor and her impending
marriage with the canal engineer, Inderjit had torn her apart. Suicide was
the only escape-route she could contemplate. Virmati planned to slip out
of her house unseen but the young Paro, who was so passionately
attached to her, noticed it and pounced on her. Virmati could not help
crying and tears rolled down her eyes. Paro too begins to weep while
comforting her strong sister. Virmati prevaricates when Paro wants to
know the cause of her sadness and grief. An excerpt may illustrate the
bonding between the two sisters :
'Where are you going ? I 'm also coming !'
'Not now, darling', said Virmati, looking at this youngest of her sisters,
almost a daughter, trying to memorize every line of her little face. As
Paro started to protest, she added quickly, 'I'll bring you a notebook and
coloured pencils. All right ? (Difficult Daughters, 73)
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Paro was distracted but doubtful, asking where Virmati was going
and why couldn't she accompany her. It was this bond of affection which
made Virmati buy the promised things for Paro and leave it with the
Munshi of her grandfather's mill to be sent home for Paro before she went
to end her wife by jumping into the canal. Luckily she was rescued by the
two workmen of Lala Diwan Chand who felt Virmati 's agitation and did
not press her for any explanation. Her grandfather 's gestures moved
Virmati as no one had done :
Tears gathered in Virmati 's eyes as she felt her grandfather's love
float around her. And then fear... Meanwhile as Lala Diwan Chand put
his arm around her, he could sense that she was crying, and he caressed
her damp head.
This affectionate gesture was more than Virmati could bear.
(Difficult Daughters, 85)
Besides this, there is a fleeting glimpse of women coming together
in moments of crisis. When the news of Virmati's imminent suicide broke
out in her family, her sisters and even her aunt, Lajwanti, began to
comfort her mother, Kasturi :
Lajwanti had her arm around her sister-in-law, the girls were
clustered around the too older women. ( Difficult Daughters, 85)
After her attempted suicide, Virmati became a fearless and
courageous young woman. She refused to have an arranged marriage with
Inderjit and expressed her resolve to study further. For this insolence and
transgression of family-tradition, she was punished with confinement
inside the godown of her father's shop. Her letter to the professor, her
lover, shows the bonding Paro had with Virmati :
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I can write to you because Paro got me paper, pen and ink tablet...
I think Paro still has some feeling for me because she agreed.
The first time Paro crept up to my window, she asked me why I
was locked up, what had I done that was so bad ? What could I say ? I
could only cry, which made her cry too. Now she doesn't ask. (Difficult
Daughters, 88)
In fact, the young Paro acted as a bridge in the communication
between Virmati and the professor. Moreover, she was innocent enough
to understand their secret love-affair. Virmati feels guilty about involving
Paro but her love compels her to do so :
At first I was afraid of involving Paro. She is so young, not yet
five. I told her that she must not talk about me to anybody because they
are angry with me, and everything I do earns their disapproval.
Fortunately, she believed me, as why should she not ? She can see for
herself how it is. (Difficult Daughters, 91)
However, Virmati has mixed feeling of sadness, grief, loss and fear
when she shares her feelings with the professor in her letter to him. After
her refusal to marry, her family decided to marry her younger sister
Indumati to Inderjit in order to avoid scandal and shame : 'Because of the
family shame it was a small brief affair. I was allowed to help dress her,
and during the time of the vida, they let me say goodbye.' (Difficult
Daughters, 92)
Sadly enough, Virmati's longing to be with her sister on the
occasion of Indu's marriage was only partially fulfilled as she noticed
how well they managed without her and how strained their conversation
was in her presence. Such a treatment leaves Virmati sad, broken and
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alienated woman whose family severed emotional ties with her. However,
her confinement and suffering did not last long as her father, Suraj
Prakash and her grandfather, Lala Diwan Chand interceded on Virmati 's
behalf. The family agreed finally to send her to Lahore for BT degree,
with Kasturi escorting her there. Lajwanti's daughter and Kasturi' s niece,
Shakuntala was already in Lahore to help Virmati settle.
At Lahore,Virmati forges a bond with Shakuntala who champions
the cause of women's education and freedom. As Virmati noticed
Shakuntala's gestures, she felt relieved:
'Chachi', she said, turning towards her aunt. 'You will not regret
sending Viru to Lahore.' ( Difficult Daughters, 113)
Virmati finds Shakuntala affectionate and supportive. When
Kasturi departed to have a small private talk with the principal,
Shakuntala looked at Virmati thoughtfully before putting her arms around
her. Virmati was startled as 'Shakuntala had never been demonstrative.'
(115)
She consoles Virmati that, she might have some logic when she
refused to marry. She enlightens Virmati about the broader outlook in
Lahore, assuring her of her support:
'You will find Viru, that in Lahore people are not so narrow-
minded. It is a pity the man was married, but you have done the right
thing. Together we will face the family. After all, I have experience in
resisting pressures. Don't worry, I am on your side.' Shakuntala squeezed
Virmati closer and added,' Now tell me all about it. What actually
happened? (Difficult Daughters, 115)
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To Virmati, Shakuntala had been a source of inspiration, she

wanted to be like her. Now she noticed the hunger in her eyes, the
avidness on face. It was the only occasion when Kasturi made an
affectionate gesture : 'When the goodbyes took place, moved by the tears
in her daughter's eyes, unbent enough to give her an affectionate
farewell.' (Difficult Daughters, 116)
Shakuntala had managed the room which Virmati was to share
with another student, Swarna Lata. The next day Swarna Lata, the room-
mate came: 'Her name meant golden creeper, and she crept around
Virmati without tightening her grip and shone on her as long as they were
together, because she was generous and had plenty to give from a life that
was full.' (Difficult Daughters, 117)
As Virmati was eager and desirous to make friends, she offered
eatables and delicacies to Swarna Lata. The bridge between them began
to take shape as Swarna opens herself to Virmati,' It's only because of my
father that I am here. My mother wanted me to marry. She said I had
done my BA and that was enough.' (117) Asked about the pressure of
marriage from the family, Swarna Lata explained.' I love Lahore, All my
friends are here, all my activities. I had to stay here, so I decided to do an
MA. I wrote and told my parents. There was not a moment to lose. They'd
already begun to send me photographs of prospective husbands ! Each
looking uglier than the last.' (117) Swarna's firm determination to study
further made her parents agree with her though she had to fight for it :
It was quite unpleasant while it lasted. I prefer not to quarrel with
my parents, but sometimes there is no alternative.' (118). A few days later
Shakuntala cycled down to RBSL College during during visiting hours, to
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check on her cousin. Virmati greeted her cautiously and told her that
everything was homely including the food. When Shakuntala questioned
her about her room-mate Swarna Lata. Virmati was all praise for
Swarna : 'Oh Pehnji, she is very nice. I am so lucky she is staying in this
hostel even though she doesn't study here. Her parents also wanted to get
her married, but she is doing an MA because she wanted to do something
with her life first'. (118)
Perhaps Shakuntala could not digest such praise and when she met
Swarna at Virmati's pleading, the meeting was not a success. Shakuntala
called Swarna rather plain as she came out of Virmati's room. This
startled Virmati for two highly educated and open-minded young women
could not get on with each other. She reflected: Fancy Pehnji going so
much by looks. Anybody would be impressed by Swarna's eyes behind
her glasses, eyes that refused to smile because they were looked at. And
what about the intelligence in her round face, and the friendliness that
was frank and open ?' (Difficult Daughters, 119)
However, notwithstanding the disapproval of Swarna' s personality
by her cousin Shakuntala, Virmati' s one year stay at Lahore turned out to
be a period of bonding with Swarna. Her clandestine meetings with the
professor led to their physical union and Virmati became pregnant
unawares. In the meantime Swarna was elected to the senior studentship
of the RBSL college. Her election put an end to her friendship with a
muslim girl Ashrafi who contested against her and lost. But Swarna had
cemented her relationship with Virmati firmly and encouraged her to
participate in Punjab Women's Conference being held at Lahore. There is
an elaborate description of the deliberations of this conference in the
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XVIIIth chapter of the novel. Virmati was quite reluctant to attend the
conference but she did go on Swarna's insistence. She was lost in the
professor's love - an illicit love-affair, and found herself torn by conflict.
She feels guilty at not having shared the secret of her love-affair with
Swarna, Virmati voices her feeling of loss at not placing her trust in
Swarna :
Am I free; thought Virmati. I came here to be free, but I am not
like these woman. They are using their minds organizing, participating in
conferences, politically active, while my time is being spent in love.
(Difficult Daughters, 142)
On her return from the conference, Virmati had fever and was sick
for days. The fever left her pale, weak and thin. The professor came to
meet her after two months, she discussed the fate of their 3 year-long love
affair and accused him of delay and negligence;
'I break my engagement because of you, blacken my family's name,
am locked up inside my house, get sent to Lahore because no one knows
what to do with me. Here I am in the position of being your secret wife,
full of shame, wondering what people will say if they find out, not being
able to live in peace, study in peace...and why ? Because I am an idiot. (
Difficult Daughters, 149)
On her arrival back at the hostel, Virmati still felt agitated and
betrayed. Swarna noticed it at the meal tine in the mess and tried to
comfort Virmati, assuring her of support:
'What is it Viru ?' she asked gently. 'You are obviously miserable. I
usually don't have time for us to spend together, but I care about what is
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happening to you. Now tell me. Otherwise I shall feel terribly guilty.
(Difficult Daughters, 150)
Swarna' s affectionate and sympathetic gesture softened Virmati
and she shared with her the secret of her love- affair with the professor
explaining her conflict caused by uncertainty. Swarna shakes Virmati out
of her stalemate over the problem of marriage with the professor :
Most families look upon the marriage of a daughter as a sacred
duty - or sacred freedom. We are lucky we're living in times when women
can do something else. Even in Europe women get more respect during
wartime. And here we have that war, and our Satyagraha as well.
(Difficult Daughter, 152)
Despite Swarna enlightening Virmati about life and women's role,
and encouraging her, Virmati suffered two setbacks. First, she did not do
well in her BT exams. Second, she discovered that she was pregnant and
on her way to becoming an unmarried mother. She was terribly shaken by
the fact of pregnancy as fear and apprehension assailed her mind. She
was desperate to come out of this mess but was unwilling to share it with
the professor who had made her life so miserable. She found the real
friend in Swarna who understood her and could both suggest a way out of
it and support her in every possible way. The narrator Ida, who is
Virmati's daughter, identifies and sympathises with Virmati because Ida
herself had undergone an abortion. The old Swarna Lata recounts to Ida.
'Yes, we were good friends. But Viru knew, yes, she knew that
what she had done would be seen by me as a social setback for women.
Good ! This was the very thing the men were afraid of, even mothers.
 152

Education led to independence and loose conduct... ( Difficult Daughters,

155)
The narrator reflects sympathetically how poor Virmati must have
suffered the unwanted and socially unacceptable pregnancy. During such
a crisis, Virmati looked up to Swarna as her only support and shared the
secret of her pregnancy. Swarna did not look shocked or surprised but
careful. She tried her level best to help Virmati, discussing the matter
with Miss Datta whom she called Auntie. She explained to Virmati that
government hospitals did not permit illegal abortions. However, Swarna
finally managed Virmati's abortion with Miss Datta's help who hired a
male doctor to perform the task. This incident is a sufficient proof of the
female bonding between Virmati and Swarna Lata though their friendship
could not continue beyond one year. In her post-abortion depressive
mood, Virmati reflects on the value, meaning and importance of Swarna's
bonding with her :
Only with Swarna could she be comfortable, Swarna who knew
what she was, and din't condemn. (159)
Obviously, Virmati's one-year friendship with Swarna at Lahore
sustained her through her conflicts and crises. Both these young women
understood each other as no one else could have done. By losing Swarna
as a friend, Virmati suffered a loss adding further to several other losses
and deprivations which made her life miserable and desolate.
In Manju Kapur's second novel, A Married Woman, the theme of
female-bonding appears in a different form. The story revolves around
Astha, the protagonist. She is an educated woman from a middle class
family. She is the only daughter of her parents both of whom are in job.
 153

Her parents want her to study to the eligibility level of the requirement of
marriage. Astha aspires to lead a free and independent life but her initial
gesture - a love affair with Rohan - fails, with Rohan deserting her as he
leaves for Oxford for higher studies. Astha's education earns her some
degree of independence when she gets a job as a school-teacher.
Christopher Rollason has pointed out :
Astha Vodera, a school teacher with an M.A. in English, lives a
comfortable, conventional Delhi Hindu middle class life, within an
arranged marriage with her businessman husband Hemant, a self-satisfied
materialist who sells South Korean TV sets, and their two children
[Anuradha and Himanshu] until she meets Aijaz Khan, a secular Muslim
[teacher] involved in a progressive theatre group. (Rollason, 2009 : 41)
Astha imbibes middle class values and seems to enjoy her marital
life for a long time but slowly feels that there is something certainly
lacking in her life. She suffers from a sense of incompleteness, repression
and anguish. Perhaps she feels that she has not found her true identity - a
phenomenon that marks the feminist concern of the author. In one of her
interviews, Manju Kapur explained :
I am a feminist. And what is a feminist ? I believe in the rights of
women to express themselves in the rights of women to work. I believe in
equality, you know domestic equality, legal equality. I believe in all that.
And the thing is that women don't really have that - you know even
educated women, working women. There is a trapping of equality but you
scratch the surface and it is not really equal. (Unheard Melodies, May
2008 : 04)
 154

Besides being a teacher and a married woman with two children,

Astha has other preoccupations. She tries to fill her incompleteness and
boredom with the worthwhile pursuit of art. She takes to painting and her
canvas are included in Arts exhibitions. This, however, fails to dissipate
the sense of disorientation and alienation in her life as a result of which
she begins to suffer from chronic headaches. Astha could not fall back on
her mother, Sita who moves to Rishikesh after her retirement from
service because the daughter could not get on well with the mother as
long as she was with her. Neither was she able to forge a bond with her
mother-in-law. Her husband, Hemant was always preoccupied with his
business activities. So Astha needed a companion to soothe and comfort
her emotionally as well as physically. There comes about a crucial turn in
her adult life marred by paralyzing migrains, when the principal of
Astha's school invited The Street Theatre Group to hold a workshop on
their premises. The prime mover of the group is Aijaz who is 'a wizard.
He is actually a history lecturer, but his knowledge of drama is immense.
Besides writing his own plays and songs, he has adapted Brecht.
Shakespeare and Greek tragedy into Hindi.' (A Married Woman, 102)
Astha was highly impressed by the learning and talent of Aijaz and
felt drawn to him. Her attraction soon changed into infatuation and she
did everything to be close to him. Luckily, she is able to win his love and
they become lovers, sharing their bodies and minds between them. But
their relationship was not destined to go a long way as Aijaz and his
Street Theatre group were brutally burnt alive in a van in the town of
Rajpur. Astha came to know about the incident three days later when her
husband, Hemant passed to her the newspaper with the headlines,
 155

Theatre Group Burned Alive In Van with a brief description of the

mishap :
A horrendous incident took place here last night in the township of
Rajpur. Aijaz Akhtar Khan, noted theatre activist, and his troupe were
dragged from the site of their performance and taken away in a Matador.
Later the charred remains of the Matador alongwith the bodies were
found near the river. The culprits are still absconding. (A Married
Woman, 138)
Obviously, Aijaz was brutally murdered because he was protesting
against the communal forces which had assumed diabolic proportions in
the wake of the Hindu-Muslim conflict over Babri Maszid. Astha broke
into tears, contemplating the ghastliness of Aijaz's death.
What a way to die, what a horrible, horrible way to die - and for
what ? Because the man was trying to reach the people and do some
good. She hadn't even known he was married... (A Married Woman, 139)
When Hemant remonstrates her for crying over the deaths of Aijaz
and his group. Astha answers back that she knew Aijaz and his humane
activities. She feels hurt at her husband's prejudiced remark, 'He was a
Muslim, he should have kept to the issues within his own religion.' (A
Married Woman, 139) Before Astha meets and comes to know Aijaz's
widow, Pipeelika Khan, Kapur has given a profile of the energetic,
educated and independent Pipeelika Trivedi who had an inter-religious
marriage with Aijaz. She lived alone in Delhi before her marriage,
sufficiently isolated from conventional society. Her mother Mrs. Trivedi,
had been a widow for much of her adult life. Pipeelika's mother too was
independent when she married against the wishes of her parents who
 156

were apprehensive of her marriage to her Delhi University teacher,

twenty years her senior. The professor dropped dead one morning in front
of the blackboard in his classroom. The widow was left with two small
children, Ajay and Pipeelika. Her parents called her to live with them in
Bangalore but she preferred to be on her own, taking up the job of a
teacher at Shiksha Kendra, a boarding school where 'Board, lodging, and
the children's education will be taken care of.' (A Married Woman, 118)
Mrs. Trivedi took for granted the motto and the aims of the school :
harmony with nature, respect for every form of life, and the all-round
development of body and mind. She found a proper home for herself and
her children at Shiksha Kendra. Mrs. Trivedi's hope of her children's
bright future was not belied as both her children came to be excellent
performers in studies. Ajay, the son, was very bright and stood first all his
life, in school, in IIT. He moved to the US with a wonderful scholarship
enabling him to study further at MIT. His success evoked tears of joy in
all concerned. Pipeelika, the daughter, was left to fulfil the hopes of her
mother on native soil. After school, she moved up North, to Miranda
House, college and hostel, to do an Honours degree in Sociology. After
that she did MA from the Delhi School of Economics. She joined an
NGO called Ujala which worked for the betterment of slum children.
Reshana, Neeraj and Mrs. Dubey were the other active female members
of this NGO. It was around this time that Pipeelika met the dynamic Aijaz
and both of them got married in the court. They broke the news later to
their respective families but did not encounter any fierce or violent
reaction. And finally at the insistence of her husband, Pipee visited her in-
law's house where she received warmth, affection, acceptance and gift of
 157

ornaments. Still she felt alien in the Muslim household, completely

different from anything she had known while growing up. Pipee was, in
fact, not pleased when she sensed that perhaps Aijaz did not like her
working in the bastis.
However, despite minor differences, Pipee and Aijaz carried on
well as a married couple until the mishap occurred. The supporters of
Aijaz opened up Sampradayikata Mukti Manch to promote the cause for
which he had lost his life. Ram Janam Bhoomi - Babri Maszid dispute
instilled a new impetus and the Manch planned a visit to Ayodhya, which
came to be the renderous for Astha and Pipee. Astha was doing a canvas
for the Manch as she was actively engaged to it due to her love for Aijaz.
In the meantime, Pipee had secured a living place, a room of her own in
Delhi. With Neeraj's help, she bought a flat in Vasant Kunj. 'She had the
money from Shahjehanpur, Life insurance and dollars sent to her by her
brother.' (A Married Woman, 181)
The fateful moment of Astha and Pipee coming together to forge a
bond materialized when they were at Ayodhya. If Astha felt the loss of
Aijaz's painful death, Pipee found it hard to recover from the irreparable
loss of her husband Aijaz. The memory of the terrible moments when
Aijaz realized his imminent death alongwith others persistently haunted
Pipee's mind. She hated Reshana Singh who had taken over her husband's
memory. She managed to imply that theirs had been a deep connection.
She was practically masquerading as his wife. While thus hanging
between the memory of loss and her indecision to stay in Delhi, Pipee
fondly recalls her mother's affection, for herself. Even though an
 158

independent woman, Pipee's mother had a close bonding with her and her
indulgence overwhelms her through the letters sent one after the other.
In fact, Pipee's mother had tried to get her to relocate in the south
where she could find an NGO in Bangalore or Madras which had slum
areas as well. Mrs. Trivedi repeatedly comforted her with the suggestion
that she should start a new life, putting the past behind her. She wanted
Pipee close to her. Pipee reads her mother's last letter which brings out
the bonding between the mother and the daughter. The letter is quoted
here in full :
My darling daughter,
Everyday I miss you, think of you, pray to God for your well
being, and the courage that will see you through the crisis. Aijaz was a
wonderful man, a loving husband and you were lucky in your marriage. I
say this despite the terrible tragedy, because what you two had can never
leave you. You have been a wife, you have been loved, and this will stay
with you for the rest of your life.
I know what you are going through and darling I would have given
my right hand for the same thing not to have happened to you that
happened to me. But it seems we cannot escape our destiny, whether our
husbands are young or old.
Maybe it is a blessing in disguise that you have no children. When
your father left me, I had my Pipeelika, and my Ajay, I needed no one
else, but you with your youth, your intelligence, your personality, you
need other outlets. Aijaz would not want you to be unhappy or alone, I
know that. Life has its own laws that will be heard and felt.
You are always, always in my heart.
 159

Your Loving Ma. (A Married Woman, 183)

In her letter Mrs. Trivedi has given a sound proof of her bonding
with Pipeelika, but she appears here more than a mere indulgent mother, a
friend, sympathiser and guide who understands Pipee to the core, and is
willing to take any amount of pains in her caring and sharing. It is a rare
gesture of female bonding, and similar instances of this can hardly be
cited from the novel. The bonding between Astha and Pipeelike which
comes into being as a result of their meeting together at Ayodhya is quite
unconventional and socially prohibited. In contemporary critical jargon,
the physical relation between two women is famously termed lesbianism
as a counterpart to same sex relationship between two males. The author,
Manju Kapur seems to have introduced the lesbian love between Astha
and Pipee as part of the feminist critical discourse so hotly debated by the
gender theorists and advocates of women's rights. The same-sex love and
relationship among women in Indian context is viewed by patriarchy as a
freakish, transgressive and abnormal behaviour on the part of women.
Lesbians are condemned, perceived as a threat to society and held in
outrageous contempt by the male society. However, Kapur rationalizes
her choice of this theme in A Married Woman as follows :
'The relationship suggested itself to me as an interesting means of
making Astha mature and change. An affair with a man would have been
the classic cliche and so I ruled it out and tried out a same sex affair. I
don't know how successful I have been nor is this based on any real life
relationship. It is as I said a writer's experiment with a lot.'
(Manju Kapur in an interview with
Ira Pandey, The Hindu, January 5, 2003)
 160

Before embarking on the task of critically analysing the same sex

love between Astha and Pipee, it is imperative to probe the onset,
flowering, climax and the final collapse of their relationship. Astha and
Pipee meet in the latter half of the novel (i.e. Chapter 6) when Astha
delivers a lecture on the futility of communal violence which causes
unprecedented turmoil in history. During her speech Astha notices a
young woman staring at herself and this woman later appreciates Astha's
speech, introducing herself as Pipeelika. Pipee and Astha arranged to
meet the next morning, an act which was all set to bring them together in
the bond of lesbian love. Pipee had struck a chord in Astha who felt
drawn to her by her charming face and melancholy looks.
As Astha and Pipee seek fulfilment through bonding, they appear
to share some common emotions and traits. Astha feels alienated, willing
to fill the emotional gaps while Pipee tries to dissipate her loneliness and
melancholy through lesbian love. In this bonding, Pipee plays the active
partner while Astha remains the passive receiver of love. Pipee's warmth
melts Astha's pent up feelings and she lays bare her lacerated heart before
Pipee who tries to soothe and comfort her with sympathy. A week after
her arrival back to Delhi, Astha receives a phone call from Pipee whom
Astha had by now identified as Aijaz's widow. Reshana Singh had briefed
Astha about Pipee who visited Astha at her house. Astha shares her
anxiety and concern with Pipee :
'My husband spends a lot of time at the factory and he travels too,
so he can't really help with the children. And the set up...' her voice
trailed off miserably. It was hard to explain her life, especially when she
herself barely understood it.' (A Married Woman, 217)
 161

They began to meet more often. Astha was circumspect in

revealing the amount of time she spent with Pipee. When the boundaries
of normal interaction passed, she started to lie. Thus an element of
secrecy entered the relationship and gave it an illicit character. Their
frequent meetings earned the disapproval of Astha's husband, Hemant but
he did not consider their relationship as a real threat to his married life.
However, Hemant was naive enough to understand the implications of the
relationship between Astha and Pipee which grows as they cultivate their
friendship into a bond and become intense, passionate lovers. Now Astha
is caught in a terrible dilemma : her family verus her illicit love-affair
with Pipee. Astha's interaction with Pipee reveals the Lesbian in Pipee
who narrates her first lesbian affair with a young woman : 'Once. Met her
in school, continued in college, on and off for three years. Eventually she
got married. Much later I did too... She seduced me, and then when I fell
in love, triumphed in that power. It was not so different from being with a
man, though I am sure it can be.' (A Married Woman, 220)
Pipee's first love-mate was Samiara. Astha comes to earn about
Pipee's lesbian relations with Neeraj, her co-worker in the NGO. Pipee
brainwashes Astha into believing that a physical relationship between
them is the best possible alternative and antidote to Astha's troubles and
conflicts. Like a spider, Pipee slowly lures Astha to the web of her
lesbian love in which Astha is trapped. She begins her love-making to
Astha with foreplay :
Then she felt Pipee's hands in her hair, her clip undone, her hands
framing the oval of her face. Lightly from behind she traced her eyebrows
with her fingers, her nose, cheeks and mouth. (A Married Woman, 221)
 162

Astha's meetings with Pipee increased. When she was alone in the
home in the mornings, Pipee dropped by on her way to work, she phoned
her at least five times a day, short brief conversations, but which drew
each of them firmly into the nitty-gritty of the other's life. And she missed
Pipee on the days when she did, see or talk to her not feeling a vacuum
within her. Like a desperate and passionate lover, Astha began to
fantasize about touching her, imagined her hair between her figners, her
skin beneath her own, her hands on the back of her neck. She always tried
frantically to reach an appointed place, such being the pull and
desperation of her love. She hurried off to Pipee's flat soon after the PTA
meeting at her children's school was over and found Pipee hungrily
waiting for her. Pipee embraced her as a desperate lover. Here is an
account of their lesbian love :
They [Astha] were standing. Pipee put her arms around her. She
could feel her hands the narrowness of her back, on the beginning spread
of her hips. Gently she undid her blouse hooks, and her bra, looking at
her face as she did so and slowly she continued, feeling her back with her
palm, coming round up towards her breasts, feelings their softness,
especially where the nipples were, feeling them again and again, in no
hurry to reach any conclusion. They were enclosed in a circle of silence,
the only sound, the sound of their breaths, closed together and mingled.

In the small bedroom, Astha tense with nervousness. She was

afraid, yet there was no going back. Sensing how she felt, Pipee took her
time, touching every crevice of her body with her mouth... In between
they talked, the talk of discovery and attraction, of the history of a three
month relationship, the teasing and pleasure of an intimacy that was
 163

complete and absolute, expressed through minds as much as bodies. (A

Married Woman, 230-231)

It is difficult to imagine whether this love was fulfilling but Astha

felt strange afterwards, making love to a woman took getting used to.
And it also felt strange, making love to a friend instead of an adversary.
Astha was definitely in love, lost in the memory of Pipee's love-making.
Her desire for Pipee was so linked to the particular person, that she failed
to draw any general conclusions. So far as her marriage was concerned,
they were both women, nothing was seriously threatened. She was
invariably fantasizing about Pipe, lost in her thoughts, wallowing in her
feelings.

Like all frantic lovers, Astha too singlemindedly focused on her

new-found same-sex love relationship. But love exacts its price and
sometimes too heavy and painful. Astha's love made it difficult for her to
focus on what was going on around her. She was able to forget her
another life: a mother, wife, schoolteacher and an amateur painter. In
pursuing her love- affair, Astha almost ignored her children, Anuradha
and Himanshu. At the threshold of puberty Anuradha needed the care,
affection, protection and guidance from Astha. Of the two children,
Anuradha felt hurt by the detachment, withdrawal and negligence of her
mother. Astha's relationship with Pipee affects her relation with her
husband, Hemant:

Now sexually involved with another, she realized how many facets
in the relationship between her husband and herself reflected power rather
 164

than love. Hemant had managed to ignore her because ultimately he filled
his own landscape. (A Married Woman, 233 )

Astha's difficulties stemmed from the double life she was leading:
secret love-life with Pipee and ordinary, monotonous, mundane life as a
married woman with husband, children and a mother-in law. There is a
parallel development of Astha's intimacy with Pipee and the conflict born
out of this relationship. She realizes that she is both gainer and loser. If
her relation with Pipee fills her life with fresh air, joy and vibrant health,
it also withdraws her from her family, especially from her children and
husband.

In the hope of resolving this conflict, Astha shares her dilemma

with Pipee : I love you, you know how much you mean to me. I try and
prove it every moment we have together, but I can't abandon my family, I
can't. Maybe I should not have looked for happiness, but I couldn't help
myself. I suppose you think I should not be in a relationship, but I had not
foreseen..... (A Married Women, 242)

Astha's experience of the changing hues of her bonding with Pipee

is documented in the eighth chapter of a A Married Woman largely in
diary format. Pipee's brooding temperament causes trouble to Astha who
feels exhausted and reflects:

Doesn't she [Pipee] realize what I go through because I want to be

with her. I am in the same city as my children and I cannot meet them.
Still she broods. Is this how she wants to spend our time in Delhi ? ( A
Married, Woman, 264)
 165

This Pipee-Astha bonding takes an unexpected turn when Pipee

grows indifferent and cold to Astha without any apparently logical
reason. Astha suffers terribly and feels mortified and emotionally
crushed: 'To be with her, yet distant, anything is better than that.' (A
Married Woman, 264)

In addition to Pipee's indifference. Astha passed through several

troubles which included her convalescence, Anuradha's poor performance
in her exams and the tension in her house caused by the workers' strike in
her husband's factory. Her husband, Hemant, developed chest pain and
was diagnosed with hypertension. Under the circumstances Astha was not
able to devote herself entirely to Pipee who wanted Astha's absolute
commitment to herself as love-mate. She suggested Astha to leave
Hemant and stay with her alongwith her children. In fact, Pipee wanted
Astha whole for herself, not an Astha split between Pipee and her family.
This possessiveness awakens the enchanted Astha to her senses, and
instead of pursuing Pipee's mirage -like love, she leaves for Florida for a
two-month's stay which facilitates her return to normalcy and health. She
had finally decided to bid farewell to Pipee, betraying her love for the
sake of her family's interest and happiness. Pipee has planned to go to the
US for Ph.D. on communalism after Astha refuses to be her full-time
partner in love and sex, leaving her children and husband behind. Though
Astha yearned for Pipee's physical love, Pipee behaved as though love
had its day: 'Even moments of affection contained reference to endings.'
(A Married Woman, 282)
 166

In the meantime, Pipee and Astha sought to pursue their individual

concerns : Pipee appearing in GRE exam. which would enable her to
pursue her Ph.D. programme at an American University and Astha
absorbing herself completely in the care of her family. They were on
speaking terms though both of them knew for certain that the break up in
their relationship had finally come about. Astha finally saw Pipee off to
New Delhi Railway Station as a gesture of their old but now lost
friendship. Astha felt the pain of this broken relationship, feeling
emotionally devastated. However, she finally recovers and becomes her
normal self, returning to her family that loved her and needed her.

Thus, the bonding between Astha and Pipee collapses on account

of Pipee' aggressive possessiveness in the relationship. Certainly, an
emotional bond demands sacrifice in terms of caring and sharing each
other's life. Pipee lacks these qualities because of her selfish motives.
Astha's disenchantment occurs at the right moment when her family was
on the brink of disintegration due to her bonding with Pipee. The
realization of Pipee's selfishness and betrayal comes about as a
devastating experience but Astha has enough resilience to resolve the
inevitable crisis. She has full awareness and recognition of her state of
being, resolving to choose her family instead of wallowing in the
degrading physical relation with Pipee. Her contradictions had led her to
Pipee's trap but she is able to resolve her contradictions which prevented
her from letting herself be. Astha finally realizes her weakness in wanting
something more and settling for less. She desired but failed to achieve the
worth and meaning of her life through Pipee's love.
 167

Significantly, the nature of female bonding thematized in A

Married Woman is open to criticism in the Indian homophobic socio-
cultural context. In his review of the novel, Subhash Chandra has
discussed it from the perspective of lesbian theory. He appreciates Manju
Kapur's boldness in the depiction of lesbian love in this novel at a time
when lesbian or gay writing was almost invisible in India. He has cited
the lone example of lesbian anthology edited by Ashwini Sukhtankar,
Facing the Mirror: Lesbian Writing from India, New Delhi : Penguin
India, 1999. He provides a brief outline of western lesbian literary theory
and tries to analyse A Married Woman within this critical framework. He
argues both for and against the premise :

In India there is virtually no lesbian theorising. The word 'lesbian'

is not used in the public space, and these is hardly any discussion of
lesbianism in any public forum.... in A Married Woman, Astha's physical
relationship with Pipee can be regarded as lesbian bonding between two
women, even though the narrative does not use the word 'lesbian' for
either of them. They enjoy being together, they desire each other and
revel in each other's bodies. There exists a passionate sexual union
between the two.

Nonetheless, the narrative does place a lesbian (in fact two) at the
centre of the story, and their romance constitutes the bulk of the plot - the
joys they share, the togetherness they enjoy the orgasms they experience.
But the problem with a narrative such as this is not necessarily meant for
lesbian readership. It does not specifically address lesbians, for the novel
 168

does not hold an ideal lesbian role model in Astha, who could be
emulated by the invisible lesbian community in the Indian society.

('A Married Woman' reviewed by Subhash Chandra,

Intersections : Gender, History and Culture in the Asian
Context. Issue 14, November 2006, pp. 1-7)

Analyzing further the issue of lesbianism in A Married Woman,

Chandra dismisses the novel as lesbian text :

... this precisely is what happens in A Married Woman. Lesbian

bonding presupposes that both the partners are prepared to challenge the
patriarchal heterosexual power structures, which have invalidated and
stigmatized lesbianism/homosexuality. The lesbian pair creates their own
world within the larger mainstream heterosexual world and feel proud of
it, thereby effecting a crucial reversal in the subject positions. A lesbian
discourse, lesbian epistemology and categories of knowledge are
generated which accord value and validity to lesbian experience. This
does not happen in A Married Woman. Instead, lesbian experience is
made inferior. Astha offers cliched arguments for her inability to join
Pipee in a lasting, exclusive lesbian relationship.' (Subash Chandra op.cit
pp. 3-4)

As a matter of fact, Chandra seems to be right in his conclusive

observation that A Married Woman fails to qualify as a lesbian text.
Hence, it can be safely stated that the novel depicts an unconventional
bonding between two females who fail to sustain it. Kapur's third novel,
Home (2006) also presents the theme of female-bonding within the
context of a middle-class joint family in India. In this emblematic novel,
 169

the seemingly tranquil world of joint family is coming apart. Banwari

Lal, patriarch of a cloth business in the middle class New Delhi
neighbourhood of Karol Bagh, is a believer in the old ways. He has three
children - Yashpal, Pyare Lal and Sunita. Yashpal is married to Sona,
Pyare Lal to Sushila and Sunita is married to Murli. Yashpal and Sona
have two children - Nisha and Raju while Pyare Lal and Sushila have two
sons - Ajay and Vijay. Their sister Sunita has only one child Vicky.
Sunita leads a very miserable life with her alcoholic husband Murli who
abuses and beats her. Sunita is reported to have died in a kitchen accident,
a famous excuse for bride-burning, leaving behind her son Vicky, who is
brought home by a sad and broken Banwari Lal. There are no surprising
twists and turns in the novel, Home except the minute and unnerving
details of the intricate relations within the family. Apparently the family
seems to present a traditional face but the members inhabit an uneasy
world. There are no untimely deaths or accidents to unsettle the family
except the growing pressures of the urban life which brings about the
demolition of the old house which is fragmented into separate flats for the
families of Yashpal and Pyare Lal.

The striking thing about Home is not only the representation of the
family-structure and its fragmentation with the passage of time but also
the flux and changes in characters of each generation. Kapur has
centralized family and home in almost all her novel with Home as an
outstanding example : She explains her stance in an interview with Jai
Arjun:
 170

'Literature by women, about families, always has these has these

larger considerations, with years of studying texts, it becomes almost
second nature to look beneath the surface at social and economic forces,
gender relationships and how they are played out in an arena that, in my
writing happens to be the home. But then, all sorts of things happening
outside do affect what is happening inside the home.' ( Jai Arjum Meeting
with Manju Kapur, August 2008 )

Home presents several interrelated themes among which the values

of a traditional joint family occupy the centrestage. The feeling of
togetherness sustains a joint family, making it a real 'home'. Everything in
such a family is shared and common. Marriages are largely arranged and
the sense of private property and individual identity remain prohibited
sites. Kapur has skilfully demonstrated how even cases of incest go
unnoticed in a traditional joint family. Vicky's sexual abuse of Nisha is a
case in point.

The novel focuses on three female characters - Sona, daughter-in-

law of Banwari Lal (and Yaspal's wife), Rupa (Sona's sister) and Nisha
(Sona's daughter) - who claim their identity in their own way. These three
female characters represent the theme of female-bonding in the novel.
The story begins with two sisters, Sona and Rupa :

'Mrs. Sona and Mrs. Rupa Gupta, sisters both, were childless. One
was rich, the other poor, one the eldest daughter-in-law of a cloth-shop
owner, the other the wife of an educated badly, paid government servant.'
(Home, 2)
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Sona suffered from the misfortune of childlessness as she failed to

conceive for ten years after her marriage. But her greater misery came
forth from Sushila, her sister-in-law married to Pyare Lal. Sushila had
brought a lot of dowry in her marriage and had already become the
mother of two sons, Ajay and Vijay while Sona brought no dowry and
was childless. Quite often Sushila's taunts and her poison tongue hurt
Sona deeply, then she complained to her husband Yashpal who comforted
her by making love to her. To add to her injuries and insults as it were,
Banwari Lal brought his daughter Sunita's orphan son home, entrusting
the boy to Sona's care. The childless Sona hated the boy, considering him
a burden on the household. As she struggles to have children in order to
establish her place in the family, she rejects the responsibility for Sunita's
son Vicky who grows up uncared for like a wild plant.

Thematically, Home does not abound in female-bonding, for we

learn about the bonding between Sona and Rupa. Sona's daughter, Nisha
grows up in her parents' household with her maternal aunt Rupa paying
her periodic visits. Though the childless Rupa feels attached to Nisha, she
can't gather courage to ask Sona to take Nisha with her. Luckily she gets
this opportunity when Nisha is sexually abused by her 17 year-old cousin
Vicky. In the first instance, Vicky touches the inner part of Nisha's thighs,
caresses her private part which forces her to pee. Then he flicked out his
erect member showing it to Nisha and forcing her hand to grab it:

Terror stricken she looked at the black thing sticking up, and then
quickly looked away. 'Feel it' he grabbed her hand. she pulled back, and
felt, straight thing knock against her fist. It felt dry and hard and hot.......
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He started moving their hands up and down. Quickly the tempo

increased, as the fear grew in her. When she tried to struggle, he
increased the pressure of his hand.

He gasped, and out spurted white liquid on the snakes and ladders,
then trickled down her fist.(Home, 58-59)

Vicky told the terrified Nisha that was their secret and no one must
ever know, or else both of them would be punished by the family. This
incident left Nisha emotionally and psychologically devastated. She
neither ate nor slept properly, talking to no one and screaming in her
sleep. No one in the family could suspect an incestuous act within
the home and Vicky remained the blacksheep in the guise of a blood-
relative. Through this incident of sexual abuse of a child, Manju Kapur
poignantly portrays the complexities inherent in a joint family system.
Nisha's behaviour stands as a proof of the extent to which she was
affected by the sexual abuse :

In the days that followed, Nisha grew silent; for the first time she
felt divided form the family she had so unthinkingly been part of ... she
tried to block it from her mind, but it proliferated, grew large and
terrifying. (Home,59)

Notwithstanding the strained woman - to woman ties in the

Banwari Lal household, Nisha's maternal aunt stands out as an
exceptional female figure who maintains a bond with her elder sister
Sona and extends it to Nisha when she finds the child in a state of trauma
and shock intensified by Vicky's second bout of abuse. Sona discussed
Nisha's miserable plight with Rupa who suggested to take Nisha to her
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lodging. It was a godsend to Sona as she had no other alternative but to

agree to send Nisha with her aunt. Nisha's departure made her
grandmother sad and alone as Nisha slept in her bed. The arrival of Nisha
ushered in a new wave of joy in the lives of Rupa and her husband Prem
Nath. Rupa's bonding with Nisha brought out the unfulfilled motherly
affection in her :

The childless Rupa was now partially blessed. Her Sister's prayers
had benefited her as well, and the day Nisha moved in with her aunt, she
felt she had not valued their efficacy enough. The first night the child was
there, three adults hung about her, watching every bite of puri aloo she
put in to her mouth. After she had eaten, Rupa changed her clothes, made
her brush her teeth and wash her feet, put a little cream on her face, and
replaited her oiled hair.

Nisha slept between her uncle and aunt in the middle of a double
bed, the tips of her soft feet and hands shining with the nail polish her
aunt had applied to amuse her. (Home, 67)

As both Rupa and Prem Nath were devoted to Nisha, they

discussed the possibilities which had pushed Nisha into a dazed state.
When Prem Nath suggested Vicky as the potential culprit, Rupa was
convinced and she was determined to keep the girl with herself. Rupa was
a hard-working, self-sufficient and economically independent woman
with a business of her own. Her love, care, devotion and attachment
helped Nisha to recover soon from the shock and the girl became herself
again - happy and playful as ever.
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Her husband, Prem Nath, was stoic about his childlessness but he
spared no pains in taking care of Nisha. For the ten years that Nisha
stayed with them, he helped Nisha with her studies as a result of which
she did excellently well in her exams. Besides, his outlook towards
growing children was quite practical. He thinks that children are not
brought upon things. 'They need, thought, attention, timely action.'
(Home, 71)

Of all the members in her family, Nisha's father Yashpal loved her
most. Every time his daughter came home, he noticed how happy she
looked. He saw how the uncle and aunt doted on her, watched her climb
into Rupa's lap when Vicky was there and observed his own wife
preoccupied with her son. Even Lala Banwari Lal confirmed : Rupa is
someone who takes care; (73) Yashpal is more caring and protective of
his daughter than Sona, who considered Nisha as a liability. Yashpal
thought differently, he felt 'that children were meant to be shared. If
Nisha was flourishing in her aunt's house, and the childless couple
experienced joy as a result, he should not stand in the way.' (73) After a
lot of consideration and reflection Prem Nath finally got Nisha admitted
to New Horizon School with Rupa and himself as her guardian. Thus, the
pattern of Nisha's next ten years was now set. Rupa was always watchful
and protective and so was Yashpal.

Nisha was called back to her parental home after her ten-year stay
with Rupa and Prem Nath. She had finished her school and she got
admission at DBS college. In her venture, she was supported and
encouraged by her father Yashpal and aunt Rupa.
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Significantly, Nisha's upbringing in her growing years under the

care of Rupa and Prem Nath inculcated in her both a flair for studies and
an ambition to be independent. Her Love affair with an engineering
student Suresh turns out to be a disaster. Suresh betrayed her in many
ways. He concealed his low-caste and low-income status and finally
refused to marry her when Banwari Lal's family bribed him to keep out of
Nisha's way. When Nisha does not believe the betrayal and grows
desperate to meet Suresh, she banks on Rupa, her foster mother, who
manages a meeting between them. Nisha's second marriage proposal fails
because the boy turns out to be a eunuch. This was definitely the most
difficult period of her life as all her sisters-in-law kept distance from her
and she was considered an evil influence. She is not allowed even to
touch their children. She finds herself an outcaste and untouchable in the
family.

In fact, Rupa's bonding with Nisha had equipped her with courage,
determination and a sense of purpose. Drawing inspiration from Rupa's
pickle business, Nisha decides to set up her business of ready made ladies
suits. After some deliberation and thoughtful consideration, her father
agrees to help her. She shows her managing skill and enterprise in
making it a success. Meanwhile she gets another proposal of marriage
from Arvind who is a widower. She gives her consent for the marriage on
the condition that she will be permitted to continue her business. As
marriage is a compromise, she insists on a simple marriage and gets
married soon. Her married life proves joyless and within ten months of
her marriage she gives birth to twins - a boy and a girl. As Nisha has been
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influenced by her aunt Rupa's updated view of life, she decides to lead
her life on her own and ignore her useless husband.

She wants to realize the worth of her life by doing something

valuable. She has enough self-confidence to assert herself as a woman as
she argues with her husband about their loveless marriage :

'If you are never going to talk or share things with me, why don't
you take me back to my mother's house ? You have done your duty,
married and made me pregnant. when the baby is born, you can collect it.'
(Home, 330 )

However, Nisha finds herself a more responsible and changed

woman when she becomes the mother of twins. The springs of affection
gush forth and she decides to carry on her life with zest and happiness.

The foregoing analysis of Kapur's novels reveals two facets of

female-bonding : women bonding within the home, and women bonding
with other women outside the home. In both the cases, the female
bonding in her novels is not a lasting one but temporary. In Difficult
Daughter's, Virmati's bonding with Shahuntala and Swarna Lata is short
lived. Similarly Astha - Pipee relationship which represents an altogether
different version of female-bonding falters and breaks up. In Home
Rupa's bonding with Nisha continues longer but Nisha comes to terms
with her own life and marriage in the end.

******