Desai, Anita, Bye Bye Blackbird, Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi, Bombay, 1994

Dev

Nostalgia for Indian habits

– missing the tea brought to him by his mother or a servant in India

“[…] he thought with momentary bitterness of the cup of tea that would have been brought to him if he were at
home in India now, by a mother fresh from her prayers, or a servant boy scorched and sooty from a newly made
fire. (6)

Individualistic perspective in England

It was the first lesson his first day in London taught him: he who wants tea must get up and get
it”( 6)- Dev has to do things on his own

The Kashmiri tea cosy (7)- an Indian object taken out of its context- Dev reflects on its
significance

“it was so ample, so substantial it was sure to have some history. Had Adit’s mother sent it out from India to her
ash-blonde and unknown daughter –in-law? Had Adit bought it at one of those Indian stores that dealt in tinned
magoes, spices and brassware, and brought it home to his Clapham flat in a little seizure of nostalgia? And what
did it mean to Sarah?” (7)

Dev’s motivation to emigrate, his admiration for England

- he wants to study at London School of Economics

Dev’s openness to England- he is curious to discover the specificities of the new world (10) –
he wants to go to a pub “When do we go to a pub? My first pub, it’s time you took me to my
first pub, you know” (10)

He refers to London as a jungly city –“ this London of yours” (10)

Dev is prepared for the British world- his English education in India renders the British world
familiar to him; his entering the local pub fills him with admiration and reverence – British
literature is a reflection of an original culture that is accessed through migration 10-11

“He had known them all, he had met them before, in the pages of Dickens and Lamb, Addison and Boswell,
Dryden and Jerome K. Jerome; not in color and in three dimensions as he now encountered them, but in black and
white and made of paper- and yet how exact the reproductions had been, how accurate, he realized as he
recognized the originals, around him, within reach at last. He passed the palm of his hand slowly over the scarred
tabletop and bowed his head, just a little, acknowledging the past introduction which had imprinted itself so
finely, so imperially on his mind that it was simple enough to pick up acquaintanceship after all these years, in the
sound assumption of future familiarity. Nothing in his past twenty-two years had resembled remotely this world
he had entered by stepping through the door of the King’s Arms, this world of beer-soft, plum-thick semi-darkness
and its soft, thick characters. Yet it was known, familiar, easy to touch, enjoy and accept because he was so well –
prepared to enter it- so well prepared by fifteen years of reading the books that had formed at last one half of his
conscious existence.”( 11)

1
At the National Gallery – Dev admires the Impressionists – Adit is ashamed by Dev’s reactions
(59) Adit is afraid they might look provincial

Dev’s education at a Jesuit school in Calcutta – St. Xavier School (11)

British cultural products are messengers of the British culture and they shape the Indians’
attitude to Britain- British cultural values disseminated via education shape the image of
Britishness as an ideal to be attained

“In those hours this world had been constructed for him, a paper replica perhaps, but in a sense larger than life, so
that what he now saw and touched and breathed was recognizably the original, but an original cut down to size,
under control, concrete, so that it no longer flew out of his mind and hovered above him like some incorporeal,
winged creature” (11).

Dev’s impressions of St. Paul’s cathedral, Westminster Abbey- he is impressed by the idea of
power that emanates from them – religious art as an emblem of the Empire – imperial power
prevails (68-69)

“Dev has an uneasy feeling that these are no temples of Christ, but temples dedicated to the British Empire. They
seem not to celebrate the Christian conception of God so much as the British concept of God, King and Country.
These form the Holy Trinity of the British and not God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. By populating
their temples with these massive marble memorials to their admired warriors and statesmen, they proclaim their
belief that it is not piety that makes a man worthy of his honour, but service – dedicated, ambitious, and, above all,
successful service to King and Country, in the name of God” (68)

Adit considers that Dev is Westernised – Dev’s lack of religious feeling is considered a
Western feature by Adit – Is Dev’s secular? Who is more Westernised? Adit claims he has
religious feelings in the churches, while Dev considers the monuments “ the romanticisation
of a history of cynical greed and aggressiveness” (68-69) F imp
“You’ve made yourself over-already had done in your Calcutta days- in imitation of these smart Western cynics
who are in fashion these days. Now I, I’m a romantic and old fashioned romantic and I don’t feel ashamed of it-
not here in the steps of St. Paul’s with all the bells ringing” (69)

In Greenwich Park, Dev feels like an “explorer on the verge of discovery” (70)

Portobello Road (antiques market) – the icon incident- the seller refuses to tell the price of the
icon to Dev – ( racism- no, because Adit makes it- what is different about Adit? The ability to
adjust, to play a role – what has migration taught him that Dev does not know yet?- He plays
the rich with his ring and silk scarf)< but he tells it to Adit- Adit does not tell Dev his trick-
pag. 71-72

Migration to England is an opportunity to reach the ideal, to control it by reaching its

concrete form

Is Dev’s attraction to England an instance of transculturality? The fact that he regards

British culture as a familiar entity?

Staring, staring- yet unsurprised by all, he was able to recognize the bald old wheezing man at
the bar- caretaker, newspaper seller, wheel-barrow pusher or tramp-who had brought in his
blind and dusty dog with him […] – recognizing familiar aspects in a different culture- going
beyond one’s culture

Dev feels relaxed in the pub, while in India he used to be self-consciousness

2
[…] he whistled, with an ease and an abandon that somewhat shook him who, in India, had
found it necessary always to be on the defensive in public, to assume an arrogance, a
superiority to the rest, however unpleasant and disagreeable. But here, surrounded by the easy,
informal Sunday people, smiling to themselves at the thought of their Sunday roast and
amiably talking of horses and dogs and the Labour Government, he found it easy to lose this
self-consciousness, to think only of what lay outside and around him, and concentrate
comfortably on the six-pences and shillings, the half-crowns and farthings that Sarah laid out
and counted for him”( 12). – the English sense of confidence and relaxation is transferred
onto Dev- the English sense of relaxation springs from their being surprised while at
home…Dev (an outsider) is impressed by this sense of harmony – why does he need to be
arrogant in India??

Dev realizes that his attraction to Western panting is not a betrayal of himself
“Dev is happy to walk off alone and revel, without any fear of betraying himself, in the delight of seeing the
original of what he has so far only seen reproductions. He is not so much discovering those well known South of
France landscapes, the greens and oranges of Cezanne […] He stands comparing the yellows of the original
sunflowers to those in the print hanging on his wall at home when Adit comes up, a little reassured by his quiet
behavior (59) – the idea of original and copy preoccupies Dev more than the contents of the
paintings- inferiority complex? (59) “How will I ever go back to looking at prints after this?”
(60)

Dev does not want to see Indian art in London – is he ashamed of his culture? Association of
culture with a territory; he rejects Adit’s suggestion of visiting Victoria and Albert museum
and see Rajasthan miniatures- “Do you think I’ve come to London to see Indian paintings?”
who is more open to cultures>? Adit or Dev? Maybe Adit sees Indian culture as a foreign
culture and this is why he wants to see it in a musem

Migration as empowerment – while touching the English coins, Dev identifies himself
with the position of the colonizer – comparison with the judge!!!

“Fingering them in a heap under his palm, he felt himself Director of the East India Company.
This was what the cardamons and cloves of India had been bought with, the cottons and the
Kohinoors, the sandalwood and the rhinoceros horns, the people and their lands. Now he
owned them, now he clasped them, now he clinked one against the other, now he built a tower
of them, higher and a little higher still.”( 12).

Dev’s hierarchical conception of cultures- he locates the “original” in England and the
copy in India – he considers Himalayan hill stations a copy of England…..inadequate
view??- pag, 13 toata

Analogy between High Street the Himalayan hill station built by the British colonizers in India
– common natural features of the landscape in the Himalayas and in British countryside
“Now recognizing in the High Street those echoes of the Indian hill station Malls, he realized that the holiday
retreats of his childhood had not been the originals he had taken them to be, but copies. The original existed over
here, in the High Streets of London’s suburbs and England’s villages (13) (my emphases)- the idea of
original and the copy underscores a hierarchical view of culture ! Indian culture /setting
appears subordinated to the English culture

The High Street is both similar to and different from the British Himalayan stations- the British
High Street is imbued with prosperity

3
“Absolutely different too- he agreed- in the gleaming prosperity and sparkling contemporaneity that had certainly
never been reflected in those Himalayan copies but here flowered and spread and twinkled in a manner wholly
new to Dev for it was something beyond his Indian imagination and experience: supermarkets with their
pyramids of frozen food packets, delicatessens with their Continental fruits and wines and cheeses, the clothes
shops with their waxy, surpise-eyed models…tot paragraful….(14)

Dev realizes that his attraction to Western panting is not a betrayal of himself
“Dev is happy to walk off alone and revel, without any fear of betraying himself, in the delight of seeing the
original of what he has so far only seen reproductions. He is not so much discovering those well known South of
France landscapes, the greens and oranges of Cezanne […] He stands comparing the yellows of the original
sunflowers to those in the print hanging on his wall at home when Adit comes up, a little reassured by his quiet
behavior (59) – the idea of original and copy preoccupies Dev more than the contents of the
paintings- inferiority complex? (59) “How will I ever go back to looking at prints after this?”
(60)

He is familiar to the English culture before actually experiencing it- (from books) in a
way he claims it- “I have always known them”, he assures her. Always. Ever since I could
read” (64).- Dev has a mental image of the English culture and he expects his experience to
confirm his expectations” The boy in shirtsleeves, comes and flings, exactly as Dev had known
he would” (64) _ Dev holds a static, stereotypical, essentialist image of the British culture-

When he meets Christine Langford, Dev evaluates her a member of a certain class – her bangle
becomes a mark of class “ the jangling metal bracelet on one wrist which is the uniform of
women of her class…..” ( 74) (my emphasis) _ Dev is newly arrived in England; he hasn’t had
the time to form these convictions; they must be deep-seated stereotypes

Dev is “satisfied” and “content” when his constructions of Englishness correspond with what
he experiences (64)

Dev’s stereotypical perceptions of the English people – classifications RECOGNISING AND

LABELLING His vision does not leave room for variety, for anything unpredictable – culture s
are not static entities (64 jos) housewives, men, children

Dev makes a distinction between the world of British literature and the original of a scene –
What is the original? The presence of the Chinese family in Hyde Park reminds him that reality
is different from literature- that cultural practices change, they evolve –

“He notes, also, those elements that now serve to remind him he is not reading glaze-eyed Henry James or
Galsworhty, but is walking inside the original of the scene he knows in descriptions and pictures. There is a young
Chinese father,,,,,,” ( 65) _ the presence of the Chinese father and his Saxon wife illustrates the
dynamic nature of culture!!

Dev’s description of the Battersea power station – pag. 54- religious imagery – idealistic
conception

Dev likes the green of Hyde Park and wonders how it can last so fresh – 63

Dev’s pro-adjustment discourse – he criticizes Adit for his clinging to Indian food, pointing
out that simple habits at home, become identity markers for an emigrant

4
“You think too much of your food here’, Dev complained, sufficiently over his luncheon greed
to give food an objective and disapproving look.’ At home, you would just take carrot halwa
for granted but here you go ga-ga over it. You get your proportions all wrong, you
emigrants”(Desai 16) – Dev does not consider himself an emigrant….

Adit corrects him “ Immigrants I think we are, and it’s values you mean” ( 16) – values instead
of proportions- 16- Adit has a better mastery of English?

What is Dev’s position- that of an outsider ?– he does not consider English his language “
Don’t get me tangled up in your language. It’s a mad language. It has no logic” (16) He claims
to speak English out of politeness (16) – Why does he emphasize his non-belonging if he
wants to make it in England?

Dev attempts a cynical posture, a conquering attitude, an aggressive stance (53), but there are
certain things that trigger his idolatry - Battersea Power Station 53

Dev is revolted by the Indian immigrants’ passivity

“The trouble with you immigrants, ‘said Dev, ‘is that you go soft. If anyone in India told you
to turn off your radio, you wouldn’t dream of doing it. You might even pull out a knife and
blood would spill. Over here all you do is shut up and look sat upon” (24)

Dev’s attitude to different practices in England- clashes

The issue of pets – 50 – pets vs. Indian sacred cows- are they equivalent practices? Sarah
implies/attempts to suggest the equivalence between pets and Hindu sacred cows, but Adit
considers them different.

Lack of consideration vs. self-consciousness

“At that moment he [Dev] could understand why a loud Oriental voice, uninhibited by any
consideration, could grate on the self-conscious and silent Englishman’s ears.” (50)

Dev dislikes the idea of pets (cats) […] he recalled all the stories he had heard of the English –
man and his pets. He looked at the matting of cats’ hairs on the inside of the tea cosy with
distaste inflating his nostrils” (7).

Dev’s reluctance to use an electric kettle 8

Dev is frightened by the escalators – lack of human control ( 57)

The tube – Dev is panicked, he is afraid of a possible accident – 58 sus analogy between the
tube and a tomb

Dev is surprised by Sarah’s remark that cat hairs are good insulators – “What a house! You
keep pets for insulation?” (9)

5
Laurel Lane – a deserted landscape- no human presence “rarely any human attachment” (55)
Lives lived in Laurel Lane are indoor lives “ (55) Laurel Lane remains, to, him a place of shut
doors and curtained windows” (55)

Pets as a compensation for human lack of communication? – They make the landscape more
alive – 56 – Dev’s thought about pets – 56 jos -57 sus pets – surrogates for human relations-
communication

Clash between Indian communitarian lifestyle and British isolation, no sense of community –
pag. 56 pasaj mare
‘Now if this were India’ he explodes one dull day, standing at the window, “I would by now know all my
neighbours- even if I had never spoken to them. I‘d know their taste in music by the sound of their radios […] If I
lived on a road like this in Calcutta, I would be aware – as aware as can be – of everyone around me. Here
everyone is a stranger and lives in hiding. They live silently and invisibly. It would happen nowhere in India”
( 56)

English society lacks a sense of awareness of the other members of a community – this aspect
surfaces in Lahiri as well – Sarah is attracted by the Indian sense of community ; she considers
it alive (56 ) – Adit thinks that the Indian pattern of community living is “bloody noisy and
dirty and smelly” ( 56)

English people in the tube station seem strange, preoccupied, hollow – pasaj. Pag. 57

Dev is annoyed by the lovers in Hyde Park- by their indifference to the others –“How can
they!” […] Don’t they really notice the people walking past them?” – Dev is struck by the
lovers’ selfishness? (65)

Indian and English cultures are considered antithetical – individualism vs. interdependence –
Sarah defines the two cultures as different /opposite

“English people aren’t as self-conscious as they are supposed to be. They are really quite unself-conscious when it
comes to things like that. Unlike Indians who are not in the least bit self-conscious about their persons but very
much so in their relationships. I think the English are just the other way round” ( 66)

Sarah thinks that the English are self-conscious about their persons and not about their relationships while vs. the
Indians are self conscious in their relationships, but not about their persons –individualism vs. collectivism?

Self-conscious = 1.Aware of oneself as an individual or of one's own being, actions, or

thoughts.
2. Socially ill at ease: The self-conscious teenager sat alone during lunch.
3. Excessively conscious of one's appearance or manner: The self-conscious actor kept fixing
his hair.
4. Showing the effects of self-consciousness; stilted: self-conscious prose.

Dev’s analogy between the English lovers and the Indian beggars – 66

Can you imagine an Indian couple behaving like that? he asks, a bit later (66)

Adit considers that Indian couples are characterized by quarreling, not romance

6
Cities in England (Unexpected openings) vs. cities in India (inward, closed) – different
architecture ( citat 69 jos) imp!

Portobello Road-Indians’ obsession with novelties vs. English obsession with their past ( 70)
_ the two cultures are seen in terms of binary oppositions

Hierarchies of the Indian diaspora in the UK

Dev looks down upon the Sikh community – he wants to set himself apart from it

“Do you think I want to join the Sikh fitters of Bradford, and live in their ghettoes and do the
dirty work for the British engineers? Not me. I’m going to study at the London School of
Economics”(8).

Punjabi Sikhs consider themselves superior to Pakistanis, Pakistanis are considered cowered,
submissive -national regional stereotypes

No, no! shouted Jasbir. ’It’s only these Pakistani Punjabis who go soft. The Lahore wallahs were never known for
their strength. You wouldn’t find an Amritsar man, or a Ludhiana man, looking like such a spaniel” ( 24)

Bengalis consider themselves superior to Punjabis – Punjabis are considered violent, intolerant

“ Huh, you Punjabis are all talk and swagger. Only the Bengalis can show real defiance, ‘claimed Samar, the
doctor[…] You only get worked up when the mood moves you, and it never lasts. We follow our reason and carry
things out to their logical conclusions. A man gets in the way of your living the way you want to, so the man is
shot” ( 24)

Sarah feels excluded from the world of Indian provincial jokes – pag. 25
Indian immigrants realize that an outsider/non-Indian perspective on Indian diaspora in the
UK renders a homogeneous vision

Adit’s low opinion of his Sikhs neighbours- chain migration

“Sikhs- from Ludhiana yar, the authentic stuff. About four generations of them, in those two rooms, I should
think. First the young men came, then they sent for their mothers, and the mothers sent for wives for the sons, and
they all had children together” (28)

Sikhs’ occupational profile

“Oh, the young men work in the factories, the old ones in garages and warehouses, and the women cook and the
children watch the telly. They drive us mad with their noise and their quarrels and singing and comings and
goings” (28)

Adit’s contempt for Emma goes hand in hand with his contempt for his Sikh neighbours Dirty
old bag. Adit called her. Does she bathe? I don’t think so. That’s why she doesn’t mind those
Sikhs living on the ground floor and mucking it all up.” (41)

Emma

Her attitude to the Indian tenants – she likes the Sikhs; she is happy that Mrs. Singh has
brought her sweets to celebrate her being pregnant pag. 41

7
Her plan of founding the Indian club where Indians can meet English people and talk to them –
42

Founding the Little India club – (42) – Is Emma’s interest for India a matter of exotic attraction
– the search for the Eastern wisdom? “to create a meeting place where these great, wise people
can come and lecture to us lesser beings, us little ones and help us to expand, to set our sights
on farther, on Eastern horizons” ( 43)

Her obsession with India has been generated by the death of her fiancé in India (43) – the
romantic affair with India

Transculturality – ethnic stereotypes/jokes are disseminated everywhere – Bella has been

exposed to these jokes in England, unlike Sarah – pag. 25-

“She herself had been brought up on jokes about stingy Scotsmen, wily (siret) Welshmen, drunken Irishmen and
Cockney backchat(obraznicie), and could faintly comprehend a similarity of humour planted on soil so different,
grown in a climate so extreme that it had undergone a radical change, retaining just a faint accent of resemblance”
( 25)

The mainstream’s homogeneous perspective on immigrants – “It’s all very well”, said Jasbir,
“to draw a line between a Pakistani fitter and a Bengali professor, but what is the difference to
the salesgirl at Wollworths’ or the bus conductor- what is the difference? None, laughed Mala,
none. (26)

Female submissiveness- a transcultural feature –“These English wives are quite manageable
really, you know. Not as fierce as they look- very quiet and hardworking as long as you treat
them right and roar at them regularly once or twice a week” (29) “Not so different from the
meek Indian gazelles then” (29)

Sarah

Her expression and mood change when she out of the house- identity in the private vs the
public space

“ Amongs her blue-rimmed cocoa mugs, her potted plants, she was laconic and reserved, but self-possessed and
casual. Striding down Laurel Lane […] she had the hurried rush and tough briskness of one suspicious, one on the
defensive” ( 30)

Sarah’s inner weakness (30)

Adit is struck by Sarah’s anguish –

An anguish it seemed to him, of loneliness- and then it became absurd to call her by his own name, to call her by
any name: she had become nameless, she had shed her name as she had shed her ancestry and identity, and she sat
there, staring, as thought she watched them disappear. Or could only someone who knew her, knew of her
background and her marriage, imagine this? Would a stranger have seen in her a lost maiden in search of her name
that she seemed with sudden silver falling of the light of glamour, to an unusually subdued and thoughtful Adit?
(31) PASAJ AMBIGUU

Adit thinks that Sarah’s anguish is caused by their meeting only his friends; Sarah rejects his
suggestion of meeting her friends (32 sus) - pasaj marker

Sarah’s isolation and need for solitude – she feels comfortable at home (32 sus), in the deserted
streets (32), in her office ( fortress) _ 33 sus

8
Identity crisis – Sarah is torn out between performing two roles – trying to be Indian vs trying
to be English?? ( 34 -35)

Who was she- Mrs Sen who had been married in a red and gold Benares brocade sari one burning, bronzed day in
September or Mrs. Sen, the Head’s secretary, who sent out the bills and took in the cheques, kept order in the
school and was known for her efficiency? Both these creatures were frauds, each had a large, shadowed element
of charade about it. When she briskly dealt with letters and bills in her room under the stairs, she felt an impostor,
but, equally, she was playing a part when she tapped her fingers to the sitar music on Adit’s records or ground
spices for a curry she did not care to eat. She had so little command over these two charades she played each day,
one in the morning at school and one in the evening at home, that she could not even tell with how much sincerity
she played one role or the other. They were roles-and when she was not playing them, she was nobody [..] where
was Sarah? Staring out of the window at the chimneypots and the clouds, she wondered if Sarah had any existence
at all, and then she wondered, with great sadness, if she would ever be allowed to step off the stage, leave the
theatre and enter the real world-whether English or Indian, she did not care, she wanted only its sincerity, its
truth” (35)

Is Sarah ashamed of having married an Indian? Why does she feel like an impostor when
having to talk about the Indian element in her life? 36-37 tot imp

“But to display her letters from India, to discuss her Indian husband, would have forced her to parade like an
impostor, to make claims to a life, an identity that she did not herself feel to be her own, although they would have
been more than ready to believe her (37) -Sarah’s inability to reconcile the two roles (an Indian’s wife
and an English woman)

“If she’s that shamed of having an Indian husband, why did she go and marry him? So she had to learn, through
the years, to keep others talking of themselves rather than allow them to refer to her, and the tea-break was for her
an exhausting, demanding and hair-raising exercise in such tactics” (37)

Sarah and Emma’s version of India – exotic India? 44 The bond between Sarah and Emma is
their common habit of discussing the Indias of their minds !!

Sarah’s conversation to Christine Langford – 75 – Sarah is ashamed of her attraction to

India and her marriage to Adit that she tries to justify to Christine

“It is funny, agrees Sarah, perhaps and feels too ashamed to pass the plate of hacked blocks of
ginger cake to her tailored friend, and leaves it on the table” ( 75)

Emma‘s plan to set up Little INDIA opens up a version of India that Sarah rejects – 44

“the underlit and suspect world of fake Swamis, of hoarse, sweaty séances in damp darkness, of the naked oily
contortions of yogic postures, of thick lumpy sweets and phoney sages…the things that made her shudder,
discreetly, as she sat quietly, only half listening “ (44)

Christine’s Orientalist discourse

She alludes to sati (75) - her uncle was a governor in Madras (colonial structures) – 75- Dev
protests- sati was an ancient custom

Sarah has access to 1. a version of India fashioned by her imagination 2. one translated by Adit
(Adit translates the letter from India) – How reliable is Adit’s version of India? His literal and
cultural translation?

Sarah darns (45), she uses the vacuum cleaner while Adit is watching TV (54)

9
Ex- Sarah’s idea of a pilgrimage in India is different from the actual procedure –

“ I thought one went on foot, over glaciers” (45) ‘Yes, but safely, with a retinue of coolies and mules, ‘Dev told
her.’ The spiritual East rarely manages to be spiritual except on a solid bulk of materialism like the strong backs of
coolies and mules” (45) India is presented as a synthetic entity – union of materialism and spiritualism

Transnational connections

Letters

Travelling by plane, boat – social status and different kinds of mobility (46)

“Do you know how long a boat takes? Do you know how much an air ticket costs? It’s all very well for my
mother to be a pilgrim and set off on a mule over the Himalayas, but here we are, attached with ropes – ropes of
steel- to the aeroplane age, the jet age, the age of hurry, the age of the weekend. Now if I were a student, I could
have jumped on a cargo boat, or hitch-hiked- I did that once. But you can’t do that, if you have a wife- let me
warn you in advance, Dev” (46)

Adit’s story about his trip to India on ship with a third class ticket with no toilet access – 46-47

Adit dreams of his next return to India by air –plane (48)

TRANSCULTURA.ITY - ALL PLACES ARE INCOMPLETE- when he is in England, he misses

India and viceversa – pag. 48- jos 49 sus – dialogue between Adit and Dev

When he is in England, Adit longs for the things he can find in India (Hilsa fish and the sitar)- Dev
cannot understand Adit’s motivation to stay in England while longing for certain Indian things

“ If that is the life you crave- what keeps you from having it? “ Ah, but when I’m there [India] – and I was, you
know, for four months, looking for a job before I married Sarah- I take these things [hilsa fish, sitar] for granted
again and I only notice the laziness of the clerks and the unpunctuality of the buses and trains, and the beggars and
the flies and the stench- and the boredom, Dev yar, the boredom of it. Then I’m mad to get back to England and
the nice warm pubs and pick up a glass of Guiness and eye the girls and be happy again” (49)

Sarah’s attitude to other Indians

She resents the though of receiving sweets from her Sikh neighbour – pag. 41 “The thought of her
breaking into this cat-quiet kitchen, with a jingle of glass bangles, bearing a plate of rich, silvery sweets, made
Sarah shrink with dread” ( 41)

[…] if only she were allowed to keep her one role apart from the other, one play from the other, she would not feel
so cut and slashed into living, bleeding pieces. Apart., apart. That enviable, cool, clear, quiet state of apartness”
( 37) – intolerance to ambiguity

She avoids personal contacts at work- she resents talking about her private life (37-38)
She suspects the children have called her Mrs. Curry (38)

Her marriage to an Indian marks Sarah as different and she resents being different- she prefers
to shop at the supermarket where the shop assistant do not make a connection between her
shopping and her husband’s ethnicity

“The supermarket was a soothing place to be. Here she could buy her Patna rice and her pickles without acquiring
the distinct personality these purchases would have marked her with, had she shopped for them in one of those

10
pleasant little shops at the end of Laurel Lane, where in no time, the […] proprietor would have come to recognize
her and to ask “Now what about a nice salmon head for your husband, Mrs Sen? I know how these Bengali
gentlemen love their salmon heads and I’ve got a nice big one for you. But inside the sparkling halls of the
supermarket where walls of soap and cornflakes hid her from strangers’ eyes, she could be as eccentric, as
individual as she pleased without being noticed by even a mouse” (39)

Sarah equates freedom with anonymity, with the lack of a specific mark –

“She walked out into the soft, muzzling rain with her packages, reassured to find herself an unidentifiable,
unnoticed and therefore a free person again” ( 39)

Sarah loves isolation from the outside world- she feels protected inside her house, no longer
exposed

“Rain streamed down the window-panes she had deliberately left uncurtained for she loved the sight of it closing
about her, shrouding her, separating her from the world with its lustrous curtain” ( 39)

Sarah’s bond with Emma Moffit, the landlady (40) – what are the grounds of this bonding?
Their attraction to the Indian culture?

“Emma, the landlady who lived like some aged mouse in the attic of the house, was the only person who, with
Sarah, could sit sipping tea and gazing upon the letters from India with precisely the same expression of wonder,
awe and study as though awaiting a sudden exploding revelation, a flash of light that would illuminate all. To have
Emma with her was merely like having a mirror in the room- so Sarah had once confessed to Adit […]” 40

Deconstructing the idealized image of England

Clash between Dev’s idealistic worship of the English culture and concrete perceptions – he
resents English weather

“You must be masochists to live in this climate”, declares Dev. [..] Masochists. What a climate,
what a stinking climate” (55) – Adit points out the discrepancy between Dev’s idealistic
construction of England and his dissatisfaction with certain realities of England – Is his
mentality inductive to adjustment?

‘Make a bonfire to the great god Agni. Go on, go to Battersea power station and offer up your
flannel underwear, your knitted socks. Ask Agni to send us heat” ( 55)

Dev has an exotic perspective of England as well as Emma who has an idealized/exotic
perspective of India

Clash between Indian communitarian lifestyle and British isolation, no sense of community –
pag. 56 pasaj mare
‘Now if this were India’ he explodes one dull day, standing at the window, “I would by now know all my
neighbours- even if I had never spoken to them. I‘d know their taste in music by the sound of their radios […] If I
lived on a road like this in Calcutta, I would be aware – as aware as can be – of everyone around me. Here
everyone is a stranger and lives in hiding. They live silently and invisibly. It would happen nowhere in India”
( 56)

The grey landscape – 60

Dev does not expect to find beggars in England- the Indian construction of England does not
include beggars

11
“But there are no beggars in England. We are always told that in India- that no one needs to
beg in England” (62)

The value of privacy is incomprehensible to Dev – toata pag. 63 nu am conspectat tot

Analogy between Dev and Ashima ( the emptiness of the American suburbs) “It never fails to
make Dev uneasy to walk down a street he knows to be heavily populated and yet find it
utterly silent, deserted- a cold wasteland of brick and tile” ( 63) privacy in Britain = isolation

“The English habit of keeping all doors and windows tightly shut ( fresh air friends – wasn’t that what he had
been told they were?, of guarding their privacy as they guarded their tongues from speaking and their throats from
catching cold, cannot quite be explained to him by the facts of the cold and the rain. It remains incomprehensible
to him” (63)

Paradoxically, Dev invokes the value of privacy – A certain value can have different
meanings in different cultures – he considers it improper for the English couples to display
their affection in public – Debate between Dev and Adit -66 jos-67 sus privacy in India =
prudery?

Adit:” Why always in the dark? In India, too much goes on in the dark” (67)

Dev: “ There are things one wants to keep in the dark- for privacy, ‘ insists Dev, just a little
surprised at his own vehemently righteous tone, and more than a little at a subdued giggle from
Sarah” ( 67)

Adit suggests arranged marriage – 67

“ Oh, don’t pretend there isn’t such a thing as romance in India. There are lovers enough but
you don’t see them carrying out like that in a public park or-or under a lamp post”

Racism

Dev’s first racist experience – he is called Wog (14)- Adit seems used to this kind of reality- he
has learnt to ignore it?
“Dev, disconcerted, swung to around to catch Adit’s reaction, to catch a cue for his own, but Adit turned
carelessly aside and pointed out something in a show window to Sarah, his shoulders in an elaborately nonchalant
slope”(14)

Dev realizes that there is a clash between his idealized vision and the experience of Britishness
“ Paji!” swore Dev and did not invoke the names of Johnson and Boswell again, or of Dryden
or Pope, but chewed an unlit cigarette and sucked its black, bitter shreds( 14).

Mrs. Simpson is outraged by Dev and Adit’s presence in the park – Littered with Asians! Must
get Richard to move out of Clapham, it is impossible now” (16)

Samar’s experience – he was called a Bloody Pakistani because he refused to fold his umbrella
(26)

Adit has learnt to ignore racism “It is best to ignore those who don’t deserve ones’ notice”
Adit said, but not grandly- he said it quite softly, in the care-paced voice of one who has learnt
it as a lesson “( 16)

12
Debate concerning racism- Dev is revolted by this humiliation- he defines himself as different
from immigrants, since he wishes to return to India after his studies

“I wouldn’t live in a country where I was insulted and unwanted’, he said grandly (17) […] I will go back to India
an ‘England-returned’ teacher. I will teach. It’s a pity I have to come all the way here for a proper education but
there it is-I must” (17). Getting education in England entails a consolidation of status at home
– local acknowledgement conferred by one’s migration abroad

Dev’s revolt against his compatriots’ lack of reaction against mainstream racism-
“Why do you let them get away with it?“ (27) Dev’s revolt is short-lived; it is ended by Sarah’s
cup of cocoa “With unexpected diplomacy Dev quietened down and sipped his cocoa” (27) –
Why does Dev give up his rebellious attitude so fast? Is his revolt superficial? Did he react
when he was called “wog”?

The film Stranger in Bradford (20-21-22) –the life of a Pakistani man in England- queuing for
a job in a factory, he cannot find accommodation, sharing room with other three people, trying
to adjust to a new life in the UK (22)

Ghettoisation – Indian gatherings like in Lahiri ?? – “They had not come to the end of their cigarettes
when they got back to the house and they stood by the gate a while, unwilling to let the rich colours and the
ringing sounds of their Indian friendships dissipate in the damp chill of the spring night and the white billows
(talaz, nor) of invading sleep” ( 27).

Dev and Adit’s points of view express a mutual irony between the temporary and the
permanent immigrants – Dev criticizes Adit for choosing to ignore act of racism, while Adit
makes fun of Dev’s presumed success after his return home

“Oh, noble noble man. When you go back – to enlighten the dark races with Keynes’s theory of economics- they
will award you the Padma Bhushan, Class II, on Republic Day. How fine you will look with it shining on the
front of your dirty purple pullover” (17)

England as a teapot – a perfect name for “this fat little island” (17) – Dev’s opinion

Dev points out that Adit is hostile to Indian immigrants, as if he identifies himself with a
mainstream point of view

“You’ve tried so hard to show Sarah what a sahib a babu can be, and then you’re let down by the brown rabble
down-stairs. Hard luk […] Really, Sen, Dev pounded up the stairs, how can you stand for it? Really must write a
letter to The Times about these hordes of black invaders who are spoiling your emerald isle” (28) – Dev alwys
makes a distinction between himself ( an outsider) and Adit ( identified with a mainstream position)

Miss Pimm complains to Sarah about the West Indian pupils who “don’t concentrate” and “just
don’t care” (35)

Another teacher- India Baines- hints at Sarah’s Indian allegiances – she implies that Sarah
would eventually leave for “sunny India” assuming that Adit will not stay in England forever –
hostility to immigrants “ Well, your husband isn’t going to stay here forever, is he?” Julia
shouted aggressively […] (36)

Adit’ s first lover – Christine Langford referred to him as “a touch of color” for the parties
(73); she spied on him in order to get inspiration for opening her own tourist agency (73)

13
Adits admits that he could not find permanent rent, because all the landlords/ladies kicked him
out after a fortnight ( 77)
Aici am ramas – vizita la Millers- analogy to Lahiri’s the third and final continent
Dev’s anti-imperialist discourse/idealism; Is Dev inconsistent? He worships European
culture but he does not deny his origins – pag. 61 toata - in favor of reversed colonization

Dev‘s experience in England makes him associate English culture with imperialism – “It is the
beginning of Dev’s obsessed search for signs of imperialist insolence in the bland manners of
the British” ( 73)

“Dev experiences the exotic gaze when he meets Christine Langford who looks at him as if the
“pages of the Kama Sutra are fluttering through her mind “ ( 74)

Adit

Is married to an English woman, Sarah

Adit’s patriarchalism –

he does not help Sarah with cooking, moreover he asks her to throw away the rice that was
touched by the cat (49 jos); nevertheless, Sarah wins, since she does not have to cook another
pot of rice (50) – Dev feels sorry for Sarah

Adit ‘s attraction to Sarah relies on her similarity to his background rather than her difference –
she makes him feel comfortable, not humiliated and uncertain

“ Sarah’s […] shyness and rectitude brought out the protective in Adit whereas all the other guests, and the
hostess, had only made him feel uncertain a possibly even humiliated. Humiliation and uncertainty were not the
sensations in which Adit felt at home, and so he chose Sarah for company ( You are like a Bengali girl, he told
her. Bengali women are like that- reserved, quiet ) 73 (my emphasis)

Christine considers Adit “violent” when Sarah informs her that he has threaten to throw away
the curry powder (74)

Adit’s fascination with the opera – a Western thing unknown to Dev Opera, my dear chap, one
of the delights of the Western world with which you’ve never met (9) – parallel between Adit
and the doctor’s fascination for Mozart in Clear Light of Day

Adit’s fascination/loyalty to Indian food- he is proud that he has taught Sarah to cook Indian
food (15) “No British broths and stews for me” ( 15)

Adit’s friends –Samar (doctor) and Bella, Jasbir (anaesthetist ) and his Punjabi wife Mala (15
jos)

Adit is committed to stay in England; his strategy of survival involves ignorance of the
negative aspects of the British society – pag. 17-18 ”I love it here. I’m so happy here. I hardly
notice the few draw-backs”( 17)

Adit’s decision of permanently settling in England was motivated by his failed attempt to
return home- where he experienced a sheer lack of job opportunities – Adit’s economic
motivation to settle in England – pag. 18-19 f imp!! PARALLEL NEGATIVE AND

14
POSITIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF ENGLAND – Adit’s positive descriptions are paralleled by
Dev’s emphasis on the negative ones (racism, being always a second hand citizen) – he calls
Adit a “boot –licking toady. Spineless imperialist lover” (19)

Adit considers Dev a negativist nature “ You think black by habit. […] I think gold, Dev,
gold.I see gold everywhere- gold like Sarah’s golden hair. It’s my favourite colour” (19)

Adit adopts the stance of a person who is familiar with the surroundings – the ‘disinterest of a
native of the city” – is Adit parochial in this sense? In order to be unmarked he becomes
indifferent to cultural alterity? He is annoyed at Dev’s enthusiasm when seeing Battersea
power station

“What’s the matter with you, yar?” he whispered, fiercely annoyed at such unsophisticated,
such outrageous behaviour which so brazenly marked them as strangers, visitors, bumpkins
(badaran), even (53)

Adit’s ironical view on Indian arranged marriage – he formulates an announcement for partner
selection (67)

Bribery as an Indian thing- Adit points out that bribery does not work in England, Dev
associates bribery with poverty

“Approaches! Do you think you can get into an English college by sending the Principal a
basket of mangoes? All you can do is fill in the forms and pay the entrance fees. There’s no
such thing as bribery here, you know. “ (8). Adit’s idealized vision of England?

Dev’s irony- strategic exoticism?

“There’s no poverty, either. But it’s typical of you to immediately think I mean bribery and
corruption. All I had in mind was approaching the professors and impressing them with the
subtle complexities and the deep wisdom of the Oriental mind”( 8)

15