Alienation and Identity Crisis in the selected Stories of Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie

With a population of over 1.4 billion where each person has their own identity and perception, it becomes inevitable that their identities will overlap and their ideologies will fuse. When countless cultures come together, a new homogenous culture emerges. One that is both tolerant and accommodating. But it often happens that people struggle to find their place in a community even though they live peacefully. Today, we are discussing the theme of assertion and identity in Indian literature, and within that, I have decided to attempt to analyze and delve deep into the concepts of Alienation and Diasporic Identity. To explore these concepts, I will use Salman Rushide’s short story ‘The Free Radio’and Rohinton Mistry’s short story The Ghost of Firozsha Baag. Both these stories are part of the short story collections; ‘East, West (1994)’ and ‘The ‘Tales from Firozsha Baag’’ respectively. To begin the paper, Vijay Mishra rightly remarked:

All diasporas are unhappy, but every diaspora is unhappy in its way. Diasporas refer to people who do not feel comfortable with their non-hyphenated identities as indicated on their passports. Diasporas are people who would want to explore the meaning of the hyphen, but perhaps not press the hyphen too far for fear that this would lead to massive communal schizophrenia.”¹

Main Text: Diasporic identity entails a struggle to identify yourself between two places: where you came from and where you are now. The main conundrum is that a person can live in as many places as they like but can only belong to one place. It is the sense of belongingness that defines one’s identity. Their internal struggle can be boiled down to one question: Where is their home? Is it the land of their forefathers from which they are detached or is it the new land whose cultures and linguistic pluralities they have adapted themselves into? And this detached sense of identity leads to a person becoming estranged.

 Both Mistry and Rushdie’s portrayals of diaspora and alienation through their works are profoundly evocative. Rohinton Mistry is an Indian-born Canadian writer who faced many challenges when he was adjusting to the culture of Canada while keeping his own Indian identity close to heart. Rushdie has dedicated his life to writing about historical and philosophical issues.

 They both wrote at a time when India was still finding its identity as a nation, germinating from its rudimentary independent state and migration was happening both nationally and internationally- the effects of which were not ignored by the Indian writers. Mistry’s entire work includes tales about a Parsi community that has adjusted to the ways of Bombay but still does not feel like they fit in here. At the same time, Rushdie uses symbolism and imagery to convey a significant message to the audience that leaves them thinking.

 ‘The Free Radio’is an engaging story about a naive rickshaw puller named Ramani. He has the misfortune of being seduced by a thief’s widow who already has 5 children. Even though the narrator, a reliable friend of Ramani’s parents, warns him he wants to marry her. To do so he causes a heartbreaking and permanent loss to himself by getting a vasectomy. But at the time, he is not worried about it since he thinks that he will soon receive a brand new radio from the government. But little did he know that that scheme was discontinued a long time ago.

 The Ghost of Firozsha Baagis the story of an Ayah from a village in Goa. Her name is Jacqueline (Jaakaylee) and she has been an Ayah in a Parsi house for nearly 50 years. One night after coming back from church she sees a ghost on the stairs and wakes her employer up. No one believes her and soon the entire Firozsha Baag apartment begins to mock her. Jacqueline says, “A new Hindi film had come out, Bhoot Bangla, about a haunted house, so they would say, like the man on the radio, in a loud voice : see today, at Apsara Cinema, R.K. Anand’s new film Bhoot Bungla starring  Jaakaylle of Block B!”.² Every Friday, the ghost comes to her and lies on the floor next to her, touching her inappropriately. One night on New Year’s Eve her employer; Bai, thinks that she sees the same ghost and from then on everyone in the apartment starts believing in ghosts.

 When we compare both the stories we see that the protagonists in both have alienated themselves. Ramani spends an entire year in the delusion that he has a radio which is the envy of the entire village. Jacqueline has spent most of her life in a house that she is not a part of. No one even pronounces her name correctly, they only call her Jaakaylee. In Ramani’s story, the narrator critiques him saying:

“I confess I became angry; indeed, I almost wept as I realised that Ramani had gone voluntarily to subject himself to a humiliation which was being forced upon the other men who were taken to the caravan. I reproved him bitterly. ‘My idiot child, you have let that woman deprive you of your manhood”.³

He gets a vasectomy to marry the widow and gives up his ability to have children. At the time of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, many men were being forced to undergo sterilization. The ‘White van’ as described in this story is a direct reference to the situation in India. Research conducted by Kaval Gulati on mass sterilization reveals, “In 1977 the number of people sterilized went from 9,003,626 in the Fourth Five-Year Program to 18,500,000 in the Fifth Five-Year Program.” ⁴

 This tremendous rise in numbers might portray national interest but the ground reality was far from patriotic. Voluntary sterilization, as in the case of Ramani, was not a mass phenomenon yet the numbers just kept rising. Research was conducted about these numbers and the truth soon came to light. It turned out that the success of the states with the most number of sterilizations was not owing to Rajiv Gandhi’s campaigning but the medals being awarded to commissioners. About increasing sterilization Prajakta Gupta states:

“Commissioners were awarded gold medals for their hard work (mass sterilization). As a result, nothing mattered when it came to meeting the targets. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were at the top when it came to exceeding the targeted number of sterilizations, resulting in more commissioners from these states receiving medals.”⁵

So the problem faced by Ramani was not just his own. While he was one of the few who chose to have a vasectomy voluntarily, he felt the same identity crisis as everyone else. A change in perception of identity was happening at the time because many people lost what was considered central to their identity as a man. To cope with such an identity crisis, people like Ramani began engaging in delusions like his radio.

 Ramani finds solace and validation through the radio, as evidenced by his habit of mimicking a radio broadcast by cupping his hand to his ear. Teacher Sahib mentions, “Ram always had the rare quality of total belief in his dreams, and there were times when his faith in the imaginary radio almost took us in, so that we half-believed it was really on its way, or even that it was already there, cupped invisibly against his ear as he rode his rickshaw around the streets of the town.”⁶ The radio, representing freedom of thought, becomes a symbol of delusion and self-deception in Ramani's case. Clear thinking distinguishes humans from animals, yet Ramani's prolonged self-deception illustrates a failure in this aspect, as he adjusts his thoughts to the point of deceiving himself for nearly a year. His charade was taking a toll on him evidenced by teacher Sahab’s statement, “But when I saw him now, there was a new thing in his face, a strained thing, as if he were having to make a phenomenal effort…As if all the energy of his body was being poured into that fictional space between his hand and his ear.”⁷

 Through such symbols, Rushdi demonstrates how the youth of that time had to suffer after they sacrificed their manhood for the “national interest”. Ramani didn’t get a radio but he also lost his sense of self and the respect of others. Consumed by his love for the widow Ramani kept his true feelings hidden even from himself. The radio would surely come to compensate for his loss and redeem his soul. But the radio never came and the self-deception grew stronger day by day. Ramani’s sacrifice might have been for love but impotency, as he soon realised, was a dauntingly high price to pay for it. Along with his ability to procreate, Ramani also lost his sense of self. Teacher Sahib painfully remarks:

“I felt most helpless, I can tell you, because I had divined that Ram had poured into the idea of the radio all his worries and regrets about what he had done, and that if the dream were to die he would be forced to face the full gravity of his crime against his own body, to understand that the thief’s widow had turned him, into a thief of a stupid and terrible kind, because she had made him rob himself.”⁸

Even after contributing to a “national cause” he was thrown out of the white van after suffering a heavy beating. Rushdie contrasts what is being sacrificed and what is being gained very apparent for the reader to understand. Now he did not even have his delusion to hold on to. In a time when a man was judged by his impotence, Ramani gave up precisely what the society cherished in a man. But this was not the end for Ramani, he then went to Bombay and gained a lot of success.

But the conclusion to this story was not a happy one. In the last few lines, we see the narrator commenting, “Don’t ask me why he wrote to me, but he did. I have the letters and can give you proof positive, so maybe there are some uses for old people still, or maybe he knew I was the only one who would be interested in his news.”⁹ We see that even the narrator does not give much weightage to his success as compared to what he has lost. As happy as teacher Sahib is for Ramani, he still makes sure we understand that there is no one left in this village that cares for Ramani. The time he spent detached from reality, separated him from the village as well. He only had the thief’s widow and a sterile fantasy to comfort him. Paperap comment’s on this scene “This martyr like sentence garners pity and sympathy readers have towards teacher Sahib who although tried his best could not save Ramani.”¹⁰ And apart from that if he is writing to an old teacher it suggests that even Ramani feels empty without his identity, an emptiness that can never be filled now. No matter how much love or money he has, he will never have children that he can call his own. He will never have a ‘socially acceptable’ life.

 Jacqueline in The Ghost of Firozsha Baagfaces a similar yet different conundrum. Where Ramani has lost his personal identity, Jacqueline’s cultural identity has been diminished over several decades. She no longer remembers her native songs, only that she used to sing them to little Seth when he was a child. This is the first story in Mistry’s book that is told by a non-Parsi narrator. This change of voice means a change of perspective and leads to an external perspective on the Parsis of Firozsha Baag. The entire book explores the problems of Diasporic communities faced by the Parsis but this book shifts the focus onto other communities as well.

 The story of Jacqueline does not show the Parsis in a great light. We see several instances where she is demeaned. Firstly, no one believed her when she said she saw a ghost but everyone believed the wife of her employer, Jacqueline mentions, “And after that many people in Firozsha Baag started to believe in the ghost. One was dustoorji in A Block. He came one day and taught Bai a prayer, saykaste sataan, to say it every time she was on the stairs.”¹¹ Several prejudices are mentioned that when a dark-toned child is born in the house of Parsis they compare them to the children of ‘aayas’. We also see the Parsi priest telling Jacqueline to go inside because Parsi prayers are far too powerful. And the worst of all is the mangling of her name. They called her Jaykaylee as it suited them instead of her actual name. In this context, Amrutha T. V has mentioned:

The mangling of Jacqueline’s name is just one more example of how Parsis had domesticated English. Jaykaylee herself admits that her Bai says “igeechur” for an easy chair and “Ferach beech” for French beans. This is an indication that Parsi acceptance of English/European mores was not unproblematic and very often the strange was familiarized before it was accepted.”¹²

She does not lead a life of respect among the Parsi community. Her Bai often gives her tedious tasks just because she is an ayah and it is her job. Whenever she grinds the masala it is always either too thick or too thin and Jaakaylee has to do everything twice. In this house of no respect, her frustration is manifested in the form of a ghost that she sees. Through this ghost, she also thinks a little about her past when comparing the ghost to the village flirt. Jacqueline also talks about the village flirt:

 “ Cajetan was standing behind my friend Lily, he had finished his fun with me. Now it was Lily’s turn. And I am telling you, he kept bumping her and letting his hand touch her body like it was by accident in the crowd…And the ghost reminded me of Cajetan, whom I have not seen since I came to Bombay - what did I say, fourty nine years ago.”¹³

She recounts how he also used to have his fun with her and move on to someone else when she resisted. Her tone in these lines is not necessarily condemnatory, she almost feels spiteful. Being a stranger in Firozsha Baag she wants any outside contact that she can get, even if it is from a ghost. She knows that she will never have a satisfying relationship like the rest of the Ayas from her church because she thinks of herself as old and ugly. This is why we can see that she begins to long for the ghost to come back. Every time she remembers her past, she does it with deep sorrow evident from her remark of this recollection, “So there I was in the darkness remembering my father and mother, Panjim and Cajetan, nice beaches and boats. Suddenly it was very sad, so I got up and put a light on. In bai - Seth’s room their clock said two o’clock”¹⁴. The identity crisis Jaakaylee faces is multilayered. She doesn't remember much about her culture, and the Parsis do not consider her as one of their own. Her identity originates and fades into the work that she does.  AS - Md Abu Shahid Abdullah remarked:

 “As we go through the narration of Jaakaylee, we feel that despite her prejudices regarding Parsis, she has been changed by the very culture in which she is a stranger. However, although she has lost her cultural association, she has also replaced the Parsi dhansak as the Karanis’ favorite dish with her hot Goan curries.” ¹⁵

The irony comes forward when towards the end of the story she is treated with respect by Bai after being misidentified as a ghost. Bai is now not only compassionate towards her but also makes tea for her from time to time and asks her to sit at the dining table like the other members of the house. Bai asks her about her village and treats her better.

These stories resonate with  countless people because they resemble the struggles many face every day. Cultures can date back centuries, but they are never isolated, especially not in India. One cannot hope to stay away from the people of other cultures or keep them away from oneself. It is an unavoidable fact that one will have to accommodate another culture in an ecosystem that is developing with every passing day. With the way things have progressed over the past years, multiculturalism will soon not be an exception but a common norm. It won’t only be seen in cities like Delhi but also small villages. Perhaps your new neighbor brings a new culture to your door and it becomes your duty to make them at home. Whether you are a stranger in a culture or you see a stranger in your culture, being accommodative can only bring harmony. Like cultures, even identities are fluid. Fixated notions about one’s identity can only bring forth challenges and problems of alienation. In modern times, when we are all witnesses to the rapid changes in social norms and cultural practices, it is wise to assume that identities will also evolve. And it is only with processes of acculturation that identities will emerge out of the shadows of sole criterion and make progress towards a manifold understanding of what actually constitutes identity.  With this I will end my paper, leaving you all with a question- What steps can we take in that direction and how do we define our multifaceted identity?