The Inheritance of Loss:
Kiran Desai's novel ' The Inheritance of Loss' which won Man Booker prize2006, is an immature novel.Its plot and subject matter is not co-related, story moves in predetermined direction.The style of story telling defies the context and social background of characters.It is a mess of manufactured views about life,social norms and values which she has heard or read in books and news papers.In this novel no characters represents human values. All principal characters are devoid of identity, they are born in different societies, educated in western institutions and dreamed of other nations.They are aliens in the social set-up in which they live. They are cut off from their own backgrounds and values, they are ignorant of their own history.The contradictions in characters are arbitrary and development is not normal, they seem to be unaware of their own historical background and society.
There are four main characters in the novel, Jemubhai Popatlal Patel; the judge , his grand daughter Sai, his cook, Pannalal,and Biju, son of cook.The story is set in Kalimpong, the far north eastern part of India. Kalimpong is affected by movement of GNLF. Local people demand for a separate Gorkhaland . Some part of story is set in USA where Biju suffers life of an illegal immigrant . Conditions of these two nations are compared simultaneously . In kalimpong there are strikes, arson ,loot, local Nepali people are grabbing properties of non Nepali people.There is no law and order.Biju
struggles in America for green card. With the help of his friend
Saeed, he manages to get green card . Biju comes to India . He lands at
Calcutta. There was disturbance, he does not find any traffic to go
Kalimpong. Anyhow he gets a taxi to Kalimpong but he is cheated by taxi
driver. The taxi-driver , in the mid way, stops his taxi,and robs
everything from Biju. He loots even clothes and shoes of Biju. The
driver leaves him with mere underwear and gives him a nightgown of a
woman to cover his body. This is the story of misfortunes of unfortunate
persons in this book, the writer has justified her title of novel " The
Inheritance of loss".
The principal character of the novel is Jemubhai Popatlal Patel. He was the only man of his community who had gone to England for study. He applied for service of ICS and was selected as a judge. After retirement he purchased a house in Kalimpong . He has a pet dog named Mutt.As the story goes on the judge flashed back his personal history. He is an uprooted person,he hates his history ,belief,culture etc. He likes western manners. He thinks Indian culture and civilization is a very degraded thing. He blindly runs after everything which is western and condemns everything which is Indian. He is married with an Indian girl. With the money of dowry he went England and came in western temperament. He dislikes his wife Nimi. He is awfully cruel to her, at last he drove her to her parents house, where she gave birth to a girl child. The judge hates this new born but he manages for her education in a convent school. That girl elopes with an orphan boy to Russia. They are killed in a plane crash. Sai is daughter of judge's daughter. Sai studies in a convent run by donations, the expenses of her sturdy is being borne by the judge, but he never visits her. She is expelled from convent and comes to her grand father in Kalimpong. She sees that the judge is very disturbed after her arrival. The judge eats western food,plays chess,drinks imported wine and plays with dog Mutt. One day his dog is lost, he is very disturbed due to loss of this dog. He does not belief in God but prays for dog, he also goes to sorcerer --"The judge got down on his knees,and prayed to God , he, Jemubhai Popatlal, the agnostic, who had made a long journey to jettison his family's prayers; he who had refused to throw the coconut in the water and bless his own village all those years on the deck of SS stathnaver ----(p301)
" then he got up . He was undoing his education, retreating to superstitious man ,making bargains, offering sacrifices, gambling with fate,daring whatever out there"(p301).
Jemubhai's cruel behavior with his wife is tormenting----"For the first time he hit her , although he had wanted to before and fought the urge for sometime . He emptied his glass on her head, sent a jug of water swinging into the face he no longer found beautiful, filled her ear with leaping soda water . The, when it was not enough to assuage his rage he hammered down with his fists,raising his arms to bring down her again and again, rhythmically, until his own hands were exhausted and his shoulders next day were strained sore as if from chopping wood, he even limped a bit ,his legs hurting from kicking her"(p304).
" the anger ,once released, like genie from a bottle, could never be curtailed. The quieter she was , the louder he shouted, and if she protested , it was worse. She soon realized that whatever she deed or do not do, the outcome was the much same. His hatred was his own creature; it rose and burnt out, reappeared of its own accord; and in her he sought only of its justification, its perfection.In this purest moment he could imagine himself killing her"(p305). He could bear her face no longer, bought her a ticket and returned her to Gujarat. After six months Nimi gave birth to a girl child. They hoped that this baby would bring the father (judge) back to their community. Jemu sent money with a letter " It will not be suitable ". He replied "My work is such, no schools, constant travel....". Nimi's uncle drove his niece from the door saying " You are your husbands responsibility". Nimi lived her rest of life with a sister who had not married well.Jemu's father came to before him but all effort was useless. His father returned without any result.
when his dog is lost ,the judge laments" He could not conceive of punishment great enough for humanity .A man was not equal to an animal, not one particle of him. human life was stinking, corrupt and meanwhile there were beautiful creatures who lived with delicacy on the earth without doing anyone any harm. we should be dying , the judge almost wept(p292). In this novel the personality of judge is very mean, selfish . He does not love his family, when his daughter elopes with an orphan boy , judge felt relief--" he had condemned the girl to convent boarding schools, relieved when she reached a new height of uselessness and absurdity by eloping with a man who had grown up in an orphanage. Not even the relatives expected him to pay any attention to her again"(p308) He also hates his grand daughter Sai---" Sai had arrived so many years latter, and although he had never properly admitted the fact to himself, he knew he hoped an unacknowledged system of justice was beginning to erase his debts"(p308)
The depiction of character of judge is unnatural. It could be admitted that he would be cruel to his wife but it could not be expected that he would be hateful to his own daughter and grand daughter. he loves a dog too much but not a human being. He is an educated man and a high official . Thus character sketch of judge is artificial and unnatural.
The second central character of novel is Sai. She is grand daughter of the judge. Her parents were killed in a plane crash. She was very little at the time of accident . The nun of convent consoled her-" Very sorry" said sister Caroline, "Very sorry to hear news, Sai . You must have courage"
" I'm an orphan,"Sai whispered to herself, resting in the infirmary."My parents are dead. I am an orphan". She hated the convent , but there had never been anything else she could remember.(p27). The convent is being run by donations . As time passes the number of donors declines, there is want of fund. Sai was a special problem. The older nuns remembered her mother and the fact that the judge paid for her keep but never visited (p28). When Sai's parents eloped , the family in Gujarat' feeling disgraced, disowned her mother.In a country so full of relatives, Sai suffered a dearth.There was only a single listing in the register under " Please contact in the emergency". It was the name of Sai's grandfather , the same man who had once paid the school fees (p28). The environment of convent was as such--" The system might be obsessed with purity, but it excelled in defining the flavor of si. There was a titillation of unearthing of forces of guilt and desire. needling and prodding results. This Sai had learned. This underneath, and on top of flat creed: cake was better than laddoos, fork spoon knife better than hands, sipping the blood of Christ and consuming a water of his body was more civilized than garlanding a phallic symbol with marigolds. English was better than hindi"(p30). Sai is educated in contradictions , she comes to her grand father , who is upset by her arrival. The judge arranges for her tuition of mathematics and science. Sai falls in love with her tutor Gyan. Gyan joins movement of Gorkhaland led by GNLF. He ignores Sai and condemns for her manners, he also hates her. When Gyan does not come to Sai for long time . Sai visits his village where Gyan misbehaves with her . Sai is very frustrate to learn that Gyan has cheated her and her grandfather also does not like her. Sai represents false culture of elite class and Gyan represents patriotic temperament for his motherland.
