Page 24 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes Going Away and Coming home. Both phrases indicate the queer sense of home and homelessness
that the Partition victims have experienced that allows them to dispense with a fixed point that
signifies a point of departure.

1.6 Summary

• The novel follows the life of a young boy growing up in Calcutta and later on in Delhi and
London. His family – the Datta Chaudharis - and the Prices in London are linked by the
friendship between their respective patriarchs – Justice Datta Chaudhari and Lionel Tresawsen.
• The narrator adores Tridib because of his tremendous knowledge and his perspective of the
incidents and places. Tha’mma thinks that Tridib is type of person who seems ‘determined
to waste his life in idle self-indulgence’, one who refuses to use his family connections to
establish a career. Unlike his grandmother, the narrator loves listening to Tridib. For the
narrator, Tridib’s lore is very different from the collection of facts and figures.
• The narrator is sexually attracted to Ila but his feelings are passive.
• He never expresses his feelings to her afraid to lose the relationship that exists between them.
However one day he involuntarily shows his feelings when she was changing clothes in front
of him being unaware of his feelings. She feels sorry for him.
• Tha’mma does not like Ila. ‘Why do you always speak for that whore’- She doesn’t like her
grandson to support her. Tha’mma has a dreadful past and wants to reunite her family and
goes to Dhaka to bring back her uncle. Tridib is in love with May and sacrificed his life to
rescue her from mobs in the communal riots of 1963-64 in Dhaka.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) The Shadow Lines given Sahitya Akademi Award for English in ............... .
(a) 1980 (b) 1981
(c) 1989 (d) 1990
(ii) The protagonist of a middle class boy ............... .
(a) Tridib (b) Ila
(c) May (d) Narrator
(iii) ............... is a good looking blande having a long hair.
(a) May (b) Tridib
(c) Nick (d) None of these
(iv) The Headmistress of girls school in Calcutta ............... .
(a) Ila (b) May
(c) Grandmother (d) None of these

1.7 Key-Words

1. Trauma : A deeply distressing or disturbing experience.
2. Protagonist : The leading character experience or a major character in a drama, movie,
novel or other fictional text.

1.8 Review Questions

1. How is the novel “The Shadow Lines” both an example of and diversion from the Bildungsroman
(novel of growth) tradition of novel?

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