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What The Body Remembers |
Set against the backdrop of India's partition, this is an impressive and a fluent story about three principal characters -
(a). Roop, a 16 yr old village girl from a lower caste who, after the untimely death of her mother, is married off to a wealthy but a much older man, almost of her father's age - Sardarji,
(b). Satya, Sardarji's first wife whom he loved very much but who couldn't bear him a child
(c). and Sardaji, the sikh zamindar from Rawalpindi.
Sardarji's marriage to Roop is kept a secret from Satya until the very last moment and when she eventually comes to know about it, it sparks off an astute battle for supremacy between the two women until it leads to the death of Satya. Although Roop has been characterised as the main protagonist but for me, Satya was the most riveting character in the book - strong and fearless. When Roop enters the family, she believes that Satya will treat her as a sister and will result in peaceful co-existence, but their relationship rather becomes baleful in no time because deeply hurt by Sardarji's second marriage, Satya resorts to desperate measures, plotting Roop's ouster from the household to win back her numero uno place in Sardarji's heart. And both the women, although different in characters, live under the same fear - the feebleness of their social security in the patriarchal household and the fear of losing their importance from their husband's heart. The story is essentially about the two women - how Satya slumps to madness with jealousy and hatred against Roop (first she insists upon adopting Roop's first-born, a daughter, and then when the second-born comes to be a son, she demands to adopt him as her own and giving up her daughter) and how Roop grows from a timid and silly yes-yes girl into a mature woman, forms the central theme of the story.
What makes this book endearing enough is that nothing is superfluous and the characters are convincing i.e we find three flesh and blood people with flaws and yet none of them are obnoxious! Though proud and a bit lazy but Roop is also good-willed and amicable and her innocence and naivety succeed in drawing the reader towards her. Similarly Satya, though outspoken and shrewd, is equally sympathetic. Even their husband, Sardarji, inspite of his arrogance and with his patriarchal beliefs and alter ego, is but genuine and loving.
As we reach the end of the book, sometimes in a frank way and sometimes restrained, Baldwin also very beautifully depicts the Independence movement and the ensuing Partition from the perspective of the Sikhs, being caught at the crossroads between the Hindus and the Muslims. Dispossessed and displaced after the changed boundaries, Roop and Sardarji are forced to set out on a harrowing journey to Delhi for safety but upon reaching there, are greeted with only ruination and forlornness - the people who had been living together in harmony for centuries hadn't hesitated to slaughter one another!
My word for the book - "worth reading!"