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CHAPTER II

SHAMA FUTEHALLY

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CHAPTER II

Shama Futehally

Shama Futehally (1952-2004), novelist, short story writer and translator, figures in

the lineage of Indian women writers of the 90s in English. She was born in Bombay

into an aristocratic Muslim family where her personality was shaped by the blend of

western education and Islamic culture and where secular values formed a part of her

existence. She studied English at the universities of Bombay and Leeds. In her short

life, she combined a career in teaching with writing and translating. She taught

English and Cultural History at Bombay and Ahmedabad for eight years. Later she

taught Western Drama at the National School of Drama, Delhi.

She began her writing career with short stories, some of which appeared in

anthologies, stories like The Inner Courtyard and In Other Words. Her published

works include the novels Tara Lane (1993) and Reaching Bombay Central (2002), a

selection of Meerabai‟s bhajan‟s in translation titled In the Dark of the Heart: Song’s

of Meera (1994), Silvers of a Mirror: Glimpses of the Ghazal (2005). Besides these,

her collection of short stories Frontiers and collection of essays The Right Words

were both published posthumously in 2006. She also published numerous book

reviews and essays in major Indian newspapers and journals.

A vignette of what she herself describes as „a privileged sheltered life‟ appears in her

novel Tara Lane. Laeeq Futehally, her mother was the editor of the literary journal

46

Quest and she inherited her precision in language. She was the grandniece of the

acclaimed birdwatcher Salim Ali from whom she imbibed a love for wild life and

nature, which is reflected in the poetic description of nature and reference to a

number of birds in her writings. She died at the young age of 52, and is survived by

her husband and two children. The words written in her memory by many writers

proclaim her to be a good human being and her death considered as a loss especially

to many young writers to whom she was an ever-present source of encouragement.

This chapter presents an analytic study of the thematic and formal distinctiveness in

Tara Lane and Reaching Bombay Central. Not much critical work is available on

these texts, presumably because as her close friend Dr Suguna Ramanathan, retired

Professor of English says, Shama Futehally would never push herself commercially

or seek limelight. In the dearth of many secondary sources to refer to, the research is

a pioneering attempt to read the texts from a point of view of gynocriticism. A brief

review of the plot reflects the concerns of the author and expresses her sensibilities.

The Mushtaqs in Tara Lane were a cultured and upright business family of Bombay.

Tahera grew up with staunch loyalty to the family‟s values accompanied by a sense

of separateness from the outside world. But in course of time labour troubles

shattered the family business and Mushtaq saab who did not have „a single naya

paisa which was not accounted for‟ is forced to deviate from his honest principles.

The factory which was built by their grandfather became the battle ground that

separated the two brothers, Mushtaq and Imran. Even his son Zain agreed with Imran

Chacha that the banks would not give loans without bribes and there was no point in

47

holding on to principles. When Rizwan, the son-in-law and Tahera‟s husband joined,

he was peeved by the honest standards of Mushtaq saab and questioned his idealistic

notions. The situation worsened when the factory was closed down. Tahera or Tara,

the protagonist bemoans the change and the struggle to come to terms with these

harsh realities. The crux of the story comes out in the following lines where she

brings out the helplessness and pathos of becoming a victim of the social evil of

corruption as it intrudes into an aesthetic and righteous way of life. She says:

Invisibly, like a distant whisper, somebody would go quietly to the Bombay

Municipal Corporation and invisibly, in the most aesthetic possible way, in

keeping with certain standards, things would be settled. (173)

Reaching Bombay Central is set in the train journey from Lucknow to Bombay.

Ayesha Jamal is going to seek help from her Mamoo, a police officer to revert the

suspension order of her husband. The Jamals‟ secure and comfortable life turns

turbulent when their generosity is manipulated by Shiv Prasad Nath and Hamid,

when they made Aarif „the straight arrow in the department‟ make a bend in the rule

to grant industrial license for alcohol to the „poor fellow‟ Hamid. The act done solely

with the purpose of helping another had led to a rapid spiraling fall which broke the

backbone of the family. Hamid made a „benaami sale‟ of the license and this had

then led to an enquiry and the suspension of Aarif. Communal angles are played to

the hilt because elections were approaching. But finally by a „Duex ex machina‟ act

with the defeat of the Sangha in the elections, the Jamals see a ray of hope. Again in

this story Futehally deals with the ubiquitous presence of corruption at all levels of

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society. And as in the first novel, here too the family falls prey to the evil

machinations of the world leaving behind a picture of defenseless vulnerability.

This thesis follows a gynocritical approach and applies a feminist point of

view when reading and discussing Futehally. While the distinctive

sensibilities that emerge from her works are discussed further below in detail,

a brief introduction to the issues that draw attention in these texts are stated

here. Futehally‟s fiction exposes the social system where women‟s lives seem

purposeless with no job or career nor an intelligent and independent role at

home. Marriage, motherhood and family responsibilities are the sole

dimensions these women occupy. They are conditioned to think that they

have to tread carefully in life, not ask questions, not take decisions but fulfill

their traditional submissive roles. This is what comes out in the overt reading

of the texts. The Cambridge Guide to Women‟s Writing in English states:

Futehally‟s works remain so far an exploration of the limited

maneuvering space available to women and the deadening constraints

imposed on their existence by a male dominated society. (259)

However it is the opinion of this research that Futehally should not be written away

as a writer of domestic novels. Her limited range is actually a realistic portrayal of

women‟s social space in India. Tahera and Ayesha are characters portrayed in the

role of daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law and mother; a portrayal that reflects the

reality for majority of the Indian women. But as a writer, she rises above the ceiling

and explores the human predicament. At the core is the concern that a righteous way

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of life falls apart because a corrupt world cannot be easily resisted. As Githa

Hariharan states, we find in her works, „the steady awareness of the larger, more

unruly vistas offstage.‟ (ix) So though the works are smaller in size, her vision is not

narrow. The study seeks to explain that in Futehally‟s novels the term „domestic‟ is

not limited and confined; rather it is a point or a lens through which the central

characters view the world. The stories are not just about the woman‟s existence

within the four walls but about looking beyond at the harsh truths of the outside

world that render her sheltered world to be fragile. In both the novels, the women

protagonists narrate an apparently simple woman-centered story. But the

undercurrents cry out the struggle of a woman whose family faces evils like

corruption, communal prejudice, insecurity of being a part of a minority religious

community, the break of trust in government institutions etc. Both the central

characters Tahera and Ayesha portray how women are rendered vulnerable and

incapacitated within the home as a result of patriarchal rigidity and norms and

outside the home due to lack of exposure and societal customs.

The distinctive perceptions that emerge can be enumerated as follows:

1. Focus on the home and family

2. Home as haven and close-knit Indian household

3. Effect of issues corruption, communalism and politics on the family

4. Fear as an inherent condition in the women characters

5. Home as a limiting line

6. Difference in childhood conditioning of boys and girls

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7. Uneventful education and lack of career for women

8. Marriage and husband-wife relationship as central to a woman

9. Motherhood as an aesthetic and difficult experience

10. Women‟s relationships are limited within the family only

In the reading of these two texts, it is evident that Futehally places her

emphasis on the domestic terrain. According to the Law of the Threshold as

discussed in Chapter One, the first novel is poised in the interior space of the

home while the second is placed in the interface between the home and the

world. The family in both the novels belongs to elite, wealthy aristocratic

Muslim community in India. This creates the sociological base of the novels.

Futehally‟s women are not behind the purdah. They are college-educated and

sensible women but lead restricted lives according to the traditional Muslim

attitudes. Tahera‟s life restricts itself within the periphery of the Mushtaq

mansion, Dadi‟s house at the other end of the lane, the factory, Munra the

farmhouse and the guesthouse of the factory which becomes her home after

her marriage. Tahera and Ayesha both have their identity marked out mainly

as a wife and mother.

Futehally has projected the home as a haven and a close-knit setup. It is a reflection

of a typical Indian household. Love and affection, respect for parents, concern about

children, running a family business are integral to the mental make-up of an Indian

family. Love and wealth created a protective cocoon in Tara‟s home. Samuel, the

butler and Ayah were the lifeblood of the three children, Zain, Tara and Munni,

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fascinating them with stories. In the evenings when the family was together, father

read English stories to them in „his unhurried beautiful voice‟ and later „tall and

honourable and delightful like RobinHood carried them to bed‟. Mother was the

efficient housewife, exquisite in her saris and her kimonos had „warm hiding places‟

with the „silky safe smell of olden times‟. Dadi‟s enormous mansion at the other end

of the lane was a refuge to the children, an ancient place with a lot of hiding places.

Monsoon picnics were another attraction made thoroughly enjoyable with Dadi‟s

picnic basket of goodies and „life could offer nothing more‟. In the second novel,

Aarif, Ayesha, Pipi and Chota form a foursome. The government job had given them

a sense of comfort and security. Thus, family can be perceived at the centre of the

woman‟s thought and action. The conflict in the stories arises when this central

structure is attacked exposing the vulnerability of both men and women.

Both the novels focus on how corruption affects the social fibre in India and attacks

its core which is the family. They emerge out of Futehally‟s deep concern for the

individual life, threatened by corruption, moral squalor, religious intolerance and

social realities. She deals with „how breakdowns in the „system ‟ filter down to the

individual level, now as cause, now as effect.‟ (Hariharan ix). She puts her thoughts

in the mouth of Tahera Mushtaq,

Deep down I had known that our world was an erratic one; in this

world things do not happen as they should. It was a world of chance

blows in the dark- to fend them off you had to fend and duck and slip

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and slither. It did not do to stand upright and walk firm, because then

you only knocked down the house of cards in which you lived. (120)

Mushtaq saab was an honest businessman. He would never give bribes or have any

unaccounted money with him. But the government offices and banks were fully

corrupt and they would not sanction loans with bribes. But he held on to his

principles. Opposition arose in his family itself. His brother Imran, later his son Zain

and his son-in-law Rizwan questioned his idealism. Between the brothers it widened

to such an extent that they parted ways. The condition worsened and salaries were

delayed and workers went on strike. Rizwan took things in his hands and silently

bribed the leader Irshadullah with the company funds. Some months later the strike

was once again stirred by some labourers who complained to the Labour

Commission that the previous strike was unlawfully negotiated. What Rizwan had

done came into light and a rift developed between him, and Tahera and her family.

Zain was torn between loyalty to his father and sympathy for Rizwan. Mr Godbole,

the Commissioner who had appeared admirable and good, had also named his price.

And inorder to save the factory and house and the reputation, Mushtaaq saab had to

relent.

The second novel digs deeper into the ubiquitous presence of corruption at all levels

of Indian life, whether it be politics, media, government services, railways,

bureaucracy or relationships. It also delves into the evils of communalism and

religious intolerance that gnaws at the very fabric of society. It is brought out in the

conversations of the characters on the train journey. Everything from railway

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reservations, railway food services, coolies, bureaucracy is knee deep in bribery and

corrupt practices. There is reference to an Enquiry Commision that was looking into

a railway scandal and how they gave the report the day the Chairman retired when

none could touch him. Ayesha‟s uncle though a police officer refused to act against

the goons when he came to know that they were backed by a politician.

Futehally deals with minority fear psychosis and communal prejudice. She speaks

through Ayesha Jamal. On introducing herself as Mrs Jamal, she noticed „a flicker of

a pause while this was digested‟. She was always nervous when her name was asked

and she could feel the glances of people as she spoke out her name especially in the

election queue. It was „only a glance, not even a rude one…..but the glance had been

there, and for a minute she felt that she was going to stop right there and scream‟.

This shows her tension of belonging to a minority community. Again, Chhatrasingh

Yadav is constantly reminded that he belongs to the scheduled class. When the ticket

collector did not grant him an AC berth he felt it was because he was a Yadav. Even

the Minister Navinbhai played the communal card to the hilt as it was election time.

Thus communal pressures on the individual are highlighted through various

characters.

The binary of the home versus the world can be seen here through the perspective of

the women characters. It represents for them the extreme notions between safety and

violence, affection and cruelty, aesthetic and the ugly. Everything in Tahera revolts

against the squalor outside her home in the slums, the disloyalty of the workers.

Ayesha is also helpless at the opportunistic people who would play the communal

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card for their own benefit. The clash between the straightforward and the crooked,

the simple and the deceiving is reflected in the characters of her husband and the

politicians. The impeccable manners, sweet language and crisp white clothes of Shiv

Prasad symbolically represent the hypocrisy in the politicians. The conflict between

tradition and modernity is expressed in many ways; here it is played out in Tahera‟s

family. Family and family relationships are the most significant place where this

conflict takes place because family represents a power structure and works through

relationships. The members were divided between idealism and practicality.

Modernity is not always progressive. But here values are submerged in the forward-

looking, materialistc, corrupt system. Futehally does not present it as a philosophic

discussion but through images as perceived by her women characters like father‟s

„honest Ambassador‟ versus her uncle‟s expensive foreign car, her elegant mother

and her „nylon-clad aunt‟ and improperly dressed cousin sisters. Patriarchy is not

always challenged by women but it can also come under attack from forces outside.

Mushtaq saab had to bend his principles before the forces of corruption and it would

mean that his refrain „there has never been a single naya unaccounted for‟, would

never be heard again.

Fear is an inherent condition in these women. In Tara Lane, the words fear, afraid,

frightened and its synonyms appear more than a dozen times. Rizwan asked her

„Why do you always look so frightened?‟ when all she had to do was to sit at home

„smelling beautiful‟. Tara perceived an unconscious fear regarding life. It is the

gnawing agony and anxiety about a society gone wrong. The poverty-stricken, dirty

Tara Lane and the crowded and polluted streets of Bombay taught even the most

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protected child about the illusions of life, about something being wrong, erratic and

the world being not as it should be. Ayesha‟s fear grew from the awareness that she

belonged to a minority community. The basic and recurrent theme is that of

corruption and moral squalor in society and how it trickles down to family and

individual level. Her world is fragile and her characters are vulnerable. The fear in

Futehally‟s characters is not just personal, but about life in general.

The personal fear stems from lack of exposure and inability to deal with the outside

world. Dadi, Amma, Tara and Munni live in the cocoon that is home. They are

ignorant of the ways of the world. They perceive any task outside home to be

mammoth, frightening and confusing. Even going to the bania‟s store was such an

impossible task for them. They were unlettered in such matters, ignorant of what

rice, oil or dal to buy. Their elite has robbed them the ability to interact in normal

public situations. It reached a mammoth level in Tara‟s visit to the Municipal

Corporation.

Always, in that building, I felt a hopelessness which did not end even if my object

was achieved. Its maze-like corridors, its smell of urine, its shabby wooden benches,

its enormous dusty rooms filled with identical clerks, and the collective front put up

by all these things against putting a stamp where it needed to be put- to be caught up

in these things was to be reminded that the world was unreal and only nightmare

existed. After my last visit to the Moonsipality I had gone home and lain on my bed

and wept. After that only the men went. (148)

Ayesha Jamal entered the railway station as a timid docile memsaab who wished

„that she had never left home‟, unable to reason with the coolie who took twenty

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rupees when she knew the charge was only three. Futehally presents her foil

immediately in the character of Jayashree Iyar, a bespectacled young woman,

assertive and rude in her dealings with the coolies. Referring to all that the coolie

said as nonsense, she gave him six rupees and briskly shut the door in his face.

Ayesha lacks confidence of facing the world on her own. The story shows how

unaccustomed she is to travelling alone and dealing with such issues like filling

water at the station, hiring a coolie etc. Fear is a psychological condition. The outside

world is a frightening place for most women to navigate and hence they have no

option but to consider home as their world. Either they have overcome their fear or

learn to face it. But it doesn‟t happen with both these characters. For women like

them, the world beyond the home is an unknown area connected with male activities

like business, politics and earning and they are „protected‟ and kept away from the

outer action.

Futehally is honest in documenting that home for a woman is both a haven that

provides security and a limiting line that hems them in. The opportunity to explore

and develop in an autonomous manner is limited. The line between what is

permissible and what is not, is very thin giving rise to a frustrating sense of

confusion and perplexity. Tahera depicts this emotion when she goes to Munra, their

farmhouse, walking along the seashore,

You could gaze at the sky, taking in more and more till you were filled up

and light; you could watch the waves roll in without end, one after the other

after the other after the other; you could walk on and on and on; you could

never go too far. Here, you were meant to go far, and allowed to go on. It

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was very different from being at home, where you were constantly reminded

that you must halt somewhere. (43)

Tara was very observant as a girl and she often had „metaphysical questions‟ in her

mind about poverty in the world and the inequality she saw around her. As a child

she felt it was „best to ask and be done with‟ though she never could get satisfying

answers. But as she grew up, she learnt that she must not ask troubled questions and

even seem to avoid asking them. Being mature meant adding more silence to life. It

is described by means of a peculiar image, a diseased state of suffering from acute

cold.

Growing up resembled nothing so much as steadily acquiring a cold in the

head. I would stuff up and stuff up…..I was protected as if by ear-muffs, and

learnt to nod or smile or talk through the metaphorical slits in the

muffling.(49-50)

Childhood conditioning through various sources invoked fear and modesty in girls.

There are statements like „girls must never walk out alone in the evening‟, about how

modestly girls should dress as ayah fitted them into tight frocks, tighter plaits and

tightly tied ribbons because “Ayah seemed to feel that the tighter we were, the better

her job had been done” (10). Within the family, there was no difference in the

affection showered on the sons and the daughters but there was a subtle difference in

the way in which they were conditioned. Schooling is hardly referred to in a serious

manner. Tara, Munni and Zain were equally loved but the responsibilities of the

factory fell on Zain. He was to carry on the family business and he had his own

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views about it. Zain‟s lack of strong business ethics, though disapproved is hardly

admonished. He was however very stern when it came to Tara‟s desire to collect

funds for the drought-affected. Although her father indulged her desire, Zain‟s words

and body language were very unsupportive. She wished he would leave the table

while she spoke. His „eyes jerked up‟, „very slowly expelled his breath‟, „set his

shoulders‟, „Zain was desperate‟ and finally „I was left with something not quite a

victory.‟

Tara‟s education was uneventful. School and college life made her all the more

aware of how she was different from other children in respect of religion and status.

It isolated her all the more. In college she was quite interested in attending a social

service camp but she knew she could never join them. „No one would actually stop

me, but I would never join one‟, because of what she had heard about the living

conditions of camps. She was used to a particular lifestyle and nothing in life so far

had prepared her to meet the gross realities of life. Had her response been more open,

she could have learnt more about herself and tapped her inner reservoirs. She had

made a good impression on Father de Costa and he felt, “When you joined college I

thought you would be involved in all sorts of things. Debates. Discussions. The

college magazine. Eh?” (57). She could not tell him of her feeling of isolation but

masked it by saying that she preferred to read on her own and that “inner movement

was more important than outer.”(57) She turned to books as an alternative world of

refuge but „nothing in my daylight world matched anything that I was really looking

for‟. This was the essence of her life; the discrepancy between the real and the

expected, the inner and the outer. While she read she was in a trance and another

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world descended on her and took over. She would become oblivious to things. In one

such instance she had removed her gold bracelet and kept it on the train seat because

it obstructed with her reading. She lost the bracelet and was berated by her mother.

She paid the price for being immersed in the world of books. But sadly she is never

again, after marriage seen with any books. The chapter of reading and books seemed

to be finished in her life. Ayesha and Tahera do not have a career. They are

conditioned to believe that marriage is their destiny and they follow their own

mother‟s commitment to domesticity and primary roles of wife and mother. They

look forward to it with the attendant meanings of security and status. They are

expected to take up tasks appropriate to an adult woman and develop increasing level

of competence as housewife, wife and mother.

The novels highlight the realistic situation of early marriage of girls who have no

thought about a career or higher education. Marriage is the central thing in their life.

Tahera and Ayesha follow the traditional path of arranged marriage. They are

themselves hardly trained in introspection and have no idea what they want. When

Tahera‟s wedding is fixed to Rizwan, she forgets all about her prior decision which

is voiced by Munni, „But I thought you always wanted to marry a poet‟. They are not

forced against their will but it all happens in a pre-set manner. Tahera is caught

unawares when Amma broached the topic of marriage very privately and timidly

saying, “ They. Want. To. Ask. For. You.” (65) And it was a while before she could

grasp that she was talking about her marriage and reflect on the statement that „he

liked you that evening, I believe. Perhaps he found you pretty‟.

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I went to bed that night feeling as if I were made of a quivering, glowing

liquid. From time to time the memory of his slow smile played over me like

a light….Asked for me. Asked for me. The propriety of it all, the delighted

silence of my parents, all the virtuous echoings that surrounded this event;

and somewhere in the background the thought that Rizwan‟s family had a

car and house and servants just like ours; all this was as inviting as a warm

bath. Or rather, it was as inviting as a soft quilt- a snug, soft, fluffy quilt to

go all around me which would protect me and muffle me forever. (66)

Tahera had been surprised by the proposal but she welcomed it because it

fell into the preset pattern of her life. It was what all her classmates did,

marriage being „a rapid, delicious chaos after my exams‟. The engagement

ceremony characterized by beautiful clothes and rich food and decorations

invoked in her feelings of „intimate delight‟, „passionate stillness‟, „swoon of

devotion‟ and „tears of promise‟. After the engagement when she and

Rizwan, went to visit Dadi, they walked „correctly‟, „smiled tentatively‟ and

developed „something like communication‟. This is followed by a flurry of

joyful tasks like preparing the guest house, making the guest list, purchase of

saris, gifts and the mehendi ceremony and finally the Nikah. She describes

picturesquely how she was married „behind a screen of flowers‟ wearing

„Dadi‟s ancestral red and gold sari‟. The effect is a picture of perfect beauty

and happiness.

Being close to an almost stranger filled her with dread. She „rose quietly‟, „tried not

to breathe‟ and her joy was tinged with fear. With absolute reserve, modesty and

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distance, she refers to her wedding night, wondering „could this thing happen here,

on the same bed I had had since childhood?‟(80) She enters marriage with the notion

that sex is sin, „it was a miracle to me that so much joy could be without sin.‟ Her

experiences surprised her and now she realized that physical intimacy was a

proclamation of her married status.

This then is drowning. Like a wave which swells so slowly, which fills so

evenly, that it almost falls back before coming to a crest, so my whole being

rose to a moment which I did not know existed. It pierces me; then it

dropped me to spin furiously downwards like a leaf in a whirlpool. (80)

Futehally has portrayed how unprepared and ignorant Tara was when she entered

marriage. In the study of both the texts we find that Futehally is very restrained in

talking of intimate emotions. It is almost underplayed. Exclusions are as important as

the inclusions. But withholding of particular areas of human interaction can be

attributed to middle class inhibitions or a sense of propriety or privacy. Again it is a

realistic presentation by the author as such naiveté is characteristic of a typical Indian

bride. The contrast is presented between the notion of wedding and marriage. Tahera

enjoyed the external frills of the rituals of wedding like the beautiful clothes,

delicious food, the close warmth of the family and the sense of beauty and

expectancy. But the real thing that is the marriage, the encounter with an absolute

stranger, the surrender of the body, the changed status of a wife was unnerving.

Husband-wife relationship is the focal point in both the novels. It is hierarchical.

Husbands are shown in the providing and protecting role. Security, safety, protection

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and care are provided in marriage but intimacy, companionship, equality and

spontaneity are a hard bet. Rizwan and Aarif are caring but many of their actions and

words hurt and bruise their wives. Wives have to adjust to their husband‟s behavior,

making small, regular compromises in life and learn to be the „housewife-without-

flaw‟. In a short span Tahera learnt a lot to survive in the new setup. The fear of the

husband is not out of reverence but intimidation. They feel that it is the husband who

protects them and if they antagonize them they might leave them. Psychologist

Juanita Williams says, “The fear of displeasing him (husband) is basically a fear of

rejection, and the insecure woman may choose compliance and passivity.” (264)

Tahera learnt that she must not speak everything that was in her mind. In one of

their talks, she tried to explain with much difficulty how she felt about the unreality

of everything, slums and squalor and inequality in society. Rizwan was not even sure

whether it is worth a serious reply and she was sent in for tea. “And I returned with

the tea eager to please by being sensible and practical for the rest of my life. I made

the tea and laid out the clothes and hunted out socks as though nothing else mattered

on earth.”(82) Conversations were difficult, almost impossible because of fear of

husband‟s disapproval or his unquestionable position as the head. She found it

difficult to ask Rizwan about a chance remark she had heard about him being very

strict with the workers. But somehow as the time drew near, she found that „these

were uncharted territories……nothing in our time together,……had prepared me for

a moment when I would need to ask a question directly.‟ Tara‟s sentences are

punctuated with gaps and pauses and she resolves, „I would end it quickly, quickly‟.

There is a need to finish off real issues fast as if she herself is at fault. Even though

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she asks him, she regrets it. His voice became like an „iron bar‟ and he broke into a

free flow of accusations. „You can either have a business or you can have beautiful

ideas. You should all learn that, starting with your father.‟ As he put all blames at her

father‟s door she swallowed in silence and resolved, „never again would I forget my

place again‟. She learnt her lesson yet once more, „I had to be entirely with him or

entirely apart‟. She remembered her mother‟s advice given on the night before the

wedding that she would have to constanly give in to him. Tahera wanted him to ask

forgiveness of her father but he was very adamant. She wondered, „And if he didn‟t

say it how would I live with him? And if I couldn‟t live with him what would I do? I

was imprisoned in a space the size of the rug, and when I walked up and down the

room I carried my rug- sized prison with me. (129)

Similarly, the second novel presents Ayesha‟s struggle as a wife. Ayesha was

perpetually explaining things to her husband in her subconscious mind. She was

worried of being accused by him and she had to offer explanation. She could not

easily question him and had to wait for the right time and frame the right question.

And still when he was angry or irritated, he would break her heart.

All this, and at the end of it she had to hear that she would never learn. She had

worried about him day and night, she had adjusted every word and expression and

gesture to give him exactly what he wanted…and now she had to hear that she

would never learn….now she could do one of the two things. She could walk out on

this man as she should have done long ago, or she could say something in a neutral

tone so that things became normal again. Most probably she would walk out. But

she hadn‟t. Like all devoted wives she merely agreed with him.‟ (100-101)

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At one moment Ayesha is full of terrible agony at the inconsiderate words of her

husband that she even considers walking out. But the moment passes and she

behaves like a dutiful wife. Futehally as an author presents the flaws in this kind of

arranged marriage system wherein a hierarchy rules. Husbands are dominating and

wives have to submit in silence. So in the Tahera-Rizwan and Ayesha-Aarif

relationship, there is a hierarchy that the wives must not forget. There is no open and

healthy communication between them. The moment Tahera transgressed her limits,

Rizwan would remind her not to forget her place. Thus she realized that the only way

to tackle it was to be silent, make an appearance of not sulking and „trod the delicate

line between being obtrusive and being too obviously docile.‟ She would be able to

elicit any reply from him only „when it was silently clear again that all the cares of

the world rested on the men‟s shoulders and we had no business to ask or look

askance or criticize; when I had made it clear that I had no opinion at all‟. The main

form of oppression is in the matter of speech. To talk back is considered unfeminine.

She therefore resorts to silence, waiting for the right opportunity to talk, ask and

know. Silence signifies fear, displeasure, anger and a lot of bottled-up feelings. She

must learn to walk the tightropes. Women are not supposed to ask questions. Tara‟s

mother complained,

„Why can‟t you include us more?‟ „I cannot include you more,‟ said Baba, „

because there are things from which you must be shielded. The whole lot are

dishonest, disloyal, lazy. They lie, they intrigue, they shirk work whenever

they can, would you like to be included in all that? I really don‟t think‟,said

Baba very flat, „that I need to be taught.‟ Amma got up and went upstairs.

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We had never seen harsh words or insults between my parents; when the

edge of decorum was reached my mother simply went upstairs….She looked

at me in despair. „ I can‟t- I simply can‟t,‟ she said, „go on. Your father

doesn‟t understand. He never has. He expects everything to run smoothly

simply because I have always seen to it that it does.‟(96-97)

Therefore marriage effaces selfhood of women. They are controlled by the harshness

and cruelty of words. Women feel imprisoned in this structure and helpless like a

„leaf in a whirlpool. But these feelings are subvertly expressed in the internal

dialogues of the women with their own self. On the surface, they adjust, give in and

submit but this path is wrought with pain and struggle. They do this due to their

conditioning but the misery of following the path shows their unhappiness with it.

However the struggle of Futehally‟s characters are internal and there is no violent

streak of rebellion. In the Muslim tradition, many women are kept under “house-

arrest” says Shamin Anwar in an online article. The restricted and uncrossable idea

of the harem or zenana is also prevalent. However the article says that today women

are “staggering out in realisation of their fundamental rights, a little uncertain maybe,

but in complete wonderment at their latent personalities and ever widening horizons

of new avenues of exploration.”

In these works, extreme form of restriction on women and extreme revolt is not

shown. They meander between covert forms of resistance or self-adjustment to

reduce pain in the situation. The main modes used by them are:

a) Silence

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If there was silence she would stare at the creek, and she would think of what

was going to happen, and she would be all right(138)

b) Eat something.

Eating was always a help; eating and eating, endlessly and undisturbed,

without looking up. Such eating had been a help to her in the last

months.(139)

c) Stare outside.

She could stare at it (outside), and the staring made a little circle of

protection. She would stare, and she would think about what was going to

happen, and she would be alright. (141)

d) Reject life and beauty

She could no longer string perfection all around her, as she had done every

day in a lifetime…..Amma, quite simply, was not able to get up. (169)

In matters of work there is a clear role division. Father looked after the factory and

mother the house. Domestic duties are primarily that of the woman‟s. It is assumed

that they know the work or will learn. Many events compete simultaneously for

attention and she „on call‟ for whatever needs to be done. Amma broke down at the

end due to years of walking the tightrope. She just snapped. John Stuart Mill in On

Subjection of Women says,

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Supervising a household is extremely onerous to the thoughts; it requires incessant

vigilances, an eye which no detail escapes and presents questions for consideration

and solution, forseen and unforeseen, at every hour of the day, from which the

person responsible for them can hardly ever shake herself free. (228)

In Ayesha‟s case fifteen years of housekeeping had left her with the perpetual fear

„which is the inheritance of the house wife‟. Even now she herself wiped the teacups

and arranged the tea table as she waited for „Aarif‟s tempestuous ring at the door‟.

And endless little worries had started to haunt her world, that the children would be

noisy or Aarif would be irritable or the maid would be offended and leave. And each

was like „a taut rope with nothing to be done except walk the tightrope till it ended-

or snapped. And since Aarif‟s trouble began, the tightropes had increased till they

formed a huge net…and naturally she always became a tightrope herself.‟ Even her

children asked her „why is your face always so tight?‟(112)

Motherhood is central to the women characters. It gives her status, value and

importance. She eagerly waits for it. It is not seen as an obstruction. Because the

women are at home they have enough time to take care of the children. In the first

novel, Futehally almost romanticizes pregnancy and motherhood, wherein Tara is

pampered, looked after, has regular massage to ease her life, creates a dream-nursery

for her baby and she has people at her beck and call. Futehally describes the

unbearable pain and loneliness Tahera faced and also the joy at the birth and her first

instance of bonding with the child:

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Suddenly it opened two eyes. It was as shocking as a look from two black

buttons. The two unmoving discs held my look, as flat as coins. But then,

there came that within them which was not flat….When I moved my face a

little they gathered themselves together and blinked, to take this in. Then

they moved with my face. They were prepared to stay with it as long as they

may be”. (135)

In the second novel, however we see the strain childrearing involves with the

incessant noise of Pipi and Chotu, their stubbornness and fights. Husbands are loving

fathers but women are more involved in their growth. They are more tied down by

the responsibilities and demands of children. It causes them to abandon their own

interests and enter into the service of the dependant ones. Ayesha always had to stop

the fights between Pipi and Chotu and keep them away from getting into trouble with

their father. Their presence did not allow her to cry, ponder or take in the shock that

came with Aarif‟s suspension. It was only in the privacy of the train that she allowed

herself to cry. Childbearing and childrearing are different, while one is presented as

satisfying the latter is portrayed as being more of a responsibility. Both of them take

up the large space of the woman‟s mind.

Women‟s relationships are an important area of study in gynocriticism. In both these

texts we find that Tahera and Ayesha have close relationships only at home. Tara‟s

relationship with her family members is full of loyalty. Her relation with her

husband is bound by a sense of responsibility. She has no friends outside her house,

her only companion being her sister Munni. But the companionship in this

relationship though evidently present is taken for granted and not well developed.

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The relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is strained. Though

it is not well sketched, there are a few instances that are brought forth by the author.

Tahera had an amicable bond with Hamida Khalu but once when she sides with her

son calling Tahera‟s father „impractical‟, the bond tends to break to pieces. The

relation between Dadi and Amma is also not intimate. Dadi showing Tara a precious

sapphire and diamond necklace, told her it was what she had pawned to start the

factory and continued, “ Tell your mother,‟ said Dadi , with a flash of her old spirit,

„that if she ever found time to visit me I could have shown it to her too.” This refers

to the fact that the daughter-in-law rarely visits her and even Dadi at the old age has

withheld things from her instead of being generous, as if holding on to a grudge. One

gets a glance of the age old tussle between the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.

Even in the second novel, the strain in this relationship is hinted at through the

correlation with a heavy mahogany cupboard, gifted by the latter which Ayesha had

pushed to a corner because it was too heavy and infected with termites. Ayesha too

has no other close bond other than her family and so it is difficult for her to bond

with strangers. But in the train journey she learns it. She learns to gradually talk to

them, present her views and in the process she is able to objectively look at the

problem she faces. At one moment she even connects to Jayshree who had started to

remind her of her daughter.

As discussed earlier, Futehally‟s women characters perceive the world through the

lens of the home. Their sensibilities are intensely portrayed on three issues (i)

concern for the underprivileged (ii) communal pressure (iii) corruption in society.

Every writer has his/her key concerns, issues that they feel deeply about. This is

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brought out in the theme or the characters may voice the writer‟s views. In these

novels, Tahera and Ayesha are very sensitive and empathetic. Even though they

belong to wealthy families, they have a soft corner for the underprivileged. They

cannot ignore the poverty and the divisions in society based on wealth or religion.

Tara‟s house was the epitome of beauty while Tara Lane was squalid with running

gutters on both sides where people lived in poverty. Troubled questions clouded her

mind when she saw the slum children and she felt so unwittingly in the wrong.

Ayesha also could not ignore the slums, shanties and the poverty stricken people she

saw as the train moved from the station. She looked at them, saw it in minute detail,

almost understanding their living conditions and by that „tried to earn her right to go

past the slums‟. She felt somehow horror struck and personally responsible for the

poor, the riot victims, beggars and sweeper boys.

This study thus analyses the sensibilities of a woman, the way she perceives,

responds and reacts to her world. Though Futehally is a Muslim, her outlook towards

life as reflected in her novels is secular. She deals with universal human emotions

and the individual caught in the mire of the world. Cutting out the cultural

implications, this could be the story of any human being, anywhere in the world.

Futehally‟s novels like George Eliot‟s reflect her deep interest in the morality of

family life. Laeeq Futehally says about her that she believed „that purely human

considerations dictated correct standards of conduct, and there had to be a continual

moral choice at every juncture in life‟. (Futehally Laeeq, 202). But this troubled

concern does not render her vision myopic or blind to the finer aspects of life. Rather

it is the presence of beauty and the aesthetic sensibility that makes the awareness of

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these crudities more acute. So we see in her works a balanced and proportionate

sensibility towards life that can be stretched to carry both the comic and tragic

shades of life.

Moving ahead ,Tara Lane and Reaching Bombay Central can be technically analysed

as per these points.

1. They are long short stories

2. Frequency of adjectives

3. Naturalistic imagery

4. Recurrent images, feminine images

5. Aesthetic sense created by visual and sinesthetic images

6. Indianness in language

7. Political undercurrents

Technically, both the novels have a simple plot, almost like a short story. Both the

novels are less than two hundred pages each and the chapters are short, almost

episodic. In the first novel, the first two chapters deal with childhood and youth of

Tara and two or three years of marriage. In the second novel, we find the modernist

technique of associative meaning used to end a chapter and start the next. When

Jayshree drops a word „enquiry‟ at the end of a chapter, Ayesha in her mind picks it

up to reveal subconsciously the real reason for her journey. There is a back and forth

movement in time. The flashback is used to create suspense in the story. Again there

is nothing frivolous that can be sidelined as unimportant or digressive. Futehally

takes to minute detailing whether it is describing people, the slums, the railway

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station, the food in the train, rains, nature, rituals and so on. There is a tendency to

load maximum meaning into very brief space. Consider the following examples:

a) An aluminium water-stand, which had been stationary, began to move slowly

backwards. Then a refreshment stall began moving; it moved faster; a

bookstall flashed past; a beggar boy leapt out of the moving train. (6)

b) One thing which never ever changed was the station tap. Always it flowed

with the same agonizing slowness, as thin as a pencil, as if it had been placed

on this earth solely to test human endurance. (13)

c) And to see Dadi getting something out of the cupboard was one of the treats

of our childhood. She would ring her little brass bell for Roshanbi…..take the

cupboard key from Dadi. She would open the cupboard and take a second

key from inside it. Solemnly she would lock the cupboard and return the first

key to Dadi, tke the second key and open the second cupboard with it. ..The

whole process was repeated in reverse when the object was put back. (14)

As discussed in Chapter 1, women tend to employ more number of adjectives in their

narratives. There is a huge frequency of adjectives in Futehally‟s works especially in

Tara Lane. The study has taken into consideration the first thousand words from the

texts and it is found that Tara Lane has ninety adjectives and Reaching Bombay

Central has forty. The first one has more because the passage deals with a child‟s

observation which is keener, more vivid and picturesque. The description of Dadi‟s

mansion in the words of a child is delightful; it was „a wondrous concoction in cream

and faded green….like a cardboard cut-out of a castle in a story book….with an

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exciting forbidden staircase‟. Tara felt that „the sky itself looked more beautiful from

my mother‟s house and garden‟.

Majority of the adjectives are placed before nouns eg. „yellow dust‟, „grey hedge‟,

„wooden bench‟, „white khadi‟, „weedy coolie‟, and so on. There are many colour

words like „skyblue‟, „snowwhite‟. Tara observed things in its beautiful colours and

shades like „the star shaped mosaic in warm brown and yellow, „black rosewood

table‟, „dark drawing room which contained not a whisper‟, Amma already exquisite

in her peach-coloured sari‟, „Dadi in her stateliest grey sari, rich with gold

embroidery and so on. Almost every noun is modified. In many cases there is piling

up of adjectives to form a sequence eg „huge gold ear-rings‟, „few rough flat stones‟,

„iron see-saw of faded red‟, „glorious little bits of Goan fish‟, „small arid lane‟,

„bespectacled young woman‟, „easy elephantine gait‟ and so on.

Her works are replete with naturalistic imagery. She is sensitive to sensuous

perception especially in her description of nature. Nature is always a beautiful and

harmonious presence in her works. Futehally was nature‟s child. Her keen sense of

observation could never miss even the most minute detail; the glint of the lake, the

gleam of the grass, the glistening rock and the bubbling rock. She noticed birds like

the barbet, heron and water hens and the common snails. Her description of nature is

sheer poetry,

Below the slope, where forest opened to water, the lake was flat and pale, the

colour of heat. The dry wood resounded perhaps to the knocking of a barbet,

or to the drone of a dragonfly where grass met water. Teak leaves lay on the

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ground waiting to crackle; and together heat and silence made a stillness

which no movement could shake. (17-18)

She was a nature lover and observed „water‟ and light and the effect it played on

different things, the changing horizons and the brown and green fields. She describes

the soothing effect of nature. Among the lushness, the roundness, the profusion of

the mangoes, I felt profoundly soothed. (105) Such picturesqueness definitely lessens

the speed of reading making the story less event based and more aimed at creating an

atmosphere. This is the result of a contemplative mind which becomes more of a

neutral witness than a dynamic participant.

Futehally employs some recurrent images. Her use of imagery is very meaningful as

it opens deep understanding about the emotions of the characters. There is a

uniqueness and originality in her images. The first recurrent image is that of a „tiny

dark worm‟ that refers to a troubled question, confusion or metaphysical doubt that

crept into Tara‟s mind on various occasions. As a child her reaction to it was „best to

ask and be done with‟ but as she grew up she had to quieten herself but the worm

would remain squirming in her mind. She despaired of this worm, „whatever you did

it was there …. And then I had to do something drastic to make it go‟. This reveals

the complex and perceptive nature of Tara.

The second recurrent image is that of „a piece of cloth‟ which she compared life to. It

reveals her view of life, marking her vulnerability and fragility. „Life, I knew, was

like a piece of cloth which was stretched too thin, so that at any moment you could

discover a large hole underneath you. (12) Another image that is used to describe the

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experience of growing is of „acquiring a cold in the head‟. Tara would bury and stuff

all unspeakable things and questions as if she was wearing ear-muffs.

Some images are very feminine in nature. She describes the togetherness that the

families shared as delicate and exciting as the arrangement of lady‟s-lace on my

mother‟s dinner table‟. Marriage, she says is either like a warm bath or you were

freezing outside. The morning is described as fresh as a „child‟s yawn‟. Tara in her

misery says, „I carried my rug-sized prison with me. Ayesha‟s sorrow is compared to

a mud-caked patch in her soul.

Futehally is exceptionally articulate in describing the precise emotion of the heart.

And the images she chooses to portray them are wholly apposite to the occasion.

Tara deciphers within her tides that unsettle her as if she was hit „by lightning – by

something that demanded to be seen through to the end‟. Her fear of taking care of

family heirlooms is described like this; they had „a way of slipping, elfin-like, out of

the net of precautions you created around them‟. Munni is described as a „loyal

lieutenant‟. Life is compared to a plastic sheet that you can see but not touch.

Ayesha‟s mind is compared to a termite stricken cupboard. World was like a „prism

with an infinite number of faces, because there was no end to the number of things

one could be taught.‟ She uses animal images for both Munni and Jayashree.

Munni‟s „rabbit-nose‟ always twitched and Jayashree looked at her with her

„squirrel-like‟ face. Both images suggest through the fuzziness of the characters and

the comfort they provide to the protagonists. A prolonged image is that of a

cupboard.

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It was a cupboard with an ominous history, sprouting as it did two gloomy

dragons from mahogany doors, for which reason Ayesha could neither look

at it nor open it. Because it had been given to her by her mother-in-law after

one of their fiercest quarrels, and it defied her to say her mother-in-law

treated her badly. So, in terror that the children would harm it or that

Pushpa would mistreat it, she had stuck it away in the passage. (47)

It shows how a woman attaches certain attributes to certain inanimate objects. It

reflects the strain in the family relations very subtly and therefore how it deteriorates

like termites eating it away. It becomes a relation she can neither accept nor reject,

neither swallow nor spill, stuck in the middle, like the cupboard.

The train imagery is constantly in a flux. There is a feeling of moving in and out of

the area of focus, describing now a thing in the train and then a mountain far away.

There is a binary of motion objects and steady objects. Sometimes the description is

like a painting, sometimes like a motion picture and sometimes like a lens that

changes focus. This describes how the narrative is fixated on thoughts that moves

from past to present to future. There is a feeble dream sequence.

Another important attribute of Futehally‟s style is the presence of aesthetic sense, an

awareness of beauty and the desire for elegance in life. Futehally creates a beautiful

narrative by describing rituals like setting the table, getting the evening tea ready,

describing the wedding preparations, mehendi ceremony, the soothing effect of the

wedding rituals, decorating the rooms and so on. They reflect the myriad emotions of

a woman‟s heart like love, warmth, friendship and also fear, awe and suspense.

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Tara‟s engagement was a gracious and beautiful affair; tube roses in tall vases,

crystal glasses twinkling with pink sherbet, Dadi in stateliest gold embroidered sari

and pearls and Halima Khala raising the Koran over her head and reciting from it. It

invited in her „a passionate stillness, a swoon of devotion and tears of promise‟. The

prelude to Tara‟s wedding was the joyful creative task of getting her new house

ready in absolute detail with handloom curtains, wall-hangings, durrie and chattai,

and also purchase of saris, drawing out lists and her joy spilled out „like heating

liquid‟. Her heart overflowed at the warmth and love of her relatives who came for

the mehndi ceremony. Even in the second novel, Futehally briefly expresses the

fanciful feeling that marriage evoked. As a bride, Ayesha had loved the scent of mitti

ka attar and she felt „it was more than a scent; it was a whole way of being, of feeling

beautifully lit up‟. It was a time when Ayesha was the new bride of the Collector and

„the whole world seemed to tell her that she was enchanting, simply because she was

the bride of the Collector….And every evening, to reassure herself that she really

was the marvel she was supposed to be, she dressed in a new sari and wore mitti ka

attar….herself always agreed, in her heart, with every word that Aarif said. (111)

Again she describes in detail the act of getting the nursery ready for her baby. She

took great pain to get from the bazaar the right kind of pink shade that was „foamy,

snowy, misty, fluffy pink‟ for her child‟s nursery. For her beauty lies in the harmony

of things, the blend of colour and shade. Malashri Lal observes,

Women writers, being thoroughly conversant with the complicated rituals of

homemaking, are often tempted to write elaborate scenes using interior space.

Weddings, religious ceremonies, childbirth, deathbed are a few favourite inclusions

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to which the writer usually grants all the colour, emotion and sentiment…along with

the authentic noting of events, the women writers demonstrate a particularly fine

sensitivity to the accompanying moods.(1995:14)

Weddings, child birth, and such events in India are imbued with an atmosphere of

gaiety, colourful preparations and purchases, inflow of relatives and friends and great

fuss over the bride and groom.

Futehally‟s use of language is confident and expressive. She is never at loss for

words, articulating the personal and public with perfect élan. She chooses to write in

very correct English. There is a single pattern of writing from beginning to end. At

times the dialogues have an Indian flavour. Jayashree has the tendency of using the

continuous tense. „Too much she was worrying‟ and tags like „Oof‟ and „Ayyo‟.

Indianisms like repetition „we waved and waved‟, we cheered and cheered‟ are

found. Sentences become questions merely by their tonal inflections, „Madam please

excuse?‟, „you will not take lunch?‟ and so on. She retains Hindi words like Amma,

Abba, Baba, Mammo, mitti ka attar, memsaab, matka, bundi, Ayah, Dadi, kholi,

sherbet, halwai, karhai, mali, kabadiwalas. The structure of the joint family is

prevalent, though strains have separated them especially the in-laws. Heat, dust,

poverty, dirt are part of the descriptions of Indianness. She juxtaposes the beautiful

India with the morally pallid India. Emphasis on traditions is also an Indian strain.

There are political undercurrents in both the novels more so in the second. Nehru‟s

visit to drought affected Bombay is chronicled with depth and vividness. The whole

family had travelled to hear him speak because they believed that the government

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would be of help. The family was dressed in their best and jostled with the

commoners to get to the best seats. But they were tired of waiting in the heat and

Tara „no longer believed that Pandit Nehru existed‟. But when he arrived his speech

mesmerized the crowd with his „beautiful voice‟ that sought to address „land and sky

together‟. Tara was so struck that she embarked on the task of collecting funds from

her poor neighbourhood to the absolute disdain of her parents. The truth however

was that people still fought for water, inspite of Nehru.

In the second novel, political theme is found substratum covering three issues i.e.

riots, elections and the defeat of the Sangha. The journalist Ranjith Dixit who is

Ayesha‟s co-passenger states that real reporting takes place after the riots and

everything else is a media controlled gimmick. The character of the MP who has

failed to get a ticket is also shown, who does not get his due respect or an AC berth

just because he is a Yadav. The Sangh is an eponymous name that smacks of RSS

ideology but here it is a fictionalized Sangha. Here it is used to express the

majoritarian supremacy and the apprehensions of the minority.

Conclusion :

Her novels are well-written and enjoyable. She is a writer of magical words, weaving

it into a wonderful tapestry in prose. There is a poetic resonance in her prose

especially in the descriptions of nature. There is an aesthetic design that she projects

on her experiences. Minute description is a part of the technique, an organic art

implying that it is essential to the plot. She displays acute patience to go into the

details of experiences. This stems from the short story writer‟s tendency to load

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maximum meaning into very brief space. Such compactness comes with extreme

care and impeccable craft. Dr Suguna Ramanathan, a professor friend of hers, whom

she acknowledges in her works, remarks that „the word that readily comes to mind

when thinking of her is accuracy; she never had any ordinary passages. She worked

and reworked expending care over every word‟. Girish Karnad titled the review of

her stories for Outlook, Precisely, Shama. Poise, elegance, grace and propriety are

words associated with her. Shama Futehally was extremely disciplined and

methodical in her writing habits. Githa Hariharan, in the Introduction to Frontiers

refers to how Shama began writing one of her first stories, late at night while feeding

her ten-day-old baby. She could snatch snippets of time in between running a

household, being a wife, a mother, and a college teacher. Even “when the children

were small, she allowed herself twenty minutes a day writing time; she taught herself

to write in waiting rooms, at bus stops, in trains and finally, from a hospital bed”,

says Laeeq Futehally. She was endearingly forthright about her writing and never

attempted to mystify the process. She planned her novel, began at the beginning and

went steadily on, says author Anu Kumar about her writing. However her skill in

creating an atmosphere comes at the cost of developing the plot. Her strength in

absolute accuracy works against her as a novelist preventing her from widening the

panorama of her works.