%id; p.

154 Anita Desai: Life,

Works and the
4"Anita Desai. Interview by Yashodhara Dalmia." The Times oflndia, April 29,1979. Language Issue
5
"The Indian Writers Problems" in Ramesh K.Srivastava. Ed Perspectives on Amta
Desai Ghaziabad: Vimal Prakashan, 1984,p. 3

errel ell Sarah. "A Banquet of Languages" Review of Baumgartner 'sBombaj?NY

Times Book Review April 9, 1989, p.3.

'"~nita Desai. An Interview" by Yashodhara Dalmia. The Times of Iridzn. April

29,1979.
8
Anita Desai. "On the English Language in India", Common Weaith ofLetters Vo1.2
No. 1 June 1990, p.3.

'1bid; p.4

' O h e s h K. Srivastava. Ed. Perspectives on Anita Desai. Ghaziabad: Vinlal

Prakashan, 1984, p.3.

"Anita Desai. Deadalus Fall 1989, p.212.

"Anita Desai. Common Wealth ofletters Vo1.2 No.1, June1990, p.9.

'"bid; pp 8-9.

1.6 QUESTIONS

A. Briefly comment on Desai's choice of English as her medium of yriting.

2. What are the titles of Desai's novels? Do you notice any pattern in them?
UNIT 2 CLEAR LIGHT OF DA Y :THEMES,
TECHNIQUES, TIME
Structure
1I
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Structure of Clear Light of Day
2.2 Detailed Storyline of Part I
2.3 Anita Desai's Techniques
2.4 BimtTara Relationship
2.5 Treatment of Time
2.6 Let Us Sum Up
2.7 duestions

2.0 OBJECTIVES

This Unit will outline the structure of the novel, Clear Light of Day. It will then
1
outline the storyline of Part I of the novel. The techniques Anita Desai employs will
be discussed next so that you can familiarize yourself with her style. The Bim/Tara
relationship which is pivotal to the story will also be discussed keeping in mind the
central issues of the novel. The unit will conclude with a set of questions which will
further sensitize you to critical aspects of the novel.

2.1 STRUCTURE OF CLEAR LIGHT O F DA Y

Desai's Clear Light ofDay deals with the Das family chronicle. The narrative is
divided into four untitled parts: Part I is set in the present: Part I1 goes back to the
summer of 1947; Part I11 is set in an even earlier period of the Das children's
childhood, and Part IV returns to the present with a futuristic perspective. Each part
also deals with an important phase in the life of the main characters. In an interview.
Desai stated that Clear Light of Day was an attempt to write "a four dimensional
piece on how a h i l y ' s life moves backwards and forwards in a period of time" ' The
fourth dimension, Desai states, is 'time.' In fact, the four parts of the novel parallel the
Four Quartets of T.S.Eliot whom she admired greatly. As in the 'Four Quartets'. in
Clear Light of Day too, time is the destroyer and the preserver. The very theme of the
novel is to do with the paradox of change and continuity. Time is used as a structural
device by Desai in her novel. The action delineates itself at:

"three time levels -- the past, the present and the vision of the timeless in
which past, present and future k s e into a homogeneous entity. About the
time-structure of the novel, Briraj Singh states: The past is not at all in one
lump and the present in another; the two are so intcfised that n e keep going
back at different times in the present to the same event of the past.. . ..but
always with the knowledge that the intervening description of the present has
given.772

The four dimensional structure of the novel allows Desai to present reality from
different angles. There is no linearity to the events in the novel. Desai uses the stream
of consciousness technique in her narrative which links'up events imagistically rather
than rationally. She is the omniscient observer. Through her third person narrative
she gives us a bird's eye view of the inner world of her characters. Asha Kani+ar Cleur Light of Dub*:
states that in: Themcu,
Techniques, Timc
Clear Light of Day we have the three fold effect of time -- 'the passing of
moments or hours, the voyage from youth to age, and the historical time, or
time in relation to nationwide events.' . .. l'hrough the reminiscences of Tara
and Bim. we are taken to their childhood and made aware of their growing up
to youth and then to middle age. We are also made to see how Time affects
the course of nations. Instead of celebrating the achievement of
independence, Desai laments the partition, not because of its political
implications, but for the bloodshed and the insane prejudice that followed in
its wake.'

Through the four part structure of the novel, Desai effectively presents continuity and
change foregrounding her theme of time as both preserver and destroyer.

2.2 DETAILED STORYLINE OF PART I

Part I begins with the present. Bim and Tara meet after a long time. Tara is the
younger sister who is married to Bakul, an Indian Foreign Service officer. Bim is
single, teaches history in a local college, and lives with her autistic brother. Baba.
Mira Masi, who lives with Bim is already dead when the novel begins. Bim lives with
Baba in their old rented home in Civil Lines in Old Delhi. Tam's visit to this home is
twofold: First, her husband likes to keep in touch with his roots in India. This allows
Tara to keep up with her own brothers and sister. Second, Moyna, her brother Raja's
daughter, is getting married in Hyderabad and she wants to attend the wedding with
her family,- - -

Baba is introduced early in the novel through his music. "Sm-o-oke gets in your
eyes," moaned an agonised voice, and Tara "sighed, and her shoulders dropped by a
visible inch or two" (CLD.P. 7). Subsequent references to the Novel are from
Penguin Books in association with William Heinemann Ltd. The other brother. Rqa.
who used to be once very close to Bim and has now drifted away, is also introduced
early in the novel. Both Bim and he detested their parents' obsession with the card
game Raja used to "swear that one day he would leap up onto the table in a lion-
mask. brandishing a torch, and set fire to this paper-- world of theirs. while Bim
flashed her sewing scissors in the sunlight and declared she would creep in secretly at
night and snip all the cards into bits" (P.22).

Raja and Bim have been very close as siblings. Their shared interest in literature and
music make them seek each other's company as children. When Raja is seriously ill
with T.B. it is Bim who nurses him back to health. The problem between the two
begins when Raja marries Benazir, the daughter of his mentor and landlord, Hydcr
Ali. After Ali's death, Raja inherits all his property including the house in which Bin1
lives. The immediate cause of the rift between Bim and Raja is a letter that he writes
to Bim after Ali's death:

You will have got our wire with the news of Hyder Ali Sahib's death. 1 knob
you will have been as saddened by it as we are. Perhaps you are also a bit
worried about the future. But you must remember that when I left you. I
promised I would always look after you. Bim. When Hyder Ali Sahib was ill
and making out his will, Benazir herself spoke to him about the house and
asked him to allow you to keep it at the same rent we used to pay him when
father and mother were alive. He agreed -- you know he never cared for
money, only for friendship -- and I want to assure you that now that he is
dead and has left all his property to us, you may continue to have it at the
same rent, 1 shall never think of raising it or of selling the house as long as
 you and Baba need it. If you 'nave any worries, Bim, you have only to tell--
Clear Light of Day Raja,
(P. 27)

Bim shows the letter to Tara and tells her how deeply wounded she was by 111s
arrogance and insensitivitv. When Tara asks Bin1 to go with them to Hvderabad for
h'loyna's marriage. she responds:

You sa: I should come to Hydcrabad with you for his daughter's weddlng
How can I? How can 1 enter his house -- my landlord's house? I, such a poor
tenant? Because of me, he can't raise the rent or sell the house and illake a
profit - imagine thd. The sacrifice!
(P. 28)

Tara later asks Bim to tear up the letter which she refuses, saying it should remain as
a constant reminder to her, and her family, of the cause for the drift between them

Th6re are two other families -- apart from the Das'-- who are Introduced in Part I
These are the Mishras and the Alis. Thc Mishra girls, Sarla and Jaya. are childless
womell and abandoned wives. They act as counterfoils to the Das sistcrs, Bin1 and
T a n . Tlie .41i family is important because Raja's association with them has an impact
on his life.

' Part I ends with the two Das sisters. Bin1 and Tam. tarking about their urifulfilled
childhood and yout!!. For both the sisters the summer of nineteen forty-seven was
terrible. Their resiiitment against their parents for neglecting them. their own
inability to deal and cope with their circumstances all come to thc forc when they
think back on their past:

'Youth?' said Bim, her head sinking as if with sleep, or sorrou. 'Yes. I am
glad, too. it is over -- I never wish it back. Terrible, what it does to one --
what it did to us -- and one is too young to know how to copc, hon to deal
with that first terrible flood of life. One just goes under -- it sweeps one along
-- and how many years and )/ears it is before one can stand up to it. make a
stand against it -- 'she shook her head sleepily. 'I never ~vish~tback 1 nould
ncver be youilg again for mqthing.'
(P 43)

--. -- ----
2.3 ANITA DESAI'S TECHNIQLTES

Anita Desai has added a new dimension to Indian - English fiction bj- facussing on
the inner world of her characters. Her preoccupation with the individual and hisher
psychic complexities sets her apart from her co1lte:nporaries. In a sense she has
s ushered in the psychological novel in Indian - English fiction especially anon2
wo1ni.n writers. Shyam A. Asnani states,

Rr~thPrawer Jhabvala chooses the social background for her co:nedies. trasi-
comedies and farces. In Kamala Markai~dava'snovels the stress is as much on
principal charactas as sn diversi: ccjntemporary probleins -- economic.
political, cultural, social. Nayantara Sahgal is nothing if not political or soclo-
political. Concerned exclusively with the personal tragedy of the individual.
Dcsai is not interested in social or political probings, the outer-tveather. the
physical geography, or the visible action. Her forte is the exploration of the
interior worl'd, plunging into the limitless dept!is of the mind; and bringing
into relief thc hidden contours of the human
Interestingly, Desai herself comments on the limiting parameters of the works by Cleor Light of4loy:
Ind~an-Englishwomen writers: Themes,
Techniques, Time
With all the richness of material at hand, Indian women writers have stopped
short from a lack of imagination. courage. nerve, or gusto--of the satirical
edge, the ironic tone, the inspired criticism or the lyric response that alone
might h v e brought their novels to life ... ... ... .... They seem unable to throw
off the habits of reticence and acceptance of being uncritical and
unobstru~ive.~

For Desai the external world is not as important as the internal one. The outside
world gains significance only in relation to the character perception of it. She tries

to discover its significance by plunging below the surface and plumbing t11e
depths, then illuminating those depths till they become a more lucid, brilliant
and explicable reflection of the visible world.6

Desai says, "only the individual, the solitary being, is of tnne interest. One must be
alone. silent, in order to think or contemplate, or :vrite,"'

Preoccupation with the fragmentation of reality (started by the process of

modernization) and its impact on the human psyche is of c~ntinuedinterest to Desai
in all her major works. She tries to capture the prismatic quality of reality. This often
makes her style juxtapose seemingly disparate ideas and emotions in the same
character and sitilation. For example, Bim in Clear Light oj-Day is portrayed as
melancholic, disillusioned and withdrawn. Yet simultaneouslv through it all we see
her tolerance, self-sacrifice and courage Her attempt is to discover and convey truth
which she associates with the mind and not with the body. She distinguishes clear$
between truth and reality.

Reality is merely one-tenth visible section of the iceberg that one sees above
the surface of the ocean -- art remzining nine-tenths of it that lies below the
surface. That is why it is more near Truth than Reality itself. Art does not
merely reflect Reality -- it cnlarges its

Such a comment also explains why Desai prefers writing novels to shor-istories.
Writing novels gives,

a g o d ded ofthought and time, get round it, see it from different angles and
aspects. whereas a short story demands something quite different. You have
the whoie of it quite clear in your mind and just put it down at one throw.?

Desai's focus, undoubtedly. is on the inner lives of her characters, their dreams,
mysteries, awareness of life's futility a:d other myriad impressicqs:

I am interested in characters who are not average but have retreated. or been
driven into some extremity of despair and so turned against, or made a stand
against, the general current. It is easy to flow with the current, it makes no
demands, it costs no effort. Brrt those who carmot follow it; whose heart cries
out 'the great No,' who fight the current allcl struggle against it, they know
what the demands are and what it costs to meet them,.10

.4linost all her female characters are hypersensitive, grqpling wlth sonlc problem or
the other, "facing, single-handed, the ferocious assaults of esistence"". All thc female
characters in Desai's novels cgrow and deveiop. Desai ishowever, quick to point out
that it is not feininisn~illat has taken her in this direction but her interest in
indlvid~ials,both men and women.
 ~ i *,
clear &,, ~ Given Desai's emphasis on the inner world of her characters the techniques she finds
most effective in portraying it are stream of consciousness, flashbacks and interior
monologues. She captures a psychological realism which submerges the story with
the consciousness of the characters. Plot acquires only secondary importance. Simple
plot line leads to complex situations. A story, "imposed from the outside or a theme
similarly imposed simply destroj~stheir life, reduces them to a string of jerking
puppets on a stage'"'

My novels don't have themes -- at least not till they are finished. published or
read, do I see any theme. While writing, I follow my instinct. I follo\v flashes
of insight, I veer away from or even fight anqthing that threatens to distort or
destroy this insight, and somehow come to the end and look back to see the
pattern of footprints on the sand.I3

In Desai's novels by and large, whatever action the characters engage in has a
psychological impulse behind it. In Clear Light of Day when the sisters evoke the
past their unconscious is brought to the fore intersecting behavioural patterns then
and now. In a sense the structure of Clear Light of Day parallels the psychic
unravelling of the characters. Multiple perspectives of the past are offered in which
realism and psychic factors meet formulating a new past. Towards the end of Part 1 of
the novel Bim tells her sister Tara:

Isn't it strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps. as if it
were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards
in a kind of flood? There are these long still stretches -- nothing happens --
each day is exactly like the other -- plodding. uneventful -- and then suddenly
there is a crash -- mighty deeds take place -- momentous events -- even if one
doesn't know it at the time -- and then life subsides again into the backwaters
till the next push, the next flood? That summer was certainly one of them --
the summer of '47--'.
(PP. 42-43).

Desai uses the partition backdrop in this novel but unlike other writers she does not
approprjate it to forward her own political argument. On the contrary, she presents its
significance entirely from the perspective of her character. In Clear Light y f ' D a the
~
childhood experiences form the core of the characters. The impact of these
experiences on the psyche of the characters is what the story is all about. Since
memory and recall play an important role in the novel, there is a lot of going back
and forth almost like the oral tradition of the great Indiar, epics, Mahabharata and
Ramayana. Desai does not attempt to create a linear movement in her novel with a
beginning, a middle and an end but she portrays things as they are. There is no
exploration, conflict and resolution.

Perhaps it is due to Desai's flashback technique that she uses time from multiple
dimensions: temporal, eternal and mythical. In Clear Light yfDay for instance. time
is seen in relation to youth and age, also in relation to national events and at times
Desai depicts the significance of time contained in a minute. Time is both the
destroyer and the preserver. The last episode in the novel when Bim and Baba go to
listen to Mulk Mishra and his gum best exemplifies it:

The contrast between Mulk's voice and [the Gum's] mias great: whereas
Mulk's voice had been almost like a child's so sweet and clear, or a young
man's full and ripe and with a touch of sweetness to it, the old man's was
. sharp, even a little cracked, inclined to break. although not merely \\-ith age
but with the bitterness of his experiences, the sadness and passion and
frustration.
(PP. 181-182).
Imagery is vital to Desai's works. Her use of it in Clear Light of Day is discussed in
Unit 5:2.
Techniques, Time
"My novels " Desai states,
are no reflection of Indian society, politics or character. They are part of my
private effort to seize upon the raw material of life -- its shapelessness, its
meaninglessness.l4

Summing uv Desai's Techniques

-- Emphasis on the inner world of character.
-- Use of flashbacks, stream of consciousness and interior monologues.
-- Depiction of fragmented reality through multiple perspectives.
-- Effect of the above mentioned technique on the structure of the novel.
-- Desai's treatment of time.
-- The importance of imagery.

2.4 BIMITARA RELATIONSHIP

The relationship between the two Das sisters, Bim and Tara, forms the core of Desai's
novel, Clear Light of Day. Everything that happens in the novel is reflected on this
relationshlp. Bim and Tara may naturally bond as siblings but their different
personalities make their relationship a problematic one. This duality in their
relationship is best encaptured in the remark one of the Misra sisters, Jaya, makes to
Tara:

'Bim has her own mind,' she said. 'Bim always did. You were always so
different, you two sisters.'. .. . But Tara would not accept that. We're not
really,' she said. 'We may seem to be--but we have everything in common.
That makes us one. No one else knows all we share, Bim and I.'
(P. 162)

These two aspects of the Bim / Tara relationship -- their bonding and their
differences-- remain an undercurrent throughout the novel. Interestingly, it is Tara's
holiday visit to her sister Bim, that sets up the events in the novel.

Bim, short for Bimla, is the older of the two Dhs sisters. She is unmarried and teaches
history in a local college. Desai describes her as "grey and heavy now and not so
unlike their mother in appearance" (P. 2). Interestingly, after Mira Masi falls ill, Bim
takes on the role as a surrogate mother to her siblings. Tara, the younger sister, is
portrayed as a "languid little girl, listless, a dawdler" (P. 10). Tara is married to an
IFS officer and has two daughters. Desai subtly reveals the different personalities of
the two sisters by describing the way they dress:

Tara [was] in her elegant pale blue nylon nightgown and elegant silver
slippers and Bim in curious shapeless handmade garment that Tara could see
she had fashioned out of an old cotton sari by sewing it up on both sides,
leaving enough room for her arms to come through and cutting out a wide
scoop for her neck (P. 3).

In a sense the two sisters present different notions of Indian womanhood. Bim, the
unmarried sister, is taken for granted by her siblings. Dr. Biswas comments on the
situation during one of his visits to the Das household:

'I see, I see it all,' Dr. Biswas hurried on, staring hard at his shoes, making the
most of this unusual burst of courage while it lasted. 'There are great
Clear Light ofDay problems. Your father-the house-the family-Raja's illness-it is all too much
for a young lady. Riaja must recover, he must take his father's place-.'
(P. 68)

Tara, the married sister, who is totally dependent on her husband, represents the
typical Indian married woman. She has no ambitions of her own. Among the po5t
Independent Indian-English witers, Desai is unique in portraying a wide gamut of
Indian women. In Clear Light qfDay we also have Mira Masi, the helpless widow;
and there are the Misra sisters -- Sarla and Jaya--, both abandoned by their husbands

During Tara's visit to Bim and Baba, both sisters are aivare of the changes in them.
brought about by time. In fact, early in the novel, Desai introduces us to the tensions
between the &YO sisters. Tam is surprised by the fact that things have not changed at
all in her old Delhi home, "it is all exactly the same" (P. 4). Bim teasingly asks her.
"would you like to come back to find it changed?" (P. 4)

Interestingly, Tara assesses her growth in relation to her responses to the house:

She stared sullenly, without lifting her head, at a water-colour above the
plaster mantelpiece-red cannas painted with some watery fluid that had
trickled weakly down the brown paper: who could have painted that? Why
was it hung here? How could Bim bear to look at it for all of her life? Had
she developed no taste of her own, no linings: that made her wish to sweep
the old house of all its rubbish and place in it things of her own choice? Tara
thought with longing of the neat, china-white flat in Washington, its
cleanliness, its floweriness.
(P. 21)

. Bim views her past differently. She tells Tara ... "After you married, and Raja went
to Hyderabad, and Mira-masi died, I sti!l had Baba. And that summer I got my job at
the college and felt so pleased to be earning my living-" (P. 42).

Ironically, when we compare the childhood dreams of the two sisters -- Bin?. \tho
always wanted to be a heroine, a Joan of Arc or a Florence Nightingale, and Tara.
who wanted to be a mother and just "knit" for her babies, %-wenotice that Tara's
dream rnaterialises. She becomes a mother of two girls. Bim, although heroic in her
ability to deal with her circumstances, never achieves the heights she desires. Santosh
Gup:a says,

The different goals of life of the two sisters are an outcome of their tendency
to live either by reason or by emotionlimagination, reflected in their reading.
Tara's craving for the warm, half-sleepy, non-challenging atmosphere of their
home, and aunt Mira's closeness is reflected to some extent in her enjoyment
of the fairy-tales narrated by Aunt Mira. Tara is an incurable romantic who
believes firmly in the possibility of coming upon a treasure, or a: least a pearl
in the snails she picks up in their garden. As she grows up she reads 'Lorna
Doone' and the well-known 'Gone with the Wind' . . . . The elder sister's
sharp mind did not give in easily to romance or romantic readings. and she
" wonders "what does she want?" The answer is "facts, history, and -
chronology". ''

In the context of the conversation between the two Das sisters we discover that
marriage is viewed as an escape route. Tara by marrying Bakul went out of the Das
household in to the world, to something bigger and brighter. Bakul reinforces thls
idea. When he proposes to Tara he sees himself as rescuing her. He tells her "This
place is bad for you-so much sickness, so many worries. You are too 4oung for all
this. I must take you away" (P. 71). Tara's incrtia when she visits her o!d Dehi home.
is to 'do with her feelings of guilt in leaving Blm to cope with all the problems.
At an earlier point in the novel, Tara tells Bim, how she always wanted to escape Clear Light of Day:
from the Das household: Themes,
Techniques, Time
The kind of atmosphere that used to fill it when father and mother were alive.
Always ill or playing cards or at the,club, always away, always leaving us
out, leaving us behind- and then Mira-Masi becoming so-strange, and Raja so
ill-till it seemed that the house was ill, illness passing from one generationto
the other so that anyone who lived in it was bound to become ill and the only
thing to do was to get away from it, escape . . . 'she stuttered to a halt. quite
pale with the passion she had allowed into her words, and aghast at it:

Bim's eyes narrowed as she sat listening to her sister's outburst. 'Did you feel
that way? She asked, coolly curious. 'I didn't know. I think I was so occupied
with Raja and Mira-Masi that I didn't notice what effect it had on you. Why
didn't I? She mused, swinging her leg casually. 'And that is why you married
Baku1 instead of going to college?
(P. 156)

Both Bim and Tara share an unfulfilled childhood and youth. Tam tells ~ i aboutm her
youth: "I was glad when it was over." To which Bim responds, "Yes, I an1 glad, too,
it is over--I never wish it back" (P. 43). The main reason for their bored and unhappy
childhood was parental neglect:

Parents had sat, day after day and year after year till their deaths, playing
bridge with friends like themselves, mostly silent, heads bent so that the
knobs in their necks protruded, soft stained hands shuffling the cards, now
and then speaking those names and numbers that remained a mystery to the
children who were not allowed within the room while a game was in
progress, who had sometimes folded themselves into the dusty curtains and
stood peeping out, wondering at this strange, all-absorbing occupation that
kept their parents sucked down into the silent centre of a deep, shadowy
vortex while they floated on the surface, staring down into the underworld,
their eyes popping with incomprehension.
(P. 22)

In the Das Household we notice Tara as an outsider:

Throughout her childhood, she hah always stood on the outside of that
enclosed world of love and admir~tionin which Bim and Raja moved,
watching them, sucking her finger, excluded.
(P. 26)

Even at school Bim is the all rounder, a born leader. The teachers would admonish
Tara in reproachful tones: "Look at your sister Bimla. You should try to be more like
your sister Bimla. She plays games, she takes part in all activities, she is a monitor,
the head girl. And you . . ." (P. 123). Bim's confident ways invariably overshadow
Tara's diffident manner. There are two episodes that demosntrate this. The first one is
when Bim cuts Tara's hair promising her curls which she knows she may not be able
to do achieve:

"Come on, come on, "Bim hurried her roughly, snipping the air with the big
heavy sewing scissors and, making ~ & crouch
a down behind the cast-iron
water-tank on the roof, she cut through her hair at the ears with great sure
crunches of the steel blades.
(P. 119)

The second episode is when Bim and Tara steal Raja's cigarettes and hide behind a
bougainvillea bush to smoke:
Clear Light ofDay 'Oh, Bim, no-o! cried Tara in fright. Her sister was driving her. forcing her
through fear again, as usual. She tried to resist, hopelessly. This was w h ~she
distrusted Bim so: Bim never knew when to stop.
(P. 133)

Tara sums up the effect her sister Bim has on her when she says that she.

felt Bim's hold on her again-that rough, strong, sure grasp-dragging

her own, down into a well of oppression, of lethargy, of ennui. She
felt the waters of her childhood closing over her head again-black
and scummy as in the well at the back.
(P. 149)

Being the weaker of the two sisters, Tara's tendency is to escape from ugliness When
the boredom of the Das household descends and engulfs her, her thoughts are of her
home in Washington. Even as children when Bim and Raja would express their anger
against their parents' obsessive card games by saying that they would tear and bum
the cards, Tara would simply run to Mira-Masi for protection.

Lodhi Garden

One of the most striking examples of Tara's escapist te2dencies is seen in the bee
episode in Lodi Gardens. The Das sisters had gone on a picnic with the Misras to
Lodi Gardens. The Misra sisters--Sarla and Jaya-- had invited two young possible
suitors for themselves. Bim and Tara were invited by them to lend an informality to
the atmosphere. But of course the atmosphere was anjthing but informal. Bim and
Tara decided to go off on their own to look at the tombs. While they were in a tomb a
boy threw a pebble which probably hit a bee hive. The bees attacked. Bim holding her
their prisoner. Tara ran away in desperation. At the time of the episode Tara did not
have the courage to apologize to Bim. Much later in their lives Tara discusses the
episode with her sister asking her for forgiveness. Bim's generosity is revealed \\-hen
she tells Tara: "You couldn't help it-if you'd stayed, you'd have been stung, like me-
you had to run" (P. 136).

Bim is the more giving of the two sisters. Even as a child her role models were
Florence Nightingale and Joan of Arc. As a student she used to help out in a clinic for
women in Kingsway Camp for refugees. Bim's selflessness extends to all her siblings
and Mira Masi. She looks after their autistic brother Baba. She is his caretaker. Tara.
on the contrary, does not view herself in this light. She is happy at Baba's dependence
on Bim. It is Bim again who nurses both Raja, while he was suffer~ngfrom T.B. and
Mira-Masi. Tara, disliked any form of social work. In school she had to do some
social work but she resented doing it. Once during a visit to a hospital she "sari the
rice and dal being ladled out of pails onto aluminium platters in slopping p~les.she
was obliged to run out behind a hedge to be sick. After that. charity always had. for
her, the sour reek of vomit" (P. 126).
Interestingly, despite Tara's self-centredness, it is she who acts as a mediator in clear ~ i ~ h t .
bringing Birn and Raja together after-the misunderstanding over Raja's letter. Raja Themes,
had written a letter to Bim after his father-in-law Hyder Ali's death. In this letter he Techniques, Time
had stated that since hc had inherited all the property as the only son-in-law, he had
also acquired the home in which Bin1 lived. He reassured her that he would not
Increase the rent and would allow her to live in it as long as she wanted to. The
patronlzing tone of the letter infuriated Birn and she cut all ties with him. It is Tara
who tells Birn to tear up the letter and forgive Raja. Eventually when Bin1 doestear
up the letter it is because of her own compulsions. However, Tara is instrumental in
making this happen. Similarly, it is Tara who notices thc fact that Birn is very over
strained and is dangerously close to neurosis. She tells Baku1 that Bin1 talks to
herself. Her concern over Bim is expressed when she tells Jaya that Bin1 is in a
strange mood and that she is worried about her:

'Oh,' said Tara. 'Bim is-is in a strange mood these days,' she explained, trying
to bring in her own anxieties for Jaya's attention. 'I'm worried about her,
Jaya.'

'About Birn?' Jaya was scornful. Indignation still burnt in her. How burnt and
blackened her skin was. Tara noted, staring at their feet in slippers, making
their way through the heavy white dust of the driveway. Jaya's feet were like
the claws of an old crook, twisted and charred. Her voice, too, sounded like a
burnt twig breaking, brittle and dry. 'No nccd to worry about Bim-she's
always looked after herself. She can take care of herself.'

'For how long?' worried, Tara, holding her white cotton sari like a veil across
her face against the blinding light. 'Bim's not young. And Baba's not young
elther. And here they are, just the two of them. while we are all away.'
There seemed no way of conveying her anxiety to Jaya.
(P. 161)

Like most of Desai's women characters, Biin and Tam also grow and are notwhat.
they are at the beginning of the novel.

2.5 TREATMENT OF TIME

The Central motif of the novel has to do with the paradox of change and continuity.
This notion is beautifully captured by Desai in the last scene of the novcl when Birn
goes with Baba to hear Mulk Misra and his guru sing:

She saw before her eyes how one ancient school of music contained both
Mulk. still an immature disciple, and his aged. exhausted gun1 with all the
disillusionments and defeats of his long experience.
(P. 182)

Such an understanding of time gives her clearer insight into her own life:

With her inner eye she saw how her own house and its particular history
linked and contained hcr as well as her whole family with all their separate
histories and experiences-not binding them within some dead and airless cell
but giving them the soil in which to send down their roots, and food to make
them grow and spread, reach out to new experiences and new lives, but :
always drawing from the same soil, the san~esecret darkness. That soil
contained all time, past and future, in it. It was dark with time, rich with time.
It was where her deepest self lived, and the deepest selves of her sister and
brothers and all those who shared that time with her.
(P. 182)
About Desai's non-linear treatment of time Alamgir Hashmi says:

Indeed, time is an emotional sequence of events rather than a serial imitation

of chronological perception. Since the story is told in the stream-of-
consciousness style, the linearity of the actual event is not imitated by the
writing; the nature of the event is 'emotional' as recollected bv the characters.
through whose eyes the reader sees and assesses the situation. With a sh~fting
point of view, and the frequent time lapse, the narrative is realised gradually
and gathered skilfully.'6

The notion of non-linear time used by Desai is also reflected in Bim's appraoch to
life. She tells Tara:

'There are these long still stretches--nothing happens--each day is exactl> likc
the other--plodding, uneventful--and then suddenly,there is a crash--might:+
deeds take place--momentous events--even if one doesn't know it at the t~mc-
- and then life subsides agaln into the backwaters till the next push, the ne\t
flood? That summer was certainly one of them--the summer of '47-- '
(PP 42-43)
The country's partition parallels the partition of the Das family.

Time deals with the several characters in CIeor Lighr of Doy, differently. Among the
childhood ambitions of the Das children, onl?, Tara's materialises. She had always
wanted to get married become a mother and "knit" for her babies. Her husband.
Bakul, and her two daughters. fulfill this dream. Bim and Raja who had wanted to
become a heroine and a hero respectively, are trapped by circumstances and fail to
fulfill their dreams.

Childhood experiences are recalled in adulthood and through these intersections,

characters grow. The Bee episode at Lodi gardens is an example in point. Tara
remembers this episoqe when she left Bim who was attacked by the bees and ran to
escape the attack herself. She feels guilty about her response then and recalls the
event to apologize to Bim for her selfishness. In short, this moving backwards and
forwards makes the events in Cleor Light o f D q more than just a conventional trip
down memory lane. Desai is more interested in a final pattern that gives a perspective
to the meaninglessness around. Her shifts between the past and the present is done
smoothly. The novel reads !!.ke a well orchestrated musical composition.

Interestingly, the Das house in old Delhi also becomes a central motif of the
structure. The characters, thoughts are inextricably tied to the memories of this house:

it was the sound of the house, as much as the contended muttering of the
pigeons in the verandah. It gave time a continuity and regularity that the
ticking of a clock in the hall might convey in other houses.
(P. 102)

In fact, the Das home, as Sudhakar R. Jarnkhandi says.

has seen many a childhood drama, and it is these that are conjured up in the
collective memory of Tara and Bim until, upon their completion. Bim and
Tara realize a sense of the worth of their sibling relationship Tara seeks
continuity from her frequent trips home and achieves a sense of permanence
only when Bim too realizes the reason for her return home: the house. Bim
realizes, is "solid ground. That was what the house had been -- the 1awn:the
rose walk, the guava trees, the veranda." (153) And all of this is Bim's
domain. the domain from wl~ichshe is inseparable.I7
 Clear Light of Day:
2.6 LET US SUM UP Themes,
Techniques, Time

In this unit we have unfolded the structure of the novel giving you a detailed storyline
of Part I of the novel. Then, the techniques Anita Desai employs have been discussed
so also the B i d a r a relationship and the thematic issues the relationship raises. We
will continue with the storyline of the rest of the novel and the issues raised in the
coming units.

References
I
Ramesh Srivaslava. Perspectives on Anira Desai. Ghaziabad: VimaI Prakashan,
1984.

'Bipin B. Panigrahi. Self-Apprehension and Self-Identit! in Clear Light of Day, The

New Indian Novel in English, A Study o f the 198Os,Ed.Viney Kirpal, New
Delhi. Allied Publishers Limited, 1990. p.79.
3
Asha Kanwar. Virginia Wolfand Anita Desai: A Comparative Stltdy. Delhi Prestige,
1989. p. 36.
1
Shyam A. Asnani. Critical Responses to Indian English Fiction Delhi: Miaal
Publications, 1985. p. 143.

5 ~ n i tDesai.
a "Women writers," Quest, No. 56, April-June, 1970, pp. 42-43.
6
A. Desai. "Replies to the Questionnaire", Kakatiya Journal ofEnglish Studies, vol,
3. No. 1, 1978, p.2
7
A. Desai. "Interview by Yashodhara Dalmia," The fimes ofIndia, April 29, 1979.
8
A. Desai. Replies to the Questionnaire, Kaktiya Journal of English Studies, vol. 3,
No. 1, 1978 p.1.
9
A. Desai. "Interview by Jasbir Jain," Rajasthan University Studies in English, vol.
12, 1979, p. 67.

"A. Desai. The Times ofIndia, April 29, 1979.

"A. Desai. Kakatiya Journal of English Studies, p.4.

13
A. Desai. Replies to the Questionnaire, p.4.
14
James Vinson. Ed. "Contemporary Novelists". NY:St. Martill's Press. p. 348.

'"antosh Gupta. "Bridging the Polarities of Imagination and Reason in Clear Light
o f Day ": Ed. R.K.Dhawan. The Fiction of Anita Desai. New Delhi: Bahri
Pubilcations, 1989.

I6~lamgirHashmi.. "Clear Light of Day between India and Pakistan,".Ed Viney

Kirpal. The New Indian Novel in English: A Study of the I980s. Delhi:
Allied, 1990. p.7 1.
17
Sudhakar R. Jarnkhandi. "Old Delhi Revisited:" Clear Light oJ'Dny, Indian Women
Novelrsts. Ed. R.K. Dhawan. Vol. 4. Delhi: Prestige, 1991. p. 8.
C b ~Light
r ofDiq --
2.7 QUESTIONS

1. Griticaliy comment on the structure of the novel

2 Outline the story Ilne of Part I o+CCleur k l g h oi'17~y.

1
3. W%at a.re the chief techniques used by Desai ii., Clear Ljghl oj'Dn;i'?

3. Discuss thc yerccrnalities of Biix a n d ~ as

~ depicted
d through their
relationship in the covel.