The Lowland offers a different
perspective to one of the most intriguing macro level socio-economic problems
of modern India through a micro level narrative. It is a story of a young man,
a man who is both – a martyr and a traitor both at once. What makes the story
more poignant is the fact that consequences of his choice continues to haunt
and impact all those whom he loved dearly, even after his death.
With every character the writer
successfully brings out deep existential anxieties and eccentricities to the
fore. It is this masterful ability to present layers of personalities of her
characters that makes Jhumpa Lahiri such an accomplished story teller.
Unable to reconcile with rumours and
revelations of their son’s activities after his death, Udayan’s parents chose
to find peace in insanity and lost the touch with real life just because it had
become too hard to handle for their deprecated bodies and minds. Indeed, seeing
one’s son being killed in front of their eyes would not have been easy. His
father simply turned ignorant and mother forgetful. Their life was debilitating
and disturbing on the east coast of India –and when contrasted with the life
Subhash led on the east coast of America, it gave Subhash a pang of yearning
for taking better care of his parents.
He felt deeply betrayed by his own self, unable to justify and accept
that steps that seemed to righteous at the time he took them turned so unjust
and even heinous as time passed.
Subhash and Udayan – central characters of the
story were inseparable brothers as children. However, as they grew up their
paths diverged, Subhash went on to Rhode Island to pursue his doctoral studies
and Udayan let the communist ideology consume his life, completely. Subhash
always felt a touch inferior to Udayan, even though he was elder to him – he
felt Udayan always had a little more of everything than he had. In his attempts
to involve Subhash in the ideological battle he was fighting, Udayan asserted
himself even more fiercely, causing Subhash deep existential anxieties. Subhash
wasn’t able to understand if his inability to join the movement was mere
cowardice or something else.
After Subhash departs Udayan’s life
takes a new turn when he met a girl named Gauri, another important character of
the novel. Udayan married Gauri – on receiving the news, Subhash felt a mixed
emotion – that of happiness for his brother and a feeling of having been
overtaken – as per Indian family tradition being an elder brother he should
have married first. Udayan’s parents don’t accept Gauri and though they had no
courage to oppose Udayan and let her live in their house, they always stayed
recluse from her, Gauri too made no attempts to bridge the divide – they
continued going farther away with each passing day.
Feeling a need to anchor the
troubled family life Subhash decided to marry Gauri – giving a rationale of the
future of unborn child. Subhash’s mother admonished him warning that Gauri
wasn’t mature enough to become a mother and that she should be the one who
would take care of the child. Subhash did not pay heed to his mother, married
Gauri and took her to America. Gauri also accepted the step, more because of
lack of option than by choice.
Their marriage was never easy,
Subhash pained with inferiority complex, even with his wife and Gauri pained
with sense of infidelity towards Udayan’s ghost cannot offer each other any
comfort. Their only hope was Bela – Gauri’s daughter.
Subhash made Bela the sole purpose of his life
and though scared by the fact of Bela’s discovery that he was not really her
father but only uncle – he really proved himself a better father than Udayan
could ever be. Gauri constantly found herself to be inferior parent as compared
to Subhash and left both of them to pursue her studies of philosophy.
After Gauri left Subhash raised Bela
– initially with great troubles and deep impact on child but later both
adjusted to the situation and helped each other fill the deepest voids of their
lives.
The Lowland, alongside of a macro
level issue of Naxal movement, describes very personal story of struggle of
each of its characters minutely. It provides just enough details and leaves the
conclusions to the readers. There are numerous occasions where readers are
likely to get judgmental about the actions characters took, in the story,
however seen from the point of view of these characters they only seem natural
and real reactions.
In an ideological struggle of our
times, we too have choices, and perhaps the strongest point this story makes is
that our choices have impact on lives that are irrevocably related with our
own, could this realization help soothe the sharp ideological battles we
see?
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