1

CHAPTER -1

INTRODUCTION

Though foreign in its origin, English has been adopted in india as a language

of education and Literary expression besides begin an important medium of

communication amongst the people of various regions. The beginning of Indian

literature in English is traced to the end of the 18th century by which time English

education was more or less firmly established in the three major centers of British

power in India - Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.

India writing in English has attained an independent status in the realm of

India Literature .Wide –ranging themes are dealt with in India Writing in English

.While this literature continues to reflect Indian culture and tradition, social values,

and even India English fiction has been trying to give expression to the Indian

experiences of the modern predicaments.

India Writing in English by woman is a distinct phenomenon today. The

creative output of the India woman writers, especially novelist is marked by the

choice of English, the medium of expression of a woman`s reaction to the varied

situation in which tradition and modernity clash as well as synthesize. Indian woman

writers are dynamic witness to the peculiar socio-cultural historic, political conflicts

by woman especially Indian.

An interesting aspect of the modern Indian writing has been the creative

release of the woman sensibility. Woman in modern India have not only shared the

exciting and dangerous burdens of the struggle for independence but also articulated

but also articulated the national impulse and the consciousness of cultural change in
 2

the realm of letters. In the personality of an individual like Sarojini Naidu, the temper

of Indian womanhood achieved its comprehensive synthesis; she was not only the lark

of the Indian political awakening but also the nightingale of the Indian imagination. If

a plunge of the Indian womanhood into politics had been almost a common

occurrences in the days of the freedom struggle the literary enterprise too, held out its

fascinating, if not always rewarding, attractions; in the development of the Indian

English novel, the woman sensibility has achieved an imaginative self-sufficiency

which merits recognition in spite of its relatively later manifestation.

Fiction by woman writers constitutes a major segment of the contemporary

writing in English. It provides insights, a wealth of understanding, a reservoir of

meanings and a basis of discussion. Through woman writers eyes one can see a

different world and with their assistance one can realize the potential of human

achievement. Every appraisal of the Indian English Literature will certainly results in

appreciation of the writing of woman. As Anita Nair comments on the results of

Indian writing.

Indian woman novelist portrays the varied facets Indian womanhood both

traditional and modern and their assertion of the rights of woman in their novels.

These novels usually dwell upon the emergence of woman from marginally to

centrality, from role of individuality, but the final relationship, complex and baffling

as it is, seems to provide the basic frame upon which these are mode to revolve.

The writers have explored from various angels the ambivalences and

paradoxes of the relationship, the difficulties in involves, its reconcilements of, or

failure to resolve elements of hospitality and amity; and the act of exploration itself
 3

becomes a way of feminist some of who have achieved great recognition are Antia

Desai, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara sehgal, R.P. Jhabvala and Shashi Deshpande.

Some of the Indian woman novelist glorifies virtues of Indian woman life, patience,

devotion and chastity. But Shashi Deshpande explodes the myth of men’s superiority

and myth of woman being a paragon of all virtues. The dark holds no tears are a story

of Marriage in trobles waters. Sarita is a two in one woman in the day time a

successful daughter and at night a terrified trapped animal in the hands of her father

house after fifteen years unable to bear sexual sadisum of her husband. The rest of the

novel remembers of the things past and confession to her married life. The narrative

meanders between the presents and the past. With her varied experience,she has the

courage to confront reality and the dark no longer holds the tears.

Anita Desai and kamala Das state the various ways in which the woman are

tortured physically, mentally and emotionally and instigate them to reval against the

atrocities but do not suggest to indicate any substantial alternative which take their

protagonist to vacuum where they find themselves helpless and thwarted. In Desai

clear light of day, Bim remains a spinster to keep herself free from the shackles of

family life. But she cannot enjoy the freedom for long time. Death of her shifts the

responsibility of her. Handicapped brother Baba to her shoulder, her elder brother

Raja does not take up the responsibility. Thus she is enmeshed in the trap from which

she has tried to escape. In the end, she finds solace in the wondrous songs of Mulk`s

aged guru..

There arise feelings of the detachments and renunciation in her and she give up the

ideas of independences of woman.

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In Nayantra Sahgal the day of shadow the protagonist, Simrit, is an educate

woman, a professional writer who is fully exploited by her husband, who sold concern

is to earn money and secure himself monetarily. In his quest earn money, he forgets

about the existences of his wife, she has forced to take a divorce and consequently

turend towards Raja, not for sexual satisfaction but for mental and emotional support.

Raja is more or less the type of his husband and Indian woman can think of, who

would recognized a woman intedrity and consider her as a human being with feelings

and hot a doormat to be used us and when wished and then forsaken.

Another India woman novelist Anita Nair, who has been taken for this study is

one of the finest writers who demarcates her typical region ambiences of Kerala with

its wide variety of people of all classes.She is consider as a bpld and straightforward

writer. Her novel depicts the real life of her characters and reveals the trajectory of

woman sensibility.

Anita Nair was born at Kerala. She was educating in Chennai before returning

to Kerala, where she graduated B.A., in English Language and Literature. She was

working as a creative director of an advertising agency in Bangalore when she wrote

her first book a collection of short stories called satyr of the subway, which she her to

Har- Anand prees. The book won her a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the

Creative Arts.

Nair second book was published by Penguin India, and was the first book by an

Indian author to be published by Picador U.S.A. A bestselling author of fiction and

poetry, Nairs novels the better man and Ladies coupe have been translated into twenty

one languages.
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Nairs the Better Man (2000) which also has been published in Europe and the

United States. In 2002, appeared the collection of poems Malabar Mind and in where

the rain is born- writing about Kerala which she has edited. Anita Nairs second novel

Ladies coupe (2001), has turned out to be an even greater success than first both

among and readers in so for fifteen countries outside India: from USA to Turkey,

from Poland to Portugal.

In 2002, Ladies coupe was elected as one of the five best in India. The novel is about

woman conditions in a male dominated society, told with great insight solidarity and

humour. Ladies coupe was rated as one 2002 top books of the year and was translated

into more than twenty-five language around the world. Antia Nair offers a powerful

feminist message in the story of a middle-aged spinster’s one who finds the courage

and supports to live independently as she and her fellow passengers on overnight in

train share their feelings.

Like so many travelers linked by a chance and circumstances her the fix- birth

overnight coupe the woman tell their stories to time pass the time, While Akhila, the

protagonist listens and adds her contributions.

Akhila gave up her education when her father died and she became the family

breadwinner. She spent her life providing for them now he is taking a vocation to

decide what she should do with the time left to her. Her siblings are shocked that she

wants to live alone, she should be with the family, contributing her salary to their

well-being but Akhila is tired of their greed and self-absorption, and wants to live as

she pleases. Listening to the other woman, Akhila soon realizes that her feelings are

not unusual. Between each story, Akhila adds her own: her belief affair with Hari, a

younger man. A Christian friend who introduced her to eggs, a food her devout Hindu
 6

family thought unclean; and here thwarted efforts to live alone after her mother`s

death.

The first passenger’s tale is told elderly Janaki, who recalls how a visit to her

son convinced her to live only for her husband, whom she loved deeply rather than

her selfish children. Sheela, a teenager, rember her closeness to her imperious

grandmother, who has just died; Margaret, a chemistry teacher, describe how she

finally got even with her tyrannical and possibly perverted, husband; wealthy Prabha,

a wife and mother tells of recapturing her independences when she learned to swim;

and Mari, who was raped as a teenager, relates how she hated the son she bore as a

result, even indenturing him to gain money, until she was ashamed of what she had

done. As the journey ends, Ahkila is ready to act.

It is seen from her novels that Antia Nair is one such genuine writer who

create life-like woman in her works. These women reflect the real condition of present

woman sensibility from different strata. Nair true concern and eagerness to uplift the

woman sensibility from make her woman characters rise up with their innate potential

and confidence from their utterly weak and feeble situation. An analysis of Nair

woman will be definitely pleasurable experiences to foresee the bright future of

woman with self realization.

In Ladies Coupe Nairs redefines the woman sensibility. Her tale is simple in

form and very profound on thought. She has done a commendable job in bringing out

the positive transformation of woman in the ongoing battle of establishing female

selfhood. This entitled woman sensibility in Anita Nair novel Ladies Coupe is an

attempt to analyze and discuss the reputation of Anita Nair as the true apostle of

woman uplift her myriad female characters.

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CHAPTER - II

A STUDY OF WOMEN SENSIBILITY IN ANITA NAYAR

‘‘LADIES COPE’’

Anita Nair is one of the eminent women novelist in contemporary India; she

has earned honors for her originality, propensity and for her societal dedication. She

presents women characters in her novels full of enormous courage. As an Indian

women and the experience of women around around her she very perfectly

understood the societical-cultural problems of women. Ladies Coupe provide the

piognant an realistic description of continuous efforts of women of the establishment

of their identity in their society.. Ladies Coupe is a perfect example of contemporary

women's identities and their conflictual relationship with tradition, male dominated

society, gender discrimination and class and caste constraints. Through the example

of six women characters Anita Nair tries to demonstrate that what women should do

for liberation and how our society can became conscious about them.

One of the top five book in India, was Lad/cs coupe (2001). The novel is about

women's conditions in a male dominated society, told with great insight, solidarity

and humor. Ladies coupe was translated into more than twenty five language around

the world. Ladies coupe is a 'compartment in a train that is reserved exclusively for

women. This compartment is safe, quiet and preferred by women who are either

travelling alone or travelling without a man. However, Akhila the protagonist chooses

to travel in a ladies coupe to discover herself.

Akhila; the protagonist of the Ladies coupe is a forty five year old single

women working as a income tax officer, she was born in a conservative Brahmin

family Akhila was brought up in an environment in which the society had the supreme
 8

power and the people living in the societ would never ever dare to rewrite its

unfounded norms.

Akhila mother belonged to the old school of thought, sometimes through her

actions and sometimes through her words she taught Akhila that a perfect woman is

the one who blends with the environment.

"There is no such thing as equal marriage, Amma said. It is best to accept that

the wife is inferior to the husband. That way, there can be no strife, no disharmony. It

is when one wants to prove one's equality that there is warring and sparring all the

time. It is so much easier and simpler to accept one's station in life and live

accordingly. A woman is not meant to take on a man's role. Or the Gods would have

made her so. So what is all this about two equals in a marriage?"(p.no.14)

is what her mother tried to drill into her mind. But mother of Akhila is becoming a

widow expected her daughter to play as the man of the house.

So from playing the role of the daughter Akhila progressed to being the

provider and continued playing different roles all through her life. Sometimes as

sister, sometimes an aunt, but she never gets to be herself. She never was Akhila until

one fine day when she realized that she has got nothing from life not even memories

to look back to. She buys a one way ticket to Kanyakumari to escape from the norms

that stopped her being Akhilandeswari.

On her way to'Kanyakumari, Akhila meets five different women, her fellow

passengers. Each with a story of her own but all of them had one thing in common

and that was their search for the real denotation of life.
 9

The oldest of the women is Janaki with a story that many women of her age

would identity with. Janaki is someone who learnt to love the man she married. She is

someone who always had a man to protect her. Someone who was first protected by

her father then by her brother then by her husband and after him it would be her son.

Janaki believed that to be a good mother and a good wife are the only who duties of a

women and she made her home her kingdom. Janaki said

"I believed that a women's duty was to get married.

To be a good wife and mother. I believed that tired old cliché that home was a

• woman's kingdom."(p.no.23)

The second story to unfold is that of a fourteen years old girl Sheela. Someone who is

generations apart from Janaki but still with a mental maturity that quite surpasses her

age. She is someone who accepted her grandmother's death with an air of a person

who had seen it all and done it all.

"When Sheela was born and it wastime to name her grandmother decided on

the name"(p.no.62)

The third story to unfurl is that of Margaret Shanthi. a chemistry teacher married to

Ebenezer Paulraj, the principal of the school where she works in. Margaret compares

herself to super critical water which is capable of dissolving just about anything. Soon

after marriage Margaret realized that her husband was not the knight in shining amour

that she expected him to be but on the other hand he was insensitive, self obsessed

despot who couldn't care less for his wife Ebenezer's every action gradually

transforms Margaret's love into hatred and to avenge him, she uses a very ingenious

method.
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"I hate him , I hate my husband. I hate Ebenezer Paulraj.

Hate him. Hate him.”(p.no.98)

The fourth tale to open up is that, of Prabhadevi, born to rich parents she had the

perfect childhood. Her mother beamed with pride when Prabhadevi turned eighteen.

She was beautiful, decide, a good look, a good singer her, needlework was perfect.

Soon this demure girl was married to a diamond merchant's son. After her marriage

life swished past in the blur of insignificant days till one day-a week after her fortieth

birthday when she realized that somewhere in the process of being a good wife, a

good daughter—in—law and a good mother, Prabhadevi forgets how it to be herself

and that's when she learns to a swimming pool helps her realize the need for the

balancing act.

"Prabha Devi thought of the swimming pool longingly and forced herself to go

on with her chores."(p.no.1 90)

The fifth and the most heart —rending tale is that of Marikolanthu who only

when grown up 'realized that circumstances never let her be a kid. As a kid she

worked at the Chettiar's house to help her mother raise her brothers and when she

grew up her innocence was destroyed by a man who was determined to have her

carnal knowledge sans her consent. This one unpleasant incident changes.

Marikalanthu's entire life and destroys her verve. From being a kid who

worked hard to help her mother raises her brothers to being a maid to two lady doctors

who were foreigners, Marikolanthu was now a mother to an illegitimate child. She

had seen it all from poverty to lesbianism but all through her life though she was

untutored and bucolic she stood up for what she believed in, not caring for the society.
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She says "I have son and no husband. My parents have been dead a long and I have

servered all ties with my brothers"(p.no.21 1)

One night in the Ladies Coupe and her interaction with the five women. Janaki

who had a happy marriage though it was an arranged one, Margaret Slianti though

married to the love of her life suffered from the agony of an unhappy marriage,

Sheela, a teenager who had the ability to look beyond things. Prabhadevi who after

marriage learnt to strike a balance and Marikolanthu different from all the four

women did not succumb to the norms of the society just to gain a right place in the

social order helped Akhila realize that she had given the society superfluous power of

luking her life. These women and their stories helped Akhila find the answer to her

biggest question.

"Can a woman stay single and be happy, or does a woman need a man to feel

complete?" (p.no.241)

There was a time when a woman needed a man for protection but today she

needs a man for companionship, she needs a partner who would share her ups and

downs. She is not in need of a breadwinner but in need of someone with whom she

can share the bread. So, does this realization make Akhila get back in touch with the

guy she fell in love with, someone who she did not accept for the fears of the society?

This book though a work of fiction is very close to reality. The language is

simple and gets a little poetic in a few places. The dilemma that a women goes

through at every point-of her life is shown in a beautiful way. Comparison of life with

chemical elements in Margarent Shanti's episode is very interesting.

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The title of the novel in itself is very interesting to begin with. It’s in this

Compartment that five women of different age and family background come together

and weave their own world. As the story develops, the coupe turns into a place where

five women share some of their childhood, their husbands, their sons and their lovers.

As interesting aspect of the modern Indian enlightenment has been the creative

release of the feminine sensibility. Women in modern India have not only shared the

exciting and dangerous burdens of the struggle for the independence but also

articulated the national impulse and the consciousness of cultural change in the realm

of letters. In the personality of an individual like Sarojini Naidu, the temper of Indian

womanhood achieved its comprehensive synthesis; she was not only the lark of the

Indian political awakening but also the nightingale of the Indian imagination. If a

plunge of the Indian womanhood into politic had been almost a common occurrence

in the days of the freedom struggle, the literary enterprise too, held out its fascinating,

if not always rewarding, attractions,; in the development of the Indian English novel,

the women sensibility has achieved an achieved an imaginative self-sufficiency which

merits recognition in spite of its later manifestation.

The term ‘sensibility’ describes people’s capacity to be affected by the world

around them. It also directly correlates their emotional capabilities with their moral

development. A high moral standard should result in an ‘appropriate’ emotional

response. What was considered appropriate was different for men and women,

however. People thought that sensibility led men to knowledge, whereas appropriate

feminine sensibility resulted in good behavior. Since concepts such as piety, modesty,

and obedience defined the moral standard for women, feminine sensibility required

women to display such qualities in their behavior. However, feminists argued that true
 13

virtue could not exist without well-developed knowledge. Therefore, unless women

were properly educated, they were merely mimicking good behavior with no moral

backing. Furthermore, women were encouraged to use their cunning to appear well

behaved in order to get what they wanted from their husbands. Feminists saw this

customary feminine sensibility as manipulative, artificial varnish, which undermined

true virtue.

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining,

establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.

French Philosopher Charles Fourier is credited with having originated the world in

1837. It is a goal and revolutionary ideology as well as a socio-cultural movement that

aims at the freedom of woman from male domination in the patriarchal society. It

highlights various hidden and oppressive aspects of men-women relationship. It has a

profound impact on the debate concering the relation between genders, culture and

creativity and knocks down the claims of certain cultures, which believe that woman

can only produce children and not art.this movement fought for the issues related to

women like gender discrimination male domination, oppressive culture, domestic

violence, sexual harassment, reproductive rights, property right equal opportunities

for career and business, liberation and empowerment of women.

The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic

movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women. Though

feminism has been defines in different ways, but it is agreed that it encompasses a set

of beliefs, values and attitudes centered on the high evaluation of women as human

beings.
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Feminism in Indian literature, as can be most commonly conceived is a much

sublime and over-the-top concept, which is most subtly handled under restricted

circumstances. With advancement of time, however, feminism has been accepted in

India, setting aside the patriarchal predomination to certain extent. Leaving aside the

activists and crusaders of the political and social scenario, perhaps massive work of

feminism is also accomplished through Indian literature. In context with feminism in

Indian literature consistently performing and dishing out legendary writers and

penmanship for extensive period of time-has had its own substantial share of

feminism. In Indian literature, there have existed such up teen kinds of the evaluation

of womanhood, which have also at times taken the shape of feminism, mostly

profound in Indian literature in various Indian as well as English languages. Women

have inspired literature and the feminine theme has been a pivotal importance too. She

herself is to creator of literature and is all pervading. This is true of Indian literature

also. Indian literature spans a rich variety of themes from theme of conventional

women to that of the new women reflecting in the process the changes that have been

going on in the society. Post-Independence, Literature in Indian and feminism

portrays all these trends and voices, the clamoring of women for a new and just way

of life. Over years, the age old image of the woman seem to be slowly blurring and

gradually shading off into a new image.

The no-unusual ‘heterogeneity of Indian experience’ reveals that there exists

multiple leveled patriarchies and so also there exists multiple level feminism. Hence,

feminism in Indian literature as well as the broader perspective of feminism in India is

not a singular theoretical point of reference; it has metamorphosed with time

maintaining proportion with historical and cultural realities, levels of consciousness,

 15

perceptions and actions of individual women and women in mass. Feminist writers in

India today proudly uphold their cause of 'womanhood', through their write-ups.

With, the attainment of independence various reforms were made by the

government to ensure development in the country. Soon, a new sphere of literature

appeared where the writers wrote on themes projecting the miseries and complexities

of human lives and concentrating on individual predicament. The mid-1950's and

1960's mark the second important stage of Indian English writing, when writers like

Arun Joshi, Anita Desai, • Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Shobha De,

and Nayantara Sahagal, Anita Nair came out with their works that changed the face of

Indian English novel. They have opened up a new vist of human nature and man-

woman relationship. The problems discussed in their novels are individual rather than

universal. These writers have projected the inner psychological turmoil of human

beings. surviving in different sections of the society.

Anita Desai has portrayed the tyrannies, torture and violence faced by women

in Indian society: She has stressed the disturbed psyche of women which makes them

appear neurotic. 'Shattered by their stifling atmosphere her women characters become

depressed and helplessly suffer. Most of her women characters lack the spirit of

viewing life with optimism and fail to overcome their existing traumas and

apprehensions. Maya in Cry, the Peacock is unable to understand her husband who

has .a practical apprOach towards life. Raka in Fire on the Mountain is a product of a

broken marriage who has witnessed the violent attitude of her father towards her

mother. The brutality of her father destroys the humanity of Raka. She sets mountain

on fire and rejoices in her act. Sita in Where Shall We Go This Summer? lives a life

of comfort and ease with her husband, who is flexible and understanding. At the time
 16

of her fifth pregnancy she develops psychological imbalance during the gestation

period. To escape the reality of her life she takes refuge at the island of Manori with

the thought of getting blessings of his dead father who has known for performing

miracles among the local people. It not only disturbs the smooth case of her marital

life but also pushes he children to the darkness of the island. Monisha in Voices in the

City commits suicide as she finds no way out of the monotony of her life. Anita Desai

has also projected the pathetic condition of Indian widows through her character Mira

Mavshi, in the novel clear light of the Day. She is one those contemporary writers

whose themes revolve around the female world. Her woman characters are feeble and

engrossed in their pain, which inculcates in them a devious state of mind restricting

them from initiating relevant and authentic changes in their lives. Most of them lack

the power to analyses their pathetic condition and cannot overcome their neurotic

state. Her fiction dose not talks about the emancipation of women either intellectually

or morally. Her themes are mot universal rather they talk about individual women and

their emotional and psychological turmoil.

Ruth Prawer Jhabwala is another contemporary Indian English novelist who

was portrayed strong women characters in her novels. Her novels project the post-

independence Indian Society which consisted of Indian as well as Britishers. They

portrayed beautiful and vivid pictures of the British culture and its style of living.

However her novels lack the warmth and touch of Indians. Though she has touched

upon the theme of human relationships, it is presented with in a latticed framework

consisting of sophisticated Britishers and learned Indians. She has also delineated

women’s alienation resulting from the adaptation of British culture by Indians and

Indian cultures by Britishers. Jhawala has penned the growing influence of Britishers

on Indians which was making them materialistic. While writing about Indians and
 17

their families hshe has displayed the typical Indian housewives as well as modern

educated women.

Jhabwala has given us a glimpse ofIndian society in which men hold the place

of master and women of slave. The feminine traits inculcated in women force them to

unquestioningly submit to their male counterparts. Cultural difference also baffles

them. July in a Bacward Place, who has a British upbringing is unable to cope up with

an Indian husband similarly, Gulab in Esmond in India reticently endures her British

husband’s callousness. Jhabwalahas written about a particular independence and has

limited herself to a particular time-frame. Her themes do not possess a universal

appeal. Her writing too do not become a part of feminist literature as they relate about

women and their plight with no aim of ameliorating their pathetic state.

Kamala MArkandaya is one of those contemporary writers who have tried to

define the pathetic condition of Indian women by raising some feminist issues. She

talks about women trapped in their poverty like Rukmani in Nectar in a Sieve and

Nalini in a Handful of Rice , whereas in the Golden Honeycomb she has written about

women belonging to rich families. Unlike Anita Desai and Ruth Praawer Jhabwala,

she points out that the crux of all prevailing problems of women is their financial

dependence. Her women characters like Premala, Saroojini, Vasantha and Meera

Project the idea that the economic Indepence of woman should solve most of their

problems. These characteristics of Kamala Markanday’s female protagonist

distinguish them from women characters refuse to treat men as oracle. Her novels take

up some feminist issues and provide a new, strengthened and independence image of

women. Unlike other writers, she is not only criticizes the deplorable the status of

women but also wants to guide and encourage them to transcend it. Though she has
 18

suggested financial independence as a remedy to the conditioning sexual

discrimination, and forced sex remain unanswered. Still Kamala Markandaya has

successfully propounded some feminis ideas in her novels.

Shobha De’s fiction deals with the lives of urban aristocratic women. Marriage

to them is a convenience for money, social status and physical gratification rather than

having emotional and psychological attachment. Shobha De portrayswomen while in

quest of self-identity, and lose their morality. Her female characters are modern,

educated, glamorous, money minded and have thirst for physical gratification. They

are relentlessly in search of a new life –partner instead of analyzing their marital

problems, and are doomed by their spirit of romanticism. Her characters do not posses

any moral or ethical values of the Indian psyche normally associates with marriage.

Infidelity is not a sin but a routine activity for them which they have no remorse. Her

novels portray the metropolitan elites, who have battered values and ideas for

superficial lusts, lust for money, physical gratification, success and ambitions. Shobha

De’s feminist ideas lack Indianness. Her themes propagate the dilution of family ties

by women in order to accommodate themselves in better social positions. Though she

takes up some problems related with the lives of women, she fails to suggest any

substantial or relevant solutions to them. Her novels present a. very small section of

contemporary to grant equal rights to women in India, is now being influenced by the

feministic concepts of western culture. The enthusiasm to ameliorate the condition of

women in an underprivileged society often overlooks the difference in the plight of

Indian and western feminist; women should attain their individuality within or

without family, whereas Indian women want to seek their individuality while

remaining within the institution of marriage. They value their family, as well as their

individuality. They normally do not favor fragmentation and dilution of marital

 19

bonds. This difference in the temperament of Indian and western feministic ideology

in India. Writers like Shobha De represent a small section of Indian women who get

misguided and carried away by their emotional undulations and end their marital

knots with no regrets.

In this whole scenario the fiction of Shashi Deshpande comes as a fresh air,

which not only propagates feminist idea but also advices women to understand their

naked selves. Deshpande's novels suggest that women should take cognizance of their

weaknesses, overcome them and implement their potential in order to assert their

individuality. As a novelist she mirrors the new social-cultural context of the process

of change. Her novels reflect the social realities of Indian life. They also revaluate and

reinterpret women's status, helping them to reinvent their identity and community

positions, norms and values. The themes dealt by Deshpande in her novels possess

universality. They do not to a particular women or a particular section of women inn

the society but are representative of Indian womanhood. As compared to the novels of

Anita Desai, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya and other early writers, we

find her fiction giving a more transparent picture of Indian woman. She is neither

prejudiced against men nor has any partiality towards her female protagonists. She

presents the true facet of the modern Indian society in her novels. Supporting the

autonomous self-hood for women she suggest that substantial and reasonable methods

should be employed to improve their condition. Like Virginia Woolf, she feels that

women should be allowed to utilize their talents, and simultaneously they should fulfil

their duties towards their families. Like Betty Friedan, she too advocates that women

should be equivalent to men and their existence should be noticed as human beings.

Like Simone De Beauvoir she traces and exposes the limitation associated with a

women's life from her childhood to womanhood. Deshpande's feministic concerns are
 20

different from those of the other contemporary writers. She presents the new image of

the Indian woman, who wants to be a wife, mother and daughter , and simultaneously

desires to achieve her individuality. Deshpande's novels define the concept of

feminism within the context of Indian social milieu.

Feminism is defined as cultural, economic and political movements that are

focused towards establishing legal protection and complete equality for the women. In

Indian writing feminism has been used as a modest attempt for evaluating the real

social scenario as women are concerned. There are several novels in English literature

of India that actually. Portrays the actual status of the women in Indian Societies..

However, the modern aged women have realized that they are equally competent like

the men and they are not helpless unlike the past when men were considered as the

sole bread earners, in today's age, women too have become direct money earners of

any household.

Today's contemporary Indian English novelists are writing for the readers but

also affect them.

Feminism does not particularly talk of equality and rights of women but it is

more about compassion, respect and understanding from the male counterparts. The

main cause for the dissatisfaction of the women in today's society is the superior

attitude of the men throughout, the women have suffered and feminism talks exactly

about those Indian English novelists have frankly highlighted this concept. Authors

like Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Anita Nair, and Kamala Markandaya have

actually used the various aspects of the male dominated society as their main theme.

The Anita Nair who is taken for study in this project is too the feminist writer

writing in English in India. She mainly deals with man-woman relationship and
 21

moves from tender compassion to sensibility, to ranging hatred, and is a compelling

story-teller. She exhibits the quality of strength in a woman. She traces the real

position of women and their sensibilities shown in the families as well as women in

the society. She has created ripples in the society of male domination by taking

women as women in a serious manner. Her attempt to exhibit the plight, fears,

dilemmas, contradictions and ambitious of her women characters is remarkable. She

is feminist with a difference. She depicts the real women not the ideal. Thus in her

novel she begins the story of Akhila takes us on a journey into a women's psyche-

rather a crisscross of female experience that cover the various women sensibilities

their life. Ladies Coupe is a novel that basically deals with women sensibilities but in

no way does it show women as-battered, bartered and abandoned on the shoals of low

self-worth.

The title of the book itself makes a point about the way in which women are

treated in India. Though in the resent past there have been changes and as the author

herself wrote at the end of the novel, clarifying that till 1998, there was a special end

of the novel, clarifying that till 1998, there was a special counter for ladies, senior

citizens and handicapped persons at the Bangalore railway station and a ladies coupe

in most of the sleeper coaches in trains. Since then the practice of ladies queue has

been abolished and the new coaches in trains are now built without ladies coupe, yet

in many other places the practice still continues. There is a ladies coach in local trains

is still found in India. Why is it that it is supposed that Indian women require special

treatment; may be because it is presumed that a women can survive only in a world

which we know exists in Venus where to survive a woman has to need a man

corroborating the theory that men are from Mars and women from Venus. Every

Indian woman tries to escape this supposition yet she keeps on getting entangled in
 22

the web that perpetuates the idea that a woman cannot survive without a man's

protection.

It is here that Anita Nair's novel Ladies Coupe scores as it attempts to deal

with the ages-old question whether a single woman could be happy without a man.

This question gains a special relevance in the Indian context. To answer this question,

Anita Nair narrates the stories of various women, very different in their age, social

status and position but all are Indian women. Yet all cross the world, a women's life is

the same with slight variations of course-she is a mother, a wife a daughter. She is

expected to be the same compassionate, caring and affectionate yet women have it in

them to be mighty, vindictive and erosive when it comes to a matter of their identity.

Anita Nair's Ladies Coupe is a unique example or an illusion of the feminist

point of view. She defines the uniqueness of feminine sensibility through the reaction

and responses of the heroine to the events and situations in the novel. Basically,

Ladies Coupe is the story of a women search for strength and independence and

focuses on the inner strength inherent in every woman. It confirmed the promise that

Anita Nair had shown with her first novel The BetterMan. The background is South

India because it is familiar terrain for Anita Nair. She herself admits that she does not

know enough about North Indian where as she knows everything about the South.

Being meticulous about details she uses her vivid knowledge of South Indian culture

in the narration of the stories told in the novel.

As a writer Aniita Nair brings alive the everyday thoughts, desires and doubts

of women from all walks of life. Many critics have criticized the title and many things

in the book as outdated. Yet Nair herself states that the book, its title and its plot has a

validity, as inn South India nbthing much has changed, there have been external
 23

changes that are not very deep rooted even cosmetic to some extent. Even in the urban

and non-urban areas there is no distinction as well women carry the weight of

traditions, especially the security that is found in the manifestation of marriage. The

book is not about the twenty-five some .things, as said by Anita Nair, but for women

in their forties. That is why, Nair explicitly asks her readers not to compare her female

protagonist to the modern girls of 21st century in India. The idea to write the novel

came to Anita Nair, twenty year back when she was travelling by train in a ladies

coupe. She was top of the birth, when she heard the other occupants of the coupe

talking among them. There was an air of intimacy in a coupe so these women talked

openly to strangers knowing there was nothing judgmental about them. She used this

experience in the novel, making it a journey of sisterhood , displaying a variety of

female experiences that are not just of the characters concerned but of all women at

some juncture or the in their lives. The sub-title of the novel is a novel in parts

perhaps because the lives and experiences of six women have been welded together

by the writer into a consummate whole with the main protagonist Akhila as a magnet

in the centre.

Ahkila or Ahkillandeshwari is the main protagonist of the play Ladies Coupe

who is single forty five years old, income tax clerk. Ahkila is the eldest of four

children who was to bear the responsibilities of her father's death. Her brothers and

sister get married but neither they nor her mother is concerned with her marriage.

After her mother's death, her sister Padma comes to stay with her because she felt a

women cannot be left alone otherwise she would go astray whereas Ahkila wants to

live alone.
 24

One day Ahkila sets out by herself to seek some answers for herself mainly to

the question whether a single woman can live alone, away from her family. She buys

a ticket to Kanyakumari and is placed in a ladies coupe along with five other women

giving her company for the overnight journey. These women share their life

experiences with her thus helping her to realize her full potential as a woman and also

to find answer to the question that had been troubling her for so long. They journey

becomes a learning experience for Ahkila who ponders upon her own life after each

story section. It helps her to break free from the claustrophobic multiple identities as

daughter, sister, aunt and provider and makes it a soul-searching journey for Ahkila as

she arrives by degrees to how she live her life and assert her identity. The five

passengers with Ahkila are Janaki, Sheela, Margaret, Prabhadevi, ad Marikolanthu.

Ahkila strikes up a conversation with these women who tell her of their lives. Janaki,

the oldest of the group and married for forty years, tells Ahkila about her Ahkila about

her daily routine. She says:

"Why should a women live by herself. There is always a Man willing to be

with her."(p.no.21)

Janaki's response is what Ahkila had been taught since childhood. She was a

simple, South Indian Brahmin family and her father worked in a Income-tax

department. Ahkila as the eldest child saw the unique togetherness of her parents. As

per the custom in most South Indian families, Ahkila's mother was married to her

uncle and she always believed that a good wife should always be inferior to her

husband. But Ahkila has her own opinion therefore she was grateful that she did not

have a uncle waiting in the wings to marry her.

 25

The devotion of Ahkila's mother to her husband is shown in reverse proportion

in the case of Janaki wife of Prabhakar, her husband who is devoted one, so much so

that she found it stifling. She was tired of being treated as a fragile creature and

admitted that a foe lived in her questioned her marriage yet she did try to fathom what

her marriage was based on

"A tensile connection that is there between most couples who have been

married a long time. She didn't know how to describe it. A companionship? A

friendship? Or a mere complicity that springs between people who shared a bed, a

child and a life?"(p.no31-32)

Janaki's realizes the importance of her husband in her life when she visits her

son and daughter-in-law. When Siddharth, her son, criticizes her, it is Prabhakar who

takes up cudgels on her behalf against their son and they decide to leave as soon as

possible. Janaki becomes aware of the importance of the friendly love of her husband

and also that she could not cope alone.

Janaki's words echo in Akhila's mind and she realizes that she could not find

answers to her probleM by studying other people's lives. If she follow Janaki advice,

she could continue to live with her family. But Prabha Devi, another of her co-

passenger, tells her that she has just heard one story yet there is a change in her Janaki

says;

"I can see in your life in your eyes"(p.no.41)

Though Janaki's story, Nair has related the story of most Indian women who

come to love the man they marry and become dependent on him, raising his children

and passing life together.

 26

When night falls, Akhila's co-passengers retire for the night, Akhila's mind

ponders on the past. She remembers her father who was a misfit for the job that he did

at the Income Tax Department. On Sunday, her mother pampered her father with her

wonderful cooking and devoted attention. Akhila's father always had a look of

suffering about him as he felt he was unjustly treated his office. Even his death

appeared mysterious as he was crushed under the bus. It was left to Akhila's lot to

take on the mantle of the provider for the family a§ she got a job in her father's place

and now had to bear all her father's responsibilities.

Her train of thought is broken when Sheela, a fifteen year old girl enters the

coupe to the midnight.

"Something about the way she sat reminded Akhila of her brother Narayan on

the day their father died.

The same clenching within. The same urge not to give way to tears and

disgrace herself. The same dignity. Neither a child nor a woman"(p.no.61)

Sheela was grappling with the shock of the death of her grandmother, whom

she called Ammumma. Dying of cancer, she had come to live with her daughter,

Sheela's mother due to her quarrel with her sons. Sheela and her grandmother get to

know each other and she gets to know her grandmother's fondness for feminine things

like make-up and jewellery. When he died, Sheela's uncles came and. took matters inn

their hands, it is only Sheela who realizes how her grandmother would have hated to

see the condition in which her body lay. So in spite of the protests of her parents and

uncles, Sheela applied make-up on her dead grandmother's face and decked her in

costume jewellery because she knew how her grandmother would have been pleased.
 27

This defiance of tradition by Sheela reminds Akhila how she herself became

the women of the family after her father's death at the young age of nineteen. In that

capacity, she had forbidden her widowed mother to shave off her hair or change her

saris. Since then she was caught in the whirlpool of family responsibilities. and had

already become a spinster. Even when her brothers steeled down with jobs and

family, they never thought of Akhila 's marriage. She was expected to get her younger

sister married by providing a good dowry for . her. Her only act of rebellion and

deAnance was her indulgence in the pleasure of eating ann egg, introduced to her, by

her Anglo Indian friend, Katherine . Akhila's mother had to accept it in her Brahmin

household such as she had accepted her husband's fondness for snuff. Self-indulgence

lands to guilt in her psyche and she is assailed by erotic dreams but it is woken up by

the ashamed faces of her family members. She gives into her desires till her desires

till her dream is shattered by the banging of the coupe door. It was Margaret who had

already declared to her that

"A woman doesn't really need a man.

That is a myth that men have tried to twist into reality"(p.no.95)

It is Margaret who tells Akhila the story of her life, her marriage to Elbencer

Paulraj, to make her aware that ' a women needs a man but not to make her feel

whole'.(p.no.95). Margaret Shanti is a chemistry teacher and so indentifies each

individual with a chemical. She classified herself as water -the universal solvent - also

a solvent that could dissolve and destroy.

"Water that moistens. Water that heals. Water that forgets.

Water that accepts. Water that floe tirelessly.

 28

Water that also destroys. For the power to dissolve and destroy is as much a

part of being water wetness is"(p.no.96)

Her husband Paulraj is the principle of the school he teaches in. She hates her

husband. He always finding fault with her and after the initial euphoria of marriage

had wom-off, she became disillusioned. Her first pregnancy was aborted due to her

husband's wishes and she was beset by guilt and emptiness at her state. Margaret now

see her husband as he actually was-an egoist and a bully, a sex pervert. She takes

revenge in a unique manner, i.e. through his love of food. She becomes a perfect cook

and stuffs him with gourmet dishes so much so that soon his body becomes covered in

layers of fat. As a fat man, it became easier to live with him as now it has blunted his

razor edge. She became pregnant again and gave a birth to a girl. She was returning

from Bangalore after putting Paulraj in a health clinic to shed off his extra kilos.

Margaret feels that she has to stop her husband from reverting to his earlier self as she

has her daughter to think of. Margaret leaves the train at Coimbatore with an advice to

Akhila to live her life without bothering about what others will think of her.

Margaret's story brings out another aspect of marriage in which love appears

like a wild beast that had been domesticated. All this reminds Akhila of Hari whom

she had met on the daily train to work. She broke off her relationship with him

because he was younger to her. She still felt regret loss and was agonized against her

inability to revolt against her family expectations, social obligations and traditional

norms thrust upon her.

In the morning, Prabha Devi gets up and then she starts conversing with

Akhila who finds her one of the most confident and content persons she had ever

seen. Prabha Devi tells Akhila:

 29

"I used to be very much like you. Quite and timid and afraid to try anything

new. Then one day,

I discovered I didn't like the person

I had become and so I changed."(p.no.167)

Prabha Devi is forty years old and had always had a comfortable life. After her

fortieth birthday, she realized that enough was enough and she should now do what

she always wanted to do. She had always been pampered, first by her parents, then by

her husband. and children. She had learnt to live life to the hilt and to enjoy the power

of her beauty. Her good looks have the magnetism to capture the attention of every

male. She gets the chance to have a fling but does not want anything at the cost of her

family. After she is forty years old, her old yearnings resurface in her desire to learn

swimming. Her desire to break free off tradition so that .she could keep her identity

intact. By learning swimming, she does something that is extremely fulfilling to her.

Though Prabha Devi's story, Anita Nair wants to show that one has to move on with

the tide of life rather than she case on the banks.

The last occupant in the coupe besides Akhila is Marikolanthu, thirty one

years old woman from a poor family. She herself admits that she is different from the

other women in the coupe because hers had never been a sheltered life. She knows

firsthand how cruel the world could be for a woman. She is unwed mother after she

was raped at the hands of one of the relatives of the Chettiar family when she was

working at the Chettiar Kottai as the maid — in charge of the grandson of Chettiar.

For Marikolanthu, the child's mother, Sujata Akka was unable to help her so she gave

birth to a male child who was left with her mother. But destiny brought her back again

and once again she went back to Sujata Akka. She avoided meeting her son whom she
 30

detested. In time she became involved a lesbian relationship with Sujata Akka who

was sexually starved. She also slept with Sujata Akka's husband so that he would not

go to other women. But Sujata Akka was very annoyed at this and turned her out.

"So I mortgaged the boy to Murugasan's looms for the next two years in return

for the next two years.-(p.no.265)

Soon she discovered that she had a tumour in her uterus and needed five

thousand rupees for the operation. So she sold her son to the loom factory for the

money, ironically, to Murugesan the father of her son. But now that Murugesan was

dead, she was going to the foreigners who had employed her at Nagercoil to give her

money to buy her son back. Through Marikolanthu's story, the writer has recounted

the tale of many girls from poor families who face tossed about in the world due to

the demands of fate and it tells Akhila now cruel life can really be. She realizes that

life has to be lived to the full, one should not shy away from it.

All these teaches Akhila that one has to grab every moment as it comes and

perhaps because of this, Akhila staying alone in a hotel in Kanyakumari invites an

unknown young man to her room for the forbidden pleasures of physical intimacy.

She sheds her middle class morality in this drastic step and has learnt to live on the

surface. She feels the primal strength inherent in every woman. She even rings up

Hari after nearly a decade, not bothered that he may now be married. Through a slow

but sure proves Akhila becomes Akhilandeshari and comes to a true realization of her

real self. She enjoys being alone.

Through this wonderful spectrum of female experiences as related by her co-

passengers in the ladies coupe, Akhila finds the strength to emerge from the prison of

her old self. Au be noting will have changed when she returns superficially but she
 31

has evolved clearly on a mental level. She has thrown off her inhibitions I the ladies

coupe where five women shared some of their life's intimate moments with her about

their childhood, their husband's their sons and. their lovers. The book attempts to deal

with various issues like rape, homosexuality, and women's education. Anita Nair is

able to convey the dilemma of her characters with a freshness and charm that makes

her story more than just a feminist homily. It is an insight into the expectation of

Indian women; his choice they make and the choices made for them. Each story has

the seed of a full novel in them. There is a strong message of hope through change in

them and even the ending is like another beginning.

 32

CHAPTER – III

CONCLUSION

The title of the novel Ladies Coupe itself reveals that unconsciously the

women's insecurity in the absence of a man. Ladies Coupe is a compartment in a train

that is reserved exclusively for women. This compartment is safe, quite and preferred

by women who are either travelling alone or travelling without a man. Akhila, the

protagonist chooses to travel in a ladies cope to discover her. The manner in which

Nair relates the transformation within Akhila, is in turn revelatory and redeeming. She

handles the characters with dexterity, gently guiding and prodding- them to tell their

own story and never controlling them.

Anita Nair's Ladies Coupe induces women to imagine in relation to their

strength and about their self-identity _ She tries to integrate the chronic female

occurrence in her writing. She explores that every women should try to be cautions

about their rights and for the expressions of their individual capability. In this novel

Nair set down her imagination and breezy thoughts in simple words. She is one,

among those novelist who made a valiant approach to elevate her tone against the

aggression, violence, oppression and exploitation of women.

Each woman in the ladies coupe 4: iares her experience with are very

different, interesting, and shocking. They are all women, who wanted to be

independent and at some point of time lost their identity respect to the whims and

crazes of men in their lives. Nair has chosen women from different strata of society in

modern day India and portrayed each if the characters in a very manner.
 33

After the element of variety in her story line, Anita Nair's strongest point is her

deep understanding complexities of life, which are easily manifested in the narrative.

Ladies coupe becomes common place for everyday characters. They are alive, their

tears real, their exasperation genuine and dramatic and their dilemma understandable.

The major predicaments and issues confronted by the characters in Anita Nair

Ladies Coupe are mate dependency denial of decision making, abortion,

subordinations, marriage, rape, and issues of women headed families. The central

character is Akhila who becomes the matriarch of her family after her father's demise.

She is a single woman who want to find out if her life has been complete without a

man. Next when Marikolathu is raped, instead of showing sympathy everyone blames

her. Here Anita Nair tries to delineate the psychology of all the members male or

female in society find fault with the women who has been exploited as she herself is

regarded responsible for her tragedy. When this debacles even took place some

conservative people in India put their opinion that a girl herself is responsible for her

tragedy because she usually wears inappropriate attire and fascinates men.

India suffers. from a patriarchal system which has tried in many ways to

repress, militate and debase women. Se poses in the novel not shake the ideological

group of man's patriarchal role in our traditionally society but also imply the existence

of an alternative reality. It presents an opposition between ideological appearance

represented in mythic and metaphysical understanding of the material world and

reality represented in the material oppression of women of low caste and their

sexuality.

Through this tender story shows great understanding and compassion for all

women and for the choices and regrets they cannot avoid. She portrays women as not
 34

totally cut off from familial social ties but women who remains with those orbits and

protest against injustice and humiliation.

Anita Nair through the example of Margaret 's character reflects the not even

an illiterate women but also a well educated women feels herself trapped in such a

society. Their low social position can be seen in their homes where they are still

treated like as an object to fulfill mans sexual desire . women position in India is a

kind of a contradiction because on one side she is distressed by her own family

members, thus they have to traverse through a long way as their path is fulfilled with

a number of obstacles.

Anita Nair in her novel Ladies Coupe attempts to show that how people in

India still treat women as inferior and how they get a substance position in the society

just because of their physical distinctiveness. Nair enforces women to have their own

identity in the society where they live. Through these women characters she

encourages women to raise their voices and express their feelings so that they would

be able to make other people understand the value of their existence.

To sum it can said that Anita Nair is a one of those Indian English novelists

who with her impressive technique of novel-writing give a real o

Description of women's wretched condition in Indian society. On one side

Nair explores women's agony and on the other side she suggest a number of ways to

fight back against these agonies to make their life a fruitful and peaceful one. Her

women characters are not weak; they are courageous and possesses an impressive.
 35

audacity and will power to fight back against social evils. Anita Nair's novel can be

considered as microcosm of female world.

Anita Nair as a third world feminist writer presents struggles of women within

the patriarchal and capitalist structure in Indian through powerful characters like

Akhila and Marikolanthu.

 36

WORKS CITED

PRIMARY SOURCE:

1. Nair,anita. Ladies Coupe. Penguin book . Community centre, Panchsheel Park,

New Delhi, 2001, Print.

SECONDARY SOURCE:

1. Amin, Amina. From Stereotype to Individual: Women's Short Fiction in Gujarati.

Indian Feminism. Ed. Jasbir and Avadesh Kumar Singh, New Delhi: Creative

Books, 2001.p.150.

2. Bande, U.(1988). The Novels of Anita Desai. New Delhi: Prestige Books. Reddy,

Sheela. I'd like to be Labeled a Writer of Fiction: An Interview with Anita Nair,

Online, http'//www.outlookindia.comdfulLasp?fondname.p.3.

3. Singh, Priyanka. Women-centric? Yes. feministic? No: A Review of Ladies

Coupe, online, http//www triblmeindia.com/2001/200110826/ spectrum/

books.htm.p.2.

4. Singh, S. (1970). Recent Trends in Feminist thought: A Tour de Horizon,

Feminism, Theory, Criticism, Delhi: Analysis Pencraft International.

5. Woolf, Virginia., Modern Fiction Reader. New York: Harvest Books, 1953, pp

153-155.