LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:8 August 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Nostalgia in The Lowland

Dr. Mayur Chhikara, Ph.D.

Focus on Dilemma of Characters

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland, in the backdrop of diasporic dilemma of characters, revolves around experiences of isolation, guilt and nostalgia experienced by the central characters. “Portraying life of the Indian migrants to America, Lahiri has been very poignant in capturing the diasporic spirit”.1 The Lowland starts with the life of two siblings, Subhash and Udayan Mitra (with stark differences in their characters), exploring themselves in the milieu of the Naxalite movement in the 1960s in West Bengal.

Subhash and Gowri

In the backdrop of the Naxalite movement, Subhash moves to the US for higher studies in oceanography, while Udayan involves himself in the Naxalite movement and is killed. Out of compassion, Subash marries Gauri who is his brother's wife. He takes her to Rhode Island along with him in order to raise her child. But his efforts to develop an intimate relationship with her fail due to the feelings of nostalgia in Gauri. The novel ends with the positive idea of reconciliation in the backdrop of the feelings of nostalgia in Subash and Gauri. Siddhartha Deb writes in Sunday Book Review depicting feelings of nostalgia in Subhash: “Subhash, who has escaped a city he sees as disorganized as well as violent, and who studies oceanography, finds in the beaches of Rhode Island a resemblance to the delta lowlands surrounding Calcutta”.2

The Social Milieu

There is a description (in the first chapter) of the social milieu where Subhash and Udayan used to live and also, the name of the novel came from there: Once, within this enclave, there were two ponds, oblong, side by side. Behind them was lowland spanning a few acres. After the Mansoon, the ponds would rise so that the embankment build between them could not be seen. The lowland also filled with rain, three or four feet deep, the water remaining for a portion of the year………. So many times Subhash and Udayan had walked across the lowland. It was a shortcut to field on the outskirts of the neighborhood, where they went to play football.3

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Mayur Chhikara
Assistant Professor
Department of Humanities
Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology
Murthal
Sonipat-131039.
Haryana
India
mayurchhikara@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.