R. Revathi
‘The Dying and the Living’ in Githa Hariharan’s ‘The Art of Dying’ and other stories
In the Indian literary scenario, especially in the field of fiction, writing about death is not new. Since time immemorial, many Indian writers have tried their hand in it. R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, U.R. Anantha Murthy, Kamala Markandaya, Arundhathi Roy, Rohinton Mistry and Kavery Nambisan have highlighted death in their works. Following their footsteps, Githa Hariharan blazed a trail in her collection of short stories ‘The Art of Dying’, published in 1993.
Before proceeding to analyse her stories, it is imperative to study the concept of death. Both birth and death occur every second and they are different as T.S. Eliot says in ‘The Journey of the Magi’. They evoke different kinds of reactions from the people. It is natural to react positively to the former and negatively to the latter. Unfortunately, people respond to death in an altogether different manner. Death is considered as a taboo. The topic of death is forbidden on auspicious days. People refuse to think about their death and the death of their near and dear as well. It is always viewed as an ill omen. Their attitude towards the dying also suffers the same fate.
Githa Hariharan in ‘The Art of Dying’ has taken the initiative to introduce death as something natural. Unlike her predecessors, she does not elaborate on the funeral rites and the ceremonies, but instead, brings into focus the attitude of the dying and the reactions of the living towards the dying. In this process, she does not shock the minds of the readers and her art of telling stories is subtle and natural.
“The Remains of the Feast” is a story which deals with a ninety year old dying woman, Rukmini. Her story is narrated by her great granddaughter Ratna, a young girl of twenty two, who is studying medicine. Inspite of the gap in age between these two, there seems to be a special bond between them. According to Ratna, her great grandmother is always cheerful and never sick and it helped her to survive even after the death of her only son and his wife without succumbing to grief. Her remarks about her great grandmother’s comment seem to be ‘hilarious’ at the surface level only:
“That she, an ignorant village bred woman, who signed the papers my father brought her with a thumb-print, should survive; while they, city-bred ambitious, should collapse of weak hearts and arthritic knees at the first sign of old age” (TAD9).
Her comments about her husband how he used to faint when he saw his own blood are also uttered humorously. It is not only her utterances but her behaviour as well is misleading. While she is narrating, she will be giggling, which will develop into ‘uncontrollable peals’ of laughter with tears flowing down her cheeks. This kind of reaction indicates that the sense of humour is not spontaneous but it is due to suppression – suppression of feelings and emotions when she has lost her husband, her only son and daughter -in-law. She has buried her emotions deep and sometimes her buried emotion finds an outlet in a hearty laugh bordering on hysteria.
However, Ratna is right regarding her health. The old woman never becomes sick and she used to boast how she has pulled along without seeing the doctor for nearly sixty years. Nevertheless, two months before her death, she has agreed to see the doctor, as she has gradually lost her mobility. The diagnosis is that she is gradually dying because of a huge lump, a cancerous growth, which has spread.
While Ratna is upset, the reaction of her parents is different. Her father becomes uneasy as his wont and unable to come to any decision, Ratna’s mother “practical as always” takes up the matter in her hands. She warns her husband and daughter not to reveal this to the old woman or anybody else. Her concern is not for the feelings of the old woman. It is rather for her daughter as she is having examinations and if the news is leaked, then there will be a swarm of visitors.
That night when the old woman pampered and pestered Ratna, she is panicked that the old woman is asking about the prognosis of the doctor. She is greatly relieved and stunned when she asked instead for cakes particularly from the Christian shop. She immediately complies with her wishes and the mission is accomplished secretly. The old woman’s craving started with her craving for cakes and continued with ice-creams, biscuits and samosas. On every occasion, the old woman wants assurance from Ratna, that one of the ingredients of cakes is eggs. Here one is reminded of Dylan Thomas’ popular poem “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Ratna’s great grandmother, knowing that she is going to die has prepared herself not to go gentle into the good night but “burn and rave at close of day” as asked by Dylan Thomas. Only in her case, it is not raving, but craving. The way she is asking and the way she is devouring the forbidden food is, of course comical, and unbelievable for she is “a Brahmin widow who had never eaten anything but pure, home-cooked food for almost a century” (TAD 12).
Gradually, she becomes fed up of these things, grows bold and demands different things which she insists should be fulfilled immediately. The sense of urgency revealed in her desires evokes a tinge of sympathy. In the meantime Ratna’s parents have come to know about her cravings and Ratna’s mother is shocked to the core, when the old woman asks for coca-cola. However, she fulfills her desires as she is always a “dutiful granddaughter-in-law”. Once again, the old woman wants a positive confirmation from Ratna that the coca-cola contains alcohol. Her journey of cravings continues for “Lemon-tarts, garlic, three types of aerated drinks, fruit cake baked with brandy, bhel-puri from the fly-infested bazaar nearby” (TAD 13).
There comes an end at one stage, when she is unable to gulp or swallow, yet the craving does not die for she shouts for raw onion, chicken and goats. The time has come to hospitalize her and both Ratna and her mother have taken turns to look after the old woman. Very soon she reaches the next stage and is put on saline water. She is not able to articulate and finally one day when she calls for Ratna, both Ratna and her mother rushed to her bed side and Ratna’s mother, knowing that the old woman is breathing her last, begs for blessings with tears in her eyes. The final utterance on the part of the old woman is the climax of the story when she shouts for a red colour saree “with a big wide border of gold” and “peanuts with chilli powder from the corner shop. Onion and green chilly bondas deep fried in oil” (TAD 13). With this she breathed her last.
The old woman right from the time of knowing about her impending death has been demanding for forbidden things and in a kind of hurry to fulfill desires. It is a wrong conclusion to arrive at, that people will crave things which they have not enjoyed throughout their lives. It is merely her suppression not of desires but of feelings, which has reared its head at the time of death in a different form. An analysis of the background of the old woman clearly reveals that there is absolutely no one to understand or share her feelings. It is the death of her only son and his wife which must be a mortal blow to her. Her grandson is a weak character and his wife fulfills her last wishes as she is dying but not willing to do it while she is living. She is not willing to inform her relatives as they will be visiting her and this will be a hindrance to her daughter’s studies. It is a kind of emotional abuse as they have denied the response the old lady required. Hence, all the feelings and emotions suppressed have taken an upper hand and it is a great misfortune that the living do not even have an iota of understanding but taken her death as a matter of fact except Ratna.. Even after her death, Ratna tried to cover her great grandmother’s body with her own red colour silk saree since it was her last wish.Ratna’s gesture, in the words of Sunitha Srinivas.C.shows “the loving reverence for the dead, with recognition of the continued relation of the dead with the living” (107). However, it was ruthlessly rejected by her mother.
The story ‘The Art of Dying’ is yet another story which deals with a dying woman. The daughter of the dying woman is the narrator. The story moves between the past and present. The situation is more or less the same in both the stories. Both the women have lost their only sons. The only consolation for the old woman in ‘ Remains of the Feast’ is that her son died “at the first sign of old age”, whereas in” The At of Dying,” the woman’s son died even before he was married. The news came as a lightning. He was not ill or bedridden. He was a hale and healthy doctor, practising in Australia who collapsed “on his own examining table”. He died, not even having time to convey any “messages or explanations” to anyone.
The grief of the parents when their child dies is inexplicable. They confront several stages of grief such as shock, denial, resentment, guilt, sadness, dejection and finally acceptance. However, there is no hard and fast rule that they will follow the same pattern. They may not come across some stages or they may fail to reach the last stage which is acceptance.
In the story ‘The Art of Dying’, when the mother, a widow hears the death news of her son, her immediate reaction is shock. “She was completely dry eyed without a whimper or a moan, she groped for her widow’s narrow bed. She lay there for days, eyes open, arms frozen by the sides of her body playing dead” (TAD 67).For three days, she survived without food but on the fourth day, her daughter forcibly fed her as she was leaving for Australia to bring the body of her brother.
Unlike the old woman in ‘”The Remains of the Feast”, the dying woman very often goes down the memory lane. According to her daughter, a volunteer in the counselling centre, her mother is a “full – time trader in memories” (TAD 64). As she travels to the past, she communicates, not bothering about her audience. Her daughter listens, no doubt, but with total objectivity as through her mother is another patient. When her mother confesses, she wants to find out the crux of the problem, which is hidden.
The confession of the dying woman expresses her guilt. She feels guilty that she is not able to die along with her son. It is her strong conviction that her love for her son is not sufficient to die with him. Guilt is a feeling which all the grieving parents feel at one time or other. It does not matter whether they are really responsible for their child’s death. The feeling of guilt always persists. According to them, they should die before their children and their question why it is reversed in their case cannot be answered by anyone. In the words of Miles and Demi, it is called “survival guilt”. She also suffers from “recovery guilt” which is nothing but her continuation of life.
If I loved him…I should have stopped breathing the moment I heard. Instead, I was stunned. Something in me, a vital organ, disconnected itself and turned a clumsy somersault. I cheated myself: the heart, the lungs, ruthless survivors, betrayed my love. One continued to beat, the other inhaled and exhaled callously. (TAD 68)
From her confession pops up bits and pieces of her feelings towards her dominating husband. When she speaks about her husband, there is still bitterness and hatred in her voice. She is not ready to forgive him even in her death bed. When she complained that he was jealous, suffering from a kind of complex syndrome, her daughter tries to justify. Yet, she has got her own grudge against him as a father. He keeps a tight rein on his family and ruins their lives. After his death, the memories he evoked are painful both for his wife and daughter. He dominated his children to a great extent. Before his death, he sent his children a photograph of himself and his wife and gives them strict instructions as to how to frame the photograph. One can very well visualize the suppression of the dying lady and hence her son’s death is a great shock to her.
There is anger too on the part of the dying woman towards the end, when she wants to know whether her son felt the same weakness. Her wish for pain “an excruciatingly sharp pain” clearly reveals that she is confessing and communicating unlike the old woman in “The Remains of the Feast”. Yet, she is not able to feel. No doubt, she is able to dissect and analyze her feelings for her son, but she is not able to release her emotions. In other words, she is not able to cry. Finally, two days before her death, there seems to be a kind of look in her face which seems to be a contented one. It is certainly not acceptance of her son’s death but a happiness that she is going to join him in the other world.
The dying woman’s daughter reminds one of Ratna’s mother. While she is very practical, this lady plays the role of the counselor even to her mother. She denies the
emotional response which her mother expects. It is true that she hides about her brother’s “white girl friend” from her mother so as not to offend her but still, one is disappointed in her responses to her mother. On the whole, the two short stories “The Remains of the Feast” and” The Art of Dying” stand out highlighting the human behaviour. While the dying suffer emotional suppression, the living prefer to take the back seat with reference to their emotions and do everything, of course, in a mechanical manner.
Works Cited
Hariharan, Githa. The Art of Dying stories, Penguin Books India (P) Ltd. 1993.
Miles, M. S., & Demi, A comparison of guilt in bereaved parents whose children died by suicide, accident or chronic disease, Omega (1991)
Srinivas. C. Sunitha. Functionalism and Indian English Fiction From Cradle to Grave, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd. 2010.