Cultural compromises
SELINE AUGUSTINE
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A true-to-life depiction of the generation gap in the Indian diaspora.
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Portable Roots: A Saga of the Tamil Diaspora; Sivasankari, translated by Rekha Shetty, Promilla & Co. Publishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia, Rs. 295.
THIRTEEN years have elapsed since Sivasankari wrote the original Ini (meaning Hereafter), but the novel is incredibly relevant in today's context. In fact more pertinent now than then, it appears. The astute author had in the early 1990s foreseen how the picture will develop and reality has not been different when you take a peek at the current scenario. The burning issues to do with cultural compromise are the same. If anything, the adjustment problems the writer refers to have only got accentuated for the next generation of Indians growing up in the West.
The constant conflict between the parents who grew up in India and made the U.S. their home for livelihood and the children who were born and bred there, especially the Tamil diaspora, is tellingly brought out. Life is certainly not roses and sunshine all the way in the West though that is what many may firmly believe.
The 15-year-old Gowri, whose friends and neighbours were American, is genuinely puzzled and asks why dad does not help mom in domestic chores unlike in other households. Sparks fly when mother Mythili and daughter get talking as the younger generation rail against tradition and accepted norms. Gowri counters, "Just because someone is older than you, do you have to listen to them even when they are in the wrong?" The teenager is appalled that elders could enforce decisions for others. "What's so great about India where not too many think it's wrong to be nosy about other people's business or to comment about them or make decisions for them." Mythili is stumped for a valid response. So true to life is the portrayal and the characterisation, it is as if the author were merely recounting from the leaves of a family diary.
Conflict in the family
Mythili is the typical Tamil brought up in Thanjavur and for whom "pujas, rituals, respect for elders, modesty and humility in women" are the governing principles of her uncomplicated life. When Gowri so much as suggests bringing home her friend Mike, the mother sees red and the father throws a fit. Enlightening is when Gowri brings up the instances of the flouting of cultural norms by their own kin back home in Madras and the instances of deviant behaviour when they visit the U.S.
Father Venkat, a professor and of the "boiling milk type", is quiet one moment, the next bubbling over. Would calm down as mercurially as he got agitated. From a writer of Sivasankari's stature we don't expect platitudes being dished out from the pulpit as it were. The narrative progresses in a predictably linear fashion and picks up tempo. No surprise or big suspense in the story. To the author's credit it must be said she balances by referring to the positives and advantages of the American norms and lifestyle and in unbiased terms. Finding themselves totally out of depth, Venkat and Mythili opt for returning to India with family for good. But they are stopped in their tracks by the plastic surgeon Mukundan who had tried a short stint in India with family before quickly getting back to the U.S. The couple realise that their children are not likely to take to living in India easily and so they resolve to stay on. Bottomline: you can have a place in the sun but not also in the moon as well, or in other words, cannot have the cake and eat it too.
Rekha Shetty has done an exemplary job of translating the original. The language flows evenly and the narrative comes through cogent and cohesive. The nuances peculiar to the Tamil language and expressions exclusive to the milieu have been bestowed meticulous attention.
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