Rereading Barrister Parvateesam After Four Decades

 

Barrister Parvateesam is a novel that delights as well as instructs. It uses humour to expose cultural differences between the east and the West. Written a century ago , it still is highly readable although it language seems somewhat remote now but relevant at the time of writing .

In the first   part we find Parvateesam in his childhood , school life, adolescence in which he  joins nationalist movement to the cost of education resulting in failure in studies and  later decision to go  abroad to become a barrister. It is the most humorous part depicting pranks in school days, competition for place in merit order and initially he comes out on flying colours. His father chides him for failure  and asks him to look after agriculture. Then Parvateesam leaves his village without  informing his parents. His train journey shows many humorous incidents from taking ticket, tying his bundle to chain used to stop the train, use of washroom . When he gets down in Madras he haggles with cart drivers, changes  his hairstyle, buys  sundry things which are needed in England , goes to a shopping mall and falls while trying to walk on tiles instead of on carpet. On board steamer to Colombo to Marseilles, he faces troubles due to his vegetarianism, sea sickness and uncertainity about his future.                

In the second part written after forty six years at the behest of Narla Venkateswara Rao and Puranam Subramanya Sarma  , the reputed editors  of Andhra Jyoti , the novelist  shows subtle humour arising out of cutural clash. Parvateesam reached London and was fortunate to have  a friend like Menen and later Raju to allay is fears in the beginning stage.  Menen familiarizes him with life in England taking him to otels. Picture houses and explaining intricacies of social behaviour. Raju helps Parvateesam a lot. When Parvateesam joins Barrister at law In Edinburgh university, Raju helps  him find a residence, familiarizes the apt  behaviour , takes him to  picture houses  and familiarizes him with games like golf. Parvateesam soon learns things quickly , becomes a good player of golf and earns name whne he recites Telugu poems in the presence of  Anant  Kumara swamy . Duggirala Gopala Krishnaiah, later a veteran freedom movement leader appreciates him a lot .  Parvateesam’s experiences in his rented house with his land lady and her two daughters as a good soul. He puts up with their pranks and takes them to see plays .  his love with a  Scottish girl shows him as a young man given to emotions but prudent enough not to cause nay suffering to his family. He realises his limitations and bids her farewell with much anguish. While on return journey, he and other passengers pass through a perilous journey due to the world war going on at the time.  In the part we find Parvateesam growing into a man of good manners. Knowledge, responsibility and unblemished  moral sense. Humour comes out in misunderstanding new cultural norms . Two examples are that Paravateesam when invited to a party feels shy to ask for washroom in host’s house and urinates at the street cornet and even discloses it thoughtlessly. He also takes to task one new comer from India who goes to an evening  party in the morning itself and wants to stay there even in the night without bothering about inconvenience to his hosts.                   

In part three, we find Parvateesam’s return to his native place, the innocent questions by the curious villagers about his life and education there . It is like the coming back of Ulysses. Here the novelist describes the foreign returnee’s reflections, loneliness , agreeing for  arranged marriage thanks to the trick by his friend and well wisher Raju . The protagonist enjoys reunion with his parents , their love and affection and initial reluctance to tie the knot and final succumbing to tradition. The story is told in a style of subtle humour. Paravteesam goes to Madras and meets eminent lawyers such as Narayana Murty and Tanguturi  Prakasam( the real character in Andhra history) and becomes a practising  lawyer in high court . He also gets his wife Saraswati educated .He gains name in a short span  but both of them  he slowly gets attracted to nationalist movement, meet stalwart leaders like Duggirala Gopalakrishnaiah   at the cost of his practice and economic status. He relates many humorous anecdotes in lawyering.  He gets very active in nationalist movement  , finds the increasing suppression of the people in movement by the  British , gets disillusioned by lack of ethics in lawyering  practice and undergoes  even jail term in the cause of freedom movement. At last he goes back to his native place, refuses his father-in-law’s advice to carry on his practice and decides to listen to his father who wants to take care of their agricultural lands. We find a sort of parallel between this part and Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao’s ‘Chaduvu’ . The difference is that Sundaram’s saga has completely happened in India where as Parvateesam is a foreign returnee. But both of them have got influenced by traditional mores and also  national movement . Their education has not turned them into careerists but as people who responded to the call of the nation.  

The novel has a few things which are  more  politically incorrect  these days. His reference to nonvegetarian food as ‘malakoodu’ and depicting the reaction of the other  customers at   his entry  in a  hotel ‘as if they saw an untouchable amidst brahmin meal’ in the first part. But this only reflects the bias of the novelist  prevailing at the time  and even now casteism has not been eradicated completely from  our social system. The travails of Parvateesam are reflection of conflicts faced by the    middle class and upper caste  Indian youth  caught in the cultural conflict between the East and the West a century ago.

 

                       

Sundaram's Anguish in Kodavaiganti Kutumbarao's 'Chaduvu'

 

In Kutumbarao’s Chaduvu , the character of Sundaram , his experiences in school, children’s pranks with teachers bring back the memories of one’s childhood. Sundaram is worried over his place in merit in his class, his interaction with Sivaiah , the child from the family of makers of mats , the difficulties in buying notes, comparison with  his classmate  Krishna Murty  . his mother’s admonishments regarding his demands for note books, his gradual understanding regarding their precarious economic statues and his sympathy for the other poor and unfortunate children show how a sensibility is moulded gradually in the background of 1930’s.  his teacher Sitappa was a a conservative and an admirer of Bal Gangadhar tilak and when the latter died, Sitappa was filled with sorrow and taught nothing in the class. Another teacher  Sambaiah infused in boys hatred towards the British rule. Sundaram’s  maternal uncle Seshagiri turned into a nationalist, his son Narusu into a singer in a drama troupe  and a counterpart to studious Sundaram. Sundaram worries over the sudden widowhood of Sakuntala but his sympathies stopped short of  love. Narusu married Sundaram’s sister Janaki and Sundaram himself married Lakshmi. His middle class  shyness makes him put up with rituals which he did not like much . he could not do much when Narusu asked him to arrange a drama performance for his troupe but resented when it was held due to initiative by Narusu through help from hostellers whom Narusu approached.   Later he comes across Sakuntala who has remarried . He writes a story the same night but tears it the next morning. We see Sundaram as a character more in reaction to changing conditions which impact him rather than as a dynamic personality.  He again writes a story of remarriage of  a widow which gets published . He attends a Congress meeting in Madras  and later  joins Benares Hindu  university , gets into touch with literature and with nationalist movement. His uncle Seshagiri who does a jail term n the movement does not want this son Narusu to undergo the same and Sundaram also finds  opportunism of some who evade arrest  Sundaram also observes the suppression of the  nationalist movement by the police. Sundaram fails to write exams and get his degrees due to economic difficulties.  The Great Depression finds Sundaram without job and money but spends his time in reading books from municipal library. When he sees his wife Lakshmi teaching alphabets to their child , he remembers his own experience twenty years back and feels happy.

In the novel the reader finds a fragment of life during 1920-35 in India when society has found itself changing under the impact of nationalist movement and ne found love for education.  It also shows the middle class destiny with the tryst and Sundaram represents the aspiring middle class whose ambitions have been thwarted by the whirlpool of changes in the period. It is a tribute to the ardent desire for education unmindful of its worldly prospects and  the social and psychological  anguish of the middle class boy  Sundaram .         

A Sorrowful Death of Prem Chand's Nirmala

 

Prem Chand’s novel ‘Nirmala’  depicts the struggle  of a young woman married to a middle-aged man Totaram, a lawyer. Her earlier engagement to a doctor was cancelled by her prospective in-laws when her father died abruptly. Her life with the lawyer  Totaram proves colourless and insipid as her husband has failed to cater to her emotional needs. Nirmala gradually becomes  a responsible housewife and Rukmini , the sister of Munshi Totaram resents the loss of her hold in the house.   Moreover he suspects her relationship with his eldest son Mansaram from his  earlier marriage. He joins Mansaram in a hostel and the pure and once vibrant  young man withers and dies when he realizes his father’s unfounded suspicions. Nirmala is devastated. She develops friendship with Sudha, the wife of the doctor who spurned her match earlier.   Munshi Totaram’s second  son Ziyaram turns a prodigal son and even steals jewels from his own home and meets untimely death. Siyaram, the youngest scion of the family goes under the influence of Sadhus and abandons his home . Doctor Sinha who turns repentant over his refusal of Nirmala earlier arranges  her sister Krishna’s marriage with his brother.  At one point he expresses his passion for Nirmala in the absence of Sudha but Nirmala  rushes out . Sudha comes to know of her husband’s misbehavior and Doctor commits suicide out of guilt and shame. Munshi Totaram who realizes his folly of second marriage to a young girl Nirmala and leaves home and  turns into a Sanyasi. Nirmala falls  severely ill and dies not withstanding the care by Rukmini. When Nirmala dies a poor  orphan leaving her baby with Rukmini. When people are hesitating to perform her funeral rites comes Munshi Totaram, now a  Sadhu. This novel is a testimony of the novelists’ skill in portraying the incompatibility of marriage between an old woman and a young woman, the psychological complexity  of individuals caught in the clash between economic turmoil and emotional emptiness. The death of Nirmala delights  the reader with a subtle humour in characterization of different characters and a deep   sorrow of  at the death of Nirmala, the pure and tender  flower that fades and dies for no fault of hers.