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FEMINISM IN SHOBHA DE'S SOCIALITE EVENINGS Dr. Ram Sharma Sr. Lecturer in English C-26, Shradhapuri, Phase-II Kankerkhera Meerut Cantt-250001 Tel/Mob-09219710874 E-mail : dr.ram_sharma@yahoo.co.in dr.ram_sharma@rediffmail.com
Quest for female identity is principally a post-Independence social phenomenon in India, a phenomenon influenced by loads of replacing forces of reality - freedom movement, progressive periods, social reforms, increasing contacts with the west, urban progress and so on. The emergence of girls writers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century carried with it a double significance. It bore testimony to the birth of a easy era of emancipation for the Indian girls, an era of higher opportunities and a more dynamic participation in the social and highbrow life of the rustic ushered in by the good social reorientations which came at the turn of the century. Secondly, it was furthermore a commentary on the upward thrust of individualism in the life and letters of the age, an individualism which is closely associated with the upward thrust of the novel in India in the similar way in which it was associated with the upward thrust of the English novel. Feminism emerged as a worldwide movement to reliable girls's rights on the one hand and love, respect, sympathy and information from males on the other. It targeted on girls's struggle for recognition and survival and made them recognize that the time has come when they must always stop suffering silently in helplessness. Shobha De, an eminent fashionable novelist and journalist has presented feminism in her novels, like Socialite Evenings, Strange Obsession, Sisters, Sultry Days and Starry Nights. Gayatri chakravorty Spivak writes in her article "Can, the Subaltern speak?" "Between patriarchy and imperialism subject charter and object formation the work out of woman disappears not into a pristine nothingness, however into a violent shuttling which is the displaced figuration of the 'Third - World Woman' caught among tradition and modernization."(p-80) Simone De Beauvior has very precisely exposed the condition of woman in her most famous book 'The Second Sex'. Of course, the miserable condition of woman in every single place the international encouraged the girls of talent like Virginia Woolf to do something in this field and the result was the emergence of Feminism, a really good movement in the western international in 1960. It is a movement for the emancipation of girls and their combat for equivalent rights. The condition of woman is equally miserable in Indian society. The Indian society is mainly patriarchal the place a girl is given the secondary role. Even in Anushashan Parva it is being pronounced. firk j{kfr dkSekjs HkkkZ j{kfr ;kSous iq=kkLrq LFkfofjHkfo u L=kh LokrU=k;;ZgfrAA (All her glorification, all her fulfillment lies in sacrificing her life and happiness for the sake of man in a lot of sorts father, husband and the son). The fashionable woman does not find any sense in such self-sacrifice and yearns for self-expression, individuality and self-identity. She is attempting to free herself of the dependence syndrome as says Chaman Nahal "I define Feminism as a mode of existence in which the woman is freed from the dependence syndrome. There is a dependence syndrome, the place it is the husband or the father or the community or whether it is a religions group, ethnic group when girls free then selves of the dependence syndrome and lead a normal life, my idea of feminism materializes."(p-30) Socialite Evenings gives us the picture of the marginalisation of Indian girls at the hands of their husbands.Simone de Beauvoir expresses his own views on man - woman nexus --- man represents the 2 the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the standard use of man to designate human beings in general, the place as woman represents only the negative, outlined by restricting criteria with out reciprocity." (Seldom; 1988 : 534) A woman is never thought of as an autonomous being since she has at all times been assigned a subordinate and relative position. "Man can think of himself with out woman. She can not think of herself with out man. And she is with out difficulty what man decrees ---. She seems to be practically to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex.... absolute sex, no less. She is outlined and differentiated almost about man and not he almost about man and not he almost about her, she is the incidental, the inessential as hostile to the imperative." (Seldom, 1988 : 534) Shobha's is the picture of woman not only as protagonist however furthermore as motivating elements in society, Karuna's marriage is a failure since it is loveless, joyless and bridgeless. She hates the stand-offish and cruel behaviour of the husbands who frequently kept themselves busy in drab monotonous actions like reading the business pages of the Times of India. Karuna says, "We had been reduced to being marginal individuals. Everything that mattered to us was trivialised. The message was "you don't actually matter, until in the context my priorities." It was taken for granted that our calls for had been secondary to their. And that in some way we ought to be grateful for having a roof over our head and four square ingredients a day."(69) Karuna, the main character and narrator of Shobha De's Socialite Evenings is not concerned with the lot of girls. But right here that concern changes to 'I am the good thing' and even this 'I' does not stand for any commitment to non secular and moral values however it is 'a decent thing' since it must always be dressed up and presented as an incredibly marketable product over the media. Karuna's pre-occupation with 'I' and 'the good thing is me' will become clear when the journalist of a out of the rustic magazines comes up with an offer to make a documentary with Karuna's experiences because the focus of such a film. Karuna's respond to such a concept is "I think it's a really good idea. Infact; I think I'll steal it. There could also be a documentary in it however I'm going to give a book, a shot. I've at all times wanted to write one - so you ought to take a walk, Yankee agent. I know when I'm directly to a decent thing and the good thing is me. If each person is going to profit on this, child, it isn't going to be you .......' (SE 306) Even at some point of the period when she has been divorced by her husband and has to more from place to place in search of job. Her sole concern at some point of this stage, too, is how she can shake off her middle - class background. "And I hated the poverty, this meager sales forced on me. I suppose I was a chunk too old for the drastic changes I had to manipulate to or perhaps I just wasn't cut out to be middle class, lower middle class. For a start, there was the difficulty of transport. I'd never traveled by bus since my school days. Or waited in queues for anything. Getting into a nearby train and commuting to town was an marvelous trauma. I could not relate to the other girls in my compartment. I felt revolted by their small concerns. I'd watch with horror as they squabbled over small modification and petty disorders. Their conversations depressed me. It was all so a large deal abdomen - Turing, their talk of vegetable price and milk strikes. Sometimes I'd over - hear a husband being discussed, however it was invariably in servile terms. Every difficulty of theirs gave the impression trivial and insignificant to me. The quotidian detail of their lives spats with the mother - in - regulation, a toddler with mumps, school admissions and donation money, husband's stalled promotions, workplace gossip, a catastrophe at the neighborhood crche, an ailing parent, a relative's hernia operation, saree sales at Kala Niketan, haldi verses cold cream, Garden Vareli at a suburban store, discounts at Sahakari Bhandar. I hated to be in that environment." (SE 240-forty-one) In a patriarchal male - dominate society, it is the male who abuses and subaltern intellect-set of woman unearths their tongue in the deletion from their intellect of all emotions of female liberty and equality. "He brainwashes me constantly. I'm made to experience obliged and in debt. It's awful, however even my insistence on working and contributing to the running expenditures of the house has become a battleground. I do not know what to do - the 2 way I'm stuck." (SE 69) Karuna's husband is inadequate and incomplete since he lacks the traits of an most appropriate husband. Karuna wonders, "...... how could we communicate anything at all to men who ceaselessly sat reading pages of the Times of India although concentratedly deciding on their nose?" (SE sixty eight) Karuna's imaginary eager for the fulfillment of her physical desire unearths reflection in her fantasies. Anjali's fancy place in Malabar Hill the place Karuna traditionally goes is symbolically the projection of her fancy, her dream which is reality. "I think our marriage was over the day our awful honeymoon started. We've had been given have. As for you I really do not know to at the moment why you chose to marry me. I don't have faith you even know who you married. You do not have a clue what kind of woman I am." (SE 185) Karuna confronted all difficulties however she did not protest however obeyed her husband dutifully. Her husband is not a cruel person and he even throws away all her (Karuna's) sins like her affairs with Girish. Later furthermore when she leaves her husband's house and begins dwelling with Anjali "the concept of holding the baby' does not sink into her manner firmly. Once again the consideration is herself whether her fogeys would accept her with the baby. She gives an inkling of her emotions after her husband has talked to her at size nearly the settlement. "For a couple of day after his call I in fact toyed with the concept of holding the baby. May be it was just spite, could also be a felt 'it was what I needed ... someone to call my own because the clich goes." (SE 222) But the moment her enjoyed one Anjali hears of such an 'idea' germinating in Karuna's intellect, she decides to nip it in the bud. She tells Karuna, "Don't be crazy A child is a life-long accountability ... book at me. Are you prepared to tie yourself down for ever? Get a domestic dog or a kitten if you end up feeling all that motherly, forget nearly a child. Besides, you might not be waiting to administer with the scene. You are nit cut out for a single parent situation. You can't go around with an orphan Annie like youngster, with out a father on the scene." (SE 222) Women in Shobha's novels symbolise the overpowering materialism and the dearth of spirituality, that characterises fashionable age. With the crumbling of moral and ethical values there is an inner conflict which drives the fashionable Indian girls to take shelter in a lot of identities for momentary solace. Girish, the good art film maker, exhorts Karuna to take life more seriously and commit herself to a few critical thing like cinema "But life is nearly more than just goofy children and surf - forums. I need you to get involved. Commit yourself. Get into the mainstream 'The mainstream of what? Cinema? Life? I find all that very complex." (SE 255) What Girish implies is that Karuna must always take her role of Shakuntla in his film more seriously. Even her highbrow objectives suggest that she is in succesful of involving herself in anything critical, for her preoccupation is with only 'cross - word puzzles' and 'newspaper - chess'. It seems to be that Karuna has just a precise relationship with her husband. Intimacy among the husband and wife is lacking for Karuna who never calls her husband by his name however derogatorily as 'Black Label'. Helena Cixous observes "A male privilege can be seen in the opposition among exercise and passivity. Traditionally, the question of sexual difference is coupled with the similar opposition; exercise/ passivity." (Lodge 1989 : 288) Anjali throws off the ancient conventions of moral values. She enacts a wedding of her collection with Abe. Karuna too discards conventions and she had additional - conjugal relationship with Krish. Even she dares to restrain her husband from each week long sexual orgy with Krish Kukherjee in Rome. As a home wife. Karuna remembers "I felt like an indifferent boarder in the house, facing the motions of the house holding and gambling wife however the resentment and rebellion remained just under the skin, waiting to interrupt out at the smallest provocation." (SE-69) When Karuna's husband comes out with a 'package' deal containing an assured sales and the whole luxuries which she had hitherto been enjoying. Karuna's only remark is "(the package) sounds sweets'. Similar is the case with Anjali, Her 2nd marriage to the homosexual Kumar is nothing however an replace for 'the Porches emeralds, vacations in Biarritz, shipping along the champs - Ely sees, a villa in Oaty, parties each night, unlimited champagne and the collection to make a choice my own mattress - mate however only discreetly." (SE-217) Ritu exploits her sexual breakthrough, her female potentiality to take care of her husband within her attain, within her control. Look, what she tells Karuna nearly her strategy.. "... make them experience you have done them a favor by marrying them - make them experience insecure. Let them think you can walk out on them if they do not toe the line. That's what keeps them in their place." (SE-86) Even the one role that of providing security to the wife which the ancient society has assigned to the husband and against which the so-referred to as emancipated girls revolt. The only thing which these emancipated girls can do in a have compatibility of boldness is abuse the man in words which even coarse, illiterate girls would not use in public. We have only to recall what Karuna tells Karan when she meets him in the Oberoi Hotel and enquires nearly her enjoyed one Anjali, "Listen Asshole Don't give me your fancy lines. You are nothing however lower priced male whore. Why don't you leave Ritu alone? (SE-112) Also, Karuna thinks she has become one-up and vindicated herself as a girl by abusing her husband verbally when he comes with the proposal to remarry her "And you waited all this although to notify me. Just get the hell out of my house and life. I don't ever prefer to look you again. I allow you to in this time .... however never again I'll call the cops if you effort to invade my home in future. You are much more of a warm than I thought. You deserve Winnie I hope she's had been given a wax doll of yours. I'll send her some additional pins to adhere into it. Now take your frigging pipe and out!!?" (SE-264) For the likes of Anjali and Co. marriage furthermore will become a need since it not only adds them security, status and luxuries, however it furthermore facilitates them to indulge in adultery, for adultery is possibly only within marriage. It could begin as a probable escape from a 'meaningless marriage' as happens in the case of Karuna's affair with Krish however once it is learned she is informed against occurring a 'guilt-journey' by Anjali. Despite these points of a girl's personality, Socialite Evenings is a hit story. Karuna fights her way up after her divorce, gets recognition in ads and television productions and will become financially independent. The author furthermore seems to approve of the relatively life Karuna has led will become clear in the brief 3rd person one paragraph Epilogue wherein she says ".... It has been very exertions, this packaging of her life, and frequently it had almost gave the impression very unlikely to finish the book. But now that it was over she felt a undeniable sadness, autumnal in its intensity .... she enjoyed this time of the day and she willed herself to relax. Tomorrow's anxieties could be handled later, today she would relax." (SE-307) In the end we are able to say Shobha's Socialite Evenings gifts aesthetics of feminism and emancipation of woman. WORKS CITED 1. Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex, transl and ed. H.M. Parshley, (London : Penguin, 1974). 2. Anushashan Parva, Chapter 21, Verse 19. three. Nahal,Chaman, Feminism In Indian English Fiction, Indian Women Novelists ed. by R.K. Dhawan, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 1971, p.30. four. De, Shobha, Socialite Evenings (New Delhi : Penguin Books, 1990) (All citations in the paper are from this edition of the text, observed by page numbers in parentheses). 5. Lodge, D. Modern Criticism and Theory : A Reader, (London : Long man, 1989).
