Chapter
Two
Journey from
Innocence to Experience
Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupe deals with the diverse experiences of women as
subalterns and exposes the diversity within and among women. It is about the
chance meeting of six women of different age, class and experience - Akhila,
Janaki, Margaret, Sheela, Prabha Devi and Marikolanthu in the Ladies Coupe, a
second-class compartment of Indian railways. The coupe is symbolic of their
existence and the space they occupied in life and in society. They narrate
their stories in an attempt to help Akhila, the protagonist, find an answer as
to whether a woman in a male-dominated society could lead an autonomous life,
independent of men. They approach the problem of subalternity of women from
different perspectives, and suggest to Akhila equally different yet successful
strategies appropriated by them in life.
Ladies Coupe has a journey motif, with a
narrative that journeys backwards and forwards into the past and the present to
determine the future. This is a journey of self-discovery and to realize one’s
worth as an individual in the society. The title itself is metaphorical suggesting
the journey of women from birth to death. Ladies coupe is a compartment
reserved exclusively for women, which can be compared to their compact world,
where they can share their smiles, their tears, their marital life, lovers and
children – the most private and special moments of their lives without any
worries of exposure, as all of them are strangers to each other and probably
would never ever meet again. The charm of the novel lies in its vivacious
description and systematic ordering of events. As Clara Nubile says, “It is a
novel in which fiction merges with reality and where female voices are authentic.
Indeed it is gendered novel which gives hope and courage to all women” ( 74).
Anita
Nair, here shows how the modern Indian women attempt to free themselves
sexually, economically and domestically from various obstacles. Male and female
characters in her novels fight against their interpersonal problems without
caring for any success; often they end up having some kind of peace. The
novelists, like the readers, know that there is no logical analysis of emotion.
They often focus upon the lack of emotional fulfilment in man-woman
relationship. Anita Nair, considering this fact, wrote Ladies Coupe which is a powerful novel delineating feminine
sensibility. This delineation is chiefly expressed through the projection of the experiences of six women characters-
Janaki, Sheela, Margaret Shanti, Prabha Devi, Marikolunthu and Akhila.
The
oldest woman in the ladies coupe is Janaki. She believed that to be a good wife
and a good mother are the only two duties of a woman and she made her home, her
kingdom. It was too late to amend her life when she realized that even a strong and independent woman can become
a good wife and a good mother. The second traveller is a fourteen year old girl, Sheela. She is
someone who has accepted her grandmother’s death with an air of a person who
had seen it all and done it all. What makes Sheela different from others is her
ability to look beyond the things and her knack of perceiving what others
can’t.
The third story is about Margaret
Shanti, a Chemistry teacher, married to Ebenezer Paulraj, the Principal of the
school she works in. After marriage, she identifies him as an insensitive, self
obsessed despot who couldn’t care less for his wife. To avenge him, she uses a
very ingenious method.”When you add water to sulphuric acid, it splutters at
first. But soon it loses its strength; it loses its bite.The trick is to know
when to add it and how much” (LC 134). She compares herself to supercritical water which is capable of
dissolving just about anything.
The fourth tale is that of
Prabha Devi. A week after her fortieth birthday, she realized that somewhere in
the process of being a good wife, good daughter-in-law and a good mother, she
forgets how it is to be herself and that is when she learns to strike a balance
between being what she wants to be and being what she is expected to be. The
fifth and the most heart rending tale is about Marikolunthu. Her childish
innocence was destroyed by a man. This one unpleasant incident changes her
entire life and destroys her. Even as a child she had to work hard to help her
mother and raise her brothers. She worked as a maid to two lady doctors. But
she was raped and became the mother of an illegitimate child. She had undergone
all the experiences of feminine existence. Though she was untutored and
bucolic, she stood up for what she believed in, not caring for the society.
Ladies
Coupe, infact, is the story of Akhila, who happens to be the most subdued,
rather crushed member of a Brahmin family whose father’s death has brought her
a load of responsibilities. She is like a catalyst whose presence is never
noticed, never appreciated and yet whose absence may make all the difference.
Akhila is a woman lost in the jungle of her duties; sometimes to her mother, at
other times to her brothers and still at other times to her sister. She is
expected to be an obedient daughter, affectionate and motherly sister and
everything but not an individual. As a woman, she has her dreams, her desires
but when her dreams come in conflict with the comforts of her family, it is she
who has to sacrifice. She lives a life designated by the society or family.
On a few occasions
she listens to the voice of her innermost being and then she appears a rebel.
In fact, her character appears to be a continuum of nothingness and being. Even Virginia Woolf was aware of the
complexity of a character and therefore, she saw character as a flux and wanted
to “record the atoms as they fall upon
the mind”(153). Like Akhila’s, other
characters are also questioning the system and are “groping for their
identities and their status both in the family set up and the larger social
structure” (155).
Ladies Coupe deconstructs that
which is taken for granted, the sacred, the traditional, and the ideological.
Akhila is not given the opportunity by her family to get married and have a
family; she is rather expected to provide. As Indra Devi says,“Anita Nair
probably hints at the family’s easy acceptance of her as the head of the family
on a place traditionally reserved for the patriarch in both the colonial and
post-colonial periods”( 220).
Akhila takes up various roles in the forty
five years of her life. When Akhila sees a man in the railway station surrounded
by a whole family of uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents, she finds a
parallel between him and her. “Akhila looked at the man who carried in his
shoulders the burden of other people’s dreams. That she knew all about. That
she could understand” (LC 9). As Narsi, her brother became the first graduate
and found a teaching job and Narayan, the other brother joined the tank factory
as a mechinist, “Akhila felt the iron bands around her chest begin to loosen:
Dare I breathe again? Dare I dream again? Now that the boys are men, can I
start feeling like a woman again?” (LC 77). Since Narsi was a man he did not
ask for anybody’s permission to get married but ‘decided’ to get married for
“Narsi decided he wanted to get married” (LC 77). When he told the family that
he was going to marry the principal’s daughter, “No one could fault his choice and there was nothing anyone
could say except perhaps- Don’t you think you should wait for your elder sister
to get married before you think of a wife and a family? But who was to mouth
this rebuke?” (LC 77). Both Narayan and
Narsi had their weddings in the same hall, on the same day. Akhila waited for
Amma or her brothers’ to say something about her marriage but they never asked,
“What about you? You’ve been the head of this family ever since Appa died.
Don’t you want a husband, children, a home of your own?” (LC 77). Though Akhila
had done her duties, all that of a head of a family to her brothers and sister,
she was not recognized as the real head, just because she was a woman. Amma
expected her to get permission from her brothers, the men of the family to go
on an office tour as she says, “Perhaps you should ask your brothers for
permission first” (LC 150). When Akhila argued that she was their elder sister
and why she should ask their permission Amma simply says, “You might be older
but you are a woman and they are the men of the family” (LC 150). Akhila’s
encounter with her school friend awakened her spirit to think of a life to live
her own. When Akhila boldly told Padma about her decision to live alone, she
without reluctance says, “Do you think the brothers will consent to this? Do
you think they’ll let you live alone?” (LC 204). When Akhila says for her
defiance, “For heaven’s sake, I don’t need anyone’s consent” (LC 204). Padma
mocked at her telling.“They are the men of the family” (LC 204). But Akhila’s
defiance was stronger than theirs that she boarded the train to Kanyakumari.
Akhila’s discerning mind helps her to
recognize when to abide by rules and when to fling them to the winds. She is in
the process of becoming more genuine and truer to her inner self. Akhila’s
interior growth is also marked by her ability to take risks. Akhila’s free will
has been curtailed to a large extent, by her own family and society, but she is
courageous enough to listen to the voice of her own being and at times reacts
to the dictators of her family and society. Besides, sometimes she is bold
enough to take some drastic steps to please her own being. She has found the
strength to break out from the prison-house of her old self as symbolized by
the stiffness of the cotton saris she always wore to work. She can at least go
back to her old life where perhaps nothing may have changed on the surface but
on a mental plane a sure process of empowerment has taken place.
Margaret Shanti is one of the fellow travellers in the ladies coupe.
Margaret’s story reveals the life of a woman who learns her own strategies to make
her dreams true. Margaret’s husband, Ebenezer Paulraj, is an example for male
dominance. He maneuvers Margaret into a position of submissive silence, making
her out to be an unnoticed and unremarkable girl. A girl, with a brilliant
academic career and a warm and vibrant personality, is reduced to an average
girl. His subtle cruelty to the children in his school gets repeated with his
wife too. Once he was obsessed with the girlish characteristics of Margaret. It
was visible even at their first meet. To retain the girlish charm in her, when
she happily announced her pregnancy, he insisted on to aborting the baby.
Margaret felt confusion, anger, sorrow, pain and self-pity which made her
rethink.
Tired of her submissiveness at her home, she
finally takes her life into her own hands. With supreme will power she collects
her hidden strength and sends the ball to his court. Having learnt the tactics
from his constant playing of games to get his things done, she takes her
revenge by following the same tactics which are her husband’s tools to rule
her. She has gone through physical, mental and spiritual crisis throughout her
life. She keeps on growing till she finds a state where she is happy and
peaceful.
Margaret’s
marriage to Ebenezer Paulraj is like a fairy tale for her. Ebenezer Paulraj
loves Margaret Shanti from the bottom of his heart but not ready to accept her
individual likes and dislikes, whims and fancies, dreams and aims. He loves her but he did not allow her
individuality. Margaret is initially a little girl who says ‘yes’ to whatever
her husband says and ready to do anything for him. She is jolted out of this
role when she has to go for an abortion. He controls her completely. She is
forced to do B.Ed, though she wants to do Ph.D. She is made to work only for
her husband and he nags her all the time. She starts to hate him and the day
she realizes her hatred towards him, she feels liberated from some unknown
clutches:
I mouthed the words: I HATE HIM. I HATE MY HUSBAND.
I HATE EBENEZAR PAULRAJ. HATE HIM. HATE
HIM. I waited for a clap of thunder, a hurling meteor, a whirlwind, a dust
storm.… for some super phenomenon that is usually meant to accompany such
momentous and perhaps sacrilegious revelations. (LC 98)
When Margaret understands that she is isolated, she
finds consolation through eating a lot of food. She puts on weight. Ebe, on the
other hand, who is aware of his health and fitness, makes her feel guilty about
her weight gain. She leads a routine life until the day James, the golden fish,
floats dead. The moment proves to be a turning point in her life. She does not
want her life to float like dead fish. She identifies herself with the golden
fish. In the words of Anita Nair,”Among the five elements that constitute life,
I classify myself as water. Water that moistens. Water that heals. Water that
also destroys. For the power to dissolve and destroy is as much a part of being
water as wetness is” (LC 96).
Ebenezer’s
love for food and sex becomes a tool for Margaret. She starts pampering
Ebenezer with sex and food he likes the most in his life. The result, he
becomes fat, loses his vanity and needs her more and more. She, once controlled
by him, now holds him completely in her hands. A unique way adapted by Margaret
helps her to go back into the society, changes her parent’s outlook and
attitude of her husband. The strategy, finding and attacking the weakness of
the opponent to win him, is artistically handled by Anita Nair. The heavy
depression of Margaret, her silenced voice, her physical and mental sufferings,
and the effort she takes to make her strong are the places where Anita Nair
proves to be a notable writer of Indian Writing in English.
Janaki, another fellow passenger of Ladies Coupe is an example of age-old
belief of Indian Society that a woman should always depend on some man in her
life. The comparison of woman with Sita or Savitri, epic characters of Indian
Literature, also insists this motive. According to Indian tradition, a woman is
always synonymous with good wife. A good wife should be faithful, obedient and
virtuous. Janaki is expected to take up this traditional role of women. She
plays various roles such as a daughter, a wife and a mother but not an
individual who claims her life to be her own. The secondary position becomes
permanent to her. This is mainly due to the patriarchal pattern of her society,
which has accepted male supremacy as a natural phenomenon.
The problems of adjustment with the husband and his relatives have been
the most widely treated problems in the novels written by Indian women
novelists. This has been treated, for instance, by Nayantara Sahgal, Anita
Desai and Shashi Deshpande. These writers suggest that wives should have a more
positive outlook than the one they already have, the negative should be
nullified.
Janaki gets married to Prabhakar, when she
is eighteen years old and leads a happy, comfortable, long married life for
forty years. Janaki’s husband is a caring partner and they have a son and
daughter-in-law. Janaki leads a happy life until she realizes her
submissiveness. She feels some string of revolt when she finds her husband
controlling everybody, even their grown up son. She says to her husband, “You
just want to control him. You want to control everybody. You want everyone to
do your bidding” (LC 30).
Prabhakar’s overbearing dominance,
exactness, and precision irritates Janaki. The life which has gone smoothly
starts to find its ups and downs. She discovers herself and her true happiness
that lies in her, but she is not able to take off the web under which she is
covered for a long period. Her initial response to Akhila’s query, “why should
a woman live by herself? There is always a man who is willing to be with her” (LC
21), explains it.“I am a woman who has always been looked after. First there
was my father and my brothers; then my husband. When my husband is gone, there
will be my son. Waiting to take off from where his father left off. Women like
me end up being fragile” (LC 22).
Sheela, the next narrator of Ladies Coupe, is a sensitive girl of
fourteen years old, blessed with a deep insight. She looks at the family around
her and relationship between her grandmother, mother and father and she
understands the dynamics of life. Her grandmother teaches her practical life.
She becomes attached to her grandmother until she dies and the attachment
brings in a maturity to Sheela. Her conversation with other fellow travellers
seems to be a matured one. The knowledge of three generations of women can be found in
Sheela; her mother’s and her grandmother’s and also her own. She knows that “women
turn to their mothers when they have no one else to turn to. Women know that a
mother alone will find it possible to unearth some shred of compassion and love
that in everyone else has become ashes” (LC 71).
Sheela’s grandmother also teaches her the
negative picture of men who dominate women physically as well as
psychologically. Sheela is reprimand by her father incessantly for using shit
in every sentence, for speaking to boys and for being rude. He has encouraged
her to speak “with a razor-edged wit and a finely developed skill of repartee”
(LC 70). Sheela’s father always gives preference to her as his child. However,
when she starts to talk like a matured woman, he completely changes and starts
to control her whenever she begins to talk.
When her grandmother dies of cancer and
her body is prepared for funeral, Sheela dresses her grandmother in a good
costume with her jewels. She does it because she remembers the words of her
grandmother, “The only person you need to please is yourself. When you look
into a mirror, your reflection should make you feel happy” (LC 67). Thus,
Sheela fulfills the wish of her grandmother by adoring her dead body with
jewels. A fourteen year old girl’s inner search and maturity are beautifully pictured
through Sheela.
Anita Nair, with a deep, psychological
insight, skillfully utilizes the story of Marikolunthu to comment upon the
sexual exploitation of Indian women from rural background. Marikolunthu’s story
recalls her encounter with men and concludes that most men take advantage of
women’s loneliness, illiteracy, dependence, ignorance and frustration. They
never hesitate to blame the woman at the end. The society dominated by
patriarchal culture tends to lay down the rule that a woman’s responsibility
towards the family is total, whereas any sort of other authority is
conveniently denied to her. This society shuns to think that the woman is
strong willed to create disastrous consequences if she is completely ignored.
Marikolanthu
is the most pathetic woman among the six. She is the realistic picture of the
humble and miserable peasantry women on whom male oppression is forced on
heavily and left unquestioned. Even as a girl she is denied to be sent to the town
school as her mother says, “Its not just the money but how can I send a young
girl by herself…. there is too much at risk” (LC 215). To ensure her mother’s
fear, her childhood innocence is destroyed when Murugesan attempts physical
brutality on her. When she is found pregnant, her mother and Sujata, regret it
as they just feel it is too late to insist Murugesan to marry her. Her mother
is least bothered about her feelings but worries that no one will marry her.
Even when the matter is taken to the Chettiar’s son Sridhar, he with little
reluctance says, “The girl must have led him on and now that she is pregnant
she’s making up a story about rape” (LC 245).
According to Marikolanthu’s mother and
Sujata, a woman’s life and protection lies in her husband, as Sujata says, “But
if she has a job, that will replace a husband’s protection” (LC 246). But
Marikolanthu is able to raise the question within her about the so called “Husband’s
Protection”. But Marikolanthu is sure that neither her mother nor Sujata had
their husbands look out of them, but for them, “a fulfilled woman was one who
was married” (LC 246). For Marikolanthu, nothing is more cruel than a man’s
raping of a woman and so she finds little fault in the Missy’s love for each
other and experiences a kind of content and happiness to give her love for
Sujata, more than her husband did. Marikolanthu never wants to tie up her life
with a husband. Till she is thirty- one she lives alone and wrestles with life,
making a living of her own. She neither wants to rely upon her brothers nor
wants a penny from Sujata or her husband but decides to make her living of her
own, working as a servant maid in a house. She defines her as an independent
woman. Her strong aversion for the physical brutality attempted on her, evokes
a strong aversion for her son Muthu. But
at the end she feels ashamed for having rejected him and even using him.
Patriarchy shows its ugly face from cradle
to grave. Even parents are more concerned about the boys than the girls. And
Anita Nair has chosen the character of Prabha Devi to emphasise the issue. When
Prabha Devi is born, her father sighs, as it would be a hindrance for his
business progress as he says, “Has this baby, apart from ruining my business
plans, addled your brains as well? If you ask me, a daughter is a bloody
nuisance” (LC 169). Even Prabha Devi’s mother is pleased when a daughter is
born as her thoughts are confirmed that a daughter is someone who will take her
recipes to the other house and treasure her jewellery and some one who will say
that she did this and that in her mother’s house. Even while playing games as a
child, a girl is destined to choose to play working or baby-sitting games as it
is said, “A kitchen was set up for her
to play house and mother games. Sometimes Prabha Devi’s mother joined in her
daughter’s games, pretending to be an adult-child while her daughter tried hard
to be a child adult” (LC 170). Basically a woman is never liked to come out
with opinions. Prabha Devi’s mother finds great pleasure in the company of her
daughter than in her four sons put together. But she conceals it within her for
“she had discovered that a woman with an opinion was treated like a bad smell, To
be shunned” (LC 170). She swallows this thought as she has done all her life.
Though Prabha Devi’s childhood had been this way, in future she grooms herself
as a woman who can measure up her life with difference.
Anita Nair presents Prabha Devi as the one
who doesn’t want to define herself within a more mechanical and monotonous life
of a homely wife and a mother. She is not satisfied with this life and craves
for something more. Moreover she feels guilty for her viles upon her husband’s
friend, Pramod and tries to come out of it. Prabha Devi’s weakness does not
escape Anita Nair, yet she displays a very real respect for her as she has done
with every other women. And Prabha Devi achieves the self-actualization by
learning swimming on her own out of great desire.
The personal stories narrated by these five
women characters bring about a drastic change in Akhila‘s attitude. She
realises that desire and gratification had been very important in their lives. This
reminds her of her own brief encounter with Hari and feels the urge to have a
physical and emotional bond that would appease her parched soul. At Kanyakumari
a young boy falls for her and she has a night’s relation with him and then she
dials Hari’s number. She realises that she has a right even at the age of fourty
five to get love. Her decision is her rebellion against society. As Savita
Singh has remarked, ”She has had a spiritually and emotionally liberating
journey and Akhila forms herself and discovers life”(34-35). Thus the novel
redefines the lives of women and a feminist
voice is heard throughout the novel.
