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SUMITRA'S STORY, Rukshana Smith

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NOTES ON THE THEMES: Chapters 9-16

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DIFFERENT CULTURES

• Sandya says she hates Jean, but Sumitra points out that some of what she says is true (e.g. ......)

• National Front (anti-immigrant party) and Trotskyist (socialist) party leaflets appear in ......
• Bap did not want to see his daughters "...... by the vile culture which seemed to surround them".
• Sumitra visits a school friend’s house where the children are treated as equals by their parents: "Now that she had seen some of her classmates’ homes, she found it even harder to reconcile the life she led with ......

• Sumitra’s classmates are promised rewards for ...... Meanwhile, Bap and Mai are almost unaware of the exams.

• Jean gets drunk at Martin and Maria’s wedding reception and ......! Bap is appalled ("You see what English people are like!").
• Teaching Mai English, Maria realises how totally different English culture is from Indian. For example, ...... letters in England deal with pre-marital sex, extra-marital affairs, divorce etc. - all of which are taboo in Hindu culture.
• At the job agency, the clerk describes Sumitra as "not black - a ......". Clearly, the prospective employer does not want black people, but in addition the clerk has no shame about calling Sumitra a Pakistani without knowing anything about her real background.
• Sumitra thinks about how different ethnic groups keep to themselves. "Why couldn’t they all mix with whom they liked and ...... living in a country called England?"
• Indian youths are beaten up by racist whites and tensions rise. White liberal phone-in announcers on the radio recommend unlimited ...... and sound unaware of how serious the race relations problem is. Sumitra ...... with them.

THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN INDIAN SOCIETY

• After moving into the Hendon flat, Bap becomes assertive again, telling his wife and daughters what to do: "This was his house and here he reigned. He was an Indian father, once more head of an Indian family ... His daughters would conform to his society, ......

• "They were now back in a world of prescribed formalities. The conventions demanded that they ...... their parents unquestioningly, were partners in ......"
• "Line after line of dutiful Indian brides stretched out before and after her. Sumitra knew that her place ......"

• Sandya complains that it is unfair that women must ......

• Sumitra remarks that even at school she was discouraged from taking a Car Maintenance course.

• "the little dictatorships of family life"
• "‘Opportunities, opportunities,’ scoffed Jayant. ‘She is a woman. What does she want opportunities for? All she needs ......’"

SUMITRA’S SEARCH FOR IDENTITY

• After the move out of the guesthouse, Bap regains control of ...... and Sumitra regrets her loss of freedom. She feels trapped: "She saw herself locked in a samsara, a cycle of life and death in which she was condemned forever to perform the same futile gestures and from which ......

• "The capacity to observe dispassionately was making her life so difficult." (Sumitra looks objectively at her parents’ lives and disagrees with many of their views - though she avoids saying so.)
• "She was daily allowed a glimpse of the Promised Land ... but could no longer enjoy its advantages".
• "She was brown in ......, restricted in ......, old in ......"

• Sumitra becomes withdrawn (e.g. watching TV a lot) as she considers the prospect of being trapped in an arranged marriage with limited horizons.
• "In the street she felt Indian, at home ...... Nowhere, nowhere did she feel like Sumitra."
• "Mai and Bap did not know what she did at school, her teachers did not know what she did at home. It was as though she had three personalities: ......

• "Sumitra plaited the three threads of her life, like the Rakhi at Rakshabandan, trying to make them one, while each strand made its own demand upon her."
• Sumitra imagines herself as ......, performing to an enthusiastic audience. Then: "She went downstairs to exchange the sweet smell of success for the acrid fumes of boiling ghee."
• At school Sumitra is "encouraged to be ......, thoughtful, integrated" but at home she is expected to be "docile, ...... and dutiful".
• "One part of her wanted to live as an Indian girl, carrying on the great traditions and ......, while another part of her wanted to participate in ......"
• Sumitra thinks about Indian girls who commit suicide in order to avoid ......
• Sumitra experiments secretly with make-up.
• Sumitra starts going to the pub at lunchtime with Mike and friends. ...... spots her and confronts her; she refuses to go with him. Later she endures lectures from her father and Jayant about how she has disgraced the family and the temple.
• "She did not want to choose, she wanted to ......, taking the best from both, the tradition and discipline of the one and the ...... of the other. But they would not let her do this."

• Sumitra leaves school. For her English classmates this a chance to "pursue ......, begin to carve out their own lives and careers". For Sumitra, however, "nothing would change".
• Sumitra gets a job, first in a warehouse office, then in ......

Frankie Meehan