From Escapism to Realism

FROM ESCAPISM TO REALISM:
A study of Anita Desai’s in Custody

Anita Desai’s forte is the portrayal of feminine characters. She tries to study in depth their psychos. In Custody¹is a different category in the sense that she attempts to study the helpless nature of male protagonist due to poverty, helplessness and lack of initiative. This novel also marks a departure from the earlier novels of Anita Desai. Clear Light of Day (1980), its immediate predecessor, has a female protagonist belonging to an upper middle class family settled in Delhi. The novel explores the sensibility of the protagonist within the framework of her disintegrating household while the world outside scarcely figures in this exploration. In Custody has a male protagonist who comes from a lower middle-class family whose consciousness is essentially directed towards a wide world beyond himself and his family. In doing so Desai evokes the dominant attributes of contemporary Indian society through the character of Devan who, acquires symbolic connotations besides his role as the central figure. The diverse trends that affect the contemporary middle-class Indian are unified into the sensibility of the protagonist, Devan. Devan is a Lecturer in Hindi in Lala Ram Lal College, at Mirpore. He seeks to reach out into the wider world in the hope of self-fulfilment. He undergoes experiences of various shades and complexities and eventually emerges as a wiser man with a more complete knowledge of being in this world. During the period of undergoing shades of various experiences, he suffers from the problem of marital dissonance, Devan’s wife Sarala’s dreams about marriage are dashed after the marriage with a low salaried Lecturer. Academically Devan is at his lowest ebb, for he could not command the attention of his students. His position in the classroom is so bad that he cannot look straight in the eyes of his students. Instead, he “had been for years practising” the trick of focusing his eyes upon the door at the end of the room, the door that opened on to the passage, freedom and release (IC, p.12).

In order to tide over the situation, he ignores his class and speaks “tohimself or same one outside invisible” (IC, p.12).

According to Bipin B. Panigrahi and Vinoy Kirpal “Devan’ is portrayed as a marginal character, dangling on the periphery of action incapable of forcing his way to the centre of things”. Devan is described as “a boring teacher” (IC, p. 13). He finds his job and his family oppressive and believes that he is chained to the necessity of earning livelihood in order to support his family. His desire for freedom from mundane existence is also visible in the romantic notions he fosters about himself and his job of teaching. Such an assumption has imparted to him a sense of defeat which prevented him from total absorption in his ill-paid profession. Devan’s sense of despair on the professional front finds its ripples in his domestic life as well:

“Devan had been more a poet than a professor. When he married Sarla he had only been taken on as a temporary Lecturer and still had confidence in his Verse - and for the wife of a poet she seemed to be prosaic: Of course she had not been his choice but that of his mother and aunt crafty and cautious women: She was the daughter of a friend of an aunt’s. She lived on the same-street as that family; they had observed her for years and found her suitable in every way, penny-pinching and congenitally pessimistic (IC, p.67).

Devan comes from Delhi and settles down at Mirpore, a small town, along with his wife Sarla and son Manu and leads an unhappy domestic life. The place she lives looks like a “cruel trap or prison, as well, an indestructible prison from which there was no escape (for him)” (ECP. 19). He is disappointed with the atmosphere of the institution.

On the other hand as a young girl and as a bride, Sarla had the usual as­pirations of her girl friends, to own the three Fan, Phone, Frigidaire. They would shout whenever anyone mentioned a wedding, a bridegroom, a betrothal, and dissolve in hectic laughter” (IC, p.67). But by marrying into the academic profession and by living in a small town, all her dreams had been rudely swept away:

Disappointment, however had not brought them closer  To live on a lecturer’s salary can be an oppressive experience and having no choice of their own Devan and Sarla feel desperate.

On the familial front, Devan finds himself as an angry self. The repressive atmosphere of a lower middle class ethos offers him no suitable avenues for recognition. He is a gifted youngman whose imagination has been fired by the glories of the Urdu poetry. The harsh realities of life produce in him intense feelings of frustration and resentment and force him to adopt different solutions to cope with his difficulties. Devan is aware of this personal incompetence to fulfil his wife’s desires and dreams on the material level. Like his father he feels apologetic because he cannot do better. He lives with a sense of defeat and failure:

“Devan feels inferior owing to his diffused sense of failure. Overtly, his irritability with Sarla appears to be, the outcome of his hurt male ago. Deep down, his rage is, in a way, all externalization of self-hate, born out of an unconscious self accusation. He reproaches himself for his inadequacy to make his destination in life” ... all he could measure up to was this – this shabby house, its dirty corners, its wretchedness and lovelessness” (IC, p. 67). What he had secretly dreamt of was “the world of drama and revolving lights and feasts and furies.” (IC, p. 67).

A contrast to the “thrifty” “domesticated” Devan is Siddiqui, his colleague, a Muslim Lecturer in Urdu, a bachelor, hedonist and a romantic who has the “talent for remaking fact into more acceptable, - more attractive vision”. Thus, when he discovers that he cannot make both ends meet or maintain the disintegrating old haveli, his ancestral home, he sells it off to a Delhi-based business who wants to “develop” that land, by-“all kinds of plans for putting his waste land to use”.

Yet another contrast to Devan is Murad, his childhood friend, now in Delhi. To Devan, Murad, the son of a wealthy Kashmiri carpet-seller, had been the rich spoilt boy with lots of money to spend on films und cigarettes while Devan had been a poor widow’s son “who could be bribed and bought to do anything for him”. Yet their friendship had stood the test of time. Murad is the editor of an Urdu journal, Awaax which he says he runs to save the glorious traditions of Urdu from being extinguished by the Hindi-wallas. He is probably not very rich now. He says that his father has disinherited him. Unlike Devan, he is resourceful and aggressive and seems to give the impression that he can have his way with most people. Even so, there is something quite pitiable about his attempts to get things out of people and maintain an appearance of decent living.

The motif of despair, failure, and mediocrity that underlines the lives of each of these people is repeated in several situations in the novel-in the kind of homes, D/II type, that Devan and other low-paid employees in the same grade live in; in the alienating colonial system of education mirrored in the set-up of Lala Ram Lal College, Mirpore; in the attempts to teach the languages in a scene dominated by science studies; in the phenomenon of “brain drain” and migration to more prosperous countries for lucrative jobs and other ‘goodies’ (IC, pp. 185-61).

Murad frequently visits Devan’s college and disturbs him for company. He finds himself in a tight corner when he has to oblige his friend’s request, on one hand and guard his image as a teacher on the other. It is evident that Devan cannot discard his friendship with Murad because of his attachment to him. At the same time, he feels guilty when his students find him in the company of Murad at the college canteen and restaurant everywhere.

Devan leads the life of a victim, a victim of the ordinary life. Whenever he sees Sarla, he is reminded of a victim figure. Tired of pursuing such a life of victimization, Devan lies low, and remains invisible. He exists in an invisible call on the margin of life. For him the countryside between Mirpore and Delhi “turned into no man’s land that lies is lost to Devan.

The real and free life has always been beyond Devan’s reach. The lack of togetherness combined with his idea of being a victim alienates him both from his wife and his only child, Manu. In a desperate attempt to escape from a terrible sense of isolation and marital dissonance he seeks refuge in the fantasy-world of Urdu poetry for fullfilment. At this critical juncture Murad asks Devan to go to Delhi and interview Nur Shahjahanbadi, the greatest living Urdu poet of Delhi though no longer very active - and to write an article for a special number he proposes to bring out on the poet. For Devan, lover of Urdu poetry and admirer of Nur, this becomes the very summons he has been waiting for all these years. In the
first interview Devan faces humiliation at Nur’s hands. Nur shouts at Devan for disturbing his sleep and calls Devan a fool? “It can only be a great fool. Fool, are you a fool?” Devan admits humiliatingly that he is a fool: “Sir, Ia (IC. P. 38). Again, when Nur gathers from Devan that Devan has a highly developed taste for Urdu, Nur comes down heavily on Devan: “you don’t look fit to serve anyone, let alone the muse of Urdu...” (IC. p. 43). Nur continues his tirade against Devan:

it seems you have been sent here to torment me, to show me to what depths Urdu has fallen. All right then, show me, let me know the worst! (IC, p. 43)

Devan is ready tobear the brunt of Nur’s misconception and conceitedness expecting the real find free world of Nur’s poetry. This hope is shattered by cruel fate. Nur’s admirer’s rush in and disturb the proceedings. After sharing the Jama Masjid food, spiced Kebabs, Koorma, Kefta and drink with his admirers, Nur starts decrying Hindi and the latest poem by Sri Gobind on ‘cycle’. At the end there is another instance of humiliation for Devan. Imtiaz Begum, Nur’s second wife lashes at Devan pointing out the drunken Nur that collapses on the ground:

“ ...You have reduced him to that making him eat and drink like some animal, like a pig, laughing at your jokes, singing your crude song, when he should be at work or resting to prepare himself for work – “(IC., p. 68).

Chance which thwarts bevan’s efforts in the form of Imtiaz Begum is one of the invisible forces that play havoc with one’s life. Kermada refers to John Cage (US Composer) tosay that purposelessness is the final effect desired in work of art. It is chance that renders any thing purposeless. Purposelessness or chance may be taken as one of the characteristics of modern existence as it fails man’s attempts to make his life real and certain. Thomas Hardy showed that world the dark side of the chance in human existence. Similarly Anita Desai reveals In Custody the workings of chance in Devan’s life on a lower key. During the next poetic recital by Nur, Devan arranges a tape recorder and secures the services of Chiku for recording. But chance intervenes and prevents Nur’s poetry from being recorded. When Nur recites poetry, Chiku would be fumbling with the machine. On the other hand at a time when Nur is flippant on poetic subjects, Chikku records it. At times Chiku falls asleep out of exertion, then Nur bursts out in poetry thus making the recording programme useless.

Devan ultimately becomes an embodiment of failure and frustration in pursuing his project. And Dwivadi remarks Murad is a very cunning and crafty fellow”. By listening to the advice given by “Murad Devan is at a loss to find a truly sympathetic soul to console him. Murad’s wicked plans make Devan totally nervous and he loses interest in his literary work. He leads a life of defeat and failure and his aspirations remain unfulfilled.

Tripathi feels that Sarla is the typical Hindu wife, simple, timid, obscure domineered, undemanding and cooperative. Their marital life is disturbed and marred by indifference and impassivity due to Devan’s stupidity. The first and foremost is that Devan is not financially sound and he failed to provide basic requirements to the family and things needed by his wife and son. Secondly as he is brought up in a systematic environment, he wants to adhere to principle and morals. His love of Urdu poetry und his obsession with name and fame make him neglect his wife. Commenting on this aspect of the problem, Anita Desai observes:

Atleast Devan had his poetry, She had nothing, and so there was an added accusation and bitterness in her look (IC, p. 68).

The hearts of Devan and Sarla are filled with agony and unfulfilled desires but nobility lies in them as they never complain seriously or grumble despite many hurdles. There is marital dissonance between them and also a sense of feeling for coexistence to avoid the breakage of sacred marital ties.

One night during summer all the three of them sleep in a room enduring suffocation. Sarla is not interested in shifting cots to the courtyard as she had a nightmare of robbers attacking them in sleep. Devan had great love and care for his wife and his only son, Manu.
In the eyes of Sarla. Devan is not paying due attention to them. Sarla is under the impression that he is not treating her properly. These circumstances make Devan neglect his family. With the result Sarla experiences terrible dissatisfaction in the married life. As a husband, Devan has provided basic things but not the desired things for Sarla. She wants to lead a harmonious life. But poor Devan is busy with recordings and frequent visits to Delhi to meet Nur for the publication of articles in Murad’s magazine Awaax. Sarla wanted Devan to he the custodian of her family. But, unfortunately, he pays little care to his marital life.

The frequent breakdown of his plans and programmes upset him and make him nervous. However, he continues his ceaseless efforts to succeed in his literary taste. Under these circumstances, Devan helplessly slips into the hands of Murad and others letting the situation go beyond his control. Dwivedi rightly remarks that he “lives in a dream­world of harsh realities around him”. Consequently Devan experiences failure and frustration of bitterness and restlessness.

While Devan allows himself to be trapped in the custody of Nur’s poetry, his wife, Sarla opts to be in his custody without being able to realize her aspirations. Thus both though suffered from the concept of marital dissonance still want to remain “in custody” of hostile forces over which they have no control.

Finally, Devan transcends his personal problems and gains in awareness of the existential problems of man. He accepts the human condition as it is and attains the existential dimension of personality.