TRIPLE TIME: ‘PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE’

TRIPLE TIME:

‘PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE’

An overview of Larkin’s view of time

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Synopsis:

 

            All time-future, present and past-governs life. Life is in function in the three elements of time. Thus, life is a three-handed struggle for its existence. Life in childhood or later looks at the future with all expectations and so on to be fulfilled. In time’s flow, the future turns into the present, teaching man a bitter lesson that all expectations in life never become reality. Man finds the present dry and desolate when the luring future proves to be unpromising in time’s flow. With the thought of the arrival of death in the future, time teaches the lesson of mortality as well as futility inevitable in life. In the present when all are contrary to all expectations, life seems be boring for failures in life and fearful for the awareness of the approach of death. Life is a journey to face the hard realities. The present slips into the past. Larkin thinks that the past is past, gone and forgotten. The past has nothing to do with life in the present. The past, the present and the past are the source of pain and displeasure. Larkin turns pessimistic in life rooted in time with its devastating forces and destroying powers. Life turns illusory in triple time’s reign for multiple changes against wish from agnostic background.      

 

Key Words:

 

Time, future, present, past, life, illusion, struggle, dreams, expectations, hopes, failures, disappointments, better, lesson, mortality, and futility, boring, fear, pain, displeasure, pessimistic, agnostic

 

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Research Article:

 

   All time-future, present and past-governs life in its constant flux. Time is man’s element and an integral part of life. Life is a voyage in the ocean of time. Life flows in time and it is therefore rooted in time.

 

            Larkin, both as man and poet, grows conscious of time and observes the changes to occur in life. The concept of time is evident and recurrent throughout his poetry. Time is the nucleus theme, the theme of themes in rich variety. He makes a clear-cut distinction in dealing with the concept of time. His poetic sensibility is shaped by his constant preoccupation with time.

 

      From the agnostic background, Larkin believes in time’s “eroding agents”. He thinks that time in its flow does all actions and functions, kaalah karothi kaaryaani. He concurs with time, “Truly, our element is time” (CP, 106) as it conquers life by its destroying powers and devastating forces.

 

Life is a journey on the evermoving wheels of time. Man grows conscious of time with its endless movement and the changes it brings about in life. Many poets look at time and have diverse perspectives about it. Philip Larkin’s perspective is unique in his approach to time.

 

Larkin lives in the present, expecting the future to bring the harbinger of good fortunes. He experiences all contrary to his expectations in the present about the future. He loses all hopes about the future and thinks that he is wrong in his expectancy,

 

“Always too eager for the future, we

Pick up bad habits of expectancy,

Something is always approaching; every day

Till then we say”.

“Next, Please” (CP, 52)

 

 Larkin looks at life with all hopes, expectations, dreams and all that the future to fulfill as seen from childhood. When he fails to fulfill his expectations and all those, he finds the future uncertain and unpromising. The future turns into the present and he finds in the present a series of clashes between what he expects and what happens to him in all aspects of life. Then our life turns into a series of missed opportunities. Hence life in the present is futile, empty, and desolate. The phrase, “come and choose wrong” (TLD, 44) reflects man’s wrong choice that leads us to the inevitable disappointment in life, “happiness to is going” (TLD, 44).

 

The poet experiences all failures and disappointments in the present and so he finds it dry and desolate. The unpromising future turns into the present void of charm and meaning. In time’s flow the present turns into the past as a store of bitter experiences.

 

In the present, the poet starts to look at the future with no hopes or diminished hopes. He finds life prosaic and dull. He does not like to recall the past with any sentimentality. His recalling of the experiences in the past does not reflect an emotional union between the past and the present in him. He has no emotional attachment to the past. In “Dockery and Son” he speaks of his childhood.  In a nostalgic mood, he tries to see his classrooms at college but finds the doors locked. The locked door is suggestive of his outside status. He recalls his experiences in college with the dean and Dockery. Michael Schimidt is of the view that the poet frequently “presents as an outsider, man without a past to be nostalgic for and without much in the future… an isolated bachelor.”

 

Larkin recalls his experiences in the past without any sentimentality. He treats it as a “forgotten boredom”. He expresses the same view slightly differently as the “unspent” “I Remember, I Remember” (TLD,38).

 

In the poem, “Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album”, the poet comments on his girlfriend’s family album. The photos in the past mark a contrast with life in the present. Life in the reign of time as witnessed changes in the album against one’s wish. The relation between the past and the present: “the gap from eye to page”, clearly visible. It is “a past that no one can share” that hurts the viewers in the present as there is a striking difference between the photo in the past and the girl in the present,

 

            That this is a real girl in a real place,

                 …        ….         …        …

Or is it just the past? Those flowers that gate

Simply by being over you

Contract my heart by looking out of date.

                 ‘Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album’ TLD, 13

        

The gap between the photo in the past and the girl in the present leaves the viewers to “mourn” in the future too,

 

In short, a past that no one now can share,

No matter whose your future; calm and dry,

It holds you like a heaven, and you lie

Unvariably lovely there,

Smaller and clearer as the years go by.

                ‘Lines on Young Lady’s Photograph Album, TLD,14

 

             There is a comment on a transformation in the name after her marriage. The maiden name before her marriage has nothing to do with the changed name in the present. Her maiden name is for “what we feel now about you then” (TNS, 23). The maiden name is connected to “her beauty and youth” in the past, marking a contrast with name transformed. 

 

Larkin from his agnostic background firmly believes in time and its ceaseless flow to turn the future into the present and the present into the past, “a past that no one now can share” (CP, 78). The past is past, gone, dead, and forgotten in the eternal flux of time.

 

Time is not cyclic as in “Next, Please”, “its/No sooner present than it turns to past / Right to the last” (CP, 52). In time’s flow he realizes that the future is unpromising, the present is dry and desolate and the past forgotten boredom. He treats the past, the present and the future, triple time as the three-fold illusion.

 

Larkin juxtaposes past, present, and future as mutually exclusive concepts. He treats the three elements as distinct parts of time. Time is a destroyer as it has annihilating powers to bring about changes in life against one’s wishes. Once time elapsed and passed will never be repeated or regained. For Eliot and Bergson, time is both the creator and the destroyer as the past enlivens the present and modifies the future:

 

Time present, time past

Are both perhaps present in time future?

And time future contained in time past.

                                                “Burnt Norton” (FQ, 13)

 

The present contains both the past and the future as Lord Krishna counsels Arjuna,

 

Time past and time future

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present

                                                            “Burnt Norton” (FQ, 41)

 

For Eliot, the past is not dead. The past is present as Time is cyclic and past is enlivened in the eternal flow of time:

 

You shall not think the past is finished

Or ‘the future before us’

                                    “The Dry Salvages” (FQ, 41)

 

Eliot believes in the sense of unity of the present, the past and the future in multiplicity. The beginning that leads to end marks the beginning,

 

What we call the beginning is often the end

And make an end is to make a beginning.

                                    “Little Gidding” (FQ, 58)

 

Eliot asserts the unity of all the three units: past, present and the future, and believes in the concept: “The end is where we start from” like Bergson who says that the sense of continuity and unity is evident between the past, the present and the future as “unity within multiplicity”.¹

 

Eliot treats time as an eternal present.  Only through time, time is conquered but for Larkin, only through time or in time, life is conquered and made mortal because time advances life to death to put an end to life. Man exists temporarily in human time and dies not to exist again as per the Christian idea of rebirth or renewal. In time’s flow life traverses to death according to Larkin.

 

                                                … … it goes

And leaves what something hidden from us chose

And age, and then the only end of age.

                                                “Dockery and son” (CP, 152)

 

 

Larkin grows conscious of the approach of death in time’s ceaseless movement. The future will bestow on him age and death, ‘the only end of age.’ He looks at future with the sense sadness and uncertainty. Life can never escape the chains of time in its movement. Life journeys through the future to turn into the present. The present invariably turns into the past as life is rooted in time.

      

            Larkin sees the past, the present and the future as distinct elements and discrete units as he finds them mutually exclusive but not mutually oblivious though he feels that life is rooted in time. Thus, he believes that life exists in a linear-time dimension,

                       

Days are where we live.

They come; they wake us

Time and time over.

                                    “Days” (CP, 67)

           

Time flows endlessly turning our lives transient. Time goes on and we live in its domain,

 

Whether or not we use it, it goes

And leaves what something hidden from us chose,

And age, and then the only end of age.

 

In time’s flux, man’s life ultimately advances to culminate in mortality. According to Larkin trees unlike man have restorative power. Trees put on tender leaves and shed them every year to restore by means of their restorative power:

           

The trees are coming into leaf

Like something almost being said;

The recent buds relax and speed,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

                                    “The Trees” (CP, 166)

 

            The life of is a journey in the domain of time to mark a difference from that of trees of restorative power. Life advances from birth to youth, middle age, old-age, decrepitude and ultimately culminates in death because “life is slow dying” (TWW, 11) as the sign of mortality in the reign of time,

 

Hours giving evidence

Or birth, advance

On death equally slowly.

                                    “Nothing to be said” (CP, 138).

 

 

Time moves endlessly like the train, the wind or the living river in its irreversible motion and advances life from birth to growth, decline and ultimately makes it culminate in death to mark mortality. Larkin grows conscious of the arrival or approach of death in the future. In time’s flow, he finds the present impoverished and the future blighted. Michael Schimidt says, “Larkin juxtaposes impoverished present and blighted future – and death.”2 

 

Death is the end of life. Larkin has firm belief that the future in his life will bestow on him, the end of life in the eternal flux of time. Life is mortal for him but not for poets like Browning, Donne, Eliot, and Bergson life continues even after death. For them, death is the beginning of spiritual life. In Eliot’s view:

 

We die with the dying:

See they depart, we go with them.

We are born constant with the dead:

                                                “Little Gidding”, (FQ, 58)

           

What we call the beginning is often the end

And to make an end is to make a beginning

The end is where we start from.

                                                “Little Gidding”, (FQ, 58)

 

For Larkin, life is transitory and man lives with the consciousness of the inevitable approach of death. In this respect, Larkin is akin to Wolfe who says, “The mystery of strange million-visage time haunts us with the briefness of our days… transience of our existence.”¹⁴ Larkin wakes up to the consciousness of death more in his old age than in middle age as expressed in “Aubade” which was written in his old age,

                       

“Most things may never happen: this one will”

                                                            “Aubade” (CP, 208)

 

Time has dramatic function in bringing about changes in life that traverses in its reign from birth to death to turn mortal on one hand and futile on the other when man fails to fulfill his promises, leading to futility and nullity.

 

All time – the past, the present and the future – brings no comfort. As P. R. King says, “… We are also time’s accomplices in the sense that we ourselves employ time as an instrument with which to deceive ourselves….”⁴ The poem, “Triple Time” presents the fact that all time – the past, the present and the future – being a source of disappointment and discomfort, serves as “a three-fold illusion”⁵. Here Larkin seems to echo Hume’s theory: “time is evil and illusory”⁶.

 

            “Triple Time” presents the fact that all time – the past, the present and the future – being a source of disappointment and discomfort, serves as “a three-fold illusion”⁵. Here Larkin seems to echo Hume’s theory: “time is evil and illusory”⁶. Time which serves as a three-fold illusion is recurrent in Larkin’s poetry.

 

“Triple Time” also presents Larkin’s attitude towards time.  The dreariness and emptiness of the present are evoked by the “empty-street” and “indistinct” air.  The present is “A time traditionally soured/ A time unrecommended by event” (TLD, 35) as our expectations go wrong in reality. We think of the future to be the harbinger of good fortunes. We hope that the future, “adult enterprise” (TLD, 35) will be successful in making our dreams true but fail miserably. The present “on another day will be the past” (TLD, 35), a frustrated past: “A valley cropped up fat neglected chances”. We witness the “inevitable decrease” (TLD, 35) and decline in our lives.

 

The poem “Triple Time” states the fact that neither the past nor the future bestows on our present the sense of meaning because time turns our lives into futility. Then we feel life is illusory as it is a series of illusions. Life turns to be the illusion of illusions. He treats life as a three-fold illusion result of illusionary nature of triple time. He feels no attachment with the past that is past and uneventful.

 

Larkin’s idea of time entails a great mystery and reflects the fact that the secrets and wonders of time remain unknown. Time has attracted many literary minds for ages in different ways. How to measure, how it moves and brings about changes; and how it shatters our desires, aims, dreams and pretensions in our lives are significant factors to be discussed.

                                                             TRIVENI, December 2023

                                

               Works Cited:

             Larkin, Collected Poems :Philip Larkin, London, The Marvell Press, 1988

             ………. The North Ship (TNS), London. Fortune Press, 1945

             ……….The Less Deceived (TLD), Yorkshire, Marvell Press, 1955

             …….…The Whitsun Weddings (TWW), London, Faber Faber, 1964

            .……….High Windows (HW), London: Faber Faber, 1974                                                     

1.     Hans Meyerhoff, Time in Literature, (London:University of California Press, 1974) 15

2.     Michel Schmidt, 50 Modern British Poets, (London: Heinman, 1979) 334.

3.     Ibid , 334

4.     P. R. King, Nine contemporary poets, (: Methuen, 1979) 7.

5.     Ibid 7

6.     Hans Meyerhoff, Time in Literature, (London: University of California Press, 1974) 31.

Published: Triveni 2023, Jan-Mar.

The Scientist

This is the age of science and technology when the scientist

poses superior to others and does not care for others as he

feels far above all others. He feels haughty and boorish for his

scientific advancement and technological progress. He never

cares for all others who are equally authoritative in their

respective fields. He thinks that he has bombs in his hands.

He can kill all his enemies and all if he wants as his bomb is

able to spoil ten worlds including the earth. He thinks that he

can do wonders but does not know that he does blunders too.

He knows “how to fly in the sky and swim in the sea but he

doesn’t know how to walk on earth.” It means that he forgets

how to behave on earth like man to be human and humanistic

to reflect humanity.

There was a clash between Dr. Sputnik and others in

various fields like philosophy, art, and literature. He

challenged all of them to display their powers. Others were

not ready to display their powers to compete with him. He

posed superior to others. One day he happened to meet Mr.

Vedanth, the most reputed philosopher, and had a deep

discussion with him.

When Mr. Vedanth told many things about philosophy

and its supremacy over all other subjects including science

and technology that help the man invent a bomb that is able

to destroy the whole world today. We are not willing to lose

any civilization, any culture and any heritage in the name of

world war to result in human loss. The war knows only

violence and the loss of all that are to reflect the merit of man.

For that, we have to preserve man to preserve all these to his 

credit. What we want are peace and harmony, values and

virtues and so on but not bombs and clashes, violence and

unrest and so on. Dr. Sputnik did not agree with him in any

aspect on the one hand and challenged him to the exhibition

of his powers for a success on the other.

Dr. Sputnik invited the philosopher, Mr. Vedanth to his

house to learn his powers the following morning. He was

ready to come to his house.

Mr. Vedanth was at the magnificent mansion of Dr.

Sputnik. It was in a building with infinite floors. It all

appeared to touch the sky as it was in the most gigantic

stature. He was at the gate that was also very big. He did not

know how to enter. He stood there humbly. Immediately the

doll of a parrot came out of a box fixed on the gate to invite

him in a polite manner.

‘Hello, Good Morning...my dear guest...’

‘Very Good morning...,’ said Vedanth

‘Welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...,’

said the doll.

‘Thank you... Say once more... Say “welcome”... Your

voice is very melodious...,’ said Mr. Vedanth.

‘Thank you...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...,’

said the doll.

‘Very sweet welcome...,’ said Vedanth.

The gate was slowly opening while the sweet music was

going on. It was very sonorous and melodious to listen to.

His heart was rejoicing a lot. His happiness knew no bounds

for he was delighted with the music.

Vedanth was at the door. The door was opening

automatically. A hit song was playing to welcome him...

Meanwhile, Dr. Sputnik came forward to receive him

cordially. He said with all pride,

‘Welcome to you...’

‘Thank you...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Mr. Vedanth, this is my lab of wonders... I can show

you all my contributions to science and technology,’ said

Sputnik.

‘Very good...Congratulations...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Thank you... Let’s first visit the three dolls to speak

three different languages-international language, national

language, and regional language... Listen...We find them

wishing us “Good Morning”, “namaskar”, “namaskaramulu”

twice with folded hands,’ said Sputnik.

‘We too wish you with folded hands...It is our custom...,’

said Vedanth.

‘Let’s watch the wonders of this lab...Here is a peacock.

See how it dances very gracefully when music goes on...,’ said

Sputnik.

‘Very wonderful...wonderful indeed...it dances more

gracefully than the real peacock...,’ said Vedanth.

‘Please stand here...without any motion...The small

robot will tell your temperature, your weight, your heartbeat,

your blood pressure level and your horoscope...,’ said

Sputnik.

‘This is your temperature...This is your weight...This is

your heartbeat...This is your blood pressure...This is your

horoscope...,’ said the robot sending out a report through a

window.

‘Very wonderful...,’ said Vedanth.

‘You can see many more wonders...one after the

other...I’ve various kinds of scientific equipment. I’ve

prepared for all this by spending a lot and using my science

brain. I’ve invested millions in this...,‘ said Sputnik.

‘All are very wonderful...I heartily congratulate you on

your contributions and their performances...You’re indeed

great...I appreciate you in all respects. I’ve appreciated the

bombs scientists invented in the age of science and

technology. The bombs used in the Second World War were a

thousand times more powerful than the ones used in the First

World War. The bombs which we have today are a billion

times more powerful than the ones used in the Second World

War. The countries that have bombs are proud of themselves.

If we use a bomb in the war-field today, there will be colossal

loss. It can never save any life and man’s race or any race on

earth. This credit goes to the scientist like you...,’ said

Vedanth.

‘I gave an idea...a tiny inkling to them. I was the key

person in the manufacturing of bombs. For that I was highly

felicitated...Now my country is on par with the advanced

countries.’ said Sputnik with pride and honour.

‘Bombs for wars are there in the pockets but ideas about

peace are at the heart...It is like sleeping with the bombs

under the pillows and with our heads on pillows,’ said

Vedanth.

‘All these are the products of science and

technology...These are few among the many with me to my

credit as a sign of my merit in the modern age...I’ve shown

some to you... some samples. Next time you can see many

more...,’ said Sputnik, welcoming Mr. Vedanth for tea.

‘What would you like to have...coffee or else tea... or

cocktail i.e. coffee and tea together... Here are their

buttons...coffee, tea, cocktail, sugar, etc. Here is the number

button...What do you want...?’ said Sputnik.

‘Let’s have coffee...,’ said Vedanth.

‘I touch the coffee button and the number button...I

touch ‘two’. Here we find two cups of relishing hot

coffee...Okay these are not coffee cups but cups of coffee.

Please have...,’ said Sputnik.

‘Yes, it’s very fine... very fine... very tasty... very

delicious...Its flavour is super...

unsurpassed...Congratulations...on your unfailing

adventures...,’ said Vedanth when he had coffee with all

praises to the scientist.

‘Thank you...,’ said Sputnik with all pride.

While Vedanth was going to the door, He heard the

words in the melodious tone, ‘Thank you...u...u...u... Thank

you...u...u...’ Then Sputnik sent him off, waving. He was

haughty in pose and unrivalled in contribution to science

while bidding goodbye to his philosopher-guest, Vedanth

who was approaching the gate. Again, the doll of a parrot

came out of the box and said in the echoing voice,

‘Thank you very much for your visit... Visit again... Visit

again... Visit again... Visit again...Visit again...Visit again and

again.’

‘Very sweet voice...Say “visit again” again...’ said

Vedanth.

‘Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit

again...Visit again ‘ said the doll of a parrot as per the wish of

Vedanth.

The next morning, an uninvited guest with his four

companions was at the gate of Sputnik. The doll of a parrot

came out of the box welcomed them, saying,

‘Hello, Good Morning...my dear guest...’

‘Very Good morning...,’ said the uninvited guest with

the companions.

‘Welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...’

‘Thank you... Say once more...say, “Welcome”... Your

voice is very melodious...,’ said the uninvited guests

‘Thank you...welcome...welcome...welcome...welcome...’

‘Very sweet welcome...,’ said the uninvited guests.

The gate was slowly opening while the sonorous music

was going on. It was very melodious to listen to. Their hearts

were rejoicing in it a lot. Their happiness knew no bounds for

they were delighted with the music.

The five uninvited guests were at the door. The door

was opening automatically. A super hit song was welcoming

them...Meanwhile Dr. Sputnik came forward to receive them

cordially. He said with all pride,

‘Welcome to you...’

‘Thank you...’

Sputnik received the guests cordially though they were

not invited. Sputnik was suspecting them, as they looked

different. They followed him to the exhibits one after the

other. They followed him to the small robot to greet them in

three languages. The situation appeared favourable for them

to steal all the valuables. Two were ready with guns in their

hands to shoot Sputnik if he prevented them from stealing.

They were filling all the scientific valuable exhibits and all

kinds of scientific equipment in their bags. Then Sputnik was

shocked when he found them stealing...He said,

‘O! Don’t take them...’

‘Shut up...’ said the uninvited guests with the guns

aiming at him.

‘You, thieves...Who invited you...? I didn’t invite

you...You’re uninvited guests... What are you taking? All the

things are my life... I spent my life inventing or preparing all

these things... Don’t take them away...They are my near and

dear...,’ said Sputnik humbly.

‘Shut up... Do you want to live or not...? If you want

life...Shut up...Keep quiet... lest your life fly away to the sky,’

said the uninvited guests.

‘Don’t take anything...I can’t buy them again in my life...

They cost millions and millions...,’ said Sputnik with folded

hands, crying like anything.

Sputnik’s wife heard this and came to him crying. They

threatened Sputnik and his wife, filled all the valuable things

in his bags and were ready to go away.

‘Please...Don’t take them...’ said his wife, touching their

feet while her husband Sputnik was trying to call the police.

‘Whom are you calling?’ said they and snatched the

smart phone from him.

All thought that the uninvited guests were thieves from

nowhere. They stole all the money when they found it in a

box and were going. Sputnik and his wife followed them to

the door, saying

‘For God’s sake...don’t take anything....’

They tried their best, but it was in vain. While the

thieves were approaching the door, they heard the words in

the melodious music, ‘Thank you’. Then Sputnik was

unhappy and sad. He felt insulted and humiliated for the loss

of his contributions to science while his wife was weeping all

the time. Again, the doll of a parrot came out of the box and

said to the thieves in the voice to resonate,

‘Thank you very much for your visit...Visit again...Visit

again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again and

again.’

‘Very sweet voice...Say “visit again” again...,’ said the

thieves.

‘Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit again...Visit

again...’ said the doll of a parrot considering their request.

Sputnik and his wife fell in the ocean of tears. All his

poses vanished, and his glory diminished against his

expectations. They tried to get them back with the help of the

police, but all their trials went futile. The things and the fame

he enjoyed were not long lasting. He wanted to own them

ever but failed to do so. Pride goes before destruction or a

great loss, an irreparable loss.

Volume 7 - Issue 2 - Jan-Mar 2023

Authors Press

Vinamra

It was a flight for America. Madhu was at the Shamshabad international airport for his flight. He was going to California. There was an announcement about the readiness of the flight. He got his bag and baggage checked and was ready to get inside the airport. He was reaching the airplane. He heard the final announcement for its flight to start in a few minutes. He was entering the flight.

‘Good Morning…Welcome…,’ said the airhostess in a sweet tone.

‘Very Good Morning…Thank you for your welcome…,’ said Madhu cordially.

‘Here is your seat just beside the window in the second row on the left,’ said the airhostess showing the seat.

‘Thank you,’ said Madhu. 

Madhu occupied the seat reserved for him. A moment later, Vinamra entered the flight. The airhostess led her to the seat that was beside his seat. She settled in her seat. Meanwhile the airhostess instructed the travelers to buckle the seatbelt. A long whistle-like-sound was going on and the airplane was on its runway. It slowly flew off into the sky and was flying. The trees, the buildings, hills, etc were looking smaller and smaller. The higher it was flying; the smaller they appeared from the flight. It was flying faster and faster. The flight was in its height in the skyline. It was flying without minding the conversations made in the flight.

Vinamra was silent and seemed to have lost in her deep thoughts. Madhu, who sat beside her, felt like speaking to her but hesitated to do so. 

'She is very cute but mute now... She has not tried to speak to me. She is well cultured, highly civilized and very dignified. Definitely, she belongs to a highly educated family. She is working in a good position. Her husband is in a better position. She and her husband were born each other and are made for each other,' Madhu said to himself silently all the times.

Madhu made up his mind to speak to her in a friendly manner but withdrew his idea of speaking to her for a while. He again felt like breaking the ice by his words to her in a polite and pleasing manner.

‘Madam… May I know where you are flying to…? I am flying to California for the first time. I hope you too are flying to California,’ said Madhu.

 ‘Yes, Sir…,’ said Vinamra.

‘I’m Madhu going to a University in California to participate in a seminar,’ said Madhu with a gentle smile. 

‘Good…I'm Vinamra. I am going to see my sister who settled there. She’s booked tickets for my flight,’ said Vinamra.

‘Where are you from India?’ said Madhu.

‘I’m the native of a big village near Hyderabad in India. I like the rural atmosphere very much and so I love to live there enjoying all sights of sunrises and sunsets; verdant valleys and bluish hillocks, green crops and beautiful birds; so on,’ said Vinamra.

“I’m also from the rural background of the Telalgana state. I studied in the city of Hyderabad. After the completion of my Post-Graduate study, I joined the Osmania University. After the completion of my Ph. D., I was promoted to the status of Professor in the recent past,” said Madhu. 

 “It is very good on your part ...,” said Vinamra.

“What about your studies… Where did you study?” said Madhu.

“I didn’t study much… I discontinued my education against my will and wish to study further,” said Vinamra.

“You appeared to be well-educated and well-placed…The members of your family would have encouraged you to study further…You would have studied further... I feel sorry for the hurdle in pursuit of your studies. I hope that it was your marriage to disturb your studies... Even after marriage, you would have studied in the distant mode at least… After marriage, I did my M. Phil and Ph. D. I, at the same time, encouraged my wife to study but she did not study… Even after encouragement, she remains the same. She will remain the same in the future too. It is certain… Not only in terms of education, but also in other matters. I like orderliness and cleanliness of the house. She is not very particular about what I want. She is not different from what she was before her marriage. My constant encouragement went futile. Now I feel that to encourage her in any matter is waste. It goes futile. I am sure of it…What is the use…? I hope you needed some encouragement but you were not encouraged so to continue your studies,” said Madhu. 

“I’m unmarried …I want to remain so…,” said Vinamra.

“May I know the reasons for that?” said Madhu. 

‘Sure…,’ said Vinamra

Vinamra narrated the reasons for her celibacy with the expression of deep feelings in her face all the while: 

“It was an excellent theatre for the show of a movie and all were seated waiting in joys to watch the movie released that day. All were keenly attentive to watch it, as there was a big much audio-release function about it. They felt pride to have tickets to watch the movie with the morning show that day. The picture was going on and all glued to the seats in the theatre.

"I was keen on watching the movie. I expected it to be very interesting. It was not a movie to lull the viewers in the swing of joys. It was a movie woven round the central character. The movie was very serious and it was all she guessed after reaching the first reel of the movie it self. The movie was going on in a serious manner reel after reel against her wish in real life. I went ahead to see the movie with some sudden twist at the end… 

"Prakash who played the role of the central character came to the house of the heroine with his parents and guests. He came for a marriage alliance. There were the heroine with her parents and kith and kin. She was Deepika, seated in presence of all the people of both the sides. His parents felt that she was the most suitable match for their son but they did not express so. They were posing to be superior to the girl's parents in all respects. The girl was a technical graduate with a handsome job. She with all charming features and pleasing behaviors was humble. They posed to select the match keeping in view her education and employment together. 

"The girl’s parents were happy to find the boy suitable for their daughter. Through their mediator, they expressed their willingness for the marriage with the match. The boy’s parents posed with a view that they would definitely like the boy, and were in their perfect guess. All were in seats to discuss the rest of the things threadbare:

'The boy, Prakash is a son of the biggest landlord, richest millionaire and biggest man. He is more educated and better positioned than many others are in the district. His father is still becoming richer and richer to be a multibillionaire. How much dowry are you offering in the settlement of the marriage...?’ said the boy’s side mediator.

‘I must offer dowry. It is my responsibility. I am going to offer dowry as per your wish…,’ said the girl’s father.

‘Whatever is given by you is definitely lower than that of their status…It must be far higher than you guess,' said the mediator.

‘There is no limit for anything…As per my financial status, the dowry I am going to offer you is fifty lakhs,' said the girl's father.

‘It is as low as that of the lowest man to offer in the district,' said the mediator.

‘Then you can directly ask them as per your estimation,' said the girl's father.

‘Our estimation is far higher than the one you have just proposed. In one alliance, there was a proposal to offer one crore with innumerable gifts but our son was not ready for that match. Though you are ready to offer two crores, it is somewhat to be considered on humanitarian grounds,’ said the mediator, reading the boy’s face, while the boy was nodding his head with a smile on his lips.

‘It is at your level but not at our level…You must rise to the level and think of ...,’ said the boy's father.

‘I must go according to your wishes…but…I can offer sixty lakhs to you,’ said the girl's father.

‘Where is my proposal and where is your proposal…?' said the mediator.

‘I offer you seventy lakhs. It is the most possible offer,’ said the girl's father.

‘The most possible is not the most acceptable one,’ said the mediator while the boy's father was nodding to what the mediator told the girl's father.

"The people present there tried to convince the boy’s parents. One of the fellows came forward to convince the boy’s father while he was posing superior to all the other people assembled there:

‘For you, it is nothing...It is nothing for you…Your son is greater than many other people are in the district. I need not tell about you. You too are unrivalled in the district in the possession of wealth. I know that what the girl's father offers is nothing… I wish that you should be ready for offering you eighty lakhs. You have to accept my proposal,’ said one present.

‘I have a daughter to be married in near future. In my daughter’s marriage, I am ready to offer three crores… It is our responsibility to satisfy the boy’s aspirations…,’ said another.

‘It is true …What they offer you must not be less than and far inferior to your status… I know… I know…It is not seventy lakhs, they are going to offer you eighty lakhs as I said…That is final… With your kind heart and broad mind accept this…,’ said some other.

‘All the other things are to be offered to suit our level… My son refused to take one crore in the other’s case. He is so great that none can compete with him in any way… My wife came from the family of splendors… My daughters are unrivalled in their fields. Ours is the family of riches and highs,’ said the boy's father.

‘All gifts and respects will be according to your status…,’ said one to please the people of the boy’s side.

"The boy’s father called the girl's father and decked vermilion on his forehead. He however hugged him in a mechanical way, saying, ‘The auspicious days are to be over in the next two days. The days are for the offering of the dowry to the boy and the other for the presenting of flowers and fruits to the girl as per our customs and traditions. After the inauspicious days of one month, there is the most auspicious day immediately to fall. As per the horoscopes of the boy and the girl, the marriage will be performed on the first Friday in the period of auspicious days in the calendar,' said the boy's father. 

"The marriage settlement and the celebrations to take place prior to the marriage were over. The boy and his parents were posing as not to care for the girl’s parents as the marriage celebrations marked inferior to that they aspired and cherished for a long time. 

"The day came for the marriage and witnessed the bride and the bridegroom in the marriage venue for their exchanging of garlands while the musical instruments were going on in the presence of all the guests of both the sides. The boy’s parents and their guests marked a lot of discrimination in their treatment and behaviour. 

"The bride Deepika and the bridegroom Prakash were on their honeymoon. There were their duets in the world-famous beautiful spots and destinations. The audiences were enjoying the picture going on with a delightful note. Some audiences were identifying with them on screen.

"Prakash and Deepika were enjoying their honeymoon. The nearness between them thickened. For some days, he kept on speaking to her about the joys of married life alone. One day he revealed his experiences in the past life with his girl friends to her, his bride, Deepika. He felt pride for having many girl friends to his credit. She felt hurt as they visited him in his house resorting to the old ways. She silently suffered psychologically. He told her about the places he visited with each of the girl friends to add fuel to fire on her part. She heard it shedding tears in the heart of her heart. All his girl friends called him and spoke to him whenever possible for them. 

"Prakash used to care for their phone calls and care a pin for his wife, Deepika. He came drunk to the house. He showed the photographs of his girl friends with him. They were obscene. She was not able to bear. She made up her mind to ask him whether he had married one or all of his girl friends as she felt that she had been utterly deceived. He came late night to his house all most all the days.

"One night, Prakash came in a drunken state and started to abuse Deepika underrating her. At the sight of her husband, she felt that she had lost everything precious in her life. She was upset and desperate totally. She meditated upon God for a considerable time to get moral courage and complete peace. She ventured to ask him the barefaced question but asked with tears in her eyes. She expressed her tearful question:

‘Is it good on your part to have girl friends?’ said Deepika. 

‘What? Girl friends … You mean girl friends, don’t you?’ Prakash answered in the question form

‘Yes…,’ said Deepika.

‘It is a common thing. Nothing is objectionable. The life enjoyed with them was sweeter than the one with you today,’ said Prakash. 

‘I feel sorry…extremely sorry…The wearer knows where the shoe pinches...the sufferer knows how her heart aches,’ said Deepika.

‘What about you?’ said Prakash.

‘What nonsense are you talking...? You ... I have seen the pure, open video clippings in your sacred, secret mobile. You think that you are open and frank now. Your greatness lies in keeping quiet about all these nasty things before our marriage. You have talked about your false greatness, hiding your true colours. You don’t think of others’ happiness. You think of your sheer false pleasures. Can I keep quiet and lead a comfortable and enjoyable life when you talk of them?’ said Deepika weeping bitterly all the while.

‘They are as good as you even today,’ said Prakash.

‘Are they like me…Are they in my position?’ said Deepika.

‘You question me…You…Third rate fellow… You don’t deserve to be my wife….' said Prakash.

"Prakash beat Deepika like anything very indiscriminately. She fell down unconscious. She was immediately in the hospital nearby. The doctors were attending to her. She was not able to get consciousness. Whenever she got consciousness, she said feebly, ‘I was deceived…I was deceived… The fellow… deceived… me. He…He…His father too…,’ said Deepika.

"Deepika regained consciousness but she was able to recognize neither her parents nor the others related to them. She looked at others in different moods and her moods changed very often. She threw cups and glasses at the women present there. She tried to quarrel with them. Then the doctors sent her to a mental hospital. She was undergoing punishment to recover from madness. It was a long way for her to cure her madness. As she became pregnant after marriage, she delivered a male child after nine months. The doctors separated the child and kept it under the care of her parents.

"Deepika was in the mental hospital waiting for none 

"That was the film with the central character, Prakash with villainous actions spoiling the life of Deepika. She felt deceived and deserted by not telling the facts of Prakash before the marriage. Her little baby son did not know the love and affection of his parents. That was the serious movie.

"Watching the film, I shrieked deeply and all in the theatre looked at me. I wept bitterly and bursting into tears very often in the theatre itself as I involved in the character, Deepika... I then and there decided to remain unmarried in life... It was a bitter lesson in my life... I still recall the incidents that took place in the heroine, Deepika’s life.” Like that, Vinamra narrated the reasons for her not to marry and lead a married life. Madhu reacted in equally shocking state. 

‘O! You remain unmarried in life for the shock due to the untoward incidents that took place in the life of the innocent heroine, Deepika in the film,' said Madhu. 

'Exactly...We witness such incidents in day-to-day life. The scoundrels who deceive the innocent must undergo punishment tooth and nail. I made up my mind to teach lessons to such people and see them be behind the bars,’ braved Vinamra in her briefing.

‘I am sorry for your sensitive mind and delicate heart. You preferred celibacy to married life… The picture transformed your life but not all its viewers. I, at the same time, appreciate you for the decision on the lines of feminist principles to fight against such rogues,’ said Madhu.

‘True…Thank you for listening to me so long with abundant patience,’ said Vinamra humbly.

‘I too whole-heartedly support you in all respects. I stand by women to face such problems. I welcome your suggestions while sharing my views with you. It is my friendly gesture for you on my part. The birds of a feather flock together. Our views are similar but our destinations are dissimilar,’ said Madhu. 

‘I like your friendly gesture in sharing with me,’ said Vinamra.

‘I open the doors of my heart to welcome your suggestions and opinions,’ said Madhu with all deep feelings.

‘Thank you very much...,’ said Vinamra. 

‘Thanks a lot…for sharing your views,’ said Madhu...

Madhu started to speak, changing the topic to divert Vinamra's sorrowful mood. He talked of the places he had seen earlier in the US,

'Have you seen the Niagara water falls?' 

'No, I haven't. This time I have planned to visit it.'

Madhu depicted the Niagara water falls and Vinamra enjoyed listening to its graphic description. 

Madhu and Vinamra were in the flight speaking on various topics- local, social national and international and spent their remaining flight-time, respecting each other. Meanwhile they were at the airport of California. They got into the cars came for them to receive. They travelled together but reached their respective destinations in California. 

Published:

Contemporary Literary Review, India. Vol:9 No:4 Nov, 2022

https://www.literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/1172/1238