Gabby Smith
Vikram Chandra has a knack when it comes to inventing endings to
his chapters. Initially I found it odd
how much he switched tenses in the last few pages. In Artha,
the second to last chapter of the novel, Iqbal tells his readers of how the
story ended: Sandhya will get back together with Anubhav, Rajesh was never
found, and the two men who stole money from the computer company got
fired. He reflects on the past and what
has happened, but then he quickly switches to what will happen when he returns
home to his family. In the last chapter
Shanti, the novel ends with Subramaniam telling his story in the past tense,
but then Ranjit narrates in the present tense how he is walking around Bombay discussing
what he knows he will do in the future.
Although abrupt, these tense shifts are effective in developing his
characters as both of them demonstrate certainty and self-awareness when they
are home. It is evident that the comfort
of home allows them to reconcile their difficult pasts with their present sense
of self. They demonstrate a sense of
peace and confidence within themselves that Ranjit, Subramaniam, and Iqbal
never showed throughout their stories.
For Iqbal, his original home was an apartment where he lived by
himself, portraying his characters as lonely and somewhat depressed. By the end of the chapter, he truly returns
home—a place where he comes to terms with Rajesh’s disappearance and the
support of his family members. He knows exactly
what his family will be doing when he returns home and his knowledge is
reflected back on himself. When he is at
home with his family, Iqbal is a much more self-aware and confident character
in his honesty about how he feels. He is
definitely still grieving at the end, but he recognizes his emotions and
reconciles his past with Rajesh and the present state of his life. This acceptance of the past and present
leaves him at peace with himself when he says, “I know what it is. It is the absence in my heart.”
Subramaniam’s home is the city of Bombay when Subramaniam’s wife
says “we’ve had our life, our Bombay life.”
Similarly, Ranjit walks around the city calling it “his city.” In his home of Bombay, Ranjit ends knowing
what he is searching for. He is
searching for life with his future wife in various Indian cities. Ranjit walks the streets confidently because he
knows his city and he knows what he wants.
His pride in Bombay is something very similar to what any American
experiences during the Superbowl or World Series. We rally behind our states or cities or
sports teams because there is a loyalty and familiarity to us that we feel most
comfortable with.
As a whole I think many Loyola
students still don’t get that relief and confidence at school as they get at
home. Many times I hear students, including
myself, telling people they are from New York, New Jersey, or other places
because that is their hometown. Just
like Ranjit and Subramaniam consider Bombay their home, there is still a strong
geographic tie to a student’s hometown despite living in Baltimore for the
majority of the year. Technically, we
are Baltimore residents yet rarely do we identify as Baltimore residents. However, this is why Iqbal returns home to
his family. We all return home to relax
and be with family. Just like Iqbal, we
live in apartments as students and whether we are with friends or we are alone
like he was, we still may not always feel that sense of security or confidence
as we do around family members. From my
own experience, I can be around loads of people at school, but no one knows me
better than my family, so home grants me true comfort. College in general is deemed “your new home”
when the freshmen first arrive. But homes
cannot be dropped or remade. Iqbal could
not just buy an apartment and have a new home just as Ranjit will never consider
another city his home. The feeling of home
is very interdependent on both geography, feeling a link to the land, and the
people who made that land so special.
Overall, I think it is a combination of both definitions of home that
forms my own homeland.
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