Sex and Marriage
For adults, sexuality and marriage tend to proceed along a line of jokes. The truth of what marriage does to passion in a great many—though certainly not all—cases becomes crashing down around brides and grooms eventually. For the pre-teen narrator of the title story of this collection, however, sex and marriage remain together a thing of mystery and excitement:
“Relentlessly my friend and I had proceeded to find out, our only source being the books we were not supposed to read. The Reader’s Digest, though not forbidden, gave us a vague idea, for there was always something about the do’s and don’ts of marital strife, the musts and must nots of sexual convolutions. Add excitement to marriage, the Digest instructed, do it under the dining-table, on the dining-table, under the bed, in the bathtub. My friend and I sighed with excitement. Oh to be married! Light candles, the Digest urged, use perfume, open the door for your husband one evening, naked! My friend and I shivered. Could the excitement in marriage ever cease? Never!”
The Great Depression
One character in the story “Sharmaji” inquires of the title character about how he is feeling, nothing that he has seem greatly distressed lately. This inquiry provides an opening for a confession of emotional distress that centers squarely upon the idea of depression. The imagery need not even include the word depressed in order to make the point and yet the speaker cannot seem to contain himself. Once an opening has been offered, he is determined to bulldoze his way right throughout it:
“Yes, madam, I have been run down and depressed the last few days. I have been run down and depressed the last few months, the last several years. I do not remember what happiness is, madam . . . I cannot remember. And if I do remember, it is so distant a fragment of the past that I feel . . . maybe it never was. The future stretches before me like the night. Ah, madam, what can I tell you? What do you know of life? You are still young, you are not even married. Make the most of this time, madam, it will never return. With marriage, children and careers - much is lost madam, much is lost. You know nothing yet, nothing.”
The Ghosts
The title of the story “When Anklets Tinkle” is an example of imagery itself. The tale is something of a ghost story. The ghosts—such as they are—announce their presence with the echoes of the titular sound ringing from above. Of course, it will turn out that things are not necessarily what they seem, but that does nothing to change the reality of the sounds of those tinkling anklewear:
“It was Ramsaran who made the ghost a reality. A month after Rao’s arrival, he informed Mrs .Srivastava that the barsati was indeed haunted. For two nights in succession he had heard the tinkle of anklets and the clinking of bangles in Rao’s barsati. Once he had heard the strange high-pitched sound of the ghost’s laugh. It could not be borne.”
Patram
Imagery is utilized effectively for character description throughout the stories in the collection. One story in particular includes character description in particular that stands out, however. The narrator of “The Prophecy” describes a character with just the right amount of menace and humor to make him seem scary but not exactly threatening, as befits his post:
“Patram was the omnipresent, omniscient peon-cum-bodyguard- cum-regulator-of-rules, employed by our college, who watched the boarders like a hawk and reported all our goings-on to the superintendent. He knew who sneaked out of the gates before the rules permitted, who returned after 8 pm, who smoked, who had a boyfriend…If someone decided to sneak out of the college gates and see a 1.30 film show, Patram was sure to know. He was everywhere - in the markets, cinema, theatres, Connaught Place. We lived in dread of the famous khaki dress and cap and the permanent grin on his face.”
