T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

perhaps, she is essentially human, basically feminine in hersensibility, struggling to find modes of authenticcommunication.The choices before an illegal immigrant, dressed inshreds of national costume, trotting out like a vagabond on theintercontinental arena are limited. They just ask to be allowedto land: to pass through and continue. By carrying a sandalwoodGanapati in her purse, Jyoti believes that the ~ o d with anelephant trunk can uproot anything in her path.Changes in landscape, necessarily, imply changes insensibility. But lt is also possible that the changes inlandscape may be so radical and swift that the sensibilityexposed to these changes may find the 'volce' smothered andstifled. The sltuatlon becomes all the more complex lf ~t is anIndian situation. Jasmine has reached America, but the gulfcreated by the changed landscape also rules out any possibilityof a 'connection' between India and Amerlca. Soon she realisesthat there was no concept of shame in the foreign society thatshe was now part of. She wanted to become the person theythought they saw: humorous, lntelllgent, reflned, affectionate,not illegal, not murderer, not widowed, raped, destitute,fearful. Jasmine is exposed to the West, through absorption,malnly of its language and mores. She flnds lt difficult tod~ssociate the lariguage from culture and her primary emotions