T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

and inhabit her ideal republic is typical. The journey to~merica has turned people like Jasmine into chronic travellerswho live as travellers do, from minute to mlnute, dangerouslyfree of both past and future. America offers an lnfinitevariety of fresh beginnings for these birds of passage as theykeep surviving on luck and grace.Mukherjee's stories focus on the creative possibilitiescontained in people, the ability to give up fixed worlds and tobreak out of cages and relate to a complex, multiculturalworld. Discarding the protective distancing cynicism ofNaipaul, her novels and short stories are sympathetic attemptsto break the barrier of restrictive culture and class. Within"Courtly Vision" (Darkness) . . . There is a clue to BharatiMukherjee's writing;Give me total vision, commands the emperor His voicehlsses above the hoarse calls of the camels. YouBasawan, who can paint my Begum on a grain of rice,see what you can do with the infinite vistas thesize of my opened hand. Hide nothing from me, my cowanderer.Tell me how my new capital will fail, willturn to dust and these marbled terraces be home tojackals and infidels. Tell me who to fear and whoto kill but tell it to me in a way that makes mesmile. Transport me through dense fort walls andstone grilles and into the hearts of men(Darkness 199)The artist has penetrated below the surface found the realityand told the truth on several grains of rice.