The Red Tin Roof, though a bit light on its plot, spellbinds
us via the sheer beauty of its text. Set in Shimla, the course of the novel takes
us through the life a person has to spend in the mountains. The novel depicts
with such finesse the picturesque surroundings of the protagonist of the novel,
Kaya. As the text mainly dwells in the wanderings of the minds of Kaya, and her
little brother Chhote, the author leads with real panache over to the delicacies
of Shimla, of adolescence, of beliefs among other things.
The novel is about Kaya’s self-discovery and how she strives
to find her individuality amongst all the things she goes through alone.
Through her thoughts, we come to know of Lama who visited Kaya and Chhote one
winter back and gave them memories galore. Once she goes, Kaya finds herself
cut off from the world. Often covered by the company of older women and a
younger brother, she is seldom involved in social life and is thus left to
herself.
The reader is taken through the musings of Kaya’s inner
being as she tries to figure out the various ongoings in life. We see the
transformation in her thoughts from when she is a child to reaching
adolescence, interspersed with her life-changing events like her spotting her
own mum delivering, or death calling out to her Ginny, the dog. Devoid of
similar company, she has no vim and vigor left in her real life and spends much
of her time in trances and fantasies. The mountains and the nature enveloping
her become her friends and she feels a strange attachment with them. She tries
to perceive all that she sees through her childish mind and is often left with
shocks to work out through. The novel is her journey to put aside her
superstitions and embrace the reality by working through her fears and
illusions.
Kaya’s growing body is mismatched to her lonely longing inner soul
and we see the way she discovers the new naked secrets of her body. She longs
for people she could share such topics with. Her new found desires grow stronger
and stronger until she has her first menstrual bleeding which she refers to as
being cleansed.
Nirmal Verma tantalizes the reader’s imagination through blow
by blow depiction of the confusion prevailing in Kaya’s life. The captive description
of a girl discovering the changes in her body leave us stuck to the novel. The
detailed view of the puzzlement, superstitious beliefs and life in the
mountains in general, in the mind of Kaya make for a very groping read for us.
The Red Tin Roof resonates into us a sense of detailed
descriptions about the tiny things in our life that we, the plain folks, hardly
pay attention to. The stagnant nature of time in the mountains, the defining of
their lives by the season passing by and yet not placing a particular event of
life with one season, up in the intricacies of one’s mind, is somewhat new to
the reader. Since we go through the whole course of Kaya’s life, we see
characters the way she does. Uninteresting and sometimes irritating, the other
characters in the novel have deep mysteries of their own which we are left to
unravel ourselves.
The title of the story is apt since the red tin roof on her
house pays a testimony to the various sounds in her life. The wind plays
various tunes on this roof much like the events play different roles in Kaya’s
life. It shines under the sun during summers, as summer is a joyful time for
Kaya. Thus, The Red Tin Roof tries to personify the intricate details of Kaya’s
deep life.
The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is
mainly about how she faces the confusions of life and how she is in a state of
trance throughout her being, going to a place alone and just sitting there all
day, while her brain tried hard to make sense of things. The second part is
about her transition to adolescence and the bodily changes she has to go
through alone, leading to her new desires. The last part of the novel comprises
of a solitary chapter that Nirmal Verma narrates through Kaya’s eyes in first
person. The change from third person to first person testifies to the fact that
Kaya is finally beginning to take control of her life herself. The novel draws
to a close as she begins to clear the confusions and mind-dwellings of her
life.
“I’d
always stood aloof from the thick of things. Lama never trusted me: “You only
play safe”, she would scoff. The train thundered close and I climbed down the
bank. I could yet leave the fringes and stand squarely between the tracks. The
afternoon sun shone on the tracks, which seemed clean and pure. I felt I could
rely on them, that I could pass their reassurance on to Beeru. There was God
there- and in God’s presence I would yet redeem myself…”
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