Alienation in Rohinton Mistry's Tale From Firozsha Baag
ALIENATION THEME IN ROHINTON MISTRY’S TALES FROM FIROZSHA BAAG
Rohinton Mistry is a Parsi Zoroastrian and as a person whose ancestors were forced into exile by the Islamic conquest of Iran, he was in Diaspora even in India. Like other Parsi writers, his writing is informed by this experience of double displacement as a recurrent theme in his literary works. Rohinton’s historical situation involves construction of new identity in the nation to which he has migrated and a complex relationship with the cultural history of the nation, he has left behind. He dramatizes the pangs of alienation. Yet; finally these lead to the fruits of adaption, in India and abroad for the Parsis. Adaptation in India and expatriation in Canada are similar in function, though they are dissimilar in their levels of historicity. It is the Parsi who is the narrator in his fiction and Bombay life is seen, reflected on, and commented upon from a Parsi point of view. Mistry, therefore, successfully evokes a sense of loss and nostalgia in the immigrant’s experience and the alienation of Parsis in India.
Set in an alien setting in Canada and at home in Bombay, Tales from Firozsha Baag offer insights in dramatizing the Parsi world view, in relation to the levels of ‘assimilation’ and westernization’. The stories, “Auspicious Occasion”, “One Sunday”, “The Ghost of Firozsha Baag”, “Condolence Visit”, “The Collectors”, “Of White Hairs and Cricket”, “The Paying Guests”, and “Exercises” focus on people and their experiences as a Parsi community which is the background for another set of stories, namely, “Squatter”, “Lend Me Your Light”, and “Swimming Lessons”. In the last set of stories, Mistry deals with the impact of expatriation on the lives of young Parsi protagonists abroad.
Since these stories deal with the writing of the immigrant experience they suggest a parallel to Rohinton Mistry, the immigrant writer who develops his themes from his past experiences in India and his immigrant
Rohinton Mistry is a Parsi Zoroastrian and as a person whose ancestors were forced into exile by the Islamic conquest of Iran, he was in Diaspora even in India. Like other Parsi writers, his writing is informed by this experience of double displacement as a recurrent theme in his literary works. Rohinton’s historical situation involves construction of new identity in the nation to which he has migrated and a complex relationship with the cultural history of the nation, he has left behind. He dramatizes the pangs of alienation. Yet; finally these lead to the fruits of adaption, in India and abroad for the Parsis. Adaptation in India and expatriation in Canada are similar in function, though they are dissimilar in their levels of historicity. It is the Parsi who is the narrator in his fiction and Bombay life is seen, reflected on, and commented upon from a Parsi point of view. Mistry, therefore, successfully evokes a sense of loss and nostalgia in the immigrant’s experience and the alienation of Parsis in India.
Set in an alien setting in Canada and at home in Bombay, Tales from Firozsha Baag offer insights in dramatizing the Parsi world view, in relation to the levels of ‘assimilation’ and westernization’. The stories, “Auspicious Occasion”, “One Sunday”, “The Ghost of Firozsha Baag”, “Condolence Visit”, “The Collectors”, “Of White Hairs and Cricket”, “The Paying Guests”, and “Exercises” focus on people and their experiences as a Parsi community which is the background for another set of stories, namely, “Squatter”, “Lend Me Your Light”, and “Swimming Lessons”. In the last set of stories, Mistry deals with the impact of expatriation on the lives of young Parsi protagonists abroad.
Since these stories deal with the writing of the immigrant experience they suggest a parallel to Rohinton Mistry, the immigrant writer who develops his themes from his past experiences in India and his immigrant
Cited: Goel, Savita. “Diasporic Conciousness and Sense of Displacement in the Selected Works of Rohinton Mistry.” Parsi Fiction. Ed. Novy Kapadiya and Jaydipsinh Dodiya and R. K. Dhawan. Vol. 2. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2001. 118 – 30. Rohinton Mistry, 1987. Tales from Firozsha Baag. Penguin Canada. Also published as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag (1989).