Mr Bhowmick

Steven Stoffel
Professor: Dr. Francis Ngaboh-smart
English 302
10 March 2012
Hinduism: Prayer for a son
Kali defeats Raktabija by sucking the blood from his body. Kali then enjoys her victory by dancing across the battle field, prancing on the corpses of her slain. (David R. Kinsley 118-119) Kali is the goddess of wrath and vengeance, also the patron goddess of Mr. Bhowmicks’ family in the short story A Father written by Bharati Mukherje in 1985. Mr. Bhowmick is a Hindu Indian who migrated from Ranchi, Bihar India to Detroit Michigan. Most Americans, especially in the 80’s, did not have much understanding of Hinduism, and still do not today. This could be because Hinduism itself is a very vague religion made up of many denominations.
Hinduism is known to be a very personal religion, with the individual controlling most of his or her beliefs. Hinduism is extremely different from Christianity, the main religion of American inhabitants. Assimilation from one culture to the next can be extremely difficult. Moving from a caste driven traditional society that was India, to the progressive and free spirited America (especially in the 80’s) will cause stress on anyone. It takes a strong person to withstand such differences, and can become overwhelming. Differences in culture and believes cause strain upon ourselves and our relationships, as people we should be able to tolerate the opinions of others, but when our own believes are routed deep enough that tolerance is challenging. Westerners have tried to understand Hinduism for over 200 years, the confusion comes from the multiple denominations and practitioners worship any one of over a dozen gods as the supreme being, which is chosen by the particular individual.
Hinduism in fact is a melting pot of religions with four main denominations Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism. All denominations of Hinduism share the believe of worshiping one supreme being, but diverge in guru lineages, religious leaders, sacred literature, and pilgrimage centers. The denominations of Hinduism in essence are all complete separate religions, what combines them is their heritage of culture and belief in Karma, dhama, reincarnations, all pervasive divinity, temple worship, sacraments, manifold deities, the guru-shishya tradition and the vedas as scriptural authority.
(himalayanacademy.com)
Kali is associated with the all mighty being of Shiva or Siva, one can only presume Mr.
Bhowmick then is a Saivas or Shaivite. Shaivism or Saivism is one of the most widely followed denominations of Hinduism and is the world’s oldest religion. (Himalayanacademy.com) Saivas believe that Shiva is all and in all, the revealer and concealer of all that is. Essentially Shiva controls everything in the universe for a specific purpose, and that there are no coincidences. Saivas are known to stress high discipline along with high philosophy, which can be seen in Mr. Bhowmick in the very first line of the story. “One Wednesday morning in mid-May Mr. Bhowmick woke up as he usually did at 5:43 A.M., checked his Rolex against the clock’s digital readout, punch down the alarm (set for 5:45), then nudged his wife awake.” (Mukherjee 403) Mr. Bhowmick is a very superstitious, and this can be seen throughout the story. “A sneeze at the start of a journey brings bad luck.” (405) “His daughter grinned at him. He saw her tongue, thick and red, squirming behind her row of perfect teeth” (410) The second quotation is Mr. Bhowmick personifying Shiva in his daughter who had betrayed him and the family. To Mr. Bhowmick and other Hindus the presence of the gods in everyday life is extremely real. Bharati Mukherjee being from India herself had a great understanding of this and can be seen throughout her
story. In the story, one can see Mr. Bhowmicks deep connection with his religion. He worships every morning to the grotto built for the goddess Kali directly after showering. Hindus worship their deities after purification, typically with water. (William Henry Furness) Another believe in classical Hinduism is the Caste system. When one is born in Hinduism, their soul has been reincarnated. Depending on their soul’s previous life is where in the caste system they will be born. (Ipsita Roy Chakraverti) Similar with other cultures caste system, there was zero tolerance for crossing classes in any ways other than minimal social interaction. The Caste system leads to discrimination of others along with improper prejudices solely based on family history, and not personal merit. The caste system is another big difference between Indian and American culture. Mr. Bhowmick left Ranchi because of this system, “He hated Ranchi. Ranchi was no place for dreamers…success had meant to him escape from the constant plotting and bitterness that wore out India’s middle class” (Mukherjee 406). “She’d hired a chamar woman who by caste rules was forbidden to cook for a higher caste families, especially for widowed mothers of decent men” (407) She in this quote is Mr. Bhowmick’s wife, and leaving India was mainly her idea, because of her hatred towards the caste system. Because of this caste system typically families wanted male children to prolong their family name and be monetarily beneficial. This ideology is prevalent in the story. Mr. Bhowmick speaks of not being happy with his daughter, and not truly loving her. “…he regretted again that she was not the child of his dreams… But Babli could never comfort him” (405) Mr. Bhowmick wanted a boy to be his heir. His want of a boy is routed in his traditional caste upbringing. While imagining his possible grandchild he refers to him as a boy or grandson four times, and doesn’t even contemplate the idea of another girl kin. “He pictured his grandson crawling to him, and the grandson was always fat and brown and buttery skinned, like the infant Krishna.” (408) This depicts the beginning of the separation between himself and his wife and daughter. Mr. Bhowmick is a traditional Hindu in many senses as already explained. Even though he migrated from his homeland of India to the United States he brought along many of his old ideologies. This is where the main theme of A father is prevalent. Mr. Bhowmick stands for all Hindu’s in countries exotic to them. He is caught in between his traditional way of thinking and the newer perspectives of the people and culture around him. The mother and daughter in the story represent those people of different cultures. “She was a women of wild, progressive ideas – she called them her “American” ideas – and she’d been martyred by her neighbors for them” (407) His wife already had the American way of thinking before they left India, in fact, that’s a main reason why they left. “Babli wasn’t tolerant of superstitions. She played new wave music in her tapedeck. If asked about Hinduism, all she’d ever said to her American friends was that “it’s neat.”” (406) Babli didn’t associate herself with the Hindu culture at all even calling them “myth stuff” (406) at one point. Her father had forgiving her for this. Hinduism is a very forgiving, tolerant, and peaceful religion, unlike western religions or cultures. Mr. Bhowmick and his wife are two extremely different people, he states how he doesn’t love her, and she nags about his time spent praying to Kali. Combining two clashing cultures can cause turmoil. Mr. Bhowmick built himself up internally through his daughters’ pregnancy. At the beginning of the story Mr. Bhowmick was depressed with his life, holding onto the euphoria from his dreams to help him cope with his reality. He didn’t love his wife, or want his daughter. He was badgered by both of them for not being the “American” they so clearly wanted him to be. His daughters’ pregnancy uplifted his spirits. At first he was tormented with the decision his daughter would have to make to keep the baby without pronouncing a father, therefore shaming the family, or having an abortion. “He had to choose between public shame for the family, and murder” (408) But, the idea of having a young boy around excited him, along with the idea of a son in law. He saw a bridge between himself and the women in his life. It was only a matter of time before he had to know the truth. He kept putting off talking to Babli about the situation and similar to a dream deferred, it can only fester for so long before it explodes. “Mr. Bhowmick lifted the rolling pin high above his head and brought it down hard on the dome of Babli’s stomach. In the end, it was his wife who called the police.” (410) This graphic depiction of a families turmoil paints a picture to the reader of violence between clashing cultures, and the waiting volcano that deeply rooted differences between close quartered people can create. The eruption happens when Mr. Bhowmick awakes to the sound of his wife and daughter hollering at each other. As he enters the kitchen to break up the quarrel he is defensive of his daughter, initially. Mr. Bhowmick had begun to transition to American culture by accepting his daughters life choice of bearing a child outside of marriage. It is only when he finds out about his Babli’s artificial insemination that he commits his violent act. Artificial insemination is considered a massive taboo in Hinduism. But in America, it was a perfectly acceptable thing for independent women to do. The theme of separation between cultures is shown most at this climatic part of the story. Since the 1980’s the two cultures have assimilated more, Hinduism is more prevalent in the United States. Have Hindu’s become more accepting of western ways, and strayed away from their traditional roots? Actually in the contrary, Hindu reform movements or Hindu revivalism have taking a path to the more ancient roots of their religion. (Kenneth Jones) Hindu’s haven’t gone back to the caste system or female discrimination, they claim that those aspects came from foreign invaders a long time ago, and the real traditional religion didn’t have that aspect. I am skeptical of that fact due to their believe in reincarnation, and your souls previous life choices are what delegated you into the caste of which you were born. According to the documentary Spiritual Revolution more and more temples are allowing women to reach the highest level of priesthood, which hasn’t been done before. Hinduism, unlike western religions, does not combat science and newer ways of thinking. The main teachings teach acceptance and understanding. I believe this is due to their gods and goddess’s being figures of universal uncontrollables. Hinduism explains what science cannot, basically why things happen the way they do. This believe system couldn’t be more opposite than the western way of thinking of that everything that happens has a scientific reason for happening. The war between the two is what Mukherjee wanted her readers to see. Family turmoil from the disagreement of the two different believe systems represented the clash of cultures in America’s public. The theme of the story of how two opposite cultures creates chaos is extremely evident, and Mukherjee is predicting a fallout at some point. She was wrong. Hinduism and Western religions have not created any violence. Though Pope Francis, while a cardinal, stated that spiritual eastern religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism would be Christianity’s “greatest foe” (Spiritual Revolution), they have only caused practitioners of one faith to transform into the spiritual reality that eastern religion possess. There are many more hidden details in A father but I covered the main obvious ones in this essay. The strain on the relationships between family members because of differences in believes was prominent, and in the end, the deep rooted believes won over love and understanding of family. All religion could use a transformation for more understanding and tolerance.