Gainda and Honour

1
Gainda and Honour

• Caste System, Child Widow and Purdah

2

Lahore
Locations of the two stories and Earth.
Shahjahanpur
3
Bhaiyya
Shamshad

Kallo Bai
Aligarh, Where Chughtai studies and Hyder was born
4
Connections between the two Stories and Earth

• child wedding
• Partition in both Honour and Earth

5
Hindi words associated with women and wedding

• Dulhan
• Sindoor, bindi, attar (perfume)
• Lehnga vs. salwar (baggy trousers)
• Ghunghat, razai (quilt)
• Burqua (p. 72)???????????????

6
Gainda Plot

• The story in 5 parts
• The narrator playing with Gainda before her
  marriage
• Playing with her after G is a widow
• Distanced from G, who gets closer to Bhaiyya
• Turning point. The narrator begins to attract
  Mewa.
• The narrator gets rebellious. After leaving for
  two years, she came back to find G with a baby.

7
Gainda Characters

• How do we tell the class difference between the
  narrator and Gainda? p. 46
• How is the narrator related to Gainda, who is
  actually a servant? p. 43, 46.
• Why do they like to play Dulhan-Dulhan and the
  make-up ritual? pp. 42 44.
• What role does Bhaiyya play in distancing G and
  the narrator? pp. 43 45

8
Gainda Gaindas and the narrators growth

• How does Gainda adjust to the changes in her
  life? Will Bhaiyya go back to her?
• Does the narrator grow up? Does she remain
  envious of Gainda at the end?

9
Gainda Gaindas and the narrators growth

• Gainda Though not getting a lot of respect or
  resources, she is active in life and her desire,
  playing the roles of wife, widow, mistress and
  mother.
• The narrators growing process
• Feeling envious p. 43
• Still treated a kid p. 44
• In need of attention. 48
• Revengeful p. 46 49
• Different from the social judgment of Gainda, she
  accepts Gaindas baby.

10
Honour A Woman in Purdah

• The story in 6 parts
• Shamshad engaged in Shahjahanjur pp.67
• After family disasters, she keeps waiting.
  pp.68-69
• After Azizs marriage, she dresses herself as a
  white widow. pp. 70-
• Azizs death in 1947. p. 71
• She leaves home in strict purdah dress to work in
  New Dehli p.72 17 yrs
• Going to Bombay. P 74

11
Honour A Woman in Purdah

• Does Shamshad adjust well to the changes in her
  life? p. 68, p. 70, p. 71
• What constrains Shamshad? What kind of purdah
  is she in? p. 67, p. 73
• What is the importance of the bathroom?
• pp. 67, 69
• Where does she end up working? pp. 74-

12
Shamshad

• Her purdah
• her pride and family honour as Pathans
  (??????????) and Rohilla (???Roh ????).p. 68
• The bathroom pp. 67 68, 69 Once it is a
  treasure cave, with her as a treasure and
  confined in it. But it is also the only window
  through which she looks at the outside world.
  When her cousin gets married, it becomes a dark
  well to drown her and blind her to reality.
• The final irony of her existence.
• Is it possible for one to be so blind?