She has been touted by British Writers' A. Michael Matin as "one of the preeminent contemporary Indian novelists," even referred to by many as the Mother of the Indian psychological novel genre.
Games at twilight is a part of her collection of short stories. It's about a child Ravi, growing in a well off family, a regular family and his mock experience of death. The story touches themes like - Hierarchy, Ageism and meaning of friends and family.
My point of view
Ageism (also spelled "agism") is stereotyping and discriminating against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. This may be casual or systematic.
(quoting Wikipedia)
Time and again this issue is raised, Is age directly related to one's wisdom, knowledge and power?In this story by Anita Desai, too, this crucial issue has been brought up. Here along with age the hierarchy lies in the size of the body(physical strength). This can be understood also by analyzing the first few minutes(1.25 mins) of the first sound cartoon by Walt Disney in 1927 - Steamboat Ville.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nfEIHcsR8c
The bigger chimney hits the smaller one, the larger animal hits mickey and mickey also hurts the smaller bird. And we laugh, absent minded ly. However, in the story, it is impossible to do so.
Throughout the story, the author reminds us of the dark side of life - the end (death). She also uses the color purple - the color of wounds to describe certain things in the story frequently. Which makes it difficult to ignore the underline theme of tragedy of life and darkness of death in the story. She talks of discrimination on the basis of age and size as our main character Ravi has been dealt with.
Ravi's attempt to triumph against the 'bigger' older cousin clearly shows so.
The story has been plotted in a well off regular Indian family during some summer vacation(could be a weekend). This can be figured out as the author talks about the children playing freely and the elders sitting out in the garden.
Its funny how the author emphasizes on the way "death" has been used as just a word by the children in their games of hide and seek and funeral game. They fail to understand the meaning and the intensity of the word and the verb 'dying'. Until the protagonist, Ravi feels it creep up his body through his experience of being cleanly erased from the scene and the minds of others. He feels the insignificance of his mere existence. When he comes out of the hiding place ( the dark room near the garage) he was treated in a manner much unexpected and unaccepted by Ravi. He realized they have been oblivious of his absence. The children and the mother, in straight terms - DID NOT CARE enough to even find out that he was absent forget alone finding where he was. The mother asked him to not act like a baby. And the children resumed their funeral game, at the time when Ravi wanted to feel victorious. Not only was he not appreciated but also demotivated and casually scolded by the mother. As if he was a disgrace, when Ravi himself wanted to be the looked-upon-at one.
I think its a great story and I can much relate to the kid Ravi and his absolutely SIGNIFICANT experience of feeling INSIGNIFICANT. The questions risen here are many. First of all AGEISM itself is a big question. Is it really fair? Then whose fault was it? Was Ravi 'allowed' to feel what he felt? Was it the fault of the mother? Can smaller experiences leave bigger impacts? Can feathers be heavy? I think its a turning point in Ravi's life. Cause .It shows the thin line between a casual experience and a tormenting one. The child had never felt the same and will never again, for he learnt an important lesson of life, that is,there is an end and in the end, its just you.
SemestaCruinneArt
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