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www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 observing a billboard that proclaims “Hindu and Muslim amity,” asks Khuku: “When do you think it’ll [the communal violence] end?”, and the author describes thereafter, “. . . the signs of upheaval were still there, the daily killings . . . ” (Chaudhuri, 353). There are also some references, in the novel, to the curfew that was imposed in some sensitive parts of the city of Calcutta during this time (December, 1992). In describing the silence in Khuku’s house, the author says: “It had not been so silent since the days of the curfew” (Chaudhuri, 340). Jochna, the maid-servant in Khuku’s house had been absent for two days, and the author’s grim concern to this curfew is expressed thus: During the curfew a month ago, all had been disorder and silence, Jochna, who was becoming increasing pretty, had not been able to come to work for two days; there had been tension in her area and fear of violence (341). The subsequent dislocation in the lives of thousands of poor people in the city is made further clear by the novelist in his words: It was at such times that the sketchy unfencedness of their existence became palpable, that they must lead lives perpetually and nakedly open to duress. The Muslims had taken out a procession; at night . . . with a tremulous sense of something about to happen, Jochna and her family and other Hindus in the basti [slum] had been moved to a nearby Christian school, while the furious Muslims apparently congregated and went about shouting and protesting (Chaudhuri, 341). Finally, there is another reference to a fearful situation in Calcutta towards the end of the novel: “an explosion in Central Avenue, not very far from Mini’s building” resulting into a common panic and terror among the inhabitants of the city like Khuku, Mini and a lot of others (Chaudhuri, 452). However, they are later much relieved to learn that the explosion had nothing to do with any riot or violence, but that “it was the arsenal of a local hoodlum that had blown up by accident’ (Chaudhuri, 452). However, along with all these, Amit Chaudhuri, in these two novels, has also hinted upon some of the other problematic aspects of the city of Calcutta such as the issue of unemployment and economic liberalization, the gradual declination of the industries especially the small and indigenous industries and enterprises in the city, alarming condition of health and hygiene in the metropolis, the ever haunting issue of the extended population in the city of Calcutta, and the issues concerning social life and relationship in an age-old metropolis like Calcutta. Problematic aspects apart, Chaudhuri, nonetheless, represents the city of Calcutta in his novels too “. . . like a work of modern art [too] that neither makes sense nor has utility, but exists for some esoteric aesthetic reason” (Chaudhuri: A Strange and Sublime Address, 11). Vol. II. Issue. III 202 September 2011
www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Works Cited: Chakraborty, Dipankar. “Calcutta Environment.” Calcutta: The Living City. Volume II. ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri. New Delhi: O. U. P., 1990. Chattopadhyay, Jagannath. “Howrah Bridge: Akhon o Takhon” (in Bengali). Rabibar, Bartaman. Calcutta: July 3, 2005. Chaudhuri, Amit. A Strange and Sublime Address. Three Novels. London: Picador, 2001. ________ . Freedom Song. op. cit. ________ . “On Belonging and Not Belonging: A Conversation with Amit Chaudhuri” by Fernando Galvan. Wasafiri, No. 30, Autumn 1999. Chaudhuri, Sukanta. “Traffic and Transport in Calcutta.” Calcutta: The Living City. op. cit. 149. Das, Suranjan. Communal Riots in Bengal 1905-1947. Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991. Dhar, Subir. “A Strange and Sublime Address: Amit Chaudhuri and the Fiction of Sensibility.” The Novels of Amit Chaudhuri: An Exploration in the Alternative Tradition. ed. S. Shukla and A. Shukla. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2004. Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The Winged Word. ed. David Green. Madras et al: The Macmillan Company of India Limited, 1974. ________ . “Preludes”. op. cit. Elliot, Julia. et al. ed. Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001 & 2006. Ghosh, Amitav. The Shadow Lines. New Delhi: O. U. P., 1995 & 2002. ________ . The Calcutta Chromosome. New Delhi: Ravidayal Publisher, 1996, 2000 and 2001. Gupta, N. L. “Communal Riots after Destruction of Babri Masjid.” Communal Riots in India. ed. N. L. Gupta. Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2000. “History of Calcutta.” Cathcal.com, May, 2008, . Pike, Burton. Preface. The Image of the City in Modern Literature. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1981. Williams, Raymond. “Country and City.” The Country and the City. London: Chatto and Windus, 1973. Vol. II. Issue. III 203 September 2011
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