feasting, fasting & diamond dust

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Reading Group Guide

Feasting, Fasting & Diamond Dust

By Anita Desai

Indias finest writer in English. The Independent

Desai has a remarkable eye . . . for the things that give life texture. The New York Times

Anita Desai is one of the most brilliant and subtle writers ever to have described the meeting of

eastern and western culture. Alison Lurie

Fasting , Feasting

A Booker Prize Finalist

[Desai] has much to say in this graceful, supple novel Publishers Weekly

From an Indian summers sun and dust to a New England summers white heat,Fasting,

Feastingexamines the intricate web of family conflict and security on two continents. Anita

Desais eleventh novelher third to be shortlisted for Britains Booker Prizeis the moving

story of Uma, the plain and awkward older daughter of an Indian family, and of her younger

brother, Arun, attending college in Massachusetts. Their parents are so much of one mind that

they are thought of as a single beingMamaPapa. With the favored son away at college and

her younger sister married, Uma is little more than an unpaid servant to her tyrannical parents.

Her search for beauty and freedom leads her to a convent school, her aunts ashram, a sacred

river, and her collection of Christmas cards.

Across the world, Arun is bewildered by American college life, especially by the ways of thePattons, with whom he spends the summer. Mr. Pattons devotion to red meat, Mrs. Pattons

commitment to a well-stocked kitchen, their son Rods dedication to physical fitness, and

daughter Melanies bulimia confuse and frighten Arun and move h im to reassess everything he

has ever taken for granted.

Hailed in Britain as and as rich in the sensuous atmosphere, elegiac pathos and bleak comedy


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at which the author excels (The Spectator), Fasting, Feastingbrilliantly confirms Anita Desais

place among todays foremost writers in English.

Diamond Dust: Stor ies

A Mariner Books Original

In these nine radiant new stories, Anita Desai

continues her peerless exploration of the tensions

between social obligation and personal

independence, the complex dynamics of families,

and the clash between the old and the new.

Traveling from India to Canada and on to Mexico,

she deftly captures our struggles against cultural

and emotional constraints.

Desais range is astonishing. In the title story, a

civil servants devotion to his mongrel dog leads to

tragedy. In Royalty, a long-married couples

plans are thwarted by the arrival an old friend, a

guru who relies on others to house and feed him.

In Winterscape, an Indian man brings his mother

and aunt to Canada for his first childs birth. After

his wifes death, the owner of the small English

seaside hotel in Underground spends hisevenings feeding a family of badgers. The Man Who Saw Himself Drown is a businessman

who must come to terms with death. Young Polly of The Artists Life finds her illusions

shattered by her parents unkempt tenant. In Tepoztlan Tomorrow, a U.S. -educated man

returns to his native village to find its residentsand himselfmuch as they were when he left

but caught up in some entirely new causes. And in The Rooftop Dwellers, a young woman

from a small provincial city struggles to make a career and a life of freedom for herself in Delhi.

These collected stories are a splendid addition to Anita Desais distinguished career. And

together with Fasting, Feastingand Mariner Books reissue of her classic novel,Baumgartners

Bombaythey mark a formidable addition to Houghton Mifflins list of world -class authors.


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About the Author

Anita Desai was born Anita Mazumdar, in northern Indias Mussoorie, in 1937. With a German

mother and Bengali father, she and her sisters and brother grew up in Old Delhi, speaking

German at home, Hindi with friends and neighbors, and English at school. Her formal education

began at the Queen Marys School and she went on to receive her B.A. from the University ofDelhi.

Married in December 1958, Desai began writing during times salvaged from house, husband,

and children. Her first novel, Cry, the Peacock(1963) introduced a theme that would remain a

constant in her fictionthe suppression and oppression of Indian women. It was followed

by Voices in the City(1965), Bye-Bye, Blackbird(1968), Where Shall We Go This

Summer? (1973), and Fire on the Mountain (1977), the first of her novels to be published in the

United States. The latter received both Indias National Academy of Letters award (Sahitya

Akademi) and the Royal Society of Literatures Winifred Holtby Prize. A collection of

stories Games at Twilight(1978), followed and then a childrens book,The Peacock

Garden (1979). Clear Light of Day(1980) was the first of Desais novels to be shortlisted for

Britains Booker Prize, joined in 1984 byIn Custody(also a Merchant Ivory film) and, in 1999,

by Fasting, Feasting. Baumgartners Bombay(1988), a Hadassah Prize winner, and Journey to

Ithaca (1995) round out the list of her published novels. Desais prizes extend to the Guardian

Prize for Childrens Fiction 1993 for her book,The Village by the Sea (1982).

Desai resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a professor in MITs Writing and

Humanistic Studies Program; in Cambridge, England, where she has been a visiting fellow of

Girton College and Clare Mall; in New Delhi; and in Tepoztlan, Mexico, the setting of her story,

Tepoztlan Tomorrow and her next novel. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in

London and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Questions For Discussion

We hope the following questions will stimulate discussion for reading groups and, for every

reader, provide a deeper understanding ofFasting, Feastingand Diamond Dust: Stories.

Fasting , Feasting

1. In what ways do the two terms of the titlefasting and feastingapply to family life and

society in general in India and the United States?

2. What kinds of freedom and what specific freedoms do the characters seek? In what ways is

the total freedom of anonymity that Arun experiences in his university dormitory similar to the

freedom that Uma seeks?


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3.What is the significance of Umas experiences at, on, and in the sacred river? What does

Desai mean when she writes of Umas near-drowning (in chapter nine), The saving was what

made her shudder and cry ? What mysteries and golden promises does Uma seek within

the convent school, with Mira-masi, and in her Christmas-card collection?

4. In what ways does spirituality enter the novel? What characters have authentic spiritual

leanings or capacities? Are Umas seizures, for example, instances of spiritual possession or

eruptions of suppressed frustration and rage?

5. What roles and expectations are open to women and men in the India and America

ofFasting, Feasting? What do the details of AnamikasandArunas marriages reveal about

womens lives in traditional India?

6. What rebellions and attempts at escape, successful or not, occur? How do they suggest the

significance of Umas vision of escape as a huge and ancient banyan tree and a river? (131)

7.Arun ponders these omens and indicators of life in Massachusettsthe objects that adorn

the interiors and exteriors of the houses. What do these omens and indicators reveal to Arun

and to us as his summer stay with the Potters proceeds?

8. What differences andsimilarities are there between the Indian and American families,

between corresponding members of the two families (for example, Mama and Mrs. Potter), and

between the their communities?

9.Ive always been aware of food as an obsession, Desai has said. What function does food

play in the novel? How does food provide both focus and continuity in both societies?

10.What instances and images of imprisonment and entrapment occur in the novels two parts?

To what extent is entrapment of one kind or another envisioned as an inescapable fact of life?

11. What are the purposes of the various rituals, ceremonies, traditions, and routinespersonal,

social, and religiousthat are observed in the novels two parts? What are the consequences of

ignoring tradition and custom and of disrupting established routine?


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12.Arun takes up jogging, having recognized the American joggers struggle to free

themselves and find, through endeavor most primitive, through strain and suffering, that open

space, that unfettered vacuum where the undiscovered America still lies Why does Arun

partake of thisAmerican struggle?

13.How does Desai establish Mama and Papas identities as separate persons and, at the

same time, as the single, and singular, MamandPapa? In what ways do they have the comfort

of each other, as Uma later realizes?

Diamond Dust: Stor ies

1.How does the title of each story reflect the storys main theme, action, or character?

2. What are the tensions in these stories between women and society and between women and

their families? Whether alone in a large city or still within the confines of their family homes,

what defensive strategies are women required to develop?

3.We are told that there was about [Raja] an air of fragility, of some precious commodity that

Ravi and Sarla had been called upon to cherish. Can you explain Rajas value as a precious

commodity and the resulting willingness of Sarla, Ravi, and others to care for him, to tend to his

every whim?

4.In Winterscape,Beth takes Asha and Anu shopping for winter clothing notices that their

white cotton kameezes hung out like rags of their past, sadly. What other indications are there

in the stories of the clashes between past and present, and between different cultures?

5.In Winterscape, Beth and Rakeshs house is crowded with [Asha's and Anu's] hopes,

expectations, confusion and disappointments. To what extent is this true of many of the

characters in these storiesPolly, in The Artists Life, and Moyna, in The Rooftop Dwellers,

for example?

6.What everyday and more formal rituals and routines (the rituals of baby care, in

Winterscape, for example) are portrayed? What are their purposes and importance to those

who maintain them? What are the consequences of misunderstanding, ignoring, or departing

from them?


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7.In Diamond Dust, Mr. Dass neighbors reflect, Propriety, decorum, standards of behavior:

these had to be maintained. Why is this so important, and, at the same time, why do some

people believe that questioning or undermining established standards is more important?

8.In The Artists Life, Polly takes to the backyard tire-swing to act out the contortions of the

inarticulate mind. What are these contortions, as far as Polly is concerned, and how are they

worked out in the course of her story?

9.To Louis, in Tepoztlan Tomorrow, his aunts house was a larger cage. What roles do

houses and other residences play in these stories?

10.As she entertains Tara and Adrian on her terrace and at the end of The Rooftop Dwellers,

Moyna experiences a sense of freedom. In what ways can we say that Moyna is free?

11. In what circumstances do individuals relinquish established or expected roles to others, as

Anu relinquishes her role as mother to Asha, in Winterscape? What are the outcomes of these

role shifts?

12.In The Artists Life, the camp art instructor enjoins the campers to paint your dreams. Do

you think that Miss Mabel Dodd enjoins her students to do the same? What are the implications,and the possible outcomes, of using ones dreams as the impetus and content of artistic

expression?

An India Timeline

1930 Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948) launches a civil disobedience campaign

against British rule.

1935 Britain grants India a constitution providing for a bicameral federal congress.

1947 Britain partitions British India into the dominions of India and Pakistan. India becomes a

self-governing member of British Commonwealth. Jawaharlal Nehru (head of the Congress

Party) becomes independent Indias first prime minister. More than 12 million Hindu and


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Moslem refugees cross the India-Pakistan borders; approximately 200,000 people are killed in

communal fighting.

1948 Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by a Hindu extremist.

1950 India becomes a democratic republic, with a new constitution.

1952 The first general elections result in the Congress party retaining power and Nehru

continuing as prime minister.

1959 The Dalai Lama flees from Tibet into India.

1962 India goes to war with China.

1964 Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru dies.

1965 War with Pakistan ends with a ceasefire.

1966 Mrs. Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) becomes prime minister.

1969 Mrs. Gandhi is expelled from the Congress Party for indiscipline.

1971 Pakistani troops attack Bengali separatists in East Pakistan and approximately 10 million

refugees flee into India. War between India and Pakistan. East Pakistan becomes the

independent nation of Bangladesh.

1974 India becomes a nuclear power.

1975Mrs. Gandhi is found guilty of electoral malpractice and invokes emergency provisions of

the constitution.


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1976 India resumes full diplomatic relations with Pakistan.

1977 The sixth general elections end the Emergency. Anti-Gandhi opposition parties turn Mrs.

Gandhis Congress Party out of power for the first time since independence. Morarji Desai

becomes the first non-Congress prime minister.

1980 Mrs. Gandhi becomes prime minister a second time.

1984 Mrs. Gandhi is assassinated. Her son, Rajiv, replaces her as prime minister. A Union

Carbide gas leak in Bhopal kills more than 2,200.

1989 Rajiv Gandhi is swept from office in ninth general elections.

1991 Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated. The tenth general elections return the Congress Party to

power.

Glossary

(H = Hindi; M = Mexican Spanish; S = Sanskrit; U = Urdu)

ayah(H) a childrens or ladys maid

badmash (U) rogue; scoundrel

badmashi(U) scandalous, mischievous behavior

banyan a tropical fig tree, native to India, that grows new trunks from aerial roots over an

increasingly large area

basura (M) garbage; rubbish


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betel nutthe fruit of the betel palm, chewed with lime and betel-pepper leaves in southeast Asia

as a mild stimulant

bolsa (M) bag

bomba de gaz(M) propane tank

chaiwallah (H) seller of tea to travelers

charpai(U) a lightweight bedstead or cot. English: charpoy

chunni(H) white (the color of mourning) article of clothing draped over shoulders and head by

women

dhal(H) a tropical shrub (a pulse) cultivated for its pealike seed-pods; also refers to a dish of

cooked lentils, beans, peas, and similar leguminous plants

dhoti(H) a long loincloth worn by Hindu men; most familiar in the West as being worn by

Mahatma Gandhi

faisla (U) settlement

helados (M) ice cream; ice-cream cones

jacaranda a tropical tree bearing large clusters of lavender flowers

Jumna a river in northern India, flowing southwest from the Himalayas into the Ganges

koela large cuckoo

Krishna the most important avatar of Vishnu (second god of the Hindu trinity), a demon slayer,


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flute player, and lover

maidan (U) an open space in or a near a town, used for public walking and recreation, parades,

and sports events

mali(H) gardener

masi(H) aunt

mynah (H) a large tropical starling of India and southeastern Asia

oleandera poisonous warm-climate shrub bearing fragrant white, pink, or red flowers

Om swa-ha! (S) Sanskrit chant at Hindu religious ceremonies

pai dog(H) stray dog

paisa (H) a small-denomination coin, equal to 1/100 of a rupee in India

pipal tree(H) a fig tree of India, also called bo tree, sacred to Buddhists; traditionally regarded

as the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment

plumbago a plant of the genus Plumbago, bearing clusters of variously colored flowers. English:

leadwort

puri(H) a light, flat wheat cake, usually fried in deep fat

Quiro es?(M) Whos there?

Ramayana an ancient Sanskrit epic poem relating the adventures of Ramachandra, an

incarnation of Vishnu; regarded by Hindus as sacred


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sahib(H) a title of respect, similar to English Mister, Sir, or Master

salwars (U) loose trousers tied with drawstrings

samosa a small pastry turnover filled with a spicy meat or vegetable mixture

sardar-ji(H) a Sikh, the added -ji a term of respect

sari(H) the principal outer garment, formal or casual, of a Hindu woman, consisting of a long

piece of cloth wrapped around the body and draped over one shoulder and, sometimes, over

the head

Shiva the Hindu god of destruction and reproduction, a member of the supreme Hindu trinity

(along with Brahma and Vishnu)

slokas (S) Sanskrit verses

sri(S) Mr. or Sir

sucio (M) dirty

tonga (H) a two-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage

feasting, fasting & diamond dust

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