Patriarchal Prospective in Parijat’s ‘Blue Mimosa’: A Critical Study

Parijat, who was the nom de plume of Bishnu Kumari Waiba, is renowned all over the world through her literary writings, especially from her first novel ‘Blue Mimosa’. The very novel which is the English translation of ‘Shirish ko Phool’ is also regarded as the modern novel which incorporates the vibes and intentions of modern generation. The novel is the written from the Suyogbir’s point of view in which the speaker tries to show the way Nepali women are perceived by men in contemporary patriarchal society, and expected to behave.

From the very start of the novel, the writer tries to catch up the so called ‘patriarchal readers’ mind’ providing the narration of Shivaraj’s home visit by the speaker i.e. Suyog. The novel also projects the Nepali male culture at home and out of the home from different characters. Shivaraj and Suyog, they met three times in the bar and after the third meet Suyog was invited to visit his house. This clearly depicts the picture of Nepali society where males are set free for gambling whereas in the same society, the very act by the females is considered as immoral and unjust. Males in the patriarchal society are free to weight or judge the females. They simply take females as baby-producing machines, domestic slave or just merely an object t gaze on. Females are objectified as a beautiful object to look at in the novel too.

“My name is Sakambari.” Her voice burst in on us like a bullet. Startled, I turned toward the door and saw a woman of twenty-four. She was about five-feet-three, fair, with very large breasts on an extremely thin body. She wore gold-rimmed glasses on deep-set, sparkling eyes. Her hair was cut very close to her head, in the style of ancient Hebrew soldiers, and her small, white lobes wore earrings of black stones.

            Above lines from the novel clearly gives the vivid picture of objectifying the females in patriarchal society. Sakambari’s voice is compared as bullet and emphasized her physical structure. “Young woman” with “very large breasts” having “fair” complexity with ornaments are good to look at. The very sense can hit on reader’s mind. That’s how the writer uses the clever use of language to show the males perception on patriarchal society regarding the females.

            Furthermore, the novel never revealed the reason for the silence that was present in the female character’s life, that is; Sakambari’s life. As in the novel, the female voice is hardly presented by the writer. The actions and thoughts of the male characters are described a lot. The text also fails to make a strong standpoint on female characters side. The voices of three younger sisters of Shivaraj - Mujura, Sakambari and Sanu - are suppressed time and again in the text. This acts as a mirror to know how female voice is dominated in the patriarchy.

            Not only this, Shivaraj’s job was also not mentioned and the carelessness he shows, leaving his three sister home alone, does not justify that he really cares about his sisters. Men are just to earn the means of living; the patriarchal belief is carried out by the novel. However, at the end when there remains no hope of surviving, Shivaram goes to take care of her. This action really makes readers understand that people in patriarchal society like Nepal pay attention to their relatives when they undergo through critical situations.

            An ex-army serviceman and male protagonist, Suyog, who fought against Japan in the Second World War, lives in Kathmandu valley. His daily routine has become to drink alcohol in the evenings in the bar. He brutally raped and murdered several indigenous girls and he remembers several incidents during the war. These descriptions of the protagonist in the novel pictures the freedom that male are exercising in the existing society. Males’ brutality is described as masculine act whereas same act, if done by females, is considered as crime or inhuman act.

            Various critics argue Sakambari as brave and rebellious girl. However the truth is reverse. They tried to build their arguments from the act of smoking that does by Sakambari. They did have presupposition in their mind that smoking is a rebellious and strong act which women are not supposed to do in patriarchal society. However the fact is, the more the society has strong patriarchal values, the more the women are indulged in smoking cigar, bidi, hukka, etc. It doesn’t mean that men do not consume. They consume too but women consume too. And the only reason of consuming them is to pass their leisure time.

It makes me proud every time I think of how Sakambari always stood up for herself in those years when women were not supposed to have opinions on anything else except the kitchen. She is a woman us women should look up to, who does not care what the society has to say and who does not believe that women’s purpose in life is determined by the men in her life (father, brother, husband, son). She smoked and did not fear death; she called people out for drinking, and was proud enough to voice her opinions…

            One of the critics, Moana Kanel from Hanover, Indiana, USA wrote a book review potraying Sakambari as bold, free and independent girl. However, she fails to feel he inner feelings of Sakambari. She and her two sisters are left carelessly at home by Shivaraj. What a female like Sakambari do in that condition except indulging herself to some kind of addiction to pass her leisurely time? She further says that Sakambari is a girl who does not believe that women’s purpose in life is determined by the men in her life (father, brother, husband, son). She fails to prove her standpoint here again. She along with her sisters is living a dominant life. Her life is determined by her brother, a male, Shivaraj. During the first visit of Suyogbir at Shivaraj’s house, he ordered her to bring them some tea which shows that her life is limited inside the house and is compelled to live a life full of boredom without exercising any sorts of freedom.

            So, the novel ‘Blue Mimosa’ strongly outlets the masculine attributes, their actions and behaviors and intentions in a society where males acts as a supreme power to govern and act upon. Even the ending of the novel portrays the same. According to the text, Sakambari dies at last and Suyogbir explains that “even one-sided love kills” which means the love of Sakambari and her kiss with Suyogbir is just an act of vain that has no meaning at all. In this way, the entire novel presents the patriarchal values and norms, its way of judging and behaving the females, and it also illustrates how females are compelled to live a voiceless, suppressed, dominated life.

Works Cited

Parijat. “Blue Mimosa.” Trans. Tanka Vilas Varya and Sondra Zeidenstein. Third ed. Kathmandu: Orchid , 2012. Print.

Kanel, Moana. "Sirish ko Phool." Book Review for the month of January. Kamkura.com, 31 Jan. 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.

Dolma, Sonam. "A book review on: Shirish Ko Phool." The Odyssey. N.p., 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Dec. 2016.