Summary Of Chaudhuri's Great Expectations

The narrator feels that after his guru’s death his ambition to become as a singer will not be fulfilled. Thus the narrator’s identity as a Classical singer remains unfulfilled.

The narrator’s identity as a Classical singer, Chaudhuri explores the narrator’s identity as a successful lover. During his stay in Oxford for his higher studies, he develops an intimate relationship between two girls- Mandira and Shehnaz as the name indicates the first is Hindu and second Muslim girl. In the beginning of the novel itself the narrator is in dilemma in choosing one of the two girls. The feeling about the girls is expressed by the narrator as;

The intuition of water came to me again when I was visiting Worcester College; it was an unhappy day, because I was still vacillating between Mandira and Shehnaz, falling asleep by one woman at night and spending the day with

Like the narrator, she also feels lonely and homesick and to get rid from this alienation. She is also in search of right company in Oxford. While commenting on her search for the company Chaudhuri remarks:

She was essentially, a lonely person searching for the right company, a wise little girl in a woman’s body, dressed in black trousers, a blue top and a coat, and black sneakers. Her hair was long and striking and untidy; solemnly, she carries a file full of papers under her arm, and a clumsy, oversized bag … She had been married once, very briefly and then divorced; later, she had an involvement in Oxford which came to nothing. (11)

Through a friend, the narrator meets Shehnaz and they both develop friendship thinking that Indian student will be comfortable and right company to them. Later their friendship develops into a relationship as a lover. They both love and she offers herself to him. The narrator says they had sexual relationship, he says, “on that afternoon when Shehnaz lay on her bed and I unbuttoned her shirt.’