Woman Or Nina In The Immigrant, By Manju Kapur

Manju Kapur, a Delhi base fictional writer, has five novels to her credit till date. The very first reading of her novels gives an impression to the readers that the author is a feminist. In all her novels, Kapur emerges as a great supporter of woman cause – voicing the tales of middle-class women who struggle hard to find their identities. Whether it is Virmati in her maiden novel Difficult Daughters or Astha in A Married Woman or Nisha inHome or Nina in The Immigrant or Ishita in her latest novel Custody, all come up as the spirited women who have learnt to live for themselves. They dauntlessly march towards their liberation and often while fighting for themselves, they challenge the false notions of the conventional middle-class society.

To Indians the idea of going on a date or having a girl friend sounds strange. When asked by Gary about his girl friend, Andy clearly declare, “We don’t have this girlfriend-boyfriend concept in India”. The girls in India are generally so shy that they don’t even talk to the young boys. Ananda tells Gary, “Lucknow has a small town mentality. Segregation was the norm. Dating was not possible, people would see, talk, the girl’s reputation would get spoilt. Of course, everything was done, but not in the open”. Likewise the idea of arranged marriage seems absurd and unacceptable to the Westerners. In India, couples love each other after marriage whereas in a foreign land love between man and woman leads to marriage. As soon as Ananda breaks the news of his arrange marriage, his uncle and his family it is like a bomb shell. They all were at a loss. They all exclaimed and asked Andy a number of questions such as “Was it an arranged marriage “How long had he known her? Have they met?.” When Ananda discloses the news of his marriage to his friend Gar,y he also gets flabbergasted on this average arranged marriage. It is because world over, people regard arranged marriages as barbaric as they are not able to differentiate ‘arranged introductions’ from arranged marriages. The novelist describes the thought process of western

Useless to assert the influence of modernity, to suggest variations, to indicate that in the cities it was just arranged introductions, and where in the world did that not happen ? The Western eye, viewing things from a 10,000 mile distance had no use for trifling nuances”. Later, Nina and Mrs. Batra advocate the Eastern system of arranged marriages whereas westerners could not think of marrying somebody one does not know. It seems quite weird to these westerners. To Anton, it’s stupid to confine yourself to one person for your whole life’. ‘What about adventure, what about experiencing differences? Nobody owns anybody”, comments Anton. But Nina argues and points out the greatest advantage of arranged marriages which are in practice in Asian countries like India. She comments, “Many people prefer it (arranged marriage) actually. It has the advantage of social and family sanction, you are not alone to deal with your problems, it is more convenient to fall in love after you marry than before” . Mrs. Batra also supports the idea of spending whole life with someone ‘one does not know’. She argues, “The parents, the main arrangers, look at the whole thing dispassionately, taking into account family background, likes, dislikes, income, everything. Often these marriages are greater successes that ones