2.3 Articulating Space in the ‘Accented’ Style .1 Mississippi Masala (1991) - A Synopsis
2.3.2 Monsoon Wedding (2002) - A Synopsis
2.3.2.3 Pimmi
Pimmi is Aditi‟s mother. She is always under pressure and in a state of tension about the way things are going on around her. She is a wife and mother who is devoted to her family. In fact, she „babies‟ them, constantly concerned with their well-being. She is traditional, in terms of her expectations of marriage and the roles that need to be played. For instance, she expects her husband to provide the financial resources whenever she requires it. For her, she has to be fully supported if she is to ensure that her family functions properly and if she is to serve them well. She is modern in her thinking and, sometimes, in her behaviour. For instance, she smokes to relieve stress and she urges her husband to buy a computer to sort out his finances, even though he protests that he is “too old for that computer nonsense”.
Pimmi, as a hostess, is stressful to watch. She is always well-groomed, but completely occupied entertaining family. To her, the more family, the better. But it is obvious how much this takes its toll on her because she has to be friendly and likeable all the time in an attempt to keep up appearances. Most often she looks happy but stressed.
As a future in-law, she is a perfectionist organising everything down to the last painstaking detail. She spends lavishly because of this and is all for impressing the in-laws, as if the amount of time and money she spends on arranging a wedding and entertaining the in-laws will reflect Aditi‟s upbringing. She is also quite competitive, or possibly slightly insecure, because, at times, she compares Hemant‟s family to her own. When her husband, Lalith,
teases her about her smoking in the toilet, she defends herself by picking on Hemant‟s mother, Saroj, who drinks.
Amidst trying to impress people and put things into perfect order, she tries not to detract from being a good wife - by making sure Lalith‟s needs are seen to - and being a good mother to her son - by checking up on him making sure that he bathes regularly and changes his clothing. However, with her daughter, things seem to be different. There is never much interaction between the two. They go shopping together but that‟s as far as it goes. Pimmi does love and care for her daughter, and this is evident in the fact that she has collected saris and wedding gifts for Aditi ever since she was born. And, even though it is Aditi‟s wedding and Pimmi indicates that she is saddened at the thought of losing her daughter, she never really spends any quality time with Aditi before she leaves home forever. In fact, her concern seems more focused on the men in her life. For instance, she worries about Lalith‟s health and her son‟s happiness, but she hardly notices her daughter‟s stress, confusion and reticence in the run-up to the wedding.
There could be many possible reasons for this lack of interaction with her daughter. Perhaps, she is distanced from Aditi because she understands and respects her independence, and is confident that Aditi can take care of herself unlike the men in her life who, she feels, cannot function without her. Perhaps, she is letting go early, so that the parting, once her daughter is married, is not so difficult. Or perhaps, she is subconsciously in the mindset that privileges men over women in the family. This may seem hard to believe but, as mentioned earlier, she does have certain expectations of the roles of wife and husband in a marriage.
She has also been preparing for Aditi‟s marriage from the day she was born. Her collection of saris and cutlery sets reveal that she has been preparing for her daughter to be a wife, and, more specifically, a traditional wife who will be home-bound and who will maintain Indian cultural values and beliefs. She may not have consciously been preparing for her daughter to be contained, but for her daughter to be provided for and taken care of in the „true‟ Indian tradition.
Although Aditi is a modern young woman, the role that Pimmi has unwittingly defined for her, and the ritual and ceremony that she has to go through before the wedding are all intimidating and restrictive. If this is the dream and expectation that she has had for her daughter, then it is most likely that this is the way that she has lived her life. It is possible then
that she has also, at times in her life, felt controlled and restricted. Why else would she be so concerned about appearances? And why else would the toilet/bathroom be the only space in which she could express or expel her frustrations through smoking? She hides so that nobody will think ill of her and judge her; so she withdraws into one of the smallest spaces in her very large house, because she has no other space; her house is not her home. Subsequently, her body is not her home because she is not comfortable in it when trying to be the perfect wife, mother and hostess and she is not comfortable in it when engaging in an activity that would be construed as deviant or „common‟ for an Indian woman.
Pimmi is so steeped in certain values and norms of behaviour for an Indian woman that her border-crossing is not so much a transgression of boundaries as it is an awakening or realisation. This awakening occurs when she tries to initiate intimacy with Lalith and he declines. She feels hurt and rejected, as if she is no longer able to capture and hold the attention of her husband or please him. Her look of disappointment suggests that she feels that she is not desirable to Lalith anymore and is thus unable to fulfill her wifely duties effectively and as expected. It is as if they have drifted apart in all the madness of family and life and don‟t know each other anymore. It could also be that, after all these years of marriage, it is just not natural for her, as a woman, to initiate intercourse because she is not supposed to have control over her body and its desires or urges. Maybe it still is that her body is there to serve her husband and his needs.
After Pimmi‟s realisation, there is only one instance that shows that she has actually undergone some kind of change. She retaliates when her husband suggests that their son be sent away to boarding school to toughen him up and make him a man. Lalith argues that their son is too effeminate and even suggests that he might be homosexual. Pimmi does not take kindly to this idea and is not very happy with the way that Lalith treats their son. She thinks that their son is still young and that they need to be patient with him. Lalith confronts their son about the issue and the boy who clearly feels hurt, rejected and unloved tells his parents that he hates them both. And, Pimmi, being the devoted mother that she is, cannot bear having her child hate her and reproaches Lalith ordering him not speak to her. She silences him (as he had silenced her when he rejected her sexual advances) because she is unsatisfied with his approach to her child. She speaks out against her husband in aid of her child.
Things change, however, when the issue of Ria‟s abuse surfaces. Lalith is at a loss. At the head of the family, he was unable to prevent what had happened and does not know how to
rectify the situation. He seems weak, vulnerable and disillusioned, and turns to Pimmi for physical contact. She readily reciprocates, glad that he has returned to her and that they have not, in fact, lost their connection to each other. He, on the other hand, assumes that she will always be around willing and waiting to comfort him in his time of need. But, unfortunately, he cannot do the same for her. Pimmi does not mind this because she is comfortable with life returning to the way it used to be even if it is not necessarily the way she would like it to be.
For her, her body and the comfort that it provides for him when he is desperate and defenceless puts her in a powerful position of control.
Even though Pimmi‟s body is her house and not her home, she is content because it is a position, as opposed to a space, that she is familiar with. Her roles are defined and she knows where her boundaries lie. She has the same approach to the Indian tradition, cultural values and beliefs: she does not mind them even though they tire her out sometimes and do not really give her the satisfaction she desires. But, yet again, they are familiar to her and she knows where she stands in relation to them. Her structure of feeling toward India, her homeland, and all that it signifies for her, as a woman, is not so much euphoric as it is settling.