PGT,TGT Graded,In English" The Fire On The Mountain " Anita Deshai

The Fire on the Mountain

Anita Desai

Introduction-

Fire on the Mountain is a  novel of 1977  by Anita Desai, an Indian writer. Desai has been recognized three times on the Booker Prize short list and is a British Guardian Prize winner. Fire on the Mountain received a Sahitya Akademi Award.

Nanda Kaul-

 The novel  focuses on an elderly widow’s isolation and loneliness, as it tells the story of Nanda Kaul who lives in Kasauli and leads a solitary existence. The old woman, Nanda, lives alone in a colonial house on a hill. She lets no one intrude ( enter) in her isolated life. She had spent many years caring for her husband, their children, and many grandchildren.She is an intelligent woman, widow of a university vice-chancellor

 In the narrative present, she is at the end of her life and wants nothing more than to be left alone in her remote house, Carignano, where she sought to hide from her past and find inner peace through isolation and detachment from human relations. Nanda Kaul once led an extravagant life, she was raised in a high caste and was educated by English governesses and played badminton on huge estates with her childhood best friend Ila Das. As an adult, she was married to the Vice-Chancellor of a university in Punjab, and they lived in a big house that was always busy with guests and children. During this period Nanda Kaul managed everything and all of her time was devoted to running the house, which she felt was a huge burden.

. . The house was always crowded with children, grandchildren, guests and responsibilities and she was always at the centre of them and led a very busy life by catering to the needs of everyone around her. To the eyes of the outside world, Nanda had a splendid life, but in reality, she led a meaningless and unsatisfying life

The Vice-Chancellor had an illicit relationship with another woman, Miss David. In order to maintain his reputation in the social circles, he demanded Nanda to continue living with him. She was used as a mere object of entertainment.

Raka came to her life. Raka is the great-granddaughter of Nanda Kaul. Nanda’s daughter Asha and Asha’s daughter Tara are passive characters who appear only through letters. Tara is Raka’s mother as Raka observing her drunken father beat her mother. She has not developed the ability to trust in others.

Fire on the Mountain is written in three parts and each part introduces a woman character- Nanda Kaul, Raka and Ila Das. All three woman characters undergo a conflict within their own self these women try to abscond ( run away) from the bonds of relations and the society in order to search for their lost identity.

1- recognised-पहचानना

2- Isolation-एकान्त

3- Loneliness-अकेलापन

4-Remote -दूर

5-sought-तलाश

6- reputation-इज्जत

7- extravagant- खर्चीला

8-Inner peace- अन्दर की शांति

9-Mountain-पहाड

10- identity-पहचान

11- Splendid-शानदार

12- Conflict- संघर्ष

13-Abscond-भाग जाना

14- catering- खाना खिलाना

15-Widow- विधवा

16- Mere -केवल

17-Undergo- गुजरना

18- entertainment- मनोरंजन

Q1 Who is Raka

Ans.Nanda's great-granddaughter, left to Nanda after her parents,( an abusive father and oppressed mother, )move to Geneva while Raka is recovering from typhoid. She is reticent, independent, and, unlike other children, finds refuge in nature rather than the company of her peers. She is extremely caring towards animals, loves to explore, and is very careful of her great-grandmother's  proposal. Her life with her parents deeply scarred her, leading her to prefer scenes of devastation . At the end of the novel, she sets fire on the mountain .

Annotations

1-Grand daughter-पोती

2-Abusive-अपमानजनक

3-Oppressed-पीड़ित

4-Extremely-अत्यधिक

5-Scarred-आहत

6-Devastation-तबाही

7-Sets -लगा देना

8-Recovering-ठीक होना

9- Reticent-मौन रहने वाली

Refuge शरण

Ila Das

Q2.Who is Ila Das in the fire on the mountain?

Ans.Ila Das,  lla Das is a social worker and Nanda Kaul's old friend She leads a life filled with a series of miseries and misfortunes. Although her family was wealthy, her brothers wasted away 

their inheritance (money) and forced the two sisters out of their house.

She has a shrill and loud voice as well as a club foot, which makes her a subject of laughter and jibes wherever she goes.  she is kind and hardworking. She works as a welfare officer in a village in Kasauli. She is raped and killed after she protests against child marriage.

Annotations

1-Inheritance विरासत

2- Social worker- सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता

3-shrill- तीखी आवाज

4-Miseries-दु:ख

5-Misfortune-दुर्भाग्य

6-Club -गदा

7-Jibe -ताना देना

8-Welfare- कल्याणकारी

9-Protest -विरोध

Ram Lal

The dour cook at Carignano, he is old and quite aware of this fact. He develops a camaraderie with Raka due to his talks about the village. He is in awe of the English even after Independence. He warns Raka about the ravine, the Pasteur Institute, wild animals, and demons.

Preet Singh

Father of a local child bride, he kills and rapes Ila Das when she protests against his proposed marrying of his seven-year-old daughter to an old man.

After the Vice-Chancellor…

Theme 

Fire on the Mountain, Anita Desai‟s Sahitya Academy Award winner novel, published in 1972, has the theme of miscommunication and lack of understanding in marital life. Fire on the Mountain is a fiction about the lives of women characters whose lives reflect the lives of women in the Victorian period.