Aurangzeb – a moment of epiphany in Bim’s Life

Bim, the Central character in the novel, envisages life as full of adventure. She as­pires to be a heroine and a rebel. But ironically, it is she who stays in the same place, doing the same dull routine and does not move beyond Old Delhi. She lives in the house she was born in and teaches in the college where she studied. However, she is not a highly strung and neurotic creature. The present does not torment her; what agonises her filters in from the past.
She is as angry, unhappy and frus­trated as the other in the family. But Bim, being a stoic, conceals her anguish. The lines from D. H. Lawrence’s “Ship of Death” reflect her death-wish. From too much love of living From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanks giving Whatever gods may be That, no man lives forever, That dead men rise up never; That even the Weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. But Bim eventually masters this death-wish and comes to terms with herself. For twenty years, she torments herself with the rejection, the desertion of Raja, her elder brother, whom she idealises with a near incestuous passion. Raja runs away to Hyder Ali in Hyderabad, leaving her in the crumbling house with an alcoholic aunt and a mentally retarded brother. She feels alienated as he marries Benazir, daughter of Hyder Ali and begets five chil­dren. He abdicates his responsibility completely and consequently, she experi­ences a sense of betrayal. She chooses an independent life, brushes aside suitors like Dr. Biswas.

Bim’s heroic acceptance of the family and motherhood becomes central to the novel. In a way, she in a sense, is a truly liberated woman. Her life stands in sharp contrast to the ordinary, mundane life of Tara. Her child­hood dream of becoming a heroine comes true. She faithfully follows her ideal and by deciding to sacrifice the happiness of a married life, she gladly pays the heavy price required for accomplishing it. When she is young, she nurses her brother Raja who is down with tuberculosis and treats her ailing aunt with utmost care and devotion. But she is disappointed when her aunt dies, and Raja deserts her apparently with an ambition which he later on forgets. Ultimately, she is left with her invalid brother Baba and spends her declining youth devotedly looking after him. Thus Bim, unlike Raja, achieves success in realising her dream. She practises in her adult life what she dreams of in her childhood.

After his daughter’s marriage is fixed, Raja sends an invitation to Tara in which he does not even mention Bim’s name. Bim, who is like a foster-mother to Raja, is hurt and it deepens her old rancour against Raja, reminding her of his letter in which he hints at raising the rent of the house. She also realises how time has ravaged the old affections of the childhood and created a changed pattern of relationship in the fam­ily. One night, the realisation which has been eluding her, dawns upon her all of a sudden, considerably lightening her bur­den. She discovers that Raja is no hero at all. She realises this truth when she re-reads his poems and letters stored in her study for twenty years. He is a mere imitator, an effete romantic and she clothes him in a hero’s mantle by mistake. She feels relieved as the debris accumulated from the past is cleared away. She attains a new awareness and her self-knowledge makes her trample down the false romantic image of her brother.

One night, before going to bed, Bim reads The Life of Aurangzeb. She makes a contrast between her own life and that of the Mughal Emperor. Aurangzeb’s last words also become the mirror in which she sees the course of her own life. Aurangzeb says in a letter to his son: “Many were around me when I was born, but now I am going alone. I know not why I am or wherefore I came into the world ... Life is transient and the lost moment never comes back ... When I have lost hope in myself, how can I hope in others? Come what will, I have launched my bark upon the waters ...” She dismisses Aurangzeb as an ex­ample of ego-centricity and in dismissing him, she also throws out from herself a past of hate and bitterness. It is not only a mo­ment of realisation but also one of reconciliation. For her, it is a rare moment of illumination. The lines stick in her mind, filling her eyes with tears of repentance. That fateful night, she tears off all the old papers and letters, including the offensive and unpardonable letter of Raja that tor­mented her for many years, in a forgiving state of mind. All her tormenting emotions ­anger, guilt, fear and remorse get spent, making her realise that she has plumbed the depths of time - “time present and the past.” She forgives Raja. When Tara, Bakul and their children finally start for Hyderabad, Bim says to her sister, with genuine eager­ness: “Tell him I’m – I’m waiting for him - I want him to come - I want to see him”, A critic very aptly observes: “This also marks her transition from hatred to love, from alienation to accommodation, from rejection to acceptance, from egotism to altruism.” In that moment of awakening and recognition, she makes an evaluation of her own self and rejects all that has hindered her growth into a truly liberated soul. Towards the end of the novel, Bim attends the music programme arranged at Misra’s where Mulk’s guru sings. She marks the difference between Mulk’s “sweet and clear voice” and his guru’s sharp voice mingled with ‘sharpness’, ‘bitterness,’ ‘passion’ and ‘frus­tration.’ She draws the inference that both Mulk and his guru “belonged to the same school and had the same style of singing and there was this similarity despite the gulf between them”. This inference, charged with profound significance, offers her a vital clue that finally resolves her emotional crisis. She realises that she, after all, belongs to Raja, Tara and Baba, “despite the gulf” between her and them. It is difficult to disagree with Shanta Acharya when she says: “The renewal of the self in another pattern is the theme of Clear Light of Day” In the novel, Bim outshines the other characters. She is a genuine heroic figure, who, despite her limitations, succeeds in looking after the needs of Baba and running the house. She swims against the tide and in the end, forgives her brother. Thus the novel ends on a note of reconciliation. Her resolu­tion to affirm the significance of sustaining motherhood beyond the traditional limitations is suggested in her relationship with Baba. She seeks her wholeness and fulfilment in looking after her mentally retarded brother. Thus she becomes a surrogate mother to Baba.