The Quilt and Other Stories (1990)

The Quilt and Other Stories (1990)

Ismat Chughtai

         Ismat Chughtai was an eminent Indian writer in Urdu, known for her indomitable spirit and a fierce feminist ideology. Considered  the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Chughtai was one of the Muslim Writers who stayed in India after the subcontinent was partitioned. Her work stands for the birth of a revolutionary  feminist politics and aesthetics in 20^th century Urdu Literature. She explored feminine sexuality, middle-class gentility and other evolving conflicts in modern India. Her outspoken and controversial style of writing made her the passionate voice for the unheard , and she has become an inspiration for the younger  generation of writers, readers and intellectuals.

Her books

·        

      The Quilt and other Stories

·        The Crooked Line

·        A life in Words: Memoirs and many

The Quilt and Other Stories (1990)

        The book is a collection  of 10 stories and each leaves a distinct after- taste. The Stories show how wonderfully  interwoven the lives of Hindus and Muslims were at one point of time. In 1944, Ismat Chughtai successfully defended herself before the Imperial Crown  Court against a charge of obscenity for her short story 1) “Lihaaf”- “The Quilt”, is a second story in the book and it has been chosen as title of the book. The narrator of this story, a precocious nine-year old child, is sent to visit an aunt. She wrote the story of homosexuality in pre- independence years of India and Pakistan.   The story is about a young and gorgeous Begum Jaan  and her maid ,Rabbu . It’s story about elephant under quilt and repressed  desires and dreams of a women after marriage. The role of a quilt is important for a girl and she feels like an elephant  seem to sway on wall just as her imagination. Girl’s mother left a girl with n adopted sister of mother.  It was  a  severe  punishment  for a girl. Begum Jaan , the same lady whose quilt is etched in girl’s memory. Poor parents of Begum Jaan had agreed to marry her to Nawaab who was of ‘ripe years’ because he was very virtuous. He had performed  Hajj and helped several others undertaken the holy pilgrimage. He is very busy in his different works so can’t give enough time to Begum Jaan, she feels loneliness in her house  and living like a prisoner.

      

          Then ,Rabuu who rescued her from the fall, soon her thin body began to fill out. Her cheeks begun to glow and she blossomed. It was a special oil massage that brought life back to the half dead Begum Jaan . Then slowly her loneliness disappeared. Both enjoyed each other’s company and Rabuu came to meet her at night and a girl frightened from that voice at night. The quilt again started swinging and begun to assume such grotesque shapes and a  large frog. The quilt crept into her brain and began to grow larger. The elephant somersaulted inside the quilt which deflate immediately. So, this story is about dreams and desires of women that at last Begum chooses her own choice. There is one dialogue of it

“When I first saw Begum Jaan, Rabuu sat behind her, massaging her waist. A purple shawl covered her feet as she sat in regal splendor a veritable Maharani.”

              Another story like 2) All Alone , this is about problems of women. Main characters are Dilshad Mirza and Shahzad Hasan. Dilshad Mirza is a very clever and glamour boy.  His father was a munshi in the household of Nawab Mauhmad Ali Sherwani. Dilshad’s extraordinary  brilliance impressed Nawab Saheb. Nawwab sent him to Aligadh to study, then he moved to Lucknow  to do M.A and Ph.D. He was good orator  and write some verses and  in newspapers. He never give any importance to romance or love, his mind was totally preoccupied with thoughts of future andcareer.  But ended up , he being smitten by Shahzad  Hasan, she was vain   and clever, highly conscious of her beauty and brilliance. They both met with each other  at some solitary spot but they don’t know what to do each other. Dilshad was a Mughal and Shahzad was a Sayyada. People don’t accept their relations as they are different by their caste or religion and becase of partition of the country. Dilshad married with Sylvia, and both lover can’t meet with each other ever only because of society which a serious topic of contemporary time also. So, this shows that there is no freedom to choose life partner as per choice of individuals.

         3) Mother-In-Law, this story is about the relations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and the respect of women in her in law’s house. In this, one Crone and her daughter-in-law was Bahu who was playing Kabbadi with the urchins of mohalla. Crone was torture her Bahu and always stretched her. Asghar was son of mother-in-law and torture his wife. Bahu can’t be a mother so  Asghar calls her that she was curse for them. Always, Crone and Asghar tortures her that what your father give you in dowery . When Asghar hits his wife Crone supports her daughter-in-law but for her own advantage. A women who can’t became mother cursed by society a lot. So this story is about position of women in society and in in law’s house.