Women and Marriage in Diaspora, on both sides of the Border

Abstract

India is homeland. We are steeped in the country, its history and its ways since birth. Women in India, we identify with. We understand their plight. We perceive their pain. We are aware of their strengths. And we know their weaknesses and threats. Across the Border, Pakistan, however, is a different story altogether.Pakistan has always been a very favourite, very interesting and very enthusiasm-provoking topic of conversation in India. But as women ourselves, we would like to believe that we the women in India have also wondered what life of a Pakistani woman is like. What is marriage like in Pakistan? Does the wife get respect? Is she treated like an equal?What transitions in life does marriage bring for her? Is life of a married woman across the border, the same story of adjustment, compromise and sacrifices as in the life of a married woman back home in India? In this paper, we endeavour to find an answer to this intriguing question through the woman protagonist featuring in one of the eleven short stories written by the Pakistani author, Syrinna Haque, compiled in Sand in the Castle. Sara, in Home and the Facade, provides us with a realistically and poignantly keen insight on the life of a married woman across the border; while, also highlighting how life is not much different on this side of the border too, through the character of Dimple, in the veteran Indian author, Bharati Mukherejee’s work, Wife. There is a whole world of difference between what we, women, seek in marriage, and what we eventually get. Both, Sara and Dimple, are very realistic manifestations of this fact of life and the world, especially when they have to relocate outside their respective countries, leaving everything they hold dear to their hearts behind, to be with their husbands. This paper focuses specifically through Sara and Dimple on the changes life brings when married outside the country.
Keywords: Women, Husband, Home, Happiness, Adjust, Pain.