[Music] hello viewers welcome back to the second lecture of Rohan mystery swimming lessons so from here we we we'll uh in this second lecture we'll begin from where we left in the previous one so now the narrator so the father theorizes that the writer needs at least 10 years of time for an experience to set in so that he can write about it he also talks about the artistic distance and the objectivity of a writer to write a story so in a way in a way in this part mystery is responding to his critics as well on critical attempts mystery is responding to the critical attempts to find purpose in the writer and his Works mystery is responding to the critical viewpoints and theories of writing through this part so then comes the next italicized part as you can see on the screen all the stories were read by the father and the mother and they were sorry when the book was finished the last story they liked the best of all because it had the most in it about Canada and now they felt they knew at least a little bit about it even if it was a very little bit about his day-to-day life in his apartment unquote so this is the 11th story swimming lessons it is exactly at this point of time while reading the story we realize we realize that this final story that the parents read in Bombay is the same 11th story of the book that we are reading right now so isn't this a very unique narrative style of Rohan mystery it's a story within a story so the italicized part is not not a part of the story swimming lessons yet it is a part of the story swimming lessons here we also get to know that the previous 10 stories by the son he sent back home are the same 10 stories that we are reading in this collection and which is the 11th one the 11th one is what we are reading right now so this story within a story is a unique narrative style this narrative style this narrative technique what it does is what it does it does it basically undermines reader expectations it almost blurs the line between the writer between the text and the reader who is the writer is it mystery or is it cury what is the text is it the short story short story number 11 or is it the on cursy sends back to his parents who is reading the story are the parents reading the story or are we reading the story or are both reading the story so you get it so the lines get completely blurred between the writer the text and the reader you can call it as sort of a meta fiction a meta narrative a new narrative technique of you know of there is another you know uh critical significance as you can see on the screen of another critical significance is the idea of the important difference and I'm quoting it this important difference as you can see on the slide that the parent talks about the father says the only danger is if he changes and becomes so much like them that he will write like one of them and lose the important significance the important difference now what is this important difference which I've highlighted again and again basically this is about the culture the cultural identity of being a Pary the parents do not want him to lose his identity so according to them there must remain the difference between him and a Canadian so the important difference that he means is of the Pary identity it is the thing that makes the narrator Pary so the difference is the real identity of the narrator and the parents do not want him to lose his identity now comes the bathtub episode which is arguably the single most important scene and indeed a lifechanging moment in Cy boys's life look at what KY says and I'm going to quote again water imagery is Reckoning in my life chopati Beach swimming pool bathtub so the three experiences he has for the water in his life one from his childhood at the chopati beach the second in the swimming pool and the third in the bath in the bathtub so there are three basic experiences that he has with water in the story three experiences very important now again look at the description again as you can see on the slide I close my eyes hold my breath and dunk my head fighting the panic I stay under and count to 30 I do it again this time I open my eyes underwater and there blindly without seeing it takes all my will to keep the lids from closing then I'm slowly able to discern the underwater objects the world outside the water I have seen a lot of it now it is time to see what is inside so there are two very important things that happen in this passage so the first thing is the water now what does this water represent this water can represent Canada this water may represent Canada this water may represent the foreign land where he has not yet sunk deeply enough to understand it and what is the second idea the second thing is the act of looking inside the act of a Clos look what does this mean when he forces himself to look inside it is then that he sees things clearly so this looking inside is what is it it's basically a kind of an introspection so KY wants to understand who KY actually is it is about the narrator finding his own identity in a foreign land he says that now it is time to look inside time to introspect time to gear up and look things from A New Perspective he wants to assimilate himself into the foreign land so the idea of a closed look is very essential in the story why is this idea of a Clos look significant because this idea of a Clos look occurs as a motive as an idea as a design repeatedly in the narrative this motive occurs this motive actually occurs Twice first that happens with the short sexual veristic pleasure that he derives from looking at the two women in the swimsuits they were initially looking appealing to him but only upon a closer look he realizes that things were not as rosy as they appear and we have already discussed the literary significance of this scene previously in the previous lecture in the first lecture of the series of of of the story of this lecture today and the second time it happens in the bath tub in his apartment and it is here in the bathtub episode that he sees things in a different manner he dunks his head inside the water he opens his eyes under the water and he tries to see and observe things differently it is here that he realizes that he needs to look with A New Perspective a fresh perspective in life he needs to introspect within himself to understand his condition and he realizes that he needs some amount of self-contemplation the narrator says that he has seen enough of the outside world and now it is time to look inside so the idea of a close look as I mentioned is essential to understand the full scope of the migrant's diasporic condition and his diasporic experience incidentally you notice if you notice it is not at chopati or the swimming pool that he recognizes himself and understands himself it is only in seclusion in solitude in the private space of his bathtub that he gets this Revelation isn't it so he's able to recognize himself when he looks deep inside the bathroom tub by opening his eyes and very soon after this bathtub episode he decides to go from for for swimming lessons again so that now he can assimilate himself into the new life of Canada it is interesting to know that earlier on he left it he left his swimming lessons but now he decides to go back to his swimming lessons so he was a passive immigrant earlier on but now he begins to shed his Persona and become an active immigrant and we notice that right after this bathtub episode he goes to talk to the Portuguese women so interestingly uh the narrators does not know the name of most of the residents living in the impartment he has given them just tags and labels the PW the Portuguese women the Yugoslavian women so the narrator refers to this Portuguese women as simply p blue if you look at the narrative he makes little or no efforts to know the people around him he remains aloof with his immediate surroundings right so he gives labels to everyone around him and that is his limited way of seeing the people around him but after this BB episode towards the end of the story he tries to get assimilated within the cultural life of Canada he even attempts to know the name of the old man whom he never earlier on got a chance to talk to so perhaps it is only the old man on the wheelchair who reminds him of the narrator who reminds the narrator of his own grandfather but still he never tried to know his name and it is later when he finally decides to go to him that he finds that he's dead now we notice that unlike the beginning of the story he actively starts to involve himself in the conversation around the apartment isn't it so after this bathtub episode the readers can clearly notice that he is now much more engaged in his life in the life in his apartment at dawn Hills and then he even goes to buy a book of trees so that he can identify more than the maple leaf of Canada so Canada and the Canadian flag is represented as you know as if you if you know the Canadian flag it's represented by the red maple leaf right so the act of narrator to go out attempt to buy a book of treeses to learn more about the treeses and the leaves of Canada is a subtle way of trying to shrug off The Limited knowledge that he has for Canada this is his own attempt to understand Canadian culture more so that he can assimilate himself into the foreign Land by acquainting himself with the land if you look at the slide now the narrator was earlier in the condition of what what bharti mukarji calls as the aloofness of expatriation now after getting out of the initial inertia he begins to be an active immigrant and he exuded some amount of exuberance in his immediate surrounding earlier on as we mentioned right now he was a passive immigrant but now he's becoming an active immigrant so as we come towards the end of the story we notice that there is a big difference in the personality of the narrator a passive immigrant is now becoming an active immigrant trying to engage himself in the everyday Affairs of his life in Canada initially he was afraid of the swimming pool and yet he decides to reenroll in the swimming lessons this is the big step for him and he steps out of the inertia to actively involve himself in the everyday Affairs as soon as he goes to ask the name of the old man the news arrives that the old man is unfortunately dead the story ends there but in the final italicized section which comes right after the end of the story we see how mystery is very he's self- critiquing his own narrative style and his own narrative technique so here the father talks about how he confuses facts with fiction and fiction with facts so basically in this last italicized part mystery is commenting on his own narrative technique he's self critiquing The Narrative here it's a very unique narrative technique that he uses here so the story then ends with the parents writing a letter to KY and encouraging him to write more stories in future so therefore therefore I would say the story swimming lessons is also about literary criticism where mystery delves of course tangentially only into the realm of literary criticism as well he also discusses The Narrative techniques that authors use to write fiction and he self- critiques that he self analyzes that he offers his own self-critique of it but overall the story is even after this dis brief uh point of literary criticism and narrative overall overall the story is about the narrator finding his own identity in a foreign land and he achieves it how only by looking inside but despite all this will he succeed despite his honest attempts to understand Canadian culture and to reenroll in the swimming lessons will he succeed this is something that we are not told by Rohan mystery and we cannot say this with any shity whether he will succeed in it or not but one thing is for sure and that is he tries to assimilate himself into the culture of Canada as he has stepped out of the initial inertia that he had in himself he had this initial initial inertia in him but he does not have it anymore so here we have now come to the end of the story we have discussed the summary we have discussed the CR the detailed critical analysis and touched upon all the vital points of discussion in the story there are however two more important points which I would like to discuss uh with the viewers but which I skipped earlier on as they needed some discussion Beyond textual reading and both these points hold very great significance in the narrative the first one is the imagery of water and how mystery employs water as an imagery in the story the second and equally important critical Insight we need to understand is the idea of what we may call double displacement in the diasporic condition of both the author mystery and the character cury so as you can see on the slide these are the two topics that we'll be discussing uh at length water as an imagery and double diasporic displacement perhaps one of the most critical now first first let's discuss with water as an imagery so one of the most critical points I would say with respect to water as an is with respect to water as an imagery water as an imagery plays a very important role in the story and indeed is a significant point of discussion water is a symbol which is all inclusive there are so many aspects and interpretation of water in the story water since the beginning of the story plays a very important role in the Pary culture as well if you remember if you get back to the story we are told that it's the repository of rituals religious congregations even memories and photographs so those three episodes are extremely significant in the story related to water first is the chopati episode which is about the past of the narrator he remembers it vividly then is the swimming pool episode and lastly is the water in his bathtub this episode is most important as it is here that he learns and changes himself and begins to see things in a new life as we have already discussed in the lecture before extensively so therefore therefore water is the chief metaphor of the story it represents the state of the narrator water represents the state of the narrator the first instance shows the past of the narrator and the second instance shows his present status as an immigrant and the third instance shows his response and his resolve to take things in his hand and to understand his own self in the bathtub so hence water as an imagery also represents I would say the state that the narrator is actually in the water is a marker of fluid national identity of the narrator his dealings with water it's it's basically explains his diasporic conditions we notice that we have already discussed that his fear you know we we have already discussed his fear of water in the swimming pool and how it shows his fear of assimilation in Canada how it shows his fear of dislocation so you notice how the boy who was not at all afraid of the dirty chopati Waters is afraid of the Clean and Clear swimming pool this is because of his fear of dislocation fear as a foreigner fear of being out of place in a new foreign land that is Canada so water therefore is the single most important symbol which carries a whole plethora of meanings in the story it is water that he resist he resists water and it is indeed water that he desires equally so his reluctance to learn swimming and his failing almost deliberately failing attempts I would say to learn swimming can be read as representative of his resistance and reluctance to be assimilated in Canada so the title swimming lessons describes the lessons he learns as an immigrant trying to swim his way into Canadian consciousness these are the lessons he has learned over the course of the story so dealing with water also explains his diasporic condition the narrator does not learn how to swim from the dirty Waters of chopati neither does he learn how to swim due to the fears of racial discrimination and that minor accident at the swimming pool but he conquers his fear at his own home in his bathtub by dunking inside and opening up his eyes when he opens his eyes he begins to see things from A New Perspective and this is what makes the entire difference in his life so this therefore I would say that this can also mean you see that the fear of water right the fear of water shows the fear of assimilation in Canada therefore the title swimming lessons the title swimming lessons describes the lessons he learned as an immigrant trying to learn how to swim his way into the Canadian Consciousness these are the lessons that he has learned over 2 years in Canada swimming then also becomes a metaphor for acceptability isn't it so the entire story in conclusion is not just about integration and assimilation in Canada but it's also about the search for the narrator's own identity and that is why he tries to see what is inside his own self he tries to see basically he tries to see his own identity find his own identity understand his own identity hence the story is about assimilation in a foreign land but also equally important about finding his own identity so this was the first idea now the second idea which we discussed earlier on that I'll be discussing is on the idea of double displacement and diaspora double displacement and diaspora so as a narrator as the narrator Cy represents the diasporic situation quite interestingly in the story you see mystery is himself a zoroastrian and the idea of the pares a zoroastrian Pary being a diasporic community in India is also present in the narrative now if you look at the screen uh on the condition of cury the following words by Professor n Nur barucha ring very true and I quote the bonding of culture religion literature and language is especially strong in diasporic situation but where it provides ethnic identity and a sense of self it also alienates from the host culture it also alienates from the host culture very important lines and it is this displacement and I'm still quoting it is this displacement which gives diasporic writing its peculiar qualities of loss and Nostalgia right so if we look closely to this statement again we will realize that this is is exactly the situation of the narrator as well as well as of mystery there is always a sense of loss of Homeland which is there in the narrator this is the only reason why he writes the first 10 stories about his Pary experience back in Bombay so you notice how he has been in Canada for around 2 years but he cannot shrug off his Pary identity so quickly no he cannot do that in the middle of the story the narrator even describes himself as having an Asian Brown body so so he this this idea of having an Asian Brown body as he mentions clearly indicates that his identity in Canada is fr with his acknowledgement of his own ethnic background so for 2 years he has been alienated from the host culture and he identifies only the archetypal Canadian maple leaf he does not know anything beyond the maple leaf the leaf which is so prominently placed in the flag of Canada and it is interesting to note that it is only with great amount of effort that he's finally able to try to attempt to look away from his memories and past into the present where he's living it is only with a great amount of effort that he begins to attempt to get out of his shell and look into the Canadian Society for good so therefore as the as the critic barucha says diasporic literature or literature of diaspora or uh diasporic writing has loss and Nostalgia at its Center though it might be an overstatement to say that KY is an autobiographical account of mystery himself we cannot really say it with some amount of shity but still it is it is I believe almost impossible to ignore the fact that mystery shows the problems of assimilation in a foreign land and the diasporic Dilemma that a migrant faces so as we we all know that mysty himself had migrated to Canada as you can look on the screen he has himself migrated to Canada and it is hard to miss that pares too it is you cannot ignore the idea that pares are also living in diaspora in India and as I quote mistri is also a Pary zoroastrian and whose ancestors were forced into Exile by the Islamic conquest of Iran he was in diaspora in India like other Pary writers his writing is informed by the experience of double displacement unquote so this was the idea of the double displacement so earlier interestingly the earlier stories are also about the Immigrant experience of the entire Pari Community the first 10 stories so therefore very importantly the entire collection the entire 11 stories of tales from fos shabag are significant in the sense that it both describes the Immigrant experience in India as well as in Canada so this sense of double immigration this dual displacement this double diasporic displacement this dual identity so this sense of dual identity is the level that Rohan mystery plays on in the book so we noticed that swimming lessons is the only last final story in the larger collection which dwells upon the idea of Canada upon the life of Canada and is set fully in Canada all the other preceding stories are set in India and Bombay but despite that the last story swimming swimming lessons is also pleet with Indian memories of course so perhaps mystery is showing how indianness or the Dual identity of being a Pary Indian and being a Canadian will always and always persist it also equally shows how for the migrant his new place of residing has not yet become his home perhaps perhaps there are doubts till the last whether it will ever become his home or not will it or will it not we do not really know we can only guess here right because the narrator rohin MRI the author never tells us whether the narrator Cy will be able to assimilate himself or not it is interesting to note that towards the end of the story he finally attempts he finally tries to get himself assimilated but we do not know whether he will succeed or not right so that is the question so here this brings us to the end of this two-part lecture on Rohan mystery swimming lessons I hope I sincerely hope the readers got Clarity on the various symbolic on the symbolic depth of this marvelous short story written by I would say an even more marvelous writer of the Indian diaspora thank you so much for your attention hope to see you soon on some other day on some other interesting topic on C ugc till then keep learning thank you so much w [Music] [Music]