The Failure Of Nina In The Novel's Novel By Manju Kapur

Kapur has described both physical and psychological distress of Nina at the very beginning of the novel. The novel opens with the description of Nina:

Nina was almost thirty, friends and colleagues consoled her by remaking on her radiant complexion and jet-black hair but such comforts were cold. Nina’s skin knew it was thirty, broadcasting the fact at certain angles in front of the mirror. Her spirit felt sixty as she walked from the bus stop to the single rooms where she lived with her mother. Her heart felt a hundred as it surveyed the many years of hopeless longing it had known. (Kapur 1)

The above passage gives the description of the wretched condition of a girl who is almost thirty years old and still a bachelor. Nina feels guilty of her

Her friends and colleagues console her by remarking on her radiant complexion. All the people in Nina’s circle taunt her about her marriage that makes her and her mother’s life too miserable to lead peacefully. They both feel the need of the man in their life after the death of Nina’s father. Though Nina is financially independent, her mother considers her as a huge responsibility and concerns a lot for her marriage. She bears the thoughts of Nina’s marriage in her mind all the time. Manju Kapur raises the sentiments of a mother about her daughter, she writes, “And her womb, her ovaries, her uterus, the unfertilized eggs that were expelled every month, what about them? They were busy marking every passing second of her life” (1). Manju Kapur has expressed worries of an Indian mother, whose daughter has crossed thirty and still a bachelor. Nina’s marriage, which is considered as an ultimate destination for a woman in India, has become a prime focus for Nina’s

It is an unwritten moral code that a woman should be young and beautiful to be worthy of marriage. In traditional Indian society, aged and unmarried girl becomes the topic of gossip to the society and concern for the parents. In the novel also, the age factor becomes a major concern for Nina and her mother. She becomes the topic of taunts and gossip for the society and of tension for her mother. She is also facing the typical odd phase in her life. Nina gets disturbed because of her situation. She is anxious and becomes afraid to spend her life as a spinster like some of her colleagues in the college. Kapur aptly describes Nina’s worry, “Academic were full of spinsters, minatory signposts to depressing, lonely futures” (3). She hates the atmosphere where she is in. With the growing age, Nina becomes hopeless of any brightness and happiness coming in her life. Nina’s passing age disturbs her mother, she also gets disturbed due to her daughter’s passing age, and it seems that Nina’s marriage is the only important thing left in her life. Her mother is so desperate that she prays and often visits astrologer about Nina’s marriage. She even promises to give hundred rupees at the Katyayani mandir on the day when her daughter gets