Abstract
Amitav Ghosh is an Indian author and novelist. Her novel portrays the political and historical consciousness along with known for his works in English language. His writings are unique and contributed a lot to Indian writing in English. Amitav Ghosh second novel The Shadow Lines (1988) presents the theme on nationalism, freedom, violence, memory and conflict between reality and illusion. In this novel refers to the blurred lines between nations, land and families as well as within one’s own self-identity. This paper examines, the shadow lines is not a history of events, nor is it a lesson in geography, …show more content…
She started friendship with Tridib when “she was trying to get over an adolescent crush on school-boy Trombonist, who had no time for her at all”. She got comfort from Tridib’s letters though she had practically not met Tridib at all. They knew each other through letters and photographs they had exchanged. Like Tridib she didn’t have carnal desires, and continued to enjoy the feeling of love without being sure that Tridib had feelings of love for her. She told the narrator, “All I remember is him saying you’re my love my own, true love, my love- across-the seas; what do I have to do to keep you with me? But it’s just a whisper”. It was in the end that she became a realist, when she decided to transfer her love to the narrator and forget the …show more content…
The novelist is all the time trying to coalesce time and space, through memory and imagination. Tridib went to England when he was eight years old, but he preserved the memory of the places he had visited and also imagined how war must have ravaged the places like Solent Road. The narrator has must heard about the places that Ila and her parents have visited, heard about mosque of Ibn Tulun at Cairo and Great Pyramid of Cheops. He has “imagined her bighting on these day-dream names-Addis Ababa, Algiers, and Brisbane”. When he went to London, he jumped to his feet when he went to London; he jumped to his feet when Ila proposed to go to a film in Brixton or to a Vietnamese Restaurant in Maida Vale. These names he recounts give fillip to his imagination. As the Geographical names arouse criosity and activate imagination, references to the historical events also re-create the past; enable the readers to see the actual wants in their imagination. The events related with Mu-I-Mubarak, for example, present the scenario of the communal of the communal harmony among Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims- People are said to have marched in their thousands from every part of Kashmir- even from such distant and remote eyeries as the Banihal Pass- in order to get a glimpse of the relic. Later, the relic was installed at the picturesque Hazratbal mosque, near Srinagar. The mosque became a center of