Summary (The Meatless Days)

 

NAME: SYEDA SAMREENA KULSOOM. ROLL NO: KS-1915.   PROGRAMME: BS- ENGLISH- 5th. COURSE: PAKISTANI LITERATURE IN ENGLISH. ASSIGNMENT (6): SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 9 “ THE MEATLESS DAYS ”. COURSE CODE: ELL-303. COURSE FACILITATOR : Ms. RABIA. DATE: 25TH MAY, 2021.

 

“SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 9 OF THE MEATLESS DAYS”

Sara Suleri Goodyear was born on June 12, 1953 in Pakistan, Pakistan, one of six children, to a Welsh mother, Mair Jones, an English professor, and a Pakistani father, Z. A. Suleri (1913–1999),a Suleri (1913–1999),a notable political journalist,  journalist, conservative  conservative writer, author, and the Pakistan Movement  activist regarded Movement activist regarded as one of the pioneer of print of  print  journalism in  journalism in Pakistan, and authored various history and political books on Pakistan as Pakistan as well as Islam in Islam in the Indian subcontinent. subcontinent. She had her early education in London and attended secondary school in Lahore. Lahore. She received her B.A. at Kinnaird College, College, also in Lahore, Lahore, in 1974. Two years later, she was awarded an M.A. from Punjab University, University, and went on to graduate with a PhD from Indiana University in University in 1983. English at  at Yale Sa Sara ra Su Sule leri ri Goody Goodyea ear, r, is an American  American au auth thor or an and d pr prof ofes esso sorr emer emerit itus us of English [2] University,,  where her fields of study and teaching include Romantic and University Romantic and Victorian poetr Victorian poetry y and an interest in Edmund Burke. Burke. Her special concerns include postcolonial literature and theory, contemporary cultural criticism, literature and law. She was a founding editor of the Yale Journal of Criticism, Criticism, and serves on the editorial ed itorial boards of YJC, The Yale Review, Review, and Transition. Transition. Meatless Days is a book that encompasses person memoir, the history of the development of  Pakistan, and fermale position within Pakistani culture. Suleri jumps from the present to the past, from the United States to Pakistan, and from the privileged world of Yale in New Haven to the traditional realm of cultural traditions. Both the clash of modern and traditional cultures as well as the exile versus the homeland is addressed ad dressed in her beautiful prose. Meatless days last chapter starts with the title of “Saving daylight”. Time is adjusted to achieve longer evening daylight in summer by setting the clocks an hour ahead of the standard time. The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in many places in the world) daylight. ht. We change our clocks during the summer summer months months to move an is to make better use of daylig hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. In Meatless Days, Sara Suleri moves through time and places frequently as she recounts the tale of her family and the violent history of Pakistan's independence. It is important to note that time has an ambiguous role in the book since it is not exactly linear and often is used in relevant terms. Knowing this, we can deduct that the beginning of the last chapter of the book seems to hold a special significance: Each year, an hour gained. Because I never tampered tampered with the clocks in Pakistan, Pakistan, these last ten years feel bold to me, for they have put me in the realm of daylight saving and made me mistress of time. That evening in October still remains an oddity to me, suggesting a moment of keen transaction, until I am sure that I can grasp what I keep repeating. "You must put back the clock  an hour tonight." These lines indicate that a person is engaged and arrested in time. As time holds one’s memories of life, which takes a person back into the past incidents in which that person is lost and wants to go back to live that time again, or he/she wishes to go back to change bad events.

 

In this chapter Sara Suleri talks about the events and memories of her life and her family, like in the beginning she mentions the tune of spacious speech of Shahid. She says that his voice feels everywhere as she sits with her father in the garden talking through night’s stillness, the total stillness of a summer in Lahore. She enjoys a feeling of rain and a fragrance when water is put on the sand/dust. She talks about the month of March, as she says that this month has totally changed me, has changed my perception about viewing life, my feelings, as whenever this month starts I used to warn myself that this month is going to come and something is coming to strip us to the bone, something to make our thoughts live in interior spaces as this month brought twice the days of  wicked occasion. She is defining moments in her existence that aome to be seen through a process of repetition. Her sister Ifat’s death, for example, is referred to in the first essay, but there is a time and a place for her story, Suleri explains, and it isn’t in the passage that deals with their beloved brother  Shahid: “For in this story, Ifat will not die before our eyes: it could not be countenanced. How could I tell Shahid’s story and let Ifat die before his eyes?” The dying experiences of Dadi, Iffat and her mother speak of the anxiety that her famil family y feels. She calls the condition in Pakistan ‘synonymous with grief’ (Suleri, 1989, p.19). History never lends comfort. We cannot get rid of our past because history history records it. it. Episode of Iffat’s death shows the intersection of person with political. Words of Shahid are further reassured by into a more confirmed loss. Her sister Iffat and her mother die in an accident shattering her yearning for the physical presence that is lost. She mentions that Tillat pain folds back into illusions of  serenity, putting that bonny girl into silences of what cannot be said. Shahid’s pain insists his sensibility is done, an Anita’s pain suggests that you have renounced on the duty of sensibility, Papa pain glances as a stranger and Mamma pain suggests the immorality of absence. She recalls the memories and days spent with her sister and called her sister ifat a brave girl with a golden heart. She thenwhich explains the controversies she faced from shemother visitedsmoking Pakistan.a The city Lahore reminded her some memories and timepeople spent when with her nicotine and waiting for her presence, and her sister ifat as Lahore gave her happiness so she asks a question that how can she forget the time which bloomed their life with happiness and with memorable days. After that she also recalls the night in which she had a discussion with her sister about the night of Mairaj, a religious discussion which explains how Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.w) was called on heaven by the command of God God and with Gibrael he came to heaven. Ifat told told it’s a blessful night to pray, on which sara questioned that how can we pray, then iffat helped her out.. which created a feeling of softness in sara heart and she felled herself close to God and said in last that I hold the Adam in me, the one who had attempted attempted to break loose. It’s a rib that floats in longing for some other cage, in the wishbone cracking urge of its desire.

 

Basically, in the closing words of chapter, Suleri, successfully uses the image of the wind whipping through an empty cave to portray her sadness. Further, her certainty that she would hear Tom’s name in the wind clearly conveys that she was affected by the ending of their  relationship. Suleri’s subtle yet stirring manner of conveying her emotions is unparalleled. This abilit abi lity y enable enabless her to weave weave her own person personali ality ty through throughout out her writi writing ng while while she is sti still ll maintaining her credibility. This gives us a message that no matter what happens in a person’s life but he or she has to go with a pace and has to move with a life because no one’s life stops with someone’s death and that a rule of nature and of God. And in the end, sara’s sister Ifat also taught sara that she should connect herself to God, she should return herself to optimism as only this will help her to bear  her griefs. life. Images of flesh and meat prevails upon text; the goat (Suleri, 1989, p.5), Dadi’s burnt  body (Suleri, 1989, p.14) Iffat and Mama’s death (Suleri, 1989, p.19) signify the need and a more confirmed ‘loss’ (Suleri, 1989, p.19).