ROOTS - LITERARY APPRECIATION ( Rohith J Abraham - 20UMAT3716)

ROOTS

LITERARY APPRECIATION

Roots is a short story by Ismat Chugtai which is an depiction of reality on an around the time of India-Pakistan partition. The story presents the love and care that each religion and people have for one another at the mist of communal hatred. The Urdu writer Ismat Chugtai have made the work that provoke the emotions of the readers through a lot of literary expressions which could be found throughout the narration. The feelings were getting stronger while going along with the story.

‘Deadly wound that it would feaster for years to come’, ‘blunt knife of arteries were left open rivers of blood flowed’, shows the pathetic and terrible miseries of poor Indians that they have to face on the timeline. It conveys the killings and atrocities that wiped a large number of population.

‘If one sneeze, one ran there’- the expression shows the love, care and compassion that one had for the other in appa’s and chachu’s family despite caste or politics which were prioritized by else on earth in the array of life.

‘I am like a lamp in its last gasp’ shows off the frustration and helplessness that the Amma had trying to convince her sons, daughters, daughters-in-law and her grandchildren. She was hailing high even it was sure that it end in nothing and it is going to be the end.

‘Roots’ itself is a clear manifestation of belongings and the cause for the survival. Amma believes her roots is here in India where she was born and bought up and not the newly created territory on the basis of religion alone. She was confused and worried on her sons and daughters because of the uncertainty of survival and the problems and miseries that they have to face on the way to a new land and a new life without any strong support or the roots.    

By, 

Rohith Jacob Abraham

20UMAT3716

Bsc Mathematics