WATER(novel) 2006

Written by Bapsi Sidhwa

WATER

• Water, (2006), U.S., 2006, India; is a novel by author Bapsi Sidhwa.

WATER

• Water is set in 1938, when India was still under the colonial rule of the British, and when the marriage of children to older men was common place.

WATER

• Following Hindu tradition, when a man died, his widow would be forced to spend the rest of her life in a widow's ashram, an institution for widows to make amends for the sins from her previous life that supposedly caused her husband's death.

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• Chuyia (Sarala) is an eight year old girl who has just lost her husband.

• She is deposited in the ashram for Hindu widows to spend the rest of her life in renunciation.

• She befriends Kalyani who is forced into prostitution to support the ashram, Shakuntala, one of the widows, and Narayan, a young and charming upper-class follower of Mahatma Gandhi and of Gandhism.

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• The novel is based upon Deepa Mehta's 2005 film, Water.

• This is a longer version of the screenplay of the movie by Deepa Mehta.

• It is set in 1938 in Rawalpur, a village on the Bihar-Bengal border

• The condition of women and plight of widows shapes up as part of a larger narrative in this book.

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• The book is a finely crafted depiction of the most basic human tendencies.

• It narrates the anguish of the eight year old Chuyia who is rendered as a widow and how eventually she befriends Kalyani.

• Despite the focus primarily being on the plight of widows of India then, it focuses on widow remarriage and freedom of choice.

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• It is a finely crafted book which lends beauty to the film and enhances the visual appeal of the film.

• Water trailer