In class we talked about the difference between the men and women in "Basti", how the former remembers pre-Partition days through an active nostalgia for the homeland they left behind, and how the latter remembers it through relationships and facts/objects of those relationships.
But another distinction which we can draw about the kinds of remembrance going on in this novel is through fathers and sons, and I'm going to specifically take the example of Zakir and his father here. The interesting thing is that the difference is embodied in an object: the keys to Zakir's family's old haveli back in Roopnagar.
Both generations are obviously steeped in a deep nostalgia for their past lives in Roopnagar, but the older generation's nostalgia, no matter the differences within, is still of a more active degree than the younger's. The keys represent Zakir's parents' vague expectation of going back to their old home, which they took great care of too. Zakir on the other hand leaves them lying around rather carelessly, because when he was in Roopnagar he was very little and he can never understand the importance or significance of that house or property. His memories of Roopnagar is that of a place where he had important relationships which he has now lost and which he can never reclaim (with his grandmother and Sabirah). Also, he roams the city (which is in a horrible condition) and talks to his friends about politics so he knows that there is no chance of them going back. Hence he does not hold on to the keys.
But another distinction which we can draw about the kinds of remembrance going on in this novel is through fathers and sons, and I'm going to specifically take the example of Zakir and his father here. The interesting thing is that the difference is embodied in an object: the keys to Zakir's family's old haveli back in Roopnagar.
Both generations are obviously steeped in a deep nostalgia for their past lives in Roopnagar, but the older generation's nostalgia, no matter the differences within, is still of a more active degree than the younger's. The keys represent Zakir's parents' vague expectation of going back to their old home, which they took great care of too. Zakir on the other hand leaves them lying around rather carelessly, because when he was in Roopnagar he was very little and he can never understand the importance or significance of that house or property. His memories of Roopnagar is that of a place where he had important relationships which he has now lost and which he can never reclaim (with his grandmother and Sabirah). Also, he roams the city (which is in a horrible condition) and talks to his friends about politics so he knows that there is no chance of them going back. Hence he does not hold on to the keys.
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