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The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in The Novel of Uma Parameswaran's "Dear Deedi, My Sister"

This document provides an abstract and analysis of the novel "Dear Deedi, My Sister" by Uma Parameswaran. The novel explores the feelings of nostalgia experienced by immigrants for their native land. It focuses on the letters exchanged between the main character Sapna, who immigrated to Canada from India, and her sister back home. Though Sapna does not experience strong nostalgia due to maintaining contact through letters, the novel depicts the contrast between her new life in Canada and memories of India. The analysis discusses how Parameswaran sensitively portrays the immigrant experience and navigating two cultures through the lens of personal relationships.

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238 views

The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in The Novel of Uma Parameswaran's "Dear Deedi, My Sister"

This document provides an abstract and analysis of the novel "Dear Deedi, My Sister" by Uma Parameswaran. The novel explores the feelings of nostalgia experienced by immigrants for their native land. It focuses on the letters exchanged between the main character Sapna, who immigrated to Canada from India, and her sister back home. Though Sapna does not experience strong nostalgia due to maintaining contact through letters, the novel depicts the contrast between her new life in Canada and memories of India. The analysis discusses how Parameswaran sensitively portrays the immigrant experience and navigating two cultures through the lens of personal relationships.

Uploaded by

S. m.s.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Contemporary Literary Review India

CLRI Brings articulate writings for articulate readers.

eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No 2: CLRI May 2019 | p. 76-84

The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in


the Novel of Uma Parameswaran’s "Dear
Deedi, My Sister"

Reena Gautam

Research Scholar, Mohanand Mission Harijan Degree College,


Ghaziabad, UP, India.

Abstract
This research paper focuses on Indian women’s
experience of immigration, nostalgia, culture, language
and tradition in the literary works of Uma
Parameswaran. The author focuses on one novel: Dear
Deedi, My Sister. In this novel, Sapna did not have the
feelings of nostalgia, because she could visit India
through letters written and received to her dearest
‘deedi’ or sister. The feeling of nostalgia also grasps the
immigrants from India as well as other countries in
Parameswaran’s works, particularly in Dear Deedi, My
Sister. Sapna, a woman from India, writes to her sister
living in her native country. The feeling associated with
‘deedi’, cannot be conveyed through the English word
‘sister’. Sapna continues to write depicting a contrast
between Canada and India; a contrast, which

Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No


2: CLRI May 2019 | Page 1
The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in the Novel of Uma
Parameswaran’s "Dear Deedi, My Sister" | Reena Gautam

throws into respite her nostalgia for a land that she left;
a land that continues to live in her memory.
Keywords: Nostalgia, immigration, native land, diasporas,
personal letters, Uma Parameswaran.
Uma Parameswaran, an Indo-Canadian writer of plays and
fiction presents her first hand observation of diasporic
life. She is of the opinion that there are writers who
have a tendency to exaggerate, a leaning forwards the
over- idealization of nostalgia or towards satire.
Ultimately, the challenge of common wealth literary
critics is in the exploration and understanding of the
bicultural vision of writers. Prameswaran maintains
objectivity in portraying the several facets of
multicultural Canada. She lives in manifold, Canada
undergoing the third phase of expatriation the policy of
the government is multiculturalism in a bilingual
framework. She represents ethnic minority writers in
Canada "Whose cultures are neither English no French
and whose heritage languages are neither English nor
French". (Pivato, p. 2.1)
Migrated writers feel the mixed feelings of cultures and
as well as they witness the pro-democracy
demonstrations hereby leading to encounter of cultures.
They experience the condition of anonymity for years of
repercussions in the mainland with echoes a dilemma
articulated by many recent migrants from the
mainlands.
Uma Parameswaran’s "Dear Deedi, My Sister" is a
sensitive reconstruction of the experiences of
Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No
2: CLRI May 2019 | Page 2
The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in the Novel of Uma
Parameswaran’s "Dear Deedi, My Sister" | Reena Gautam
immigrants who perpetually suffer the nostalgia of lost
motherland. It is

Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No


2: CLRI May 2019 | Page 3
The Problem of Immigrant and Nastalgia in the Novel of Uma
Parameswaran’s "Dear Deedi, My Sister" | Reena Gautam

evident that geographical locations reaffirm the bond of


personal relationship between Chitra Banerjee, Divakaruni
and Anita Rao Badami. She proceeds with the
assumption that immigrants essentially share the burden
of "separation" and seek silent spaces for assimilation in
multicultural spaces through the possibilities of the
retrieval of the lingering shadows of lost relationships or
endeavors for the reconstruction of new paradigm of
interpersonal bonding’s. The title of the play is a
symbolic manifestation of formal and informal nature of
relationships. Addressing as "Dear Deedi" has an under-
tone of intense emotional bonding whereas the term
"sister" with the additional emphasis on the pronoun
"my" is suggestive of an uncompromising urge buried
beneath the human predicament of immigrants.
The feeling of nostalgia also grasps the immigrants from
India as well as other counties in Parameswaran’s work
particularly in Dear Deedi, My Sister. Sapna, a woman from
India, writes to her sister living in her native country.
The feeling associated with Deedi, cannot be conveyed
through the word ‘sister’. Language is an inevitable part
of culture.
Dear Deedi, my sister,
I have not heard from you for a long time. When I
first came, the mailman’s daily visit was my lifeline.
Even now, I wait by the window, whiling the hour
away thinking of all of you back home. The breeze is
lazily blowing fine snow across the front yard that is
already buried under two feet of white. Nature, here

Contemporary Literary Review India | eISSN 2394-6075 | Vol 6, No


2: CLRI May 2019 | Page 4
as at home as I often say, is both bounteous and
tyrannical (Parameswaran, Dear Deedi, p. 61).

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