{"id":5653,"date":"2011-09-18T10:55:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T05:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2020-11-15T14:30:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T09:00:59","slug":"four-steps-from-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/2011\/09\/18\/four-steps-from-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Steps from Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timeri N Murari<\/em><\/p>\n

In the years immediately following India\u2019s independence, the Naidu family retains its glory and wealth, and the traditional joint family ways of living. The narrator is Krishna Naidu, the youngest member of the clan, eight years old and the darling of everyone in the family. Having lost his mother at an early age, his father means everything to him, though he is very loyal to his siblings and grandparents too.<\/p>\n

The story begins with his father introducing Krishna, his favourite, to his, and his siblings\u2019 new governess – an Englishwoman, Victoria Greene. Krishna\u2019s father Bharat is an Oxford returned Indian bureaucrat, whose years in England have made him more British than Indian in his lifestyle and outlook.<\/p>\n

The entry of Victoria into the traditional Indian family serves as an allegory on the impact of the British. Victoria\u2019s status change from governess to stepmother, much to the disapproval of the rest of the family and even the eldest of Krishna\u2019s siblings – Anjali, also marks the first sign of dissension in the family as it is seen as a failure on the part of the head of the family- Krishna\u2019s maternal grandfather, to maintain control over the family\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n

What follows is a sea change in Krishna\u2019s conditions and within a few years he is forced to leave his ancestral home, his cousins and aunts and uncles, and live in conditions totally unfamiliar and uncomfortable to him. With age also comes the understanding that not all relationships last forever, and not all perspectives last the test of time. As he watches everything that he held sacred crumble before his eyes, he realises that even his gods have clay feet. Laying more emphasis on the early part of his life, the novel ends in 1993, when Krishna is 50.<\/p>\n

The novel also shows us glimpses of the conditions that probably broke<\/a> the fragile bonds of large families, and forced the disintegration of a traditional joint family structure, which had survived despite the jealousies and intrigues, for generations. It is an enjoyable read, especially since it captures a range of human conditions and personalities and keeps a few tiny secrets till the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timeri N Murari In the years immediately following India\u2019s independence, the Naidu family retains its glory and wealth, and the traditional joint family ways of living. The narrator is Krishna Naidu, the youngest member of the clan, eight years old and the darling of everyone in the family. Having lost his mother at an early […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,6007],"tags":[2015,2016],"class_list":["post-5653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-fiction","tag-four-steps-from-paradise","tag-timeri-n-murari"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5653"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14689,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5653\/revisions\/14689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscrypts.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}