Len Me Your Light Themes
The Journey of Youth
For most adults childhood evokes varying degrees of nostalgia as we reflect on our memories largely shaped by experience, some positive others negative. While our stories are varied the sights and scents that fill our youth can at a moments’ notice flood back when we detect a hauntingly familiar aroma. For Rohinton Mistry and Moses Milstein, the sights, sounds and scents of their childhood provide tapestry kaleidoscope of stereotypes and social prejudices which influence their perspectives as adults.
Memories of Montreal – and Richness by Moses Milstein exposes the unique cultural mosaic of 1950’s Montreal from the perspective of a 7 year old Austrian Jew. Now a father living in Vancouver, Moses laments his decision …show more content…
This neighborhood left him with a strong sense of identity by contrasting well defined ethnic stereotypes. It is clear that he reveres these experiences and as remorseful his son does not have this type of experience.
Lend Me Your Light is Rohinton Mistry tale of his older brother Percy and his friend Jamshed, illustrating the social differences of the caste system between Jamshed and Percy’s who both live in the Firozsha Baag neighborhood of Bombay. Set in the early 1960’s when it was culturally acceptable to refer to lower castes as ghatis1 and before “But the good old days, when you could scream at a ghaton, kick her and hurl her down the steps, and expect her to show up for work the next morning, had definitely passed.” (Mistry 155)
1Hindi slang used to denote an uncultured and ignorant person.
We find traditional tiffin(2) carriers skillfully navigating the school compound with their long rickety tin-filled crates, delivering lunches from around the city. The food contained within these tins fill the air with a stench that seemed to permeate the buildings and linger. Rohinton recalls eating lunch in the drill hall surrounded by the tiffin’s, as a very unpleasant …show more content…
Not only did Jamshed enjoy his daily meal in comfort but he was driven to and from school which contrasted with Rohintons journey from Firozsha Baag travelling by foot and bus.
Following each visit with Jamshed Percy’s mother would curiously interrogate him about their activities. On one occasion Rohinton overheard that Jamshed had recently received the original soundtrack of My Fair Lady and he asked his mother to negotiate so he could accompany Percy to listen to it. On the visit Rohinton learned that Jamshed did not like India and wanted to leave. Rohinton and Percys parents shared many of Jamsheds views on India and lack of opportunity with the ‘flood’ of ghatis. (Mistry
For most adults childhood evokes varying degrees of nostalgia as we reflect on our memories largely shaped by experience, some positive others negative. While our stories are varied the sights and scents that fill our youth can at a moments’ notice flood back when we detect a hauntingly familiar aroma. For Rohinton Mistry and Moses Milstein, the sights, sounds and scents of their childhood provide tapestry kaleidoscope of stereotypes and social prejudices which influence their perspectives as adults.
Memories of Montreal – and Richness by Moses Milstein exposes the unique cultural mosaic of 1950’s Montreal from the perspective of a 7 year old Austrian Jew. Now a father living in Vancouver, Moses laments his decision …show more content…
This neighborhood left him with a strong sense of identity by contrasting well defined ethnic stereotypes. It is clear that he reveres these experiences and as remorseful his son does not have this type of experience.
Lend Me Your Light is Rohinton Mistry tale of his older brother Percy and his friend Jamshed, illustrating the social differences of the caste system between Jamshed and Percy’s who both live in the Firozsha Baag neighborhood of Bombay. Set in the early 1960’s when it was culturally acceptable to refer to lower castes as ghatis1 and before “But the good old days, when you could scream at a ghaton, kick her and hurl her down the steps, and expect her to show up for work the next morning, had definitely passed.” (Mistry 155)
1Hindi slang used to denote an uncultured and ignorant person.
We find traditional tiffin(2) carriers skillfully navigating the school compound with their long rickety tin-filled crates, delivering lunches from around the city. The food contained within these tins fill the air with a stench that seemed to permeate the buildings and linger. Rohinton recalls eating lunch in the drill hall surrounded by the tiffin’s, as a very unpleasant …show more content…
Not only did Jamshed enjoy his daily meal in comfort but he was driven to and from school which contrasted with Rohintons journey from Firozsha Baag travelling by foot and bus.
Following each visit with Jamshed Percy’s mother would curiously interrogate him about their activities. On one occasion Rohinton overheard that Jamshed had recently received the original soundtrack of My Fair Lady and he asked his mother to negotiate so he could accompany Percy to listen to it. On the visit Rohinton learned that Jamshed did not like India and wanted to leave. Rohinton and Percys parents shared many of Jamsheds views on India and lack of opportunity with the ‘flood’ of ghatis. (Mistry