Bibi's Baby?

It seems that everyone in the Bloomsbury Court group at least had positive reactions to Lahiri's stories in Interpreter of Maladies. I also enjoyed the stories in this collection for the subject matter and Lahiri's writing style. Anyhow, on to the bulk of this blog post.

I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to approach this, but I settled on looking for the most common story/stories mentioned in Bloomsbury Court's posts and examining everyone's comments about that/them. Besides, I occasionally get a bit wordy and the various posts may be a good cover for my wordiness. So, it looks like a majority of people commented on "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar," which I found to be a troubling story on several levels: from Bibi's mistreatment by her own family to the community's shortsightedness.

Brad comments on the idea of marriage in "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" and Indian society in general, "In the Indian culture it is so important to get married especially for a woman. [...] In an Indian culture if a woman doesn’t have things to take care then they basically have nothing else to do with their lives." I both agree and disagree with this assertion. Marriage is important in Indian culture, but the ultimate purpose of marriage is not to give women something to do with their time and lives. The responsibilities of a wife in Indian culture may occupy a woman's days. However if this is the sole reason for marriage, what do we say about widowed women who do not have children and do not remarry? They're no longer married and they no longer have a husband to care for. Does this mean that their usefulness in the society is non-existent? Do they become the responsibility of the husband's family and assist them? I'm not familiar enough with Indian culture to give a definitive answer, but Bibi, who was unmarried, childless, and suffered from a neurological disorder, is an example of woman in Indian culture productively filling her time. Granted, Bibi works for a family member, not satisfied with her situation, and on the fringes of society, but she doesn't NEED a marriage in order to have something to do with her life. Instead of a means to fill time, marriage in Indian culture is more about social castes, growing familial power/strength, allowing some degree of social mobility, creating social connections, etc.

The institute of marriage in India has more to do with what Greg touches on in his blog post. He writes, "She didn't need a husband she needed someone to love her." I'm not on the "love conquers all" bandwagon, but I agree with Greg's sentiment. I think that marriage in Indian society is more about alleviating a degree of stress by providing people with a support system or sense of attachment in a community (belonging). As noted in Lahiri's other stories, specifically "The Third and Final Continent," Indian marriages are often arranged, so the quality of a spouse's love and support is questionable, but that support and sense of community can be found in a spouse, the larger family, or the wider community of other (discontent) married people. In the context of this story, marriage is seen as a way to give Bibi a connection to something besides her illness and the isolated tin shed. Although Lahiri does not explicitly state this, Bibi seems to be completely alone when she suffers these seizures even though people surround her. In the two instances where Bibi has an episode, no one notices her condition until she has collapsed and begins convulsing (161,167). The fact that she is alone when she falls may point to the need for some sort of support or connection beyond the superficial support from her cousin and neighbors. Maybe the doctor suggests marriage because he is out of ideas or maybe marriage is a way to address the isolation and lack of consistent support that caused or aggravated her condition.

Now we face the question of whether the idea of connection or support mentioned above actually solves anything for Bibi. Although she was always ill, Bibi was supposedly more satisfied when her father, who genuinely cared for her, was still alive (166). Unfortunately, we don't have any information to tell us if her condition was worse or significantly better than the few instances in the story. However, we do know that she was not doing particularly well without her father and Katie suggests that Bibi was ultimately healed or cured of her ailment after she has a baby (at the end of the story). I don't know that Bibi was cured of her seizures by the end of the story. The narrator in "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" does state, "She was, to the best of our knowledge, cured," but this doesn't necessarily mean that she was fine (172). Rather, this furthers the idea that she was still isolated and possibly still suffering from the same condition, but no one saw further episodes. If we look at the lead up to the birth of the child, we see that no one knew Bibi well enough to know she was pregnant and she didn't know or trust anyone enough to reveal the identity of the child's father. After the birth of the child, it doesn't seem she was truly brought into the community. She received help with her child and she gained business, but there is no evidence that she ever developed attachments beyond these fleeting interactions. While Bibi gains a child, which she presumably wanted, she also leapfrogs the whole marriage process that could have given her the necessary support to make her "normal" within Indian culture and give her the ability to cope with or cure her mysterious illness. She now has a son and material wealth, of some degree, but she doesn't have the cure she desperately wants.