What aspects of hard ship of the life of the people living in the foot hills of the himalayas are presanted by Norah burke in blue bead
Answers
Norah Aileen Burke was most famous for her style of description of life in India during the early 20th century. “The Blue Bead” is based on the simple, innocent wish of Sibia who’s the main character of the story.
The story is set up in a typical Indian village of the 20th-century. And the description about the situations is on point; realistic, simple yet effective in grabbing the reader’s attention. The author takes her time to describe the surrounding where the story takes place; starting from the crocodile and river. The description builds an anticipation in the reader’s mind about what’s going to happen.
The writing style is quite elegant with a touch of Indian colloquialness. Though there are several characters, utmost importance and most scenes are given to Sibia’s character and to the description of the place. Sibia’s character is quite simple, innocent yet brave; a girl with a small wish to have a new necklace.
The plot is quite simple but has its own powerful message to convey – if you want something badly enough and have patience to wait and work for it then you’re bound to get it.
It also shows the real rueful situations of old Indian village families; how they have to struggle every day for their living, how they find happiness in even tiny little things and celebrate it in grandeur, their simple and innocent wishes, the critical surroundings.
Burke is emphatic in her description of the hardships of women who had to risk their lives and who laboured to collect the papergrass in order to support themselves. The narrator provides a very vivid depiction of the day-to-day lives of the women when she says “The women toiled all day long at this work and the agents sat on silk cushions smoking hookah .” The topic of female labour in colonial India (like any other place across any other timeline) is a subject that's essential to explore.
That day, Sibia escapes the crocodile. Tomorrow she might not be as lucky. Moreover, luck doesn’t replace the exploitative system of colonial rule which dictates Sibia’s daily life and of which Nora Burke is very much a part of. After all, when the crocodile is described, she uses the line of “He was twice the length of a tall man; and inside him, among the stones which he had swallowed to aid digestion, rolled a silver bracelet.”
This might as well have been another Sibia, whose story we shall never hear, illustrating this exploitation and hardship as something universal. So much so, that a new item of jewelry would be a huge blessing.