Answer- Dibyendu Palit’s short story ‘Alam’s Own House‘ is a realistic portrayal of the pain and trauma of separation, where the author tries to give an idea about the Liberation Movement of Bangladesh in which he takes the themes of memory and nostalgia to give the story a very realistic touch. The story also shows how the borders between countries exploits people and make them foreigners to their own motherland. The story is centered on the character of Alam whose family was forced to leave their home after the partition and had to migrate to Dhaka. Alam’s family had a fear of becoming minority in Kolkata and it was unsafe for a Muslim family to live in a society Where Hindus were in majority.
The story is told after many years of the partition When Alam is heading towards his childhood home in Calcutta. The word ‘house’ in the title of the story is significant. The metaphor of the ‘house’ plays a central role in the story and serves as a symbol of identity, memory, and loss. Here, house serves as a character in which Alam finds his childhood memories and a sense of nostalgia. Dibyendu Palit’s ‘Alam’s Own House’ helps the reader to understand some new concepts of nostalgia. Though Alam was still there in Kolkata even after his family’s departure to Dhaka, he also had to leave for Dhaka because he is now a citizen of Bangladesh and a foreigner to his motherland where he was brought up and educated. After some years, Alam once again came back to Kolkata to attend a seminar and visited Anantasekhar’s house which was once his own house. In spite of visiting his house, he sill had the feeling of being homeless. It may suggest how people’s mindset changes after partition. Anantasekhar and Sneha could not provide comfort to Alam in his old house.
In the story, house also symbolizes Alam’s desire to get a free space for himself. When Alam was with his friend Feroz, he did not stay with him in the accommodation provided by the organizing authority of the seminar. He thought that his old house would be comfortable and give him the same old feeling. He still had a feeling of ownership to his old house but at last, the house became a strange place to him. When Alam was living in that house after his family’s departure, nothing was changed except the name plate of the owner. But when Alam left the home, Anantasekhar changed the interior design of the house drastically. It may indicate the changing attitude between the Hindu and Muslim community. As the story progresses, Alam’s attachment to the house becomes more complicated. He starts to realize that the house is not truly his own. When Alam was about to enter into the house of Anantasekhar, he missed the presence of the kantachapa tree in the interior part of the main gate of the house. Thus, the absence of the kantachapa tree made Alam a stranger in his own home. To Alam, a trip back to Kolkata three years since he left for Dhaka to attend an event on companionship between separated countries appeared incomplete without a visit to his native home and a meeting with Raka. The trip back home is full of memories and nostalgia. The Kathchampa tree at the gate of Alam’s old house, the portrait of Gandhi in the old living room, and the oil painting of the Battle of Plessey brings back Alam’s childhood memories. But after reaching his old house, he realizes that his house has become a strange place to him. He states that “Certain lands are meant for certain roots only”. Alam now realizes that he has lost his root. The metaphorical significance of the house lies in its ability to convey the theme of exile and belongingness that run throughout the story. The House represents Alam’s longing for a sense of rootedness and stability, also his struggle to establish a new identity in a foreign land.
Partition literature mourns the loss of a world not only in the form of idealized nostalgia, but also in the manner of despair and confusion. Writer Saadat Hasan Manto addresses the theme in his work ‘Toba Tek Singh’ via an allegory that involves the transfer of lunatics after independence. The death of the madman occurs in no man’s land, where the law of no country predominates. Manto highlights the association between the home and the identity of the person with this scene. Gulzar in his poem ‘Toba Tek Singh’ metaphorically points out that the lunatics are not those who are captivated in the asylum but those, who are madly playing politics by sitting on comfortable chairs.
Similarly, Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Shadow Lines’ symbolizes confrontation with nationhood. It is the narrator’s grandmother Thamma, by whom the question of Bengal Partition and Nationality is addressed. When heading to Dhaka, the grandma flies across the border but fails to see any boundary lines. She looks for the external divisionary lines: “If there aren’t any trenches or anything how are people to know? I mean what is the difference then? And if there’s no difference both sides will be the same; it will just be like it used to be before.”
For Alam, the border lines just caused suffering and sorrow. The relevance of the boundaries between countries is often debated, and Alam considers himself an outsider in the territorial region that was once his ‘own home’ in the past. The division made their homeland violent, and they began to believe that stability and protection existed on the other side of the frontier. When Alam re visited his old house, he encountered so many signs of uneasiness in the behavior of Anantasekhar and his wife Sneha. Earlier, Alam was very close to them. But this time, Alam was treated almost like a stranger in his own house. Towards the end of the story, when Alamc ame to know that Raka left the house in spite of getting the news of his arrival, the last ray of hope of feeling at home was evaporated from the mind of Alam. Anantasekhar and Sneha also felt themselves to be homeless in spite of having home. The homeless condition of Sneha is expressed by her “Yet I don’t know why we have this constant feeling of being homeless.” When Alam’s companion in his flight casually comments, “this sky belongs to India…we have no fundamental rights over here”, the comment helps the reader to understand the emotional cost of leaving one’s birthplace and why people feels homeless.
The partition generates a feeling of shame and anguish for those who are forced to migrate from their homes or birthplace. When nature draws a line in the form of hills, continents, streams, it is acceptable. But boundaries, created by humans, are a part of political games. They create countries on the basis of religion for their own good. Palit portrayed ‘home’ in such a manner that it represented the sorrow of migration, aggression and disorder, rather than security and peace. Thus, it can be said that house is strong a metaphor symbolizing many untold stories. After partition, “The wounds will take decades to heal, centuries to overcome.” Palit has used powerful imagery and descriptive language to bring out the pain of exile and belongingness making the story a moving portrayal of the human experience of displacement and longing.
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