Summary Of The Binding Vine By Sashi Deshpande

Summary Of The Binding Vine By Sashi Deshpande

The protagonist of The Binding Vine is Urmila, called Urrni in the novel. She is grieving over the death of her one-year-old daughter Anu and it is from here that the story picks up momentum. Urmi's husband Kishore is in the Merchant Navy. He remains on the ship for many months and is, therefore, absent from the novel. Urmi is a lecturer and she lives with her little son Kartik and her mother, in Bombay. When the novel opens, Urmi is in conversation with Vanaa. Vanaa is her childhood friend and also her sister-in-law (Kishore's sister).

Urmi is in a bad mood. She feels irritated when Vanaa talks of a small incident of their girlhood days when Urmi was learning cycling in Ranidurg. One day she had fallen off the bicycle and hurt her knees. At this Urmi asks her angrily, "what are you trying to say Vanaa? .... Why don't you say it straight off'? (p. 8). Actually, Vanna is trying to shift her mind from her grief but Urmi is in no mood to be soothed by such remarks. Urmi refuses to let go of her pain. She tells Vanaa that when she fell off the cycle, it was a small hurt compared to the agony of losing her daughter. She has lost her child and she cannot forget it. "This pain is all that's left to me of Anu. Without it, there will be nothing left to me of her; I will lose her entirely" (p. 9).

At the mention of her girlhood days in Ranidurg, Urmi is reminded of her grandmother Baiajji. Urmi was fond of her grandmother. Her childhood with Baiajji and Aju (grandfather) was a happy one but she was always puzzled as to why her parents had sent her away while Arnrut her brother stayed with them. She bore a kind of grudge against her mother, Inni. It is only towards the end of the novel that Inni recounts the incident. Long back, when Urmi was a child, Inni had gone out leaving her in the care of Divakar, a trusted servant. Urmi's father had come home early that day and seeing that the girl was left with a male servant, had got angry. After that he decided to send Urmi to his mother. He made his decision without even consulting his wife- Inni, Urmi's mother.

At this point Urmi understands the sinister power of male dominance that rendered her mother a helpless victim. Urmi now realizes how her mother must have suffered the pain of separation and how bravely she bore it over the years without complaining. She feels sorry for her mother. But

this realization comes only towards the end and before that we have to go through many more incidents and get to know many characters.

We are now introduced to Akka, Urmi's mother-in-law. One day Akka brings out an old trunk. It contains some yellowing papers, diaries and notes. Akka tells her that these papers belong to Mira and Urmi gets interested in reading them to see what they contain. Actually, Mira is Kishore's real mother, i.e., Urmi's mother-in-law. She had died when Kishore was just one day old and Kishore's father was married to Akka so that the infant Kishore could get a mother. Thus, Akka is Urmi's step-mother-in-law. Urmi realizes that Akka was brought as a bride only to be a mother to Kishore. Urmi can now re-cast Akka's loveless married life, and feels sorry for her.

From the letters and diaries, Urmi understands the pain of yet one more woman-Mira. Urmi reads the papers assiduously and re-creates Mira's life, her aspirations, failures, fears and desires. Mira's problem is the obsessive love of her husband. He loves her for himself, not for her sake. For him gratification of his desire is of prime significance. He never pauses to think of her wish or will.

Mira frankly records her intimate feelings in her diaries. Her poems are also confessional. She wants love, not lust. Love means understanding the other and caring for his or her needs; lust is selfish and it looks for personal satisfaction. Mira is afraid of her husband's lustful love. Looking at the situation from a social angle, Mira's fear and anger has no relevance, as her husband's demand is perfectly legitimate within the canons of marriage. Despite her despair, Mira feels happy when she is with child. As an expectant mother, she starts loving life. Unfortunately, she dies in childbirth.

Urmi joins duty after her leave expires and gets busy in her daily routine. One day, she learns of a rape-case when she goes to the hospital to meet Vanaa who is a medical social worker. The rape victim is Kalpana. Here Deshpande gives us one more story. Kalpana is a young vivacious girl from a lower class background. She is Shakutai's daughter. Shakutai has one more daughter Sandhya and a son. Her husband does not stay with them so it is Shakutai who is the breadwinner. She has a sister, Sulochana (Sulu). Sulu is childless and is afraid that her husband, Prabhakar, may marry another woman and shunt her out of his house. Her husband is enamoured of Kalpana and is keen to marry her. Both Shakutai and Sulu approve of this proposal. Sulu likes it because if Kalpana comes as the co-wife, Sulu will not be driven out. After all, Sulu is Kalpana's aunt (Mavshi). Shakutai likes the idea because she thinks Prabhakar is a good man and since he loves Kalpana, he will keep her happy. Kalpana, however, has her own aspirations. She likes a young man whom she wants to marry, and rejects Prabhakar's offer.

While Kalpana lies in the hospital, the outside world moves around her. Shakutai does not want the case to be reported to the police. She is afraid that it will spoil their name and nobody would marry Sandhya her second daughter; the police officer wants to project it as an accident case because rape cases are complicated. From the various discussions it is clear that nobody wants to accept it as a rape case. Priti, Inni, Vanaa all offer only lip-sympathy. They tell Urmi to keep away from this mess. Shakutai blames her for crossing the limits of a woman's life and attracting attention by her modern ways of dressing up.

Despite all odds, Urmi gives out Kalpana's story to a journalist friend, and it is published. Shakutai gets social attention. Questions are raised in the Assembly

and the hospital authorities are instructed to let Kalpana remain in the hospital. Thus, Urrni breaks the silence and manages to get justice for the suffering family. The police has to investigate the case, and when Sulu realizes that her husband Prabhakar is the culprit, she comments suicide. In the course of the events she understands how the tender vine of human understanding, empathy and sympathy binds us all. Life goes on despite its ups and douns. The novel ends on a note of optimism as Urmi broods over 'the spring of life' we all look for.