 Pipee are marginalized by the prejudiced fundamentalist ideas.
The Third World women cannot raise voice regarding important issues like their rights to their body, number of pregnancies, decision of conceiving babies, abortion etc. Everything is decided by their husbands. In Third World Social System, a wife is always forced to follow the instructions of husband while the husband does not care for the feelings of wife. Female body becomes the site of forced colonization which the male master uses and abuses according to his own sweet. In Third World context, a wife has to submit willingly or unwillingly, to the demands of husband’s body just because she is his wife. The following conversation in this story echoes the marital tragedy of a Third World wife through the character of Astha:“Why? I’m your husband. So what? So everything. You think marriage is just sex.” (Kapur: 275) Such marital prerequisites of Third World wives colonize their body, sense and sex. The Indian women are still facing the trauma of exploitation and sexual abuse. It is very common in Indian age-old patriarchy which is re-colonizing female body.
Internalized notion that is passed woman after woman is another important obstacle in Third World families. It is the woman herself, who often ill-treats the woman in Indian traditional families. The old women in Third World Indian society are the guardians of patriarchy. They are the followers of the age-old beliefs because they have been already internalized by the thought of patriarchal values. The mother-daughter; mother-in-law-daughter-in-law; and sister-in-law-daughter-in-law relationships lead to the continuous dilemmas.
In this story, mothers want their daughters to like them but daughters want to learn from their own experiences. In this story, Sita-Astha relationship echoes such truths. Sita tries to arrange her daughter’s marriage when she was only sixteenth years old. When Astha is in second year, Sita starts arguing with her husband why he is so indifferent regarding this serious matter. On the other hand, Trivedi-Pipee relationship refreshes previous Sita-Astha relationship. Mrs. Trivedi is intolerant of her daughter’s unmarried status and her secular decision and from her parts; she tries her best to convince Pippe not to marry Aijaz. The relationship between Astha and her mother-in-law is based on some stereotyped envies by Astha and domineering attitudes by her mother-in-law. For instances, Astha envies Hemant’s close bonds with his parents, his care and financial supports for them. In contrast, she misses her mother. On the other hand, Astha’s mother-in-law, out of jealousy, says: “Such a husband” when Astha is gifted “a diamond ring” by Hemant on the occasion of their anniversary. Astha’s mother in law thinks that her son is the best son in this world and being the wife of such husband Astha is really lucky. Similarly, Astha-Sangeeta relationship is not friendly one. Sangeta envies Astha’s happiness; like Hemant’s love and care for her, or her parent’s liberal attitudes towards her which she does not find from her husband and in-laws. Due to internalized notions of patriarchy women envy women.
In Indian society, marriage taboo causes obstacles in the path of independent wish and freedom. From her childhood, an Indian girl is taught that she is born to marry, procreate and serve other mutely. She is brought up with the idea that is “Woman is Earth” that is why she has to be docile, humble and loyal as she is going to leave her parental house in order to serve her in-laws’ house. In this story, Astha’s mother is the guardian of patriarchal values who teaches her to pray to God for a “good husband”. To quote Kapur, “Every day in her temple corner in the kitchen, she prayed for a good husband for her daughter.” (Kapur: 01) Similarly, Seema, Sangeeta, Mrs. Trivedi, Pipee, Sita all met the same things from their up bringers.
In Third World context, a daughter is brought up with large supplements of fear that are the facts that she should be chaste, pure, and virtuous in order to be an ideal da