The Conch Bearer by Chitra B Divakaruni chapter 4 - teacher's notes

The Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

For Classroom Teaching and Learning Only. Prepared by Yeo Yam Hwee June 2012 Page 1

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Chapter

4

p.33–

43

What Anand Saw

Chapter 4 Page 33

Anand ladled out heaped spoonfuls of rice and lentil stew on to tin plates and

served the old man and then his sister.

When he took a mouthful he was surprised at how good it was. He’d been

throwing rice and lentils together almost every night for a whole year, and it

had never tasted smooth and buttery like this, with a delicate hint of cumin

and cardamom and cloves, the spices his mother used to use when they had

had money.

He was also surprised by how much of it there was – sufficient for all of them

to have seconds without worrying whether there would be enough for his

mother. He hadn’t eaten this much in months.

When they had finished, the old man belched with satisfaction. “A lovely

khichuri that was!” he said. “And now for dessert….”

Cumin

Cardamon

Gloves

Lentil Stew

Comment [U1]: Anand is generous with

the strange old man, Abhaydatta. He also

takes care of his younger sister, Meera,

well. He considers their welfare first by

“heaping spoonfuls” for them before taking

his own meal.

Comment [U2]: Something has

happened to the simple meal. What is it?

Comment [U3]: Not only is there

quality in his meal, there is also quantity

too.

Comment [U4]: “khichuri” literally

means “rice and lentils (dal)”. Khichuri is

commonly considered to be a comfort

food. Here Abhaydatta is actually praising

and complimenting Anand for his

generosity and hospitality.



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“I’m afraid I don’t –“ Anand began apologetically. But the man was busy

rummaging once more in his bag.

“I think I have something in here that you may like. Ah, here it is!”

Chapter 4 Page 34

In his hand was a mango. Anand’s mango!

“Where…? How…?”

The old man smiled at Anand’s amazement but offered no explanation.

The mango was as sweet as Anand had imagined, and after they had each

eaten a piece, and saved one for his mother, he mustered up the courage to

ask something that he’d been longing to know.

“Do you have the conch with you then?”

“I do.”

“May I …?” He dared not complete his request.

Khichuri

Comment [K5]: To Anand, this is a

magical moment. He has only just lost a

mango in the streets. Now this strange old

man has given him another one.



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“See it? As a potential Conch Bearer, you certainly have that right. I’ll show

you, but what you will see will depend on who you are.”

From his bag, the old man pulled out a cloth in which something was wrapped.

“Just for a moment,” he said. “The conch’s energy is so potent that it would

alert Surabhanu of its presence unless I weave a spell of disappearance around

it. And I have the strength to uphold such a spell for only a very short while.”

He rocked back and forth, chanting, and then he opened up the cloth.

A pure light, bluish white and unlike anything Anand had ever seen, glowed

out from the centre of the cloth. It spread across the ground, brightening the

entire room – no, transforming it, so that its walls grew into crystal and its

floor silver, and its vaulted ceilings reached up beyond his sight. He heard his

sister cry out behind him. But he couldn’t turn to reassure her, because his

eyes were held captive by what was at the centre of the light.

Chapter 4 Page 35

It was a tiny conch shell, such as a child might pick up on a seashore, small

enough to fit in his palm, so delicate that it seemed to be formed from the

petals of jasmine flowers.

The glow coming from the conch

Comment [K6]: Abhaydatta identifies

and informs Anand that he is a “potential”

Conch Bearer.

Comment [K7]: Anand’s curiosity has

been greatly aroused.

Comment [K8]: The conch seems to

have a life of its own. It is an energy source

in itself.

Comment [K9]: The first magical

encounter of the glowing conch by Anand.

Comment [K10]: It is a beautiful object.



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And yet an enormous force throbbed from it – towards him and into him

warming him and making him lightheaded with happiness. There was music

all around him, the sweetest music, as though the stars had come down from

the sky and crowded into the room. He wanted to belong to this tiny,

beautiful thing, to serve it forever. And yet thing was not the word for it, for it

was more alive than most people he knew. Now he understood why the

Healers were ready to die in their quest to return the conch to its rightful

place. He understood, too, why the thief Sarabhanu had risked everything to

possess it. He put out his hand to touch it, not knowing that he did so. But

the old man had pulled the cloth over the conch, covering up the beautiful

light, and changing the crystal room back into the ugly shack Anand knew so

well.

For a brief moment, a terrible rage came over Anand. How dare the old man

take his conch away from him! He wanted to lunge forward and snatch it

from his hand and hold it tightly to his chest.

“Peace, peace,” the man said softly. “Not yet. You are not ready. That time

will come soon enough, I’m afraid.”

The red mist of rage cleared from Anand’s eyes and he covered his face in his

hands, mortified. But the man said, “Don’t be ashamed. Few have looked on

the beauty of the conch without desiring it. But now we have only a few more

minutes before your mother returns, and I wish to

Chapter 4 Page 36

speak to your sister.” He beckoned to Meera. “Come and sit here, child.”

Anand expected Meera to cower back, but she began to move forward slowly,

with the crablike gait she had recently adopted. When she was seated in front

of him, the old man reached out and gently touched her on the temples. His

lips moved soundlessly. To Anand’s amazement, Meera didn’t flinch away but

gazed at him as though she could hear what he was saying. In the flickering

glow of the candle, her eyes, usually unfocused, seemed to shimmer with

understanding.

Comment [K11]: There is an immediate

connection which binds Anand to the

conch. He “wants to belong to this tiny,

beautiful thing” and “to serve it forever”.

This is a very strong feeling. It involves

commitment which a teenager like Anand

may not have the ability to follow through.

Comment [K12]: Anand cannot resist

the temptation to touch the conch.

Comment [K13]: Something else which

is not there before – Anand’s claiming the

conch as his own – now wells up in him

causing him to be protective of the conch,

even against Abhaydatta.

Comment [K14]: Abhaydatta seems to

know the path Anand is going to take from

now onwards.

Comment [K15]: Abhaydatta performs

miracle healing on Meera to chase away

whatever that is preventing Meera from

recovering from her traumatised state of

mind.



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What was he doing?

As though he had heard Anand’s unspoken question, the old man said, “Each

of the Healers of the Silver Valley is trained in many arts. But according to

each one’s temperament, he develops one special power. Mine is the power

of remembrance and forgetting.”

Anand must have looked puzzled, for the old man added, “It means that I can

help people to remember what they need to remember, and forget what is

better for them to forget. Your sister was stuck in a terrible moment in her

past, unable to move beyond it. She had witnessed something horrifying – a

man murdering another….”

How had he known? Anand wondered. No one around here spoke of it.

“She’d gone to get water from the well near the crossroads in the late

afternoon, after coming back from school,” the old man continued. “Hadn’t

she?”

Anand nodded. “We’d just moved here. We didn’t think

Chapter 4 Page 37

it would be dangerous. The other children in the tenement went everywhere

on their own.”

“It was just bad luck,” the old man said. “Your mother and you shouldn’t

blame yourselves. Meera had filled her pitcher and was about to cross the

road when she saw a man running towards her. There was a black car coming

fast behind him, as though it was chasing him. When the man was just a few

feet away from your sister, the car hit him and sent him flying –“

“-and killed him,” Anand whispered. “Then the car sped away. Meera saw it

all happen. We found her sitting there on the pavement…by then the police

Comment [K16]: There is division of

labour amongst the many healers in the

Silver Valley.

Comment [K17]: Abhaydatta’s

speciality as a healer.

Comment [K18]: Remembering and

forgetting is part and parcel of life.

Sometimes, forgetting is necessary because

the inability to put behind negative or

frightening experience may cause a person

to suffer mentally or emotionally affecting

the person’s mental well-being.

Comment [K19]: Abhaydatta talks as if

he is provided an eyewitness account of

the murder.



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had taken the body away.”

The old man closed his eyes and wrinkled his forehead, as though he was

seeing the scene against his closed lids. “Her dress was stained with the dead

man’s blood.”

Anand nodded. “She hasn’t talked to us since then.”

“Those who know of such things whisper that the car belonged to a local

gangster,” the old man said, “a man who was so powerful that the death was

never investigated.”

“And, of course, no officials cared about what happened to my sister, or did

anything to help us. Oh, if only you’d known Meera the way she was before!

She was so much fun, always cheering us up when we were sad.”

“I can see it, “ the old man said. “She is still there, beneath the sadness that is

covering her like an iron blanket, not letting her through.” His hands moved

slowly over Meera’s head, as though they were feeling for something.

Chapter 4 Page 38

“It was a horrifying shock,” he continued. “To see a man die in agony, and to

know that the death was a result of another man’s cold hatred. That this is

what people are capable of doing! No child should have to face such a harsh

reality!” He made a lifting motion with his hands, then added, “I’m taking the

memory away from her. She will become, once more, her old lighthearted

self. But patience! It takes a little time for the process to work.” He turned to

Meera and stroked her hair. “Be happy, child,” he said.

Just then the tin door rattled.

“It’s mother!” Anand said. He ran to the door and opened it eagerly.

“I am glad to get home!” his mother said, shivering as she wrung water from

her wet sari. “I got caught in a terrible thunderstorm. A thunderstorm at this

time of the year! I’ve never seen such a thing in all my days! My, it’s certainly

A vacant look in Meera’s eyes.

Comment [K20]: This is how close

Meera has been when she sees the

“accident” unfolding before her.

Comment [K21]: Meera was so

traumatised by what she has seen that she

cannot talk about it afterwards.

Comment [K22]: This is what the old

man, Abhaydatta says to us readers about

what has happened previously.

Comment [K23]: This is how Anand

adds on to what Abhaydatta has

mentioned so far. Can you see that there

is actually a seamless flow of information

about the same matter provided to us by

two different persons, a boy and an old

man. Even in what they say, they are

connected. This is another way the writer

of the novel is trying to impress upon us

that Anand and Abhaydatta may be

destined to be together. That the old man

is most likely going to take Anand as his

disciple (student).

Comment [K24]: Meera is trapped by

her inability to wake up from the shock she

has received from witnessing the terrible

murder. Until now, there is nobody to

help her get out of the situation so that she

may have a chance of recovery.

Comment [K25]: Abhaydatta is going

to remove the bad memory of the murder

to make Meera happy once again.



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nice and warm in here.”

“Maa!” Anand cried. “You’ll never believe what has happened – and who’s

here.”

“Is it your …father?” Anand’s mother asked, a look of desperate hope on her

thin face.

Anand shook his head guiltily. I should be more careful about the words I

choose! he thought. But he’d been so excited to share the amazing events of

the last few hours with his mother, that he’d just let the sentence tumble from

his mouth.

His mother was peering into the room, a suspicious frown on her face.

Chapter 4 Page 39

“Who’s he?” she asked. “And what’s he doing?”

The old man was still smoothing down Meera’s hair. Anand’s mother rushed

in and pulled Meera away from him. It wasn’t easy. Meera struggled against

her mother, making an angry guttural sound in her throat.

Comment [K26]: Even Anand’s mother

can feel the difference in the one room

shack tonight.

Comment [K27]: This is quite an

innocuous statement from Anand. But

look at what his mother says in response.

Comment [K28]: Anand’s innocuous

statement set out a quick response of hope

in his mother. “Desperate hope” tells us

just how much the family, especially

Anand’s mother has missed her husband.

Comment [K29]: This is the reason why

sometimes, even harmless (innocuous)

words or statements or remarks or

comments coming from one person and

directed at another, even with the best of

intentions, can produce unexpected or

even undesired responses. Here Anand

feels “guilty” that what he says, has led his

mother to think that perhaps her husband

has finally returned home (which is not the

case) only to be disappointed that she has

mistaken what her son is referring to.

Worst, he has to undertake the task of

correcting her misunderstanding by

shaking his head “guiltily”.

Comment [K30]: Anand’s mother is

naturally not happy to see a stranger in her

home with her children around him.

Comment [K31]: This is a mother’s

protective instinct. There is a stranger in

her house and so naturally the next thing

she does is to “rush in and pull Meera away

from Abhaydatta”.

Comment [K32]: How do you tnink

Anand’s mother might be feeling at the

moment? Why is her own child turning

against her?



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“He’s done something bad to her,” Anand’s mother cried. “I know it! That’s

why she’s making this terrible noise. Oh, my God, what shall I do now?”

“No, no, Maa,” Anand said, trying to pull her back. “Don’t be scared. He’s a

good man, a Healer. He’s trying to cure Meera. He came all the way from the

Silver Valley, up in the Himalayas, and battled the traitor and recovered the

magic conch… .” His voice faltered. He could see the disbelief on his mother’s

face. He couldn’t blame her for it. But he made himself go on. “He’s come

here to ask me to help him return the magic conch to the Brotherhood. I want

to go with him, Mother, I really want to! Will you give me permission?”

“What are you talking about?” his mother said. “Have you gone mad?” She

turned to the man. “I don’t know who you are, or what nonsense you’ve filled

my son’s head with. Just because he’s a child, you think you can trick him with

your tales!”

“But Mother, he helped Meera. He says she’s going to be cured!”

His mother put her hand on Meera’s chin and turned her face to the light.

“Meera, baby,” she called. “Meera?”

But Meera made no response. Her lips were slack and her eyes as vacant as

before.

Comment [K33]: We cannot claim that

Anand and Meera’s mother is being

unreasonable or presumptuous here

because whoever takes her place would

have responded in a similar manner. It is a

motherly instinct. It is an extension of her

love for her children. I would like to believe

that all parents love their children

unconditionally. Parental love is a very

huge aspect of life experience.

Comment [K34]: Why does Anand’s

voice “falter”?

Comment [K35]: Anand tries to defend

Abhaydatta.

Comment [K36]: Meera remains her

usual self. There is no improvement

observed at this point of time.



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Chapter 4 Page 40

“Look at her!” Anand’s mother cried, her voice sharp with dismay. “He hasn’t

cured her! He just told you lies – lies to lure you away with him. He’s

probably a kidnapper – or worse.” She turned fiercely to the old man. “I want

you out of my home, and I want you to stay away from my children, do you

hear? If I see you again, I’ll call the neighbours and make sure you get a

beating you won’t forget.”

Anand looked in dismay from his mother to the old man, waiting for him to

say something in his defence. But he merely gathered his bag and stood up.

“I don’t blame you for not believing me,” he said to her. “You’ve been

through many difficulties and lost faith in the person you trusted the most.

Everything I said to Anand is true. But I have no way of proving it.”

“Show her the conch!” Anand said. “Then she’ll have to believe you!”

The old man shook his head. “The conch is not for everyone to see.”

Comment [K37]: Anand’s mother’s

desperate attempt to make her child see

her point of view.

Comment [K38]: If something is

essentially true, then there is no need to

produce any form of proof. Abhaydatta

seems to understand why Anand’s mother

has no patience with his explanation.



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“Please!” Anand said. “She’s not ‘everyone’, she’s my mother! And I can’t go

with you unless she agrees.”

“Very well,” the old man said. “I do this against my will, because you ask, even

though I fear it will do no good.”

He took out the cloth and opened it again as he chanted. Once more a

brilliant light spread across the room, though now it pulsed with a reddish

glow as though the conch was displeased. Anand craned his neck to see the

conch. Was it as beautiful as he remembered? But the light was so

Chapter 4 Page 41

bright that it hurt his eyes, forcing him to throw his arm over them, and he

saw nothing.

“What’s this, old man?” he heard his mother cry. “What are you doing with

that dirty piece of bone wrapped in a rag? Is it one of your voodoo objects? Is

that how you hypnotised my son? Well, it won’t work on me! Now, out of

here before I shout for the neighbours!”

“I must go now,” the old man said to Anand. “I will wait for you at Panchu’s

Rooming House just north of the Shyam Tala post office – but I can’t wait long.

At sunrise tomorrow, I’ll have to start on my journey – with or without you.”

He drew his thin white shawl around him and opened the door. As he stepped

out into the rain, a gust of wind rushed into the room and extinguished the

candle. By the time Anand’s mother found it and lit it again, he was gone.

Anand lay in bed in the dark, thinking over the day’s events. After the old man

had left, he had served his mother dinner and waited expectantly as she ate.

But she hadn’t said anything.

Comment [K39]: Anand is rather

desperate now because he wants to go on

the quest with Abhaydatta with his

mother’s approval.

Comment [K40]: The conch has

responded very differently this time.

Comment [K41]: Unlike Anand, his

mother cannot see the conch at all.

Comment [K42]: What is the

significance of this question? Abhaydatta

lets Anand make his own decision. Anand

has a choice – to go on the journey or to

stay put at home in Kolkata – Anand is free

to choose. MORAL of the story – we are

free to choose the way we lead our lives.

When opportunites come along,we have to

make our own decisions and be personally

responsible for our decisions and actions

that come afterwards.

Comment [K43]: Abhaydatta is not

what quite what he seems to be: although

he is “old”, “grey”, “with matted grey hair

and straggly beard” and “dressed in ragged

clothing”, he is swift and he weaves in and

out throughout the novel, just like a

thought.

Comment [K44]: Why does Anand

“wait expectantly” as his mother eats the

dinner he has prepared?

This is probably because he has

experienced just a moment ago the

miracles (magic, in Anand’s terms)

Abhaydatta has performed in their home.

A simple meal turns out to be delicious, a

conch sparkling with life and bursting with

energy and so on. Things just do not stay

the same for Anand when Abhaydatta is

with him.



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Finally, he couldn’t stay silent any more. “Do you like the khichuri, Maa?” he

asked.

She looked up from the food, a look of mild surprise on her tired face.

“Yes, son, of course I do, like always. You’ve really learned to cook it well. I

suppose you’ve had lots of practice these last few months! I wish we could

afford

Chapter 4 Page 42

something better. But you’re such a good, helpful boy to me, to have dinner

ready by the time I get back –“

“But mother,” Anand interrupted. “Doesn’t it taste…different today?”

His mother took another mouthful and chewed thoughtfully. “Not that I can

tell,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

Anand didn’t ask anything, but a cold lump of disappointment filled his chest.

Disappointment and fear. Had he then imagined everything earlier, when the

old man was here? Had the old man hypnotised him, just as his mother

accused him of doing? Was even the beautiful conch nothing but a figment of

his fantasy?

“You’ve got to be more careful who you let into the house, son,” his mother

was cautioning him. “There are so many bad men around, tricksters and

worse. You can’t believe anything they tell you. Why, just the other day the

laundry woman was saying that the police had caught a gang that kidnapped

children and sold them in far-off places.” She shuddered and her eyes filled

with tears. “It really scared me, thinking of all those children, stolen from

their parents, forced to live under who-knows-what conditions. If something

like that happened to the two of you, I think I’d go mad. You’re all I have left.”

Her voice broke a little, and she put an arm around each of them.

Her mother was right, Anand thought as he pulled the patched bedsheet up to

his neck. You can’t believe what people say. The old man was a trickster, a

fast talker, a cheap two-bit magician waving his arms and hypnotising

Chapter 4 Page 43

children, luring them with impossible stories and false hopes. Who knows

what he had planned to do to Anand once he got him away from home? It

was a good thing Anand’s mother had arrived when she did. She’d seen right

through him and sent him packing – and he hadn’t even had anything to say in

his defence. The worst part – even worse than tricking him with the … but

Comment [K45]: Anand’s mother

cannot taste the difference at all. Why?

Her disappointment with her life and the

longing for her husband divert her

attention from enjoying her son’s dinner.

She is praising her son’s efforts because

she is consoling Anand and at the same

time, trying to tell herself that life has to go

on and she has to get back to reality.

Comment [K46]: She cannot tell the

difference.

Comment [K47]: Anand feels this

disappointment and fear and uncertainty

and confusion because he has always

considered his mother (and his father) as a

figure of authority. Parents are always the

first point of reference for their children.

Also at this point of time, Anand is also

only beginning to realise that he has to

consider the need to believe in himself to

work things out to cope with the increasing

challenges and difficulties in life.

Comment [K48]: This is a predictable

parental response. Parents are naturally

concerned with the children’s well-being

and safety concerns are very real issues to

them.

Comment [K49]: “Self-doubts” set

Anand thinking: Should he trust the

strange old man or should he put these

thoughts of going on a journey away for

good. This is part and parcel of growing up

and so the more Anand thinks things

through, the better.



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what was it that the old man had shown him? Somehow Anand just couldn’t

remember. The worst part was promising them that Meera would be better.

Because she wasn’t. When mother has tucked her into her pallet, wishing her

good night, she had stared vaguely at the ceiling as she always did, without

responding.

Anand wiped his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but the tears kept coming. He

wasn’t sure why he was crying. Was it for Meera, trapped forever inside her

head, or for his mother, who worked so hard and achieved so little, or for his

own broken hopes of escaping form the dull grind of his everyday life into a

world of adventure and mystery?

He wept silently, taking care that his mother did not hear. He was glad that

the rain beating down on their corrugated tin roof, and the angry peals of

thunder, which sounded as though they were very close, were loud enough to

drown out any muffled sobs that might escape him. Finally, exhausted, he fell

into an uneasy sleep.

Comment [K50]: This part of the

narrative here should not be read as the

writer merely continuing with the story. It

is Anand’s thinking in the form of his

rationalising about what has happened

that evening. Anand rationalises that it is

fortunate that his mother has come home

in time to stop Abhaydatta from luring him

away from home, just by using magic tricks

on both him and his sister, Meera.

Comment [K51]: This is one of those

moments which makes this novel a great

reading experience. We can relate to this

experience, can’t we? Anand has wanted

so much to believe in Abhaydatta; in fact,

he is almost convinced that Abhaydatta

and what he has told him is truthful,

almost ready for him to jump at the idea of

accompanying the old man on his journey

to the word of “adventure and mystery”.

Comment [K52]: It is difficult for Anand

to sleep soundly that night.

The Conch Bearer by Chitra B Divakaruni chapter 4 - teacher's notes

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