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Arun
Aruna is the pretty, confident, and socially ambitious younger sister of Uma and second daughter of Mama and Papa. As a child, school comes easily to Aruna, though she takes no interest in it. While she is kind and helpful to Uma during their childhoods, she becomes snappy and superior when they approach adolescence, laughing at Uma's rejection by prospective husbands. Aruna, on the other hand, is so sexual and graceful that marriage proposals pour in for her. She marries Arvind, a wealthy, handsome man from Bombay. She moves to the city and lives the life of a perfectionist, wealthy westernized socialite—visiting her family only on occasion. While her treatment to Uma is unkind, her struggle to free herself from her roots and her family's limitations reflects in her tendency to criticize them and her ultimate decision to live a life apart from them.
Aruna Quotes in Fasting, Feasting
The Fasting, Feasting quotes below are all either spoken by Aruna or refer to Aruna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8 Quotes
Uma’s ears were already filled to saturation with Mama’s laments, and Aruna’s little yelps of laughter were additional barbs (…) The tightly knit fabric of family that had seemed so stifling and confining now revealed holes and gaps that were frightening—perhaps the fabric would not hold, perhaps it would not protect after all. There was cousin Anamika’s example, the one no one wanted to see: but how could one not?
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
86
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Uma has been married off to an old, fat man, who immediately runs off with Uma's family dowry and never returns. Uma's Mama is humiliated by the experience; she mourns that she'll never marry Uma off to anyone. The experience is especially crushing for Uma because Uma's sister, Aruna, is beautiful, and has lots of handsome, wealthy suitors to choose from.
Uma's thought process is complex: she's both embarrassed by her experience with the old man, and relieved. Uma lives in a community where to be a woman is to be married: her failure to find a husband is treated as a hideous problem, almost a crime. And yet Uma recognizes that marriage, for all the emphasis that her culture puts on it, doesn't seem so great: even the beautiful Anamika had her life ruined when she married. Maybe the single life isn't so bad after all.
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Aruna Character Timeline in Fasting, Feasting
The timeline below shows where the character Aruna appears in Fasting, Feasting. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...poles, watching Mira-Masi at the temple. One evening, MamaPapa reluctantly allow Mira-Masi to take Uma, Aruna, and Arun with her down to the river for her religious bathing. While MamaPapa have...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...after weeks, Mrs. Joshi comes to tell Mama that the Syal’s son would rather marry Aruna. Mama flares in anger at Mrs. Joshi and at the Syal family for the offensive...
(full context)
Chapter 8
...only she guards the house from danger. Back in time, marriage proposals flood in for Aruna, but Uma’s unmarried state keeps MamaPapa from pursuing them. Aware of her own appeal, Aruna...
(full context)
...and family in Meerut, and needed the dowry to save his business. Upon returning home, Aruna asks Uma if her husband touched her, and Uma says no, but privately wonders about...
(full context)
Chapter 9
...alone time to call a friend, but realizes she has nobody to call—Anamika is unreachable, Aruna is too busy with her own life, and Ramu is nowhere to be found. She...
(full context)
Back in time, Aruna chooses from among her suitors Arvind, the handsomest, richest young man from an urban background....
(full context)
After the wedding, Aruna moves with her husband Arvind to a fancy flat in Bombay, visiting her family only...
(full context)
On one visit home, Aruna brings her in-laws to bathe in the holy river near the house. Uma visits the...
(full context)
