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May Price
Mayadebi is Tha'mma's younger sister. The narrator describes the two women as being like reflections in a looking glass. Mayadebi is lucky enough to marry the Shaheb, a wealthy diplomat. As such, she travels often throughout her life, including to London in 1939 with the nine-year-old Tridib, her middle son. She has an older son, Jatin, and a much younger son, Robi, who is only a few years older than the narrator. Mayadebi is a beautiful and shy woman, and she worries often about Tridib's safety while they're in London. Though she offers to help Tha'mma when Tha'mma's husband dies, Tha'mma refuses her help. Tha'mma often refers to Mayadebi as somewhat foolish, given that Mayadebi was afraid of scary stories and fully believed her older sister's tale that their uncle Jethamoshai's side of the house was entirely upside-down. However, Mayadebi agrees to take Tha'mma to visit their ancestral home when Tha'mma visits her in Dhaka. For much of the visit and during the riot, Mayadebi is silent. After Tridib dies, she gives the narrator his atlas.
Mayadebi Quotes in The Shadow Lines
The The Shadow Lines quotes below are all either spoken by Mayadebi or refer to Mayadebi. 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:
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1. Going Away Quotes
I could guess at a little of what it had cost her then to refuse her rich sister's help and of the wealth of pride it had earned her, and I knew intuitively that all that had kept her from agreeing at once was her fear of accepting anything from anyone that she could not return in exact measure.
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After the young narrator convinces Tha'mma to let his family join Ila's for a drive, he shares with the reader why Tha'mma refused in the first place. This begins to develop Tha'mma as a deeply prideful person; she believes that she's fully self-made and that she created her success out of nothing. Unfortunately, her pride also keeps her from forming or maintaining strong connections with her family members, and at the end of her life, it even destroys her relationship with her grandson. As a child, the narrator is aware of Tha'mma's deep sense of pride and knows how to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delect
2. Coming Home Quotes
But you know, the strange thing was that as we grew older even I almost came to believe in our story.
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In this passage, Tha'mma explains to the narrator that she used to tell Mayadebi that their uncle Jethamoshai's side of the house was upside-down, and she admits that after so many years, she began to believe her own fantasy. This illustrates the power of stories, as even though the idea that Jethamoshai's home is upside-down, backwards, and wholly different from Tha'mma's is absurd, telling the stories enough times is enough to make it feel almost real. In turn, this shows how the narrator is not the only one to rely heavily on stories to understand the world. The story itself Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Poss
The price she had paid for that pride was that it had come to be transformed in her imagination into a barrage of slights and snubs; an imaginary barrier that she believed her gloating relatives had erected to compound her humiliation.
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When Tha'mma's husband died, she pridefully refused financial help from all of her family members, including her wealthy sister. However, as Tha’mma got older, she told herself that it was actually her family members who refused to help her, not the other way around. This again illustrates the power of stories, and in this case, this story has major implications for Tha'mma's life. She refuses to help distant relatives, since they "didn't help" her, and it makes her even more intent on protecting and preserving what she built and not sharing it with others. This later leads to her taking Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delect
Once you start moving you never stop. That's what I told my sons when they took the trains. I said: I don't believe in this India-Shindia. It's all very well, you're going away now, but suppose when you get there they decide to draw another line somewhere? What will you do then? Where will you move to? No one will have you anywhere.
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As Tha'mma and Mayadebi attempt to convince their uncle Jethamoshai to come back to India with them, he states that he doesn't even believe in the country, especially since "they" can redraw the lines again whenever they like. Jethamoshai truly gets at the heart of the issue with this comment, as redrawing the lines is a distinct possibility given the haphazard way that some parts of India and Pakistan were divided in 1947. Even in his old age, he understands that it's far easier to believe that one lives in a home and conceptualize his world as being small and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusa
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Mayadebi Character Timeline in The Shadow Lines
The timeline below shows where the character Mayadebi appears in The Shadow Lines. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. Going Away
Thirteen years before the narrator's birth, in 1939, Mayadebi, the Shaheb, and eight-year-old Tridib move to England. The narrator, who is now eight years...
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...outfits, each one appropriate for a different locale where he works as a diplomat. When Mayadebi gets out of the car, the narrator notes that she and Tha'mma look like the...
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...this isn't incorrect and meant that Robi was Tha'mma's favorite. Once, when Robi was twelve, Mayadebi sent Tha'mma an anxious letter implying that Robi got in trouble at school. Tha'mma summoned...
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...preparing to assassinate an English magistrate and was sent to prison. Afterwards, whenever Tha'mma and Mayadebi passed the place where the boy had lived, Tha'mma told Mayadebi the boy's story, which...
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...Ila wasn't coming but winked at the narrator's father. The narrator believed it, and when Mayadebi noticed how sad he looked, she explained to him that Ila, Queen Victoria, Tridib, and...
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...stands between Dan and Alan, dressed in black and looking unbelievably elegant. Mrs. Price and Mayadebi stand on the edge. Mrs. Price never liked Francesca, and struggled to figure out which...
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...Dan, and Mike sit in an armchair, laughing. Alan stands behind the chair in between Mayadebi and Mrs. Price, who's holding the infant May. Alan looks down with a smile at...
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...and Mike joined the navy and died in 1943. Tridib went with Mrs. Price and Mayadebi to collect Alan's things a few days after he died, and he found a photo...
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2. Coming Home
...distracted. She explains that the house is very different from the house that she and Mayadebi grew up in. Over the next few months, Tha'mma tells the narrator about her childhood...
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...feud, Tha'mma's mother and aunt supported each other in silent ways. Her aunt helped arrange Mayadebi's marriage to the Shaheb, though the women never spoke of it.
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Tha'mma married four years before Mayadebi, and spent her early-married years traveling through railway colonies for her husband's work. She had...
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...about Dhaka: she never got to see the upside-down house. She explains that she told Mayadebi that on Jethamoshai's side of the house, everything was upside down and backwards. She remarks...
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...but the narrator explains that Tha'mma really just thought the Shaheb was weak and that Mayadebi did most of the hard work for him. The narrator's father, annoyed, finally offers the...
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A week later, a letter arrives for Tha'mma from Mayadebi. The narrator carries it to Tha'mma's room, and she shoos him away before she reads...
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After three months, Mayadebi calls. The narrator and his parents anxiously hover, and at the end of the call,...
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In November, Mayadebi writes to say that May is going to visit Delhi, Agra, and Calcutta before traveling...
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...was owed one, given that it had been a bad day: for no apparent reason, Mayadebi wouldn't let him outside.
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...house and went down to look at some of the bomb holes in the park. Mayadebi found him and angrily led him home. Back at the house, Mrs. Price kindly explained...
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Two days before Tha'mma leaves for Dhaka, she receives a letter from Mayadebi. It explains that she hasn't been to the house yet, but she met a man...
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Years later, Robi tells the narrator that the first thing Tha'mma said to Mayadebi was, "where's Dhaka?" Her Dhaka, the narrator says, disappeared long ago, and all she had...
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...tall walls, and a beautiful garden in front. At dinner that first night, Tha'mma and Mayadebi discuss when to go fetch Jethamoshai. The Shaheb insists they need to wait a few...
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...up posts at the front and back of the car. The driver whispers something in Mayadebi's ear, and she relays his message to Tha'mma and Tridib: they must come back quickly...
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Tha'mma, Mayadebi, Tridib, May, and Robi approach the house. Children take May's hands as they walk. When...
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...all. He insists that Jethamoshai won't leave, but agrees to try. He leads Tha'mma and Mayadebi across the courtyard and into a grimy room in the house. Mayadebi and Tha'mma laugh:...
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...get out of bed, and Tridib helps lift the old man into the rickshaw. Outside, Mayadebi and Tha'mma take one last look at the house and then walk towards the car....
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