The relationship between the Two Das sister's, Bim and Tara, forms the core of Anita Desai's novel "Clear Light of Day". Everything that happens in the novel is reflected on this relationship. Bim and Tara may naturally bond as siblings but their different personalities make their relationship a problematic one. This duality in their relationship is best expressed in the remark of Jaya(one of the Misra sisters)-"Bim has her own mind... Bim always did. You were always so different, you two sisters". These two aspects of Bim-Tara Relationship - their bonding and their differences- remain an undercurrent through out the novel. Interestingly, it is Tara's holiday visit to her sister that sets up the events in the novel.
Bim, short for Bimla, is the older of the two Das Sisters. She is unmarried and teaches history in a local college. Desai describes her as "grey and heavy now and and not so unlike their mother in appearance". In fact, after Mira Masi falls ill, Bim takes on the role as a surrogate to her sibling. Tara, younger sister is portrayed as a "languid little girl, listless, a dawdler". Tara is married to an IFS officer Bakul and has two daughters. Desai subtly reveals the different personalities of the two sisters by describing the way they dress: "Tara (was) in her elegant pale blue nylon nightgown and elegant silver slippers and Bim in curious Shapeless handmade garment...".
In fact, the two sisters present different notions of Indian womanhood. Bim is taken for granted by her siblings. Tara, who is totally dependent on her husband, represents the typical Indian married woman. She has no ambitions of her own. During Tara's visit to Bim and Baba, both sisters are aware of the changes in them brought about by time . Tara is surprised by the fact that things have not changed at all in her old Delhi home -it is all exactly the same", Bim teasingly asks her, "would you like to come back to find it changed"? Ironically, when we compare the childhood dream of the two sisters- Bim, who always wanted to be a heroine, a Joan of Arc or a Florence nightingale, and Tara, who wanted to be a mother and just "knit" for her babies We notice that Tara's dream materializes, she becomes a mother of two girls. Bim, although heroic in her ability to deal with her circumstances, never achieves the heights she desires.
In the context of the conversation between the two Das sisters we discover that marriage is viewed as an escape route. Tara by marrying Bakul went out of the Das household into the world, to some thing bigger and brighter. Being the weaker of the two sisters, Tara's tendency is to escape from ugliness. When the boredom of the Das household descends and engulfs her, her thoughts are of her home in Washington. Even as children when Bim and Raja would express their anger against their parents' obsessive card games by saying that they would tear and burn the cards, Tara would simply run to Mira Masi for protection. One of the most striking examples of Tara's escapist tendencies is seen in the bee episode in Lodi Gardens. Tara ran away in desperation while leaving Bim in their Lurch (in the midst of attack of bees) Much later in their lives Tara discusses the episode with her sister asking her for forgiveness. Bim's generosity is revealed when she tells Tara-"you couldn't help it - if you'd stayed, you'd have been stung, like me - you had to run".
Both Bim and Tara share an unfulfilled childhood and youth. The main reason for their bored and unhappy childhood was parental neglect. Even at school Bim is thee all rounder, a born leader. She plays games, takes part in all activities, she is a monitor, the head girl. Bim's confident ways invariably overshadow Tara's diffident manner. Bim is the more giving of the two sisters. As a student she used to help out in a clinic for women in Kingsway Camp for refugees. Her selflessness extends to all her siblings and Mira Masi. She looks after their autistic brother baba. She is his caretaker. Tara, on the contrary, does not view herself in this light. She is happy at Baba's dependence on Bim. It is Bim who nurses both Raja, while he was suffering from T.B. and Mira Masi. Tara disliked any form of social work. In school she had to do some social work but she resented doing it. Once during a visitor to a hospital she was obliged to run out behind a hedge to be sick. Interestingly, despite Tara's self- centeredness, it is she who acts as a mediator in bringing Bim and Raja together after the misunderstanding over Raja's letter. However, Tara is instrumental in making this happen. Similarly, it is Tara who notices the fact that Bim talks to herself. Her concern over Bim is expressing when she tells Jaya that Bim is in a strange mood and that she is worried about her.
Thus, like most of Desai's women characters, Bim and Tara also grow and are not what they are at the beginning of the novel.
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