Condolence Visit by Rohinton Mistry
"Condolence Visit" is a poignant narrative by Rohinton Mistry that explores the emotional landscape of Daulat Mirza, a Parsi widow grappling with her husband's recent death. Set in her Bombay apartment, the story unfolds through Daulat's inner thoughts as she anticipates the arrival of community members who will offer their condolences. This cultural obligation weighs heavily on her, as she dreads the probing questions about her husband's illness.
Mistry skillfully employs flashbacks to intertwine Daulat's present with her memories, highlighting her quiet defiance against societal expectations. As she navigates visits from various individuals—a neighbor, a relative, a vendor, and a young man interested in her husband's ceremonial turban—Daulat reflects on her 40 years of marriage, blending sorrow with moments of warmth and nostalgia. Each visit reveals the superficiality of social rituals, as well as Daulat’s determination to honor her husband's memory in her own way.
Ultimately, the story culminates in a symbolic closing moment, where Daulat extinguishes the lamp that has been a beacon of her love for Minocher, signifying both her resilience and the personal journey she must now embark upon alone. Through this narrative, Mistry offers a sensitive examination of grief, memory, and the complexities of cultural rituals surrounding death.
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Condolence Visit by Rohinton Mistry
First published: 1984
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1980's
Locale: Bombay, India
Principal Characters:
Daulat Mirza , an elderly widowMinocher Mirza , her dead husbandNajamai , her neighbor, a nosy, garrulous womanMoti , her second cousinA young man A peripatetic vendor
The Story
Told from a limited omniscient point of view, "Condolence Visit" focuses mostly on the inward consciousness of Daulat Mirza, a Parsi widow, and reflects her attitude of quiet defiance in the observance of the social customs and beliefs of her traditional community. Rohinton Mistry uses the flashback technique to fuse the present action with the widow's intermittent remembrance of the past.
The story begins in the morning in the flat of Daulat Mirza, who lives in a Bombay apartment building known as Ferozsha Baag. She is the widow of Minocher Mirza, a prominent member of the Parsi community, who passed away ten days earlier. Because all the funeral ceremonies have been performed, she is worried that, according to Parsi customs, her community members will start pouring into her flat to offer their condolences. She dreads the thought of being asked about her husband's illness.
To avoid answering questions, she wishes she had a tape recorder in which to record all the painful details about Minocher's illness so that the visitors could play, rewind, or fast forward the machine according to what part they were interested in. She even thinks of leaving her flat for a few weeks to escape the inevitable visits, but she is afraid of gossip. As she is lost in her thought process, she is startled by the doorbell. The remaining story covers the visits of four outsiders—a neighbor, a relative, a vendor, and a young man—punctuated with Daulat's continual remembrance of the past.
The first visitor is Najamai, her nosy neighbor and a self-proclaimed authority on "Religious Rituals and the Widowed Woman." The moment she walks in, she reminds Daulat of the start of the condolence visit season. Then she happens to see Minocher's pugree (ceremonial turban), which Daulat had brought out into the living room to show it to a young man who had expressed interest in buying it for his wedding. She warns Daulat not to move the pugree from its original place because it will make Minocher's soul unhappy. As she is about to leave, she sees the lamp burning near Minocher's bed. She admonishes Daulat to put out the lamp immediately so as not to confuse Minocher's soul on its way to the Next World.
Daulat's stream of thought reveals that she will keep the lamp burning as long as she needs. The lamp's constant flame reminds her of Minocher's unflinching love. As she replenishes the lamp with oil, her memories of Minocher flash back. Several incidents come back to her in a new light, and she begins to smile in her sorrow. Then she begins to empty the drawers containing Minocher's clothing and other articles so that she can deliver them to the old people's home. As she empties the steel cupboard, each garment brings back happy memories of her forty years of marriage with her childhood sweetheart.
The second visitor is a peripatetic vendor from whom Daulat buys a bottle of oil for the lamp. The third visit is paid by her cousin Moti and her two grandsons. After a superficial expression of sympathy, Moti starts telling an inopportune funny story she had read in the paper. Daulat is relieved that at least for the time being her cousin has drifted from "the prescribed condolence visit questioning." Meanwhile, Najamai comes back on some pretext, and she is invited to share Moti's story.
The final visit is paid by a young man who has come to inspect Minocher's pugree. Both Najamai and Moti resent Daulat's decision to let the young man try the pugree. As the pugree fits him perfectly, Daulat offers it to him free, asking him to take good care of it for her Minocher's sake.
In the last scene, Daulat goes back to her room, stands before the lamp for a while looking intently into the flame, and then she places a saucer so that it covers the glass completely, just as Minocher's face was covered at his death. As the lamp goes out, Daulat is left alone in darkness thinking that she has definitely won the first round.