A Socio-Political Analysis Of On A Cold Day By Himani Bannerji

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A Socio-Political Analysis of On a Cold Day by Himani Bannerji On a Cold Day is a short story by Dr Himani Bannerji published about 20 years ago in 1999. It is told from the perspective of an Indian woman immigrant trying to assimilate into western society and highlights the troubles of this woman in a new society. Bannerji shows the reader the difficulties of integrating into a new society and how it would have been necessary for a foreign person to change themselves into an entirely different person in order to make a living and be accepted. While talking about a dead body that lay in front of her, the main character notes, “It was uncanny how she could see herself, as though in a mirror, someone else, from a long time ago. Devika Bardhan had no idea about the permed, …show more content…

All this reshaping still did not help her to be accepted in daily interactions with society. The racism detailed by Bannerji is indicative of the trials of immigrants not many years ago. Bannerji writes about how Debbie was treated as a second-class citizen from others and people did not feel that she deserved common courtesy or politeness. Debbie also speaks of how she felt “as though she were invisible”. This shows how immigrants were downtrodden by society. It can be inferred that the experiences of Debbie Barton are not different from the experiences of the author herself. There are many obvious connections we can make with the character and the

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