Re-mapping Lost Histories and Family Ties through Memory and Elderlies in Keki N. Daruwalla’s Ancestral Affairs

Abstract

Memory plays a crucial role in forming history. They have the capability to move in diverse time frames
to recollect and revive events and situations from the past and help create a present. Within a family, the
elderlies narrate the past from their memory and help to keep the intergenerational family unit together.
But, family is a part of the society and what affects the society, leaves an imprint on the family. This article
tries to explore the dynamics of memory and history as a part of a singular family unit from the perspective
of a father and son as they revisit their family history through their grandparents and grand-uncles and -
aunts in Keki N. Daruwalla’s Ancestral Affairs --- a 2015 novel on a Parsee family living in India
immediately after the 1947 Partition. In due course of the novel, Daruwalla explores the life of a Parsee
family where the two narrators, Saam Bharucha and his son Rohinton, are confined within their family
dilemmas and struggles. In doing so, Daruwalla brings out the issue of freedom struggle and
subcontinental Partition through the memory of the old aged characters. Therefore, this article highlights
the importance of socio-political events in influencing personal lives and building family ties with the help
of the elderlies. Correspondingly, it underlines the sociological perspectives to understand ageing and its
effect on family during country’s turbulent history.