1. THE ICE CANDY MAN
Jahanzeb Jahan
I.D: 100784-006

2. Bapsi Sidhwa is Pakistan's leading writer. She has produced four novels in English that
reflect her personal experience of the Indian subcontinent's Partition, abuse against
women, immigration to the US, and membership in the Parsi/Zoroastrian community.
Born on August 11, 1938 in Karachi, in what is now Pakistan, and migrating shortly
thereafter to Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa witnessed the bloody Partition of the Indian
Subcontinent as a young child in 1947. Growing up with polio, she was educated at home
until age 15, reading extensively. She then went on to receive a BA from Kinnaird
College for Women in Lahore. At nineteen, Sidhwa had married and soon after gave birth
to the first of her three children. The responsibilities of a family led her to conceal her
literary prowess. She says, "Whenever there was a bridge game, I'd sneak off and write.
But now that I've been published, a whole world has opened up for me." (Graeber) For
many years, though, she says, "I was told that Pakistan was too remote in time and place
for Americans or the British to identify with"(Hower 299). During this time she was an
active women's rights spokesperson, representing Pakistan in the Asian Women's
Congress of 1975.
After receiving countless rejections for her first and second novels, The Bride and The
Crow Eaters, she decided to publish The Crow Eaters in Pakistan privately. Though the
experience was one she says, "I would not wish on anyone," it marks the beginning of her
literary fame (Sidhwa "Interview" 295). Since then, she has received numerous awards
and honorary professorships for these first two works and her two most recent novels,
Cracking India and An American Brat. These include the Pakistan National honors of the
Patras Bokhri award for The Bride in 1985 and the highest honor in the arts, the Sitari-I-
Imtiaz in 1991. Her third novel, Cracking India was awarded the German Literaturepreis
and a nomination for Notable Book of the Year from the American Library Association,
and was mentioned as a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year," all in 1991. A
Bunting Fellowship from Harvard and a National Endowment of the Arts grant in 1986
and 1987 supported the completion of Cracking India. Most recently she was awarded a
$100,000 grant as the recipient of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award in 1993. Her
works have now been translated into Russian, French and German. She is currently
working on collections of short stories and essays, while fulfilling her duties as Writer-in-
Residence and English professor at Mt. Holyoke College. She has also taught college-
level English courses at St. Thomas University, Rice University, and The University of
Texas, all in Houston, as well as at the graduate level at Columbia University, NY.
What is most remarkable about Bapsi Sidhwa's perspective on the Partition of the Indian
Subcontinent is her religious distance from its most immediate effects as a member of the
Parsi/Zoroastrian community. In Cracking India, she recounts the traditional story of the
Parsees arrival from Iran to India in the 8th century C.E., in which an Indian prince sent
Zoroastrian refugees fleeing Islamic expansion a messenger with a glass of milk,
signifying that the Indian people were a united and homogenous mixture that should not
be tampered with. In response, the Parsees dropped a lump of sugar in the milk, saying
that they would blend in easily and make the culture sweeter. It followed that they were
granted a home in India because Parsees neither prosletyzed nor entered into politics.
Thus, Bapsi Sidhwa's heritage allowed her to witness the Partition from a safe distance,

3. since Parsees held a religiously and politically neutral position. In an interview she says,
"The struggle was between the Hindus and the Muslims, and as a Parsee (member of a
Zoroastrian sect), I felt I could give a dispassionate account of this huge, momentous
struggle" (Gutman).
Zoroastrianism's origins go back to 3000 BCE among the Proto Indo-Iranians. These
people inhabited the South Russian Steppes, east of the Volga River. Recognizing the
cyclical nature of reality in day and night and the seasons, the Proto Indo-Iranians looked
to the sky, land, and water for divinity. However, the discovery of bronze casting around
2000 BCE caused many of these peaceful shepherds to abandon their flocks and become
warriors. Zarathustra was born into this society at about 1500 BCE. After meditating for
several years, he arrived at conversation with one God, Ahura Mazda, "The Lord of
Light." Thus, Zoroastrianism is one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Zarathustra
took his dialogues with Ahura Mazda and composed hymns from them called The
Gathas. He sung of a God who was all-knowing, beyond idolatry, and active in the
present. Drawing on his people's past, Zarathustra taught that Ahura Mazda's power is
revealed through the precise laws of the universe (Asha). Furthermore, it is believed that
Ahura Mazda gave humans the divine gift of the mind ("Voho Manoh") to recognize their
God.
The major tenets of Zoroastrianism surround death and marriage. Dakhma-nashini is the
only method accepted for disposing of the dead's body. The corpse is placed in a stone
Dakhma, open to the sky and birds of prey. The body enters the food chain just as any
other dead animal or plant does, again emphasizing the life cycle. Dakhma-nashini also
ensures that the water supply will not be contaminated. Marriage outside the religion is
forbidden as is conversion to preserve ethnic identity and tradition. For the
Zoroastrians/Parsees, ethnicity and religion are the same. Bapsi Sidhwa addresses the
strain put on the Parsee community as the world becomes increasingly connected in her
most recent novel, An American Brat . Presently, the Parsee community numbers about 1
million worldwide. They are generally Anglicized and well educated.
The Faravahar (pictured above) is the sacred figure of Zoroastrianism. It symbolizes the
soul's journey through life and eventual union with Ahura Mazda with the aid of the
mind. The belief of soul's absolute importance in existence is symbolized by the profile
of the man placed in the center of the Faravahar. The soul progresses through its life
journey on two outreaching wings. Each wing has five layers of feathers which correlate
with the five senses, the five Gathas of Zarathustra, and the five Zoroastrian divisions of
the day (Gehs). The two curving legs extending from the male profile's hip symbolize the
two opposing paths of good and evil each soul must navigate consciously. The feathered
tail that dips between these two legs represents the rudder of the soul. It has three feather
layers for Humata (Good Thoughts), Hukhta (Good Works), and Hvarasta (Good Deeds).
The circular ring that the man holds within his hands calls Zoroastrians to remember the
cycles of death and birth, success and failure, rebirth, and alternate realms of existence
beyond this reality.

4. Cracking India
In her third novel, Cracking India, Bapsi Sidhwa delicately threads the story of an 8 year
old girl named Lenny with the din of violence ready to crash around her world as the
Partition moves from political planning into reality. The story is told in the present tense
as the events unfold before the young girl's eyes, though moments of an older Lenny
looking back are apparent. Like Sidhwa, Lenny is stricken with polio, lives in Lahore,
and is a Parsi. She is clever and extremely observant narrator, though many times her
understanding is limited by her young age. This naivet* is apparent when she ponders if
the earth will bleed when the adults "crack" India. The historical scene of the Partition is
integrated well into the novel through Lenny's young eyes, though Sidhwa is criticized by
some critics for making Lenny's character too intelligent for her age. As Lenny becomes
more aware, she must confront a reality increasingly reduced into categories and labels.
The characters that surround Lenny include "Slavesister," "Electric Aunt," "Old
Husband," "Godmother," "Ayah," and "Ice-Candy-Man." Initially, the novel took the
name of this last character. However, publishers feared that an American audience might
mistake the unfamiliar name for a drug pusher. In fact, the Ice-Candy-Man is a Muslim
street vendor drawn like many other men by the magnetic beauty of Ayah, Lenny's
nanny. Lenny observes the transition of the Ice-Candy-Man through the roles of ice
cream vendor, bird seller, cosmic connector to Allah via telephone, and pimp. This last
role shows the devious methods which some, particularly politicians, will sink to in order
to survive. Of the dirtiness of politics, Bapsi Sidhwa says, "As a Parsee, I can see things
objectively. I see all the common people suffering while the politicians on either side
have the fun"("Writer-In-Residence"). In contrast, Sidhwa presents us with the
Godmother as a truer source of strength and action, through knowledge instead of pride
and rhetoric.
Along with political ineffectiveness, Sidhwa draws out the most damaging effect of the
Partition, the symbolic desecration women on both sides of the conflict. Sidhwa recalls
the chilling shrieks and moans of recovered women at the time. She asked herself, "Why
do they cry like that? Because they are delivering unwanted babies, I'm told, or reliving
hideous memories. Thousands of women were kidnapped." (Sidhwa "New Neighbors")
Elsewhere, she continues, "Victory is celebrated on a woman's body, vengeance is taken
on a woman's body. That's very much the way things are, particularly in my part of the
world" (Graeber). Cracking India includes among all of this tragedy a brilliant sense of
humor as well. She explains, "Laughter does so many things for us It has the quality of
exposing wrongs and gets rid of anger and excitement." ("Writer-In-Residence").
Cracking India calls to recollection the pain of old, caked wounds so that they may finally
be healed.
A cinematic adaptation is currently being filmed in Delhi by Pakistani/Canadian director,
Deepa Mehta. The film is to be titled, Earth, the second installment of a trilogy that began
with her critically acclaimed film Fire, and will end in the future with Water. The
screenplay is written for a Pakistani audience. The movie, too, will take the perspective

5. of Lenny, age 7, but will add a competing masseuse vying for the love of Das (Ayah)
with the Ice-Candy-Man.
Review:
"Bapsi Sidhwa has turned her gaze upon the domestic comedy of a Pakistani family in the
1940s and somehow managed to evoke the great political upheavals of the age ... and I
am particularly touched by the way she has held the wicked world up to the mirror of a
young girl's mind and caught so much that is lyrical and significant ... a mysterious and
wonderful novel." Is said beautifully by Richard Ryan in Washington Post
"Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man is like foraging through a tableful of discounted Swatch
watches, and finding a gold Rolex......it illustrates the power of good fiction: a historical
tragedy comes alive, yielding insight into both the past and the subcontinent's turbulent
present." Are the remarks of famous critic Deidre Donahue in USA Today
Throughout, the novel sustains the vitality of Lenny's world with a series of wonderfully
comic scenes. Highly recommended for all libraries." J. Sudrann in Library Journal.
"Like all Sidhwa's work, the novel contains a rich undercurrent of legend and folklore. It
combines Sidhwa's affectionate admiration for her own community with a compassion
for the dispossessed. Her own childhood memories give the novel further depth and
resonance." The Oxford Companion To Twentieth-Century Literature in English
" Sidhwa's triumph lies in creating characters so rich in hilarious and accurate detail, so
alive and active, that long after one has closed the book, they continue to perform their
extraordinary and wonderful feats before our eyes." Anita Desai in Dawn
In light of current political, religious, and social tensions in India and Pakistan, a more
appropriate title for Bapsi Sidhwa’s third novel, Cracking India (originally Ice Candy
Man), could easily have been, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Ironically, its adaptation in the recently released film, Earth, by Deepa Mehta, attests to
its timeliness. Set in 1940’s India, during the time of independence and the partition,
Cracking India brings to life the deeply religious, national, social, and economic tensions
marking both historical and current Indo-Pak political dynamics.
Sidhwa’s genius lies in her juxtaposition of the themes of innocence and experience in
Cracking India. Revealed through the naïve observations of the young Parsi girl, Lenny,
startling images of violence, fear, and hatred intensify considerably for readers. The co-
mingling of innocence and experience allow the reader to view this extremely confusing
and unstable chapter of Indian history through a simpler lens, a more objective voice. The
people in Lenny’s life are reduced to physical or spiritual characteristics. The Ice Candy
Man sells ice cream and candy; Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs are defined primarily by the
hatred they espouse, making each of them equally disturbing to the young narrator’s
mind. Religion is reduced to a superficial label, as characters easily switch from one to

6. the other. But don’t let the simplicity of the novel fool you. Simple, it is not. The
simplicity of the narrator’s view serves to exaggerate the extreme complexity of the
times. The simplicity of the plot puts a human face on the multitudes of suffering people
who lived through these times. Sidhwa has done a wonderful job of bringing the
confusion and immense impact of social and cultural change upon the individual life of a
small girl. In fact, her childhood images are viewed through the lens of her climate-- i.e.
her relationships, her understanding of the world, and her self-awareness are dependent
upon the events of her time. Hence, it is obvious that she will be forever scarred by it.
Sidhwa’s true skill also lies in the layering of plots and sub-plots. Focused centrally on
Lenny, the novel boasts a series of sub-plots, each competing throughout the novel for the
center stage. Perhaps the most entertaining and alluring sub-plot is that of the love story
between the Muslim Ice Candy Man and the beautiful Hindu Ayah. In addition, many of
the plots are left unresolved, leaving the reader with a sense of loss or lack of closure –
mirroring the experience many people during this time must have had.
For all of its great qualities, the novel contains certain problematic areas. At times, I
found the sexual imagery too graphic. At first, the images seemed to protrude randomly
and oddly throughout the novel. Perhaps they were inserted at these strange points as a
means of revealing the dynamics of power, which interplay in the novel. Regardless, the
novel could have done just as well, perhaps even better, without them.
In addition, if you are looking to the novel for an accurate historical account, this is not
the novel for you. The gist of this novel is not to be a monolith of correct factual
information---in fact the novel has been criticized for being historically inaccurate in
certain cases. It is possible that the inaccuracies of the novel seemed appropriate to the
author because the story is narrated by a young girl who might recognize the emotional
impact of an event rather than its historical details.
The modern applicability of this novel is also important to make note of. The lessons
taught by this novel are universal and could be applied to almost any current political
situation around the world, from the problems of Northern Ireland to those in Kosovo.
The title of the novel pointedly reveals the very worst and best natures of the human race
as we struggle with the intricacies of life.
The novel deals with a monumental and potent slice of Indian history. Through Cracking
India, Bapsi Sidhwa has indeed brought to life the spiritual, emotional, and very real
implications of the partition of India. In so doing, she has “cracked” the riddle of India
and revealed to us the cultural difficulties that plagued South Asia before, during, and
after its split from the British and the creation of Pakistan.

7. Major & Minor Themes
MMajor Themes:
Theme of Partition
T Theme of dislocation and disintegration
T Theme of Communal discord
T Dilemma of the Parsi community
DTheme of Feminism–women as victims & as saviours
T Constancy of desire & its lack of moral legitimacy
CThe eternal conflict of moral good & evil in the human psyche
T Neutrality
NMinor themes:
Manipulation
MIntolerance
I Impassivity
I Duplicity of colonialism
DChaos and confusion
Cracking India tells the story of the partition of India through the eyes of young Lenny, a
Parsee girl growing up in Lahore. Lenny narrates the events of her family and native
Lahore over more than a ten year period, from before World War II to just after Indian
independence and the partition. The power of Cracking India stems from Sidwha’s
creation of an idyllic picture of Lenny’s childhood, and the relative inter-racial harmony
of pre-Independence Lahore. We then watch with horror as the people around Lenny

8. divide along racial/religious lines and eventually slaughter one another. Historical fiction
such as Cracking India shows us history in miniature, making it far more vivid than mere
statistics about the numbers slaughtered during the tragic events of 1947-48.
Although the story is set against the backdrop of India independence, it is equally the
story of Lenny’s maturation from a four-year-old limping girl to a young woman of
growing sexual awareness. As a young girl she sits in the Queen’s garden with her Ayah,
her nanny, who is nubile and theobject of desire for a large circle of young men of many
races and creeds. Young Lenny perceives their eyes burning for Ayah, their furtive
attempts to touch her with their hands, mouths, even their toes. Her education about
sexuality thus begins early, though Sidhwa delights in showing us Lenny’s later sexual
discoveries as well, such as her growing aware of her Cousin’s body.
Much of the novel seems derived from Sidhwa’s autobiographical experience, and this
explains much of the narrative’s power. Lenny’s perceptiveness makes her an effective
narrator, though it takes some time to get used to a four-year-old making the insights that
Lenny does. Lenny is already conscious of people treating her differently because of her
limp. Lenny senses people’s motivations, and spots their most telling gestures. She
describes the mixed blessings of her own honesty, showing self-awareness as well. But
her honesty, her “cursed tongue” as she calls it, also betrays her beloved Ayah, a Hindu,
whom Lenny mistakenly betrays to Ice-Candy Man.
Much of the story’s charm comes from Lenny’s acute descriptions of her childhood. She
experiences the joys of visiting her family cook’s native town, savoring stolen bits of
chicken giblets in the kitchen during her parent’s dinner parties, and hiding under the
table and making profound insights about the guests’ personality based on the movements
of their legs and feet. But her greatest joy is her Ayah, a sublime being whose attractions
ensure that Lenny herself always has plenty of company.
This motley collection of Ayah’s admirers, suggesting the diversity of all India in
miniature, consists of around 12 men including at least one Sikh, a Muslim, a Hindu, and
Parsee all with different occupations. Their peaceful co-existence in their competition for
Ayah’s affections suggests the larger inter-racial amity in Lahore. While some of this
inter-racial co-operation is based on a common abhorrence of British rule, it is also based
on centuries of living together, as the characters themselves state outright.
So the ancient city of Lahore is torn asunder by Western-style nationalism and nation-
state building—one of many lasting wounds from British rule. As Lenny observes: “It is
sudden. One day everybody is themselves—and the next day they are Hindu, Muslim,

9. Sikh, Christian. People shrink, dwindling into symbols. Ayah is no longer just my all-
encompassing Ayah—she is also a token. A Hindu.…” (101).
As much as the story of Cracking India owes to its historical setting, its scope is local:
Lahore. Historical events, and personages such as Nehru, Gandhi, Jinnah are far away
(except for a comical meeting between Gandhi and Lenny and her mother), and their
effect on Lahore is delayed. For the first third of the novel, the idyll of Lenny’s childhood
is nearly untouched by the gathering storm. The middle third depicts the outbreak of
violence and the destruction of pre-Pakistani Lahore, including Ayah’s circle. The
novel’s climax is Ice-Candy’s betrayal of Ayah, by extracting her hiding-place from the
trusting Lenny. From there, events proceed quickly, for we are as captivated by Ayah as
her circle of admirers.
The last third of the novel showcases the efforts of Lahore’s women to repair the damage
done to the community by the men. Lenny’s mother leads other women in smuggling
gasoline in order to raise money to send defamed women back to their families. Lenny’s
Godmother is revealed to be a matriarch of considerable powers and influence. She is
able to locate the violated Ayah, and rescue her from Ice-Candy Man’s clutches, and send
her back to her family in India.
Lenny-as-narrator undergirds the novel’s feminine perspective. While some male
characters, such Masseur, Lenny’s father, and Cousin, are treated sympathetically, many
male characters are seen as encircling predators of sex or violence. Lenny’s persepective
is formed while she sits next to Ayah in the middle of her circle of admirers. Ice-Candy
Man’s betrayal is especially shocking, because as a popsicle salesman he has a rapport
with children that leads to Lenny’s misguided trust in him at the crucial moment of
Ayah’s fate.
Perhaps mindful of her Western audience, Sidhwa throws in some allusions to Western
literature. The Ice-Candy Man is allusion to Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh,
which in turn alluded to Gospels, wherein Jesus foretold that the “bridegroom [of the
church, i.e., God] cometh.” O’Neill’s play depicted a group of 13 drunks (deliberately 13
to suggest Christ and his 12 apostles) revolving around the salesman Hickey, the Iceman
of life-killing cold truths, who shatters the personal illusions, the “pipe-dreams” of the
other 12 in the circle. Similarly, Ayah, has a circle of twelve followers. The Ice-Candy
Man, the Judas figure, betrays his beloved Ayah, and shatters the amicable illusion of
Ayah’s circle, revealing the cauldron of lust that had always inspired it.
Sidhwa succeeds by focusing on the personal level of events. She offers no novel
explanation for the violence that engulfed the partition. We are shown only a handful of

10. fully-drawn characters. Lenny’s child-like eyes are ideal for showing us the horrors of
civil war. And yet it is surprising how dispassionately Lenny reacts to the madness
around her, even years later as she is narrating the events. It is almost as if her desire for
objectivity as a narrator was stronger than her emotions to the horrors of war. The beauty
of the language shows the narrator telling us the Lenny’s story is stronger than the child
who witnessed the atrocities. But without such narrative strength we might not have this
particular story at all.