The Afghan Snow

Prabhu Jha’s “The Afghan Snow” deals with a lot of current day problems of the society. The
story revolves around the life of three people that is Narain (Ryan), Reeta and Preeti. Reeta’s
mother is addressed as preeti’s grandmother in the story and has been given no name as such
for the readers to know.The story begins with the description of a mall in which Reeta works in
and to the relevance of the title of the story it goes on to define the floor on which cosmetics
are sold.
Afghan Snow is a skin cream, it is the first herbal cream since 1909, and the cream has been
selling over for a century now.
There is then a comparison made between India and America, where Reeta, the narrator of the
story tells us that how pieces of decoration like a cosmetic fountain wouldn’t last more than a
week in India because probably people there wouldn’t entertain decoration pieces like that. But
Reeta mentions how here in U.S. it would become a pseudo- natural backdrop for the
customers shopping in that area.
However after defining all of these situations, she comes to the major part of her story where
she is taken back to the quarrel that her husband Ryan and their only daughter Preeti has.
Reeta however mentions that their quarrels were something which were very common.
Anytime that they engaged in a conversation talking in more than monosyllables, that would
lead to verbal explosions between the two. As a wife, this time she knew that Ryan was being
unreasonable. But this time she knew that it was Ryan overreacting to a petty issue of her
Daughter’s prom. When Reeta asked Ryan that why won’t he allow Preeti to go to the prom he
replied “because she wouldn’t stick to the deadline”
Ryan is shown as an old school orthodox man who wants his daughter to be American on the
outside but at the same time an Indian on the inside. He wants Preeti to return from the prom
before midnight whereas Reeta kept arguing to him that nobody returns from the prom so
early. Midnight is when the prom actually begins to whirl. Reeta calls Ryan a Schizophrenic Dual
personality, because after living all these years in America he still has the mindset of an Indian
man of 1970s.
Reeta goes to work and talks to Marie her co-worker. Who suggests that Reeta should lie to her
husband about the prom and let Preeti go and Ryan would know nothing because he will be
blissfully snoring by 11 pm. Reeta however wanted to convince her husband and not lie to him.
We see a hint of all the responsibilities being on the shoulders of Reeta because her old mother
also lived with them and she had to take care of her, stand in the quarrels of Ryan and Preeti
and she also had her son Sunil (who was in army) at the back of her mind because it had been a
while since he got home from the Army camp in Afghanistan and Reeta was alone in all of it.
She had been up last night because she was worried about reeta’s prom and her mother had an
asthma attack in the middle of the night.
Marie on the other hand knew Reeta’s mother because whenever her mom would visit Macy’s
in the Mall, with all the big brands staring in her face she would always ask for afghan snow.
Marie eases Reeta’s pain by telling her that Sunil is almost done there and he will be back soon
so Reeta would have one less thing to worry about.
We see the liveliness of the character of Sunil depicted by Prabhu Jha. The character’s absence
creates a sense of anticipation and worry in the readers so as to what could his role further be
in the story or is he only named in the story because the story is titles The Afghan Snow and he
too is posted in Afghanistan. There are a multiple number of questions in the minds of the
readers which compels them to go on reading the story further.
A slight hint of patriarchy and the will to be controlling is seen in Ryan when even after living in
America for all these years he wants his daughter to follow the rules that he has made in the
house that is to return from the prom before midnight.
Anyhow Reeta talks to Ryan on the phone and convinces him to let preeti go to the prom,
because that was the only way she could have took of that worry out of her mind. The sense of
allowance from the man in the house again shows his controlling nature because Reeta knew
that if she didn’t talk Ryan into it, there’d be quarrels again when Preeti would be leaving.
Sunil’s posting in Afghanistan was making Reeta Anxious. Every time she would get to know
about an American casualty there it would leave her in chills. The writer creates a sense of an
urgency in the dialogues. We can sense the fear of something about to happen when we read
the story. Reeta was also worried about Sunil because she was the only pne who supported
sunil in his decision of joining the army. Her mother and husband were completely against it so
she remains scared about it. Because she sent his son there on her risk.
Although sunil is absent throughout the story the writer gives us knowledge of his character by
telling us in Reeta’s voice that Sunil was a very sensitive boy and he had realized that his
parents couldn’t afford to send him to college so joining the army was the only option left for
him.
A sense of calm and quiet comes in the story after Reeta and her mother had sent preeti off to
her prom. Reeta’s mom was very happy to see her granddaughter all dolled up and beautiful.
Reeta is reminded of Sunil again and she thinks that if Sunil was here he would have said
“preeti, all you need now is daadi’s final touches of afghan snow”.
Reeta and her mother both sat the window looking at the setting sun and the calm and quiet
after a great rush of feelings is felt by the readers. The story seems quiet after Preeti leaves for
her Prom. Reeta and her mom both were in a mellow mood talking about how kids grow up so
soon without them realizing.
Reeta kept gazing out of her window looking at the setting sun, the sky and trees. Her gaze
shifted for a moment and she saw a black jeep turning into her driveway, All her irrational
thoughts and fears consumed her in that moment. She was so lost in her dread that when her
mother asked her who was in the black jeep, she couldn’t answer her.
Her doorbell rang, she knew she didn’t want to answer it but she also knew that she had to. She
went and opened the door and she saw two army officers standing at the door. Amidst all the
chaos in her head she could barely make out what they said, but she didn’t really had to.
Because her subconscious had come back to life and she already knew that the army officers
were there to inform her about the demise of her son. She dreamt that night of the Afghan
Snow, only it wasn’t white this time.
The colors black and white are used in the respect of the cream Afghan Snow because Sunil was
posted in Afghanistan and it also gives an idea of the disturbance and the sorrow in the mind of
the characters after the demise of Sunil. The writer beautifully uses the image of the cream
changing its color in Reeta’s dream according to the situation. The beautiful justification of the
title leaves the readers with chills and amazement at the same time.