AR Chand – 20

The Crow Eaters

A Parsi Family Saga

In 'The Crow Eaters' Bapsi Sidhwa attempts an answer to some queries, by

recreating a fictional yet typical saga of a Parsi family and the corresponding social
milieu. It is the only novel of its kind, as it is the first account of the workings of the
Parsi mind, social behaviour, value systems and customs. Bapsi Sidhwa never lets
the novel degenerate into a mere sociological treatise. The satirical fiction, mock-
epic tone and the lampoon of major characters like the successful businessman
Faredoon Junglewalla, his equally successful son Billy and mother-in-law Jerbanoo,
make the novel an entertaining piece of literature.It also traces the attempts of
Parsis, migrating from the west coast and settling in the more salubrious climate of
North Indian cities, in the late nineteenth and the turn of this century.
Bapsi Sidhwa writes from a deep historical consciousness. Her evocation of a part
of Lahore life as lived in the first half of this century is convincing and charming. She
herself grew up in Lahore and makes her home there; the first-hand knowledge of
it certainly lends credence to the irony, as it arises out of a deep understanding of
the place and people and their ways. She is looking at the whole, and the
constituent parts, through the diminutive lens of insidious comicality as an outsider
who knows better; as a member of the Parsi minority in Pakistan who knows her
people's secrets, real strengths, and foibles. Her novel, beyond particular situation
and character, aims at a sweep that encompasses a people and may well be better
considered in that light. Briefly speaking , this novel is a parsi family saga which
covers various sorts of characters and gives a vivid depiction of Parsi community.