Traumatised Childhood in Mahesh Dattani’s Play Thirty Days in September
P. Suresh1, Suchismita Bhattacharya2
1Dr. P. Suresh, Associate Professor, Department of English, Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
2Suchismita Bhattacharya, Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
Manuscript received on 12 February 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 08 April 2019 | Manuscript Published on 28 April 2019 | PP: 235-238 | Volume-7 Issue-5C February 2019 | Retrieval Number: E10550275C19/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Childhood is the most important phase in the life of any human being. The future of an individual depends upon the type of childhood, he or she leads in. The character and the behaviour of a child depend upon the type of people he or she comes across in the childhood. The childhood can either make or break the future of an individual. Childhood days are usually the most pleasant days in the life of any human being, because, those days are usually free from tension, pressure, stress or any such thing that takes away the peace and happiness from life. These days must be enjoyed to the fullest as one can never get these days back in life. Childhood is a boon for any child, but it can turn as a bane if one doesn’t have a proper and healthy atmosphere to grow. The child is bound to get afraid or unsecured if his or her life gets surrounded with freaky and wicked people. The childhood days of a child can even get destroyed if monsters with friendly faces arrive in life. The play Thirty Days in September revolves around the life of a girl, Mala, the protagonist of the play, who leads a traumatised childhood. The traumatised childhood affects her adulthood and her life on a whole. Mahesh Dattani, the dramatist, has depicted the life of a child who is the victim of child sexual abuse, in a very subtle manner. The play proves that sometimes the pain and the betrayal come from the closed ones in life and not from the outsiders. The play focusses on many things but the present research paper focusses mainly on the traumatised childhood of the protagonist.
Keywords: Childhood, Future, Life, Traumatised childhood, Pain, Betrayal, Child, Afraid, Monsters, Friendly Faces, Victim, Child Sexual Abuse, Subtle, Boon, Bane, Pleasant, Human Being.
Scope of the Article: Social Sciences