A Thematic Study of Bapsi Sidhwa's Novel ICE-CANDY-MAN.

Bapsi Sidhwa, a Pakistani novelist, is an important voice in the world of common wealth fiction. Sidhwa's fiction deals with both the pre and post-colonial period of the Indian-subcontinent. Her fiction not only brings to life the horror of the partition but also vividly portrays the complexities of life in the sub-continent violence after independence. Bapsi Sidwa's novel Ice-Candy-Man reveals how the violence of partition has serrated the roots of people of different communities, irrespective of ideology, friendship and rational ideas. The novel represents the historical violence of Partition from the perspective of the eight-year old polio-stricken girl Lenny, who belongs to a Parsi family. Her closest companion is her Ayah (nanny) Shanti. The novel weaves together multiple narratives of betrayal, events and conditions engendered by the Partition of the Sub-continent. The story is an actual fact based on the novelist, Bapsi Sidhwa's child hood experiences. Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice-Candy-Man thus portrays the political pre-occupation --the violence and the fragmentation caused by the partition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]