The theme of childhood and its many facets is central to the story , while innocence, disappointment, and therefore the ups and downs of that conflicted period of life also are examined throughout the story. Ravi is a component of an outsized family. He looks up to his cousin, Raghu, whom he aspires to hammer in a contest as to how to realize attention and a few kinds of success.
Ravi hides during a shed and feels confident that he will win the sport. Despite this victory, his success seems to travel unnoticed by the opposite children who simply begin playing a special game. So powerful is his resolve to win that it carries him through the fear he feels when he hides within the shed.
The implication is that winning will make him see himself during a different light. Ravi loses his desire to play any longer games with the opposite children. She has instead created a body of labor distinguished by its sober, often bracing prose, its patient eye for all-telling detail and its humane but penetrating intelligence about middling people faced with middling prospects.
This vulnerability results in promising experiences, which frequently become fresh disappointments. In the distance, he can hear the screams and yells as Raghu finds the children, one by one.
He now smells the wet earth indicating that the gardener has begun watering the plants. Soon it is dusk and shadows lengthen. So much had happened while he had remained hidden inside the shed. Not only had Ravi not won, the others had even forgotten his existence. A terrible sense of his insignificance descends on him. Childhood itself is a metaphor for life.
The joys and sorrows of childhood come back in later life, magnified beyond comparison. Ravi might at his worst moment consider life to be abysmally bad, but in later life, recall these days with fondness. Or he may still hate them. The sentences in the story tumble out in short staccato bursts. They are interspersed with long winding ones that describe the setting of the old bungalow that bakes slowly in the heat.
There long descriptive passages that conjure pen pictures of the surroundings. The children too felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The children in the story had been kept shut in the house, against their will, to protect them from the searing heat of the Indian summer. But now as afternoon turns to evening, they coax and cajole their mother to let them into the open.
Once in the open, there are the usual arguments of what to play. The children have decided on a game of hide and seek. It was an insect — Perhaps a spider — exploring him. He squashed it and wondered how many more creatures were watching, waiting to reach out and touch him, the stranger. Ravi had chosen to hide in the unused shed with a green door. It was seldom opened and filled with the detritus of the household — broken chairs and tables, old buckets and such like.
He had never been inside when it was lit up, much less in pitch darkness like now. The smells emanating from inside suggested rats, mice and mould. Ravi was glad he had got away from Raghu but also terrified by the spooky insides of the shed where nothing was visible. There was something crawling along the back of his neck.
Tentatively he put his hand up to touch it. It felt like a spider; he squashed it. To defeat Raghu — that hirsute, hoarse-voiced football champion — to be the winner in a circle of older, bigger, luckier children — that would be thrilling beyond imagination.
He hugged his knees together and smiled to himself almost shyly at the thought of so much victory, such laurels. Hidden inside the shed, safe from the large bossy Raghu, Ravi is already savoring his victory. Add this book to your favorite list ». Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Games at Twilight and Other Stories. Desai mi pare ne sia convinta. E di questo la ringrazio.
View all 10 comments. Eleven short stories, all set in India, and all providing a snapshot into someone's life. These stories were interesting and varied, covering a wide range of topics.
Children's games; a private tutor; a student with no peaceful place to study; a man obsessed with textures; an artist; a boy attending a wedding with his mother; a musician who plays tanpura; a son devoted to his father; a farewell party where the people leaving find their relationships with friends an colleagues are not what they tho Eleven short stories, all set in India, and all providing a snapshot into someone's life.
Children's games; a private tutor; a student with no peaceful place to study; a man obsessed with textures; an artist; a boy attending a wedding with his mother; a musician who plays tanpura; a son devoted to his father; a farewell party where the people leaving find their relationships with friends an colleagues are not what they thought; an elderly man and a night without electricity; and the final story - and American couple in India who experience different outcomes from their time there.
Worth a read, good as a gap filler, but lacked the real pull of a gripping read. Solid at three stars. Jan 25, Josh Ang rated it liked it. This collection of stories is set in contemporary Indian cities, but the concerns are universal, reflecting experiences of urban life.
An American couple, who arrive in Bombay with unequal expectations initially, sees a surprising development when the wife who has difficulty adapting to life in a foreign land, finds a sense of belonging that surpasses that of her homeland that she had been pining for.
Not exactly fabulous, but readable and tinged with pathos. Apr 29, Kirsty rated it really liked it Shelves: april Anita Desai writes wonderfully, and Games at Twilight is a real jewel in the genre of short story collections. She presents many character-focused studies here; whilst India is present as the backdrop within almost all of the tales, it is the beings whom she has created which really spring to life.
There is not a single tale here which failed to hold my interest, and each is remarkably culturally aware. Desai's use of senses, and the vividness which she builds, makes Games at Twilight a joy to r Anita Desai writes wonderfully, and Games at Twilight is a real jewel in the genre of short story collections.
Desai's use of senses, and the vividness which she builds, makes Games at Twilight a joy to read. Apr 11, Tasmiah added it. Book is the best friend for most people. I like reading books and novels. Last week I presented a powerpoint about my favourite book. It is so important because ,Anita Desai portrayed in this story mainly child psychology.
The main importance of this book is child psychology. It is set in India. A family of children and mother live in a hot ,dry, a rid part of the country. The children are let out to play at the end of the day,while the mother reluxed. The heath of the day is portraying death as the children enter the garden filling the place with fun and noise the garden. Which seems to spring to life. They begin to play hide and seek.
After leaving to find their hiding places, it becomes quite again Ravi, one of the youngest children,decides to find the perfect hiding spot. Finding it in a shed,he hides throughout the game until all others have been caught. However the other children did not care they had forgotten him.
The story concludes when Ravi finally realize how insignificant he is. People should read it because, it is esay to understand and you can learn new word. This story deals with the different levels of the child mind we can learn View 1 comment. Eleven short stories by Desai, all set in India in the s and s. Atmospheric pieces mostly looking at the tension in families, between neighbours, between student and teacher, between East and West etc.
There is a lovely bit of black humour in most of the tales as well, overall could be used as a good introduction to Desai's work. Nov 16, Heather Carreiro rated it it was amazing.
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