Analysis of Susanna’s Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond

When we hear the word romance the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is the beauty of the cherry blossom. The flower blooms puissant, yet only for a short period of time each year, but its beauty stays in our eyes for ages. As the flower dies and the petals fall, cherry blossoms line the street like a bed of soft, pink snow and are most delicate when captured between the escarpment of life and death. Susanna’s Seven Husbands is one such story of a lady belonging to Dutch and East Indian descent named Susanna. Susanna is one such blossom that blooms intensely with all the love and romance that she has for a short period of time, but as her love dies, instead of retaining her past love as a beautiful dream it turns out to be a horrific nightmare which is unusual and extremely strange. Susanna’s past love, instead of forming a soft layer of pink snow, it turns out as a harsh layer of thorns.

Ruskin Bond’s yet another masterpiece Susanna’s Seven Husbands is a novella which was initially written as an eight pages short story. Until Mr. Vishal Bharadwaj, the famous film director and a good friend of Mr. Bond, found a screenplay of about one and a half an hour or to the maximum some two hours play. On requisition of Mr. Bharadwaj, Mr. Bond readily agreed to convert the eight pages short story into a hundred pages novella and finally Mr. Bharadwaj and one of his close friend Mr. Matthew Robbins converted the novella into a screenplay. Later this screenplay was released on 18 February 2011 which is believed to be as an adult movie titled as 7 Khoon Maaf. Though it wasn’t a blockbuster it came out as a just one-time watchable movie. The movie was neither too good not too bad. The drama lovers decided to watch the movie, whereas the book lovers decided to read the novel though there wasn’t a huge difference between the novel and the screenplay. Many found the story interesting and thriller suspense. Some found it was a waste of time or nuisance as the incidents in the novel were completely distinct and irrelevant according to Indian culture. In order to create awareness, some of the positive minded people realized that such people do exist in this world irrespective of culture.

Mr. Bond begins the novel with the introduction of a lady named Susanna Anna Maria Johannes, the central figure of the novel. Susanna was an infant when her mother passed away. She was bought up by her father up to a certain age, but then he too was no more. During the time of his survival, he taught her horse riding, to look after the estate and the horses. Her father had a hobby of hunting and horse riding and racing. Even Susanna had a deep love for hunting and horse racing, which was inherited from her father at a very young age. When she was a child, she used to accompany her father for most of the hunting and horse races around Dehra and Bijnor. As the years rolled on Susanna grew up as a charming and beautiful lady, moreover she transformed as an extremely seductive figure in the society of Meerut. Everyone had an eye on her beauty as well as wealth. She lived in a big bungalow with her three servants namely Shah Rukh, Goonga and Maggi, the maid since her childhood days. After the death of her father live became a kind of stagnant for her. After a year of her father’s demise she met her new next-door neighbor of almost 12 years old named Arun. He was fond of guavas, so as soon as he saw a tree with full of guavas lathering on it, he couldn’t control his urge to eat them. He jumped over the wall that separated his house from the big house of Susanna and climbed the guava tree. He was into the guava world enjoying the luscious fruit until he could feel wilting. It was then Susanna met Arun and she liked him for his honest answer of being a thief stealing the guavas. There was almost twelve years difference between Susanna and Arun.

The next day morning there was a basket full of guavas in front of his house door. He was amazed by seeing it and answered his mother about the basket consisting of guava. Arun’s mother got impressed and she complimented on her act of being generous and kind-hearted towards the differently abled people and kids. Slowly a deep hidden good relation bloomed between Susanna and Arun. Susanna’s servants also liked Arun. Years took its phase to move on to the growth of Susanna and Arun.

As she grew older, apart from her regular chores she found some time for herself in order to visit the Wheelers Club, from where she used to borrow books from its lending library. It was there she met an officer who was newly transferred to Meerut. His name was Major Hari Mehta, a dynamic Army officer. Susanna was in her early twenties and it’s the stage when a girl is in search of her true love, someone who can take care of, love her and pamper her. So, for the first time when she saw Major at the library she was stunned by his looks and handsomeness. Major too was mesmerized and was flattered by her looks and her beauty.

The age difference between Susanna and Major was almost ten years older than Susanna which wasn’t a matter of fact they considered. Slowly they started to crave for each other. Their relationship started to climb like a creeper at a great speed which finally ended up in a marriage. When we talk about a newly wedded couple everyone’s thought moves to a distinct level. Our thoughts wander about the love and happiness that they would share. The intensity of love is at its peak. The cute cuddling and being in each other’s arms, sharing about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, memorable moments, embarrassing moments they might have come across etc. Many such lovely and enchanting incidents would have happened. On the other hand, the vice versa too can be seen between the unlucky couples. There is a third situation as where the initial stage of the newlywed couple may not be as good and smooth running as expected but later it may change into a wonderful life as more than expected. The entire credit goes to the understanding and maturity level that couples portray to each other and a bit of patience makes their life heaven. This situation may also be reversed and the happy couples may get converted into the worst enemies. There’s a list of reasons behind such cracks and crevices of life between husband and wife. Let’s not look into the defective side of a newlywed couple and we’ll concentrate on the alluring side of romance.

The case of Major Mehta and Susanna was not different than the other newlywed couples in this world. They too were enjoying their marriage life and went to Mussoorie for their honeymoon and the cost of staying was paid by Susanna. Soon after their honeymoon while returning to Meerut the Major was keen in opening a joint account with either or survivor option and he being the survivor of the account. Susanna didn’t take this issue deep into account. Days went on to weeks, weeks to a month and every time from every incident she realized the original status and character of the Major. He was turning into an egoistic person and was jealous of Susanna. He didn’t like anyone who spoke to her, not even Arun. At this point, Susanna realized that her life and her decision weren’t hers anymore and now that Major started to give answers to all the question that came to Susanna.

Every one of us is born with some defects or they get addicted to a kind of activity from which they seek pleasure so, the Major too had a defect. He was addicted to drinks and was fond of hunting, although he didn’t know much about hunting. Susanna was a doctorate holder in hunting as she learned from her father. One fine day the Major was in a mood of hunting so he along with his wife and servants they were set off for hunting. Soon after reaching the spot they stayed in a machaan. Major had his favorite drink and he had poured the drinks for himself three times. He was out of his senses. Susanna did warn him about being alert but, her words were falling on deaf ears. From dusk to dawn they were waiting for the hunt but as the sun started to set the curiosity to hunt was out of control. They tied a goat under the tree as a bait in order to please the man-eater and it happened but, the end was transformed into a drastic end.