Full transcript
0:17Hello everyone. I welcome you once again
0:19to my course Introduction to Medical
0:20Humanities. This is
0:22the lecture 25 and this is the final
0:25lecture of uh week five.
0:28Uh in this particular lecture, I am
0:31going to talk about a very important
0:33concept called aging into disability.
0:36What does this mean? This means that
0:38something which is a natural phenomena
0:41of aging, how when that happens, that
0:45also acquires a different kind of
0:48meaning of disability within the social
0:51model of disability. And for that, I
0:54will analyze two texts, Geetanjali
0:57Shree's Mai and Tomb of Sand.
1:01Quickly, uh
1:02uh what I will be doing in this, we will
1:04begin with understanding the primary
1:06text further looking into social
1:07construction of aging and disability,
1:10gender dimensions of disability,
1:12disability and marginalization, and
1:15attempt to understand what embodied
1:17vulnerability means in old age.
1:22So, uh when you look at uh I mean, this
1:25particular slide, there are two
1:27uh
1:28novels that are mentioned here. Let me
1:31briefly introduce you the author.
1:33Geetanjali Shree, you must have heard of
1:35her name uh
1:37uh specially in the context of winning
1:40the Booker Prize. She won Booker Prize
1:42for her book
1:44originally written in Hindi as Reth
1:46Samadhi, which was translated by Daisy
1:48Rockwell in 2022 as Tomb of Sand, the
1:52one we are taking up for analysis. And
1:54uh she is a Hindi language novelist and
1:58short story writer.
2:00If we begin with My Silently Mother by
2:04Geetanjali Shree, what immediately
2:07strikes us is the narrative quietness.
2:11On the surface, the novel seems to tell
2:13the story of a mother in a traditional
2:15family.
2:16But if you see it from her daughter's
2:19point of view, Sunaina, the mother My
2:23appears passive, self-effacing, and
2:26almost voiceless. She cooks, she serves,
2:30she does all kinds of chores, she
2:33adjusts, she absorbs. And from the
2:37daughter's perspective, this silent is
2:40very puzzling and frustrating.
2:43Now, if we turn to Tomb of Sand,
2:46again by Geetanjali Shree, we see
2:48something fascinating. It feels almost
2:51like a creative and thematic expansion
2:55of concerns raised in My.
2:58But this time, the protagonist refuses
3:01to be silent. Here, we meet an
3:0480-year-old widow who does something
3:06culturally radical. She refuses to
3:09shrink. So, she's very flamboyant. So,
3:13if you read both the novels, they look
3:16like a contrasting picture of an aged
3:18woman.
3:19My,
3:20if on your screen, My depicts the mother
3:24as a bent bowed figure indicative of her
3:28physical burdens or those imposed by
3:30nature.
3:31Her hunched posture serves as an image,
3:35a metaphor for years of labor and
3:37sacrifice, later verified on a doctor's
3:40note indicating that her spinal discs
3:42had deteriorated from the strain on her
3:44body.
3:45She was always giving of herself while
3:48taking nothing in return, and therefore,
3:51her exhaustion is visible but
3:53unacknowledged.
3:55For women like Mai, these social scripts
3:57require a kind of a virtuous endurance
4:00in which they are valued for caring for
4:02others and maintaining the family while
4:05suppressing their choices. Rajeswari
4:08Sunder Rajan demonstrates how such
4:10external expectations become
4:12internalized, become part of woman's
4:15identity, and their ability to imagine
4:18what is possible for their lives. So,
4:21when Mai cares for others, we find that
4:25her own children are
4:27very empathetic towards her. They drive
4:30to relieve her of the emotional and
4:33physical weight she's carrying on her
4:35shoulder of the family that she's uh
4:39bearing all the time, and the children's
4:42loyalty to their mother hence is
4:45developed in an unspoken mission.
4:48They not only perceive themselves as her
4:51protectors, wishing to save her from all
4:54that is coming to her, but eventually
4:57narrative reaches a point in which
5:00children understand Mai as weak, a
5:04puppet, and they see her fragility and
5:08express their intense desire to kind of
5:10free her from
5:12uh the prison of life. The
5:15Tomb of Sand
5:17in this, the presence of Mai's physical
5:21decline is not just about age or
5:24illness. It feels like the body has
5:27finally given in the years of silent,
5:31unacknowledged labor.
5:33For decades, she has been the emotional
5:36and domestic anchor of the household,
5:38always alert, always responsive. So, the
5:42constant kind of caregiving leaves its
5:45imprint, but when her vigilance gave way
5:48to fatigue, it feels cumulative as
5:52though the strain of lifelong service
5:54has finally settled into her bones. Her
5:57decline exposes how closely her identity
6:00was tied to usefulness, and widowhood
6:03reveals her real sense of self that had
6:06been structured around being a wife and
6:08caregiver. With the loss of her husband,
6:11she loses the purpose that was tied to
6:14her home and family, and soon this takes
6:17a toll on her physical and psychological
6:20health, and in that very sense, her
6:22identity gets disrupted.
6:26When you
6:27discuss both these terms, aging and
6:29disability, with aging, we usually begin
6:33with the body.
6:34Generally, uh the strength the physical
6:38strength and the cognitive sharpness of
6:42the body begins to shift as the aging
6:45comes. Uh scholars like Michelle Putnam
6:48and Christine Bigby describe this
6:51process as aging into disability,
6:54suggesting that aging is not always a
6:57sudden rupture, but a gradual movement
7:00into states of reduced ability.
7:03Mobility may decrease,
7:05memory may become fragile, chronic
7:08illness may develop, and everyday tasks
7:10that felt very natural and easy become
7:13like a cumbersome task. But what is
7:16important here is the biological change
7:19that is happening. It's that change
7:24that hinders the independence of the
7:26person. When functional abilities start
7:29to decline, you find that your autonomy
7:32is threatened. The ability to decide
7:36when to step out, what to eat, how to
7:39spend one's time,
7:40even how to narrate one's story, all of
7:43these become slippery.
7:46Personal choices narrows, and
7:48self-expression becomes mediated through
7:51caregivers. And because identity is so
7:54deeply tied to agency, to the feeling
7:56that I act, therefore I am, this loss
8:00can be emotionally devastating.
8:02The difficulty that we often interpret
8:05these changes purely through a medical
8:07lens.
8:08We then see
8:10aging as pathology, as a collection of
8:13symptoms to be managed, treated, or
8:15controlled. Therefore, when you come
8:18across this loss of
8:21functional ability, you see that the
8:23independence of personal choice,
8:26self-expression, and sense of identity
8:29all get compromised with the process of
8:32aging and become like a disability. This
8:36whole anxiety, which is
8:39there, in depending on others, becomes
8:42problematic. And And the internal
8:44experience of aging becomes not only
8:47about failing organs, but about
8:50negotiating identity.
8:53When you uh talk about how aging is
8:55constructed in
8:58society, you see that there is a very
9:02crucial aspect to it.
9:04Now,
9:06as discussed earlier, disability is not
9:08located in the body.
9:11Tony Sibers remind us that society
9:14actively constructs what disability
9:16means.
9:17The design of public spaces, the
9:19impatience of family members, the
9:22invisibility of older people in media
9:24and institutions, all these shape how
9:28aging is lived.
9:30So, an older person is not just
9:34physically weaker,
9:36they are also socially repositioned,
9:39subtly told that they do not matter
9:42either or they matter less.
9:45So, in Indian context is all the more
9:48layered. And why? Because ours is a
9:51culture which publicly reveres elders in
9:55rhetoric, yet increasingly prioritizes
9:58youth, speed, productivity in practice.
10:02Older individuals who cannot contribute
10:05economically may begin to feel like
10:07burdens.
10:08And therefore, when mobility decreases
10:11or memory falters, their presence in the
10:14household can shift from central to
10:17peripheral.
10:18And they start
10:20depending on others, and this may lead
10:23to some kind of marginalization.
10:26The interactions also become
10:28transactional. Like, they have to be
10:30fed, they have to be cleaned, they have
10:31to be given medicine. All these
10:35daily routine kind of things start
10:37happening, and there is nothing new
10:40which comes up. And that's why quite
10:42irritation or neglect can replace
10:45engagement.
10:47In such moments, what is at stake?
10:50It's not health.
10:52It's recognition. And therefore, the
10:55aging individual risks not being seen as
10:59a full person with desires and memories,
11:03but as a body to be managed. So, while
11:05aging certainly involves medical
11:08realities, it also carries profound
11:10psychological and social consequences.
11:14It challenges autonomy, reshapes
11:16identity, and exposes how deeply our
11:20sense of self is dependent on others. In
11:24this context, what has happened that
11:27because of this whole routine, the
11:30elderly person is just not so much
11:34visible because there is no productivity
11:37or less productivity attached to that
11:39person. It's a It's also aging body.
11:42It's probably having some kind of
11:44disease. So, all these when you look at,
11:48they diminish participation in
11:51community, but primarily it's the loss
11:54of dignity in certain sense
11:57because dignity is usually in tandem
12:00with how others respond to you, how
12:03others acknowledge your presence.
12:06The
12:07We I mean, in our case, uh the
12:09protagonist of both the texts are women,
12:12but you also see gender dimensions of
12:15aging and how this discourse happens in
12:19disability and leads to marginalization.
12:22So, older women usually will face
12:26more heightened form of marginalization
12:28because even other wise, uh their
12:31position They are usually less, uh you
12:34can say they age fast. The productivity
12:37is less and therefore when you think of
12:40the social dimension, they are usually
12:42marginalized. Now, disability, when you
12:45think of the gender dimension of
12:47disability,
12:49you also feel that in many societies, a
12:51woman's value has historically been tied
12:54to the roles she performs. But as she
12:58grows older, uh there is very little
13:01strength, physical strength that is left
13:04and therefore the roles that she was
13:06taking up as a young woman is actually
13:10slipping away. And once that happens,
13:13something troubling often occurs. What
13:16happens? That the same woman who was
13:19extremely central to the narrative of
13:21the family, who was holding uh together
13:24the family with her daily chores, what
13:27is happening, what is not happening,
13:29everything together. So, in nutshell,
13:31she was backbone of the family.
13:33Suddenly, she is useless and less
13:37central.
13:38So, age-related decline begins to mark
13:43her not just as an old, but also as a
13:46disabled other. You will find that the
13:49common experiences will include removal
13:52from traditional caregiving and
13:55household roles, confinement to beds or
13:57wheelchairs, neglect, disrespect, or
14:01emotional distancing. So, this
14:04loss of
14:06role and recognition
14:08creates a kind of a
14:10psychological void in the mind of these
14:14women. Something in their world shrinks
14:17physically as well when this whole
14:19mental thing starts happening. And along
14:22with this, there comes an emotional
14:23distancing that happens. Neglect may all
14:26not always appear to hostility, but
14:31uh
14:32lead to some kind of
14:34being quiet.
14:36Uh
14:37Uh so, uh in some cases, there is
14:40impatience or subtle disrespect that
14:43creeps into everyday interactions. The
14:46question
14:47that who am I now?
14:49is very pertinent and that is what these
14:53novels, both these novels, talk about in
14:56terms of nuanced understanding of these
14:58dynamics, which becomes essential to the
15:02understanding of how one ages into
15:04disability,
15:06and especially in the context of women,
15:08how older women uh experience uh
15:13the
15:14the process of aging in a particular
15:17society, in a particular family.
15:20Uh both the texts, uh, I will quickly,
15:23uh,
15:23use, uh, some excerpts from them and
15:26talk about the reflections. So, uh, when
15:29we look at the literary representations
15:32of aging, disability, and
15:33marginalization,
15:35what becomes striking is how the body
15:38itself becomes the narrative. Now, aging
15:42is not presented as an isolated medical
15:45event, but as something deeply
15:48intertwined with memory, gender, and
15:50social position. So, in Mai, l- Mai's
15:54life is shaped by constant caregiving
15:56and self-sacrifice. You come across,
16:00uh, her as somebody who has spent, uh,
16:04years and years tending service to
16:07everyone else, anticipating what someone
16:10wants, uh, some s- smoothing, uh, any
16:13kind of tensions that have come to the
16:15family, and absorbing the
16:17disappointments. Uh, but as she grows
16:20older, this exhaustion becomes more
16:23pronounced, more visible, accelerating
16:27how weak she is.
16:29And her aging body reflects that
16:32emotional and social burden very much.
16:36In
16:38the Tomb of Sand, we encounter an old
16:41woman moving toward a cold wall riddled
16:44with cracks. The cracked wall mirrors
16:47her aging body, fragile, fractured, worn
16:51down by time.
16:52The coldness of the wall suggests
16:54isolation, emotional distancing, and a
16:57withdrawal from warmth and engagement.
17:00What is particularly telling is how, as
17:02she ages, she shifts towards the margins
17:05of the domestic space she once
17:07sustained. The movement towards the wall
17:10feels like shrinking, just as
17:12physically, but also socially. Her
17:16refusal to stand or sit properly, her
17:19bodily immobility can easily be read as
17:22a sign of weakness. So, in both the
17:24novels, we find that aging and
17:27disability are not abstract
17:30connotations. They are textured embodied
17:33experience, which means that the body
17:36has experienced the process of aging in
17:39both the novels.
17:42Uh
17:42this is one concept I think is important
17:45to talk about in the discourse of aging
17:47into disability. What is embodied
17:49vulnerability? It refers to how
17:52fragility, aging, illness, grief,
17:55exhaustion are experienced and
17:59expressed through the body. So, for
18:01instance, aging may show up as trembling
18:05hands, slower walking, and joint pain.
18:08Now, grief may appear as sleeplessness,
18:11loss of appetite, or a stooped posture.
18:15Exhaustion may manifest as chronic
18:19fatigue, headaches, and irritability.
18:22Illness may shape daily routines like
18:25medication schedules, mobility
18:27restrictions, and increased dependence
18:30on aids help. So, if you look at all
18:33these points,
18:35they are experiences of the body.
18:39But, vulnerability is not this.
18:42Vulnerability is not simply weakness or
18:45loss of agency. As age-induced health
18:49challenge intensify and make this
18:52vulnerability more visible, often
18:55altering how the individual is perceived
18:57and treated within the family and
19:00society is what embodied vulnerability
19:03means.
19:04Meaning that all these symptoms that
19:08happen through the process of aging
19:11makes you vulnerable within the space of
19:14family and society. That is what it
19:17means. Now,
19:20additionally, when you think of
19:23uh the
19:24grief quotient within
19:27uh this, which I think is
19:29extremely important a point, you find
19:32that grief is not only in tears. So, it
19:36can be sleeplessness, like I said, it
19:38can be loss of appetite, or a stooped
19:41posture. So, the body starts signaling
19:44that it has endured more than what it
19:46should, and suddenly illness reshapes
19:50itself through the body. So, that is
19:53what you come across when you think of
19:56embodied vulnerability, especially uh in
20:00the context of old age.
20:02Now,
20:03I'm picking up a quick
20:06continuation of what I said earlier. So,
20:09the body is never just flesh and bone.
20:13What is it? It is shaped by expectation.
20:16So, if you go back when I was talking
20:18about social model of disability, I said
20:21that a certain kind of role is attached
20:24for
20:25the body's present. In this case, the
20:28aging body is getting, in some way,
20:32incompetent according to the social
20:34norms, social construction of how how
20:37bodies are. Therefore, in many
20:39societies, women are expected to
20:42continue care giving despite illness.
20:45So, when you uh think of embodied
20:49vulnerability, so
20:51vulnerability is also hidden, denied,
20:54sometimes dangerously ignored. Why?
20:56Because older adults are often expected
20:58to adjust quietly, to not complain, to
21:01not disrupt, to shrink their needs along
21:05with their mobility.
21:07Now, their vulnerability becomes
21:09something to manage privately rather
21:12than something family collectively
21:14holds. And then, we must think about the
21:17larger system. Modern society celebrates
21:20speed. To be valuable is to be working,
21:23earning, multitasking, and producing.
21:26So, you have quite a few things that are
21:30defining your productivity, which means
21:33that if you are constantly active, that
21:36is where your rhythm of the body lies. A
21:39dependent body becomes burdensome in a
21:42system that worships independence.
21:46But perhaps embodied vulnerability
21:48remind us that care is not optional. It
21:52is rather foundational. That
21:54interdependence is not failure. It is
21:57human. That slowing down can expose the
21:59myth that worth equals productivity. Is
22:03it is about visibility of pain, of
22:06endurance, of resilience. And when it
22:08trembles, slows, or aches, it is not
22:12simply breaking down. Rather, it is
22:14telling a story.
22:16Mai, in that sense, is
22:19a classic case of how she has suppressed
22:22her own needs for the family. And
22:26towards the end, you will find that her
22:29exhaustion is visible. And she's frail,
22:33and her movements are slow. And
22:35therefore, aging confines Mai to the
22:38margins of the household, signaling the
22:40erosion of her bodily autonomy and
22:42social utility. She's neither socially
22:46supposedly useful, nor she can do much
22:48of
22:50anything. And therefore, her physical
22:52incompetency interrupts the repetitive
22:55caregiving roles expected of her,
22:58asserting subtle agency through the
23:00body. And that's why, you remember I use
23:02the phrase her
23:04I mean getting rid of the life. So
23:06age-related decline heightens her
23:09vulnerability, making the family acutely
23:12aware of her physical limits and
23:13emotional exhaustion. So her
23:15deteriorating body
23:17reflects the cumulative cost of gender
23:19ex- expectations. So a woman who was
23:22holding her family at some point of time
23:24together, looking after just everything,
23:27the daily chores, the problems people
23:30had, the daily demands, expectations,
23:32now with health challenges exposes the
23:36systemic operation that has happened to
23:38her over a period of time.
23:40Similarly, in Tomb of Sand, we come
23:42across mother's aging body
23:44reflecting grief and loss,
23:47physically withdrawing from household
23:49roles while carrying the emotional
23:51weight of widowhood. So she has become a
23:54widow and she doesn't want to do
23:56anything further. She's taking a
23:59withdrawal from everything that she was
24:01responsible for, and we also find that
24:04health-related changes slow her
24:06movements,
24:07the daily rhythms, creating a disconnect
24:10from what society expects in terms of
24:14productivity and meaning-making of an
24:16individual.
24:18Her body limitations disrupt normative
24:21framework, rendering her less readable
24:23to family and society, challenging
24:25expected performativity. And this whole
24:30idea in which her body is kind of giving
24:33up leads to a physical decline and in
24:37which she refuses and resists rapid
24:40restoration to functional roles while
24:44needing explicit verbal defiance. So
24:47when you see the age-old deterioration
24:51surfacing the vulnerability that shapes
24:54family interactions, eliciting care,
24:57empathy, and awareness of her dependence
24:59while questioning establishing
25:01hierarchies, you find that the
25:04the children who have become caretakers
25:08are now looking after her. But, here is
25:11the paradox.
25:13Vulnerability here generates new forms
25:17of visibility.
25:19In my, vulnerability exposes the quiet
25:22gendered labor in Tomb of Sand,
25:25vulnerability disrupts normative
25:28expectations of mourning and aging
25:30femininity. In both the texts, the
25:34female body is not just
25:37declining, it is speaking and
25:40challenging
25:41the demand for constant emotional
25:44visibility. Thank you so much.