Clear Light of Day Summary

Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light of Day follows the complicated relationships among the four Das siblings—Bim, Raja, Tara, and Baba—as a difficult childhood, family responsibilities, incompatible dreams, and Indian history bring them together and drive them apart over the course of their lives. The novel is divided into four parts; the first and last are set in 1980, and the middle two parts take place during the siblings’ childhood in the 1930s and 1940s, all in the family’s house on well-to-do Bela Road in Old Delhi.

In the 1930s and early 1940s, the children’s mother grows frustrated when Baba (who has a serious developmental disability) fails to develop at an ordinary rate. She brings her cousin Mira, a poor widow, to take care of her children so that she can focus on her card games and diabetes. Mira brings handmade toys, lovingly nurses the children through illness, and generally treats them like the center of her universe. She bonds deeply with sensitive Tara, whom the bolder, closer Bim and Raja tease relentlessly. While Bim and Raja excel at school, Tara struggles, withdraws into herself, and dreams of escaping. One day, a game of hide-and-seek tag brings Bim and Tara face-to-face with the well in the back garden, where the family’s cow once fell and decomposed. Another day, they sneak into Raja’s room, try on his trousers, and imagine having the confidence, power, and freedom that their society reserves for men. Later, on a picnic with the neighbors, the Misra sisters, a swarm of bees attacks Bim and Tara feels guilty that she can’t stop them. The Misra sisters get engaged, but Bim decides that she will never give away her freedom to a man through marriage.

It’s now the summer of 1947, and Bim is on the roof watching fires burn across Delhi from riots between Hindus and Muslims. She runs downstairs to tell Raja, who is bedridden with pneumonia and deeply concerned about Hyder Ali, the family’s landlord. After all, the benevolent landlord took Raja in after learning about his passionate interest in Urdu poetry. Due to the growing religious tensions, Raja’s father made him study English literature at the Hindu College instead of Urdu literature at the Jamia Millia Islamic College. The Das siblings’ mother suddenly falls into a coma and dies, Aunt Mira withdraws and descends into alcoholism, Tara spends all her time away from home with the Misra sisters and Bakul (her future husband, whom she has just started dating), and then the siblings’ distant father dies in a car accident. Suddenly, Bim has to take care of Raja, Baba, and Aunt Mira all on her own. Raja refuses to take over their father’s role in the family insurance business, but since it only consists of occasionally going into the office and signing papers, the manager Mr. Sharma agrees to give Baba the role instead. Meanwhile, the awkward Dr. Biswas tries to court Bim when he visits to check on Aunt Mira and Raja, but she rejects him. Tara marries Bakul and moves away, and after Hyder Ali’s family escapes to Hyderabad, Baba finds Hyder Ali’s daughter Benazir’s old gramophone in his house. After months of withering away, hallucinating, and tearing off her clothes in agony, Aunt Mira finally dies, and Raja recovers from his illness and suddenly leaves Delhi to go live with Hyder Ali in Hyderabad.

Skipping forward to 1980, Tara meets Bim down in the garden, reminiscing about her childhood and remarking how little the house has changed. Tara has just flown in from the United States with Bakul, who is the Indian Ambassador; in contrast, Bim has never married, still lives in the family house, and works as a history teacher at a local women’s college. She also takes care of the dog Badshah, the cat, and Baba. Bakul tries convincing Tara to spend the day visiting his family, but she prefers to stay at home with hers instead. She visits Baba, who still communicates through nods and gestures instead of words and spends most of his time listening to songs from their childhood on his creaky old gramophone. After the needle breaks, he throws it away and stumbles out of the house onto the road, but he sees a cart-driver whip his horse and runs back into the house, horrified. Bim gives a lesson to her students, and they all have ice cream with Tara, who remembers how their mother and father spent all their time playing bridge with their friends while their Aunt Mira raised them.

Bim and Tara go back through the Urdu poems that Raja wrote in school, and then Bim shows Tara a letter from Raja. Raja has inherited the house after marrying Benazir, and he promises never to sell it or raise the rent. Bim took such offense at this letter that she hasn’t spoken to Raja in years and doesn’t plan to attend his daughter Moyna’s wedding—which is why Tara and Bakul have come to India. Tara, Bakul, and Bim visit the neighbors, the Misra family. The two sisters and three brothers all still live at home, and all of their spouses have left them. While the brothers have spent their lives drinking heavily and launching a series of failed business ventures, the sisters have worked hard to pay the bills. Across the street, Hyder Ali Sahib’s old house is empty and falling apart—as it has been since he left shortly after India’s independence in 1947.

Bim still refuses to attend Moyna’s wedding, despite Tara’s best efforts to change her mind. Bim complains that Raja was “rich, fat and successful” when he last visited her and even brought them gifts they didn’t want, but in reality, she resents that her siblings live such easy, luxurious lives while she is still stuck at home, taking care of Baba and struggling to make ends meet. Noticing that Bim serves them leftovers and leaves the garden without fertilizer, while spending a fortune on books, Tara starts to wonder if she was wrong to always respect her sister’s competence and decisiveness. Realizing how their lonely childhood has made their adult relationships so bitter, Tara apologizes for not saving Bim from the bees and asks about Dr. Biswas (which offends Bim). But she points out that the house feels safe and welcoming now that Bim is in charge of it.

When a letter arrives from Mr. Sharma, Bim decides that she is going to sell off the family’s shares and refuses Tara’s advice to consult Bakul first. She starts treating Tara with cruelty, and then even tells Baba that he might have to move to Hyderabad with Raja—but catches herself, apologizes, and realizes that she loves her family but has to forgive them if she really wants to move forward in life. She spends all night throwing away old paperwork and finally tears up Raja’s letter. Tara’s daughters Mala and Maya arrive for the wedding, and Tara finally apologizes to Bim for marrying Bakul and leaving, instead of helping her take care of Raja, Baba, and Aunt Mira. They leave for the wedding, but Bim asks them to invite Raja to visit her. The novel closes with Bim attending a party at the Misras’ house, thinking about her family’s traditions and enduring connections, and resolving to grow back together with them.