THE SELF AND THE OTHER IN GIRISH KARNAD’S WEDDING ALBUM (Pages 54-65) by Mrs. A. Vijayarani* and Dr. Catherine Edward** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Wedding Album (2009) googles into the personal diaries of all the characters, reading hidden urges, private afflictions and subterranean desires of them and it is irreverent, subversive and radical, revealing the Indian middle class family as never seen, felt or breathed before. While highlighting the social implication of an arranged marriage between ‘suitable expat boy’ and an Indian Dharwad girl, Karnad unravels the anxieties and resentments of the characters. They face anxiety in their conflict between being true to their ‘real self’ and ‘the other’ i.e the social self, and this conflict widens the gap between younger and older generation. Older feel defunct in the new technological turmoil and the younger are buffeted by aspirations to easy prosperity and the notions of sexual freedom, dreams and phantasms. The ‘self’ of Vidula is not for marriage and the ‘other’ agrees for it. The ‘self’ of her wants to enjoy physical, erotic pleasures but the ‘other’ maintains spiritual outlook. Rohit’s ‘self’ longs for Isabel and his ‘other’ lives with Tapasya. Vivan reveals his erotic ‘self’ to Hema whereas his own parents and the others are familiar with his ‘other’– i.e a sincere, Indian School boy. Ashwin being frustrated with the emptiness of U.S life, returns to India with the aim of reviving cultural values by marrying a girl from Dharwad, India where the innocence, purity and spirituality still survive. But to his shock he found India becoming ‘The Walmart of spirituality’. (8.81). Ashwin has been faithful to his ‘other’ but at the end he realizes and wants to be true to his real ‘self’. Throughout the play we find the ‘other’ reveals the ‘self’ more intensely; the ‘self’ becomes more visible by the ‘other’. Karnad conveys that this dual nature is inevitable. The characters are sandwitched between the demands of the modern world and the age-old values. ‘Wedding Album’ stands as a incomparable delineation of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in the backdrop of globalization and technological progress.edding Album (2009) googles into the personal diaries of all the characters, reading hidden urges, private afflictions and subterranean desires of them and it is irreverent, subversive and radical, revealing the Indian middle class family as never seen, felt or breathed before. While highlighting the social implication of an arranged marriage between ‘suitable expat boy’ and an Indian Dharwad girl, Karnad unravels the anxieties and resentments of the characters. They face anxiety in their conflict between being true to their ‘real self’ and ‘the other’ i.e the social self, and this conflict widens the gap between younger and older generation. Older feel defunct in the new technological turmoil and the younger are buffeted by aspirations to easy prosperity and the notions of sexual freedom, dreams and phantasms. The ‘self’ of Vidula is not for marriage and the ‘other’ agrees for it. The ‘self’ of her wants to enjoy physical, erotic pleasures but the ‘other’ maintains spiritual outlook. Rohit’s ‘self’ longs for Isabel and his ‘other’ lives with Tapasya. Vivan reveals his erotic ‘self’ to Hema whereas his own parents and the others are familiar with his ‘other’– i.e a sincere, Indian School boy. Ashwin being frustrated with the emptiness of U.S life, returns to India with the aim of reviving cultural values by marrying a girl from Dharwad, India where the innocence, purity and spirituality still survive. But to his shock he found India becoming ‘The Walmart of spirituality’. (8.81). Ashwin has been faithful to his ‘other’ but at the end he realizes and wants to be true to his real ‘self’. Throughout the play we find the ‘other’ reveals the ‘self’ more intensely; the ‘self’ becomes more visible by the ‘other’. Karnad conveys that this dual nature is inevitable. The characters are sandwitched between the demands of the modern world and the age-old values. ‘Wedding Album’ stands as a incomparable delineation of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ in the backdrop of globalization and technological progress.Keywords: Real self-inner self, the other-social self, technological turmoil, globalisation, sexual freedom, degeneration of values, dual nature-modern and age old values.