A comprehensive review of Asif Currimbhoy's The Doldrummers: Post-Independence Disillusionment and the Battle for Identity.

HUMANITIES

Asif Currimbhoy's play The Doldrummers (1960) investigates the lives of four Anglo-Indians embroiled in a worthless struggle for survival that eventually results in their unhappiness with the society they live in. It is divided into two acts and four scenes. These characters' lives have been influenced by an ever-present colonial hangover that prevents them from constructing their own identities as individuals. A sense of discontentment and despair were brought on by their inability to succeed in both their personal and professional lives. Their unethical lifestyle—which stems from a lack of direction in life—is the cause of the downward spiral that unfolds. In the Bombay suburbs, shack dwellers lead a life marked by poverty, disagreements, minor indulgences and loves, all of which are masterfully shown by Currimbhoy, who successfully conveyed the true essence of humanity. Basic human emotions and relationships are the focus of the play. In The Plays of Asif Currimbhoy, P. Bayapa Reddy writes in her diary, "It (The Doldrummers) deals with the problems of youth in today's western-oriented society and depicts a life of sex and illicit drinks through a set of degenerate characters." After rearranging the word "doldrums," which describes a state of passiveness, Currimboy produced the term "doldrummers." The word "inactivity" in the play's title corresponds to the main characters' state of being comatose. Since the shack dwellers are fundamentally human, Currimbhoy acknowledges that the main reasons they have are sex and food, two basic human needs. Despite Rita's intermittent emotional eruptions, they follow their gut sentiments

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