Uma Parmeswaran’s Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees: A Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Uma Parmeswaran was born in Madras, India in 1938 and was raised in Jabalpur. She did her graduation from Jabalpur University and post-graduation in English from Nagpur University. She was a Fulbright Scholar and did M. A. in Creative Writing from Indiana University. She did her Ph. D. in English from Michigan State University in 1972. Her research areas are Literature of Romantic period, Post-Colonial Literature, Gender Studies and South Asian Canadian Literature. She holds the prestigious position of the Regional Representative, National Council of the Writers Union of Canada. She started her career as newspaper reporter in India later she went to Canada. There she introduced various aspects on Indian culture not only to the Indo-Canadian youths of Winnipeg but also to the people of other countries. Her plays were published in Canada as well as in India.  She has tried to show many aspects of diasporic sensibilities. She has been taking keen interest in bringing forth Indian culture and heritage to the students of Winnipeg for the last many years. She has presented the cultural values of Indian diasporic families in her most of her plays. Though she lived in foreign countries yet she could not forget her own culture and tradition. Now she is regarded as one of the most prodigious authors who have written on the cultural aspects of diasporic families of India. She has written plays from the cultural standpoint. Her plays depict the plight of the people in economical and emotional situation of the immigrant families who migrated to Canada in the latter half of the 20^th Century. She has presented the cultural the alienation, assimilation and marginality. The objective of this research paper is to analyze her plays from cultural perspectives of the families living in Canada and the problem of their life in adjusting themselves in a new environment.