Discussion for Teatime for the Firefly

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Start discussion here for Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel.

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Book Summary (from author's blog: https://teabuddy.wordpress.com)

Teatime for the Firefly is set in 1940’s India, a volatile and transitional time in the country’s fight for independence. It is the story of Layla, a beautiful and reclusive young girl who is astrologically doomed never to marry and Manik, a man whose career and arranged marriage are charted for success. Through their own manipulation of fate and the ensuing unpredictable turn of events, the couple marry and enter the colonial and sequestered world of British tea plantations where Manik becomes the first Indian tea planter.

We explore through Layla’s naïve and inexperienced eyes the little-known world of Assam tea, fascinated by the crossing of unlikely paths, contrasting cultures, betrayal and greed. Life is lived on the edge: there are floods, earthquakes, man-eating leopards and rogue elephants. Tea planters survive by their wits and their guns.

We meet an unlikely medley of characters: crusty British tea planters known as the Koi-Hai’s– the “iron men in wooden ships” –who braved the malaria-ridden jungles to grow the finest tea on earth, and the reckless young blood who were lured to Assam by the promise of big game hunting and pleasures of the flesh. But this colonial world is at a tipping point as tectonic political shifts rock the tea industry and Layla and Manik find themselves caught in a perilous racial divide that threaten their very lives.

Teatime for the Firefly is a story of adaptation, survival and the power of free will to shape human destiny.

I am the daughter of a tea planter and I grew up in a tea plantation in remote Assam. Teatime for the Firefly is a work of fiction but the characters and situations are drawn real life.


About the Author (by the author)

"I was born in 1959 and raised on a remote tea plantation in Assam, India. Tea culture was still very British colonial back then, and we lived in a massive bungalow with liveried servants and acres of rolling grounds surrounded by dense rain forests. There were leopards and wild elephants in our backyard! I have one older sister, and my parents, a quirky and free-spirited couple, brought us up without an ounce of discipline. I was an imaginative child, always trying to invent something. I made chewing gum from the sap of poinsettia plants, hatched baby lizards in a test tube and tended a tiny peanut farm, which did poorly as I periodically pulled up the plants to see if any peanuts were growing. The rest of the day, I climbed trees, stalked mynah birds with a homemade bow and arrows, and fished in tiny ponds with a bamboo pole and worms. My parents panicked when they found I was already ten and running around without a sum in my head so I was promptly packed off to boarding school like the other tea garden kids. In boarding school I got into all kinds of trouble for breaking rules and playing pranks on teachers. I flunked a year after selling my schoolbooks to buy samosas through the school janitor. Having survived boarding school I went on to college to graduate in English literature, and embarked upon by a long and exciting career in advertising and graphic design.

I came to America in 1994 after marrying my pen pal and ran my own graphic design business for several years. I launched a yoga t-shirt line, dabbled in ceramic art and sang with an award-winning chorus. Now I write full-time. My husband, Vinoo, and I live in Fountain Hills, Arizona. We are child-free and pet-free, although I did own a beta fish named Sashimi not so long ago who died of tottery old age. He is wrapped in sushi seaweed and buried in my backyard.

I am a wannabe chef, a die-hard tea drinker and a people person. Folks tell me I have a cocktail personality and I should do stand up comedy. I spend my days writing, cooking , dreaming….Stories buzz in my head and keep me awake at night. Drinking tea and writing. La Dolce Vita–who could ask for more? Cheers!"

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

Discussion Questions (from the author)

1. Teatime for the Firefly takes place during a transitional time in Indian society. How is this reflected in the female characters of Layla, Kona, Jamina and Moon who all end up with extremely different lives.

2. Manik Deb takes extreme actions to marry Layla, which results in his being disowned by his family and changes the course of his professional life. Was this kind of drastic measure necessary during those times or was it a reflection of Manik’s character?

3. The tea plantations of Assam in North-east India, the setting for Teatime for the Firefly is very much a character in the story. Do you agree?

4. The novel is set in a transitional time of India’s political history; Layla, the central character is going through her own personal transformation What are the parallels?

5. Manik Deb finds employment and a way to marry his love through the tea plantation. Despite not being friends, Mr. Sen stays for a cup of tea with the Rai Bahadur; Layla first gets Jamina to sit with her after offering her salted tea. What role does tea play in this story and in Indian culture in general?

6. Discuss the character of Jamina. An orphan sold by her stepfather to be a prostitute, she finds a sense of community and sisterhood with Layla that she never had before. But Layla is the only woman to extend her any kindness. How does the other wives’ scorn for her comment on female roles in Indian society of the era?

7. Initially Layla is uncomfortable managing the servants in the bungalow, but she eventually comes to seemingly embrace her role. What does this say about Layla’s upbringing and character?

8. Layla has a recurring dream of fireflies. Both Manik and Layla seem to have a fondness for fireflies, even being the inspiration for their daughter’s name. What is the significance of fireflies in this novel?

[Bonnie]

Diane wrote: "Discussion Questions (from the author)

1. Teatime for the Firefly takes place during a transitional time in Indian society. How is this reflected in the female characters of Layla, Kona, Jamina an..."

I am enjoying this book so far, although it seems slow and I tend to put it aside and read other books too. A lot is happening in history, but much of that is just noted in little sentences mixed in with pages of day to day kind of slow moving lives so far.

[Diane , Armchair Tour Guide]

1. Teatime for the Firefly takes place during a transitional time in Indian society. How is this reflected in the female characters of Layla, Kona, Jamina and Moon who all end up with extremely different lives.

Layla: Married for love instead of through an arranged marriage. Chose to have a wedding without many of the expected customary traditions. Well-educated during a time when it wasn't customary to educate females. Did not live with in-laws.
Kona: Still very traditional. Took role of subservient female. Arranged betrothals and marriage. Did not pursue education. Expected by family to follow traditional widow roles. In-laws took away children after her husband died. Seen as outcast by family after becoming a widow. Became a beggar. Decided to take her in-laws to court.
Jamina: Raised to be a prostitute. Married Englishman. Very backwards superstitious ideas.
Moon: Non-arranged marriage. Moved far from home.

2. Manik Deb takes extreme actions to marry Layla, which results in his being disowned by his family and changes the course of his professional life. Was this kind of drastic measure necessary during those times or was it a reflection of Manik’s character?

A little of both. He needed to find an honorable way to break his engagement with Kona, even though it wasn't necessarily a fool-proof plan. He bargained on the fact that Layla would want to become a planter's wife, which also was risky. He also had an adventurous streak that wouldn't work in an office job. Being a tea planter fit with this adventurous streak.

3. The tea plantations of Assam in North-east India, the setting for Teatime for the Firefly is very much a character in the story. Do you agree?

Yes. Assam at that time was a wild and remote part of the country. They had to contend with the dense vegetation, numerous animals, earthquakes, floods, and extremes in weather. The plantations were also communities with people from various social classes working toward the success of the tea plantation.

Need to finish the rest of the book to finish the rest of the questions.

[Vicky]

I'm not quite finished, but wanted to look at these two questions. I'll continue after I finish the story. It's a good book. :)

2. Manik Deb takes extreme actions to marry Layla, which results in his being disowned by his family and changes the course of his professional life. Was this kind of drastic measure necessary during those times or was it a reflection of Manik’s character?

I felt it was entirely necessary to maneuver the circumstances to make himself an undesirable prospect for a groom. The relationship as contracted was a valid legal business venture between families, with possible social & legal ramifications. By making himself of lower class financially & socially, he made it in the bride's Father's interest to see that the marriage not take place. As such, this was the only possible outcome for there to be "no harm-no fowl." I also felt it gave Manik a chance to avoid a confrontation that could become explosive in the community. The fact that his own family disowned him reveals the extent to which his whole family felt the weight of the change in brides.

3. The tea plantations of Assam in North-east India, the setting for Teatime for the Firefly is very much a character in the story. Do you agree?

I think so. The plantations even have names. Each one had different 'characters' as well as described by Layla as tidy, or neat, or unkempt... Definitely revealing attributes of personification.

[Vicky]

This was an incredibly good read. I've marked the spoiler.

3. addition: There is also the point in chapter 31 where the gardens are given body parts.

8. Layla has a recurring dream of fireflies. Both Manik and Layla seem to have a fondness for fireflies, even being the inspiration for their daughter’s name. What is the significance of fireflies in this novel?
I didn't get the meaning of the title until (view spoiler)[chapter 33 when the baby was born. I felt this was a meaningful way to resolve the protagonist's inner conflicts about the lily pond. She was, in a sense, making her own luck as Dadomoshai had suggested so many years before when she was 7. (hide spoiler)]

[Vicky]

Lost in Assam:

I've had a bit of difficulty following the precise cities throughout the story. Often Layla refers to a city as "the city where I lived." But, when places are named, I wasn't always able to pinpoint that locale on Google Earth. I'm listing the ones I did manage to find:

Silet in Bihar, India
Burisol near the Khulna Division
Mariani,Assam India

Some of the less clear locales were:
Silchar's or Sochar Station
Dega
Inakol Tea Farm (Unsure of the word I'm hearing since I had the Audible edition only)

I'm interested in your input on these names and locales, if anyone has ideas that are more clear than this. Also, I've posted a review here. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[PS]

Vicky wrote: "Lost in Assam:

I've had a bit of difficulty following the precise cities throughout the story. Often Layla refers to a city as "the city where I lived." But, when places are named, I wasn't always..."

Hi Vicky, Silchar is a place in Assam, so Silchar's station probably refers to the local train station. Dega and Inakol (or however you spell it) are tea estates in the novel – and most probably made up names. Hope that helps!

[Vicky]

Thanks Sofia. Yes, I was wondering how the tea farms were spelled because I had the Audible. Strangely, I just found Silchar with your spelling on Google Maps on my phone. Odd how Google Earth and Google Maps doesn't always yield the same search results.