Aditya Premdeep

Thoreau's corpus of writings celebrates nature and the natural. Nature, for Thoreau, is a spiritual vehicle and a living entity. He considers “man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society” (2000, p. 627). As a foundational text for environmentalism and ecocriticism, Thoreau's Walden (1854) accentuates the importance of nature as an inalienable entity for the human existence. His influential essay “Walking” (1862) demonstrates the significance of nature for the “physical, mental, and spiritual” well-being of human beings. Another essay “Paradise (to be) Regained” (1843) critiques the technological advancement at the cost of nature and manipulation of the natural ecosystem. This paper seeks to locate nature and the natural in the literary imagination of Thoreau's three influential texts Walden, “Walking”, and “Paradise (to be) Regained”.

Post LPG (liberalization, privatization, and globalization) phase the divide between poor and rich has increasingly widened specifically in the Indian cities. Mumbai is no different. In fact, indiscriminate industrialisation and urbanisation have sharpened the distinction. Indeed, some of the most expensive and luxurious housing societies coexist side by side with some of the most deprived and overcrowded slums in Mumbai. Futehally's novel Tara Lane shows this ambivalence of the Mumbai city very realistically. This paper makes an attempt to study the reconstruction of the contemporary city space and broad class division in the Mumbai city as portrayed in Futehally's novel.