Desai's Vivid Portrayal of How Dreadful This Moment Is in the Life of the Accompanist

Anita Desai vividly conveys the dreadfulness of this moment in the accompanist's life using diction, metaphors, rhetorical questions, interior monologues, punctuation and short sentences. She uses all these to portray the intensity of the unpleasantness and terror felt at this point by the accompanist. The story is written in terms of the first person that is to say that the accompanist seems to be the narrator. This is done to show that the accompanist is expressing his true thoughts.

The use of strong words like "assault" to refer to the conversation that had taken place, clearly depicts the effect of it on the accompanist. when he is told that he could have been an ustad himself and that he had wasted his time and life with ustad Rahim Khan, he exclaimed that he had been "assaulted" referring that he had been violently by the his friends. This exaggeration shows the dreadfulness of the moment.

Moreover, the narrator metaphorically says "I felt as if they were climbing on top of me, choking me, grabbing me by my hair and dragging me down" to depict the uneasiness, the pain and fear felt by the accompanist on realizing or being told that he could have done something much better with his life and that he had wasted his talent. The metaphor gives as a horrid picture of what the accompanist is feeling show the fear felt by him of the moment.

Much more, he felt that their words were "blows" for him. The idea of him becoming the an ustad and getting away from Rahim Khan was an "assault" he said, it was unrealistic for him, how could he move leave his God, the person who had put his faith in him, his true 'love'. The author uses short sentences to clearly state all the point of the argument and strength the speech, to show how serious the accompanist about his loyalty and this moment. The author also uses many commas, dashed and full stops to slow down the reading pace and hence introducing the element of sadness, pain and sorrow that the accompanist feels at this point.

Moreover, the accompanist's reaction during the event where he "pushes aside the table and cups and plates" and "runs out" shows the doleful, melancholic feeling felt by the accompanist. He does not wat to accept that he could also become an ustad and that he had wasted his life with ustad Rhim Khan. I find it astonishing that how could one be so loyal to another person, who does not even like to talk to him properly.

Although throughout the story he is praising his relation with ustad Rahim Khan but at this point he is found to be confused and questioning himself. The author shows this using rhetorical questions like "could I have played the sitar myself?"

"and become an ustad Myself?", "were they right?", "had I wasted my life?". These rhetorical questions show the accompanist's confusion and intensify