Bapsi Sidwa’s novels provide a wide glimpse of the contemporary political situations and cultural life in the subcontinent. Her novel “Ice-candy man” clearly depicts that she had been a part of cultural multiplicity in the subcontinent. In the novel, she introduced herself as a little girl “Lenny” who was not mature by her age but still sensible enough to catch the whole plight of people belonging to subcontinent into her never-fading memories, not just at an interval level but also at an external point of life. She was accompanied by the people who belonged to different religions and they let her know about the changing circumstances of the subcontinent. In her novel, she has discussed different cultures. Through the depiction of the culture, she makes the reader clear to acknowledge the cultural harmony, cultural hybridization and cultural relativism that existed in the subcontinent at the time of partition. Through the way she highlighted the living style of people, one can interpret that she has also shown the element of cultural ethnocentrism.
Bapsi Sidhwa spotted the various elements of the culture in her novel. She herself belonged to the Parsee community, which was among the minor religions of the subcontinent. The different cultural elements like symbols, language, customs, traditions, food, festivals, etc of the people belonging to different communities provide us with the cultural differences in the novel.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Bapsi Sidhwa gives a number of references on cultural differences; on the other hand, she depicts the cultural harmony and the similarities of the culture among the various communities of the subcontinent. The cultural harmony is highlighted by how different communities used to gather in the park and gossiped. At the very start of the novel, Lenny presents the picture of the people who were seen commenting and flirting with Ayah, those people who belonged to different religions but their behavior was inclined toward homogenized culture. She also represented the harmony of culture in the village life also, when Lenny visited the village” Pir pindo” she described the way Muslims and Sikhs gathered to listen to the radio at Chaudhry’s place. The homogenized culture can also be seen when Lenny says Salaam-alekum Khan Sahib! Though Lenny belongs to the Parsee community but the way she greeted Sharbat khan represents the amalgam and mixture of two cultures. In contrary to this cultural differences among different communities can be drawn through the following elements of culture