Picture Credit - Amazon
Introduction
Book's Name - That Long Silence
Author's Name - Shashi Deshpande
Genre - Fiction
Language - English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
This is a story of Jaya, a girl born in the middle, she was very genius, curious and bright when she was very young. Her grandmother always encouraged her to act conventionally, follow traditions, engage in household works, just for the sake of a good husband when she grows up.
She always tries to train her in cooking, keeping quiet even when she disagrees, making a good impression on others to help her in future. She was a very creative writer who used to write in her leisure time but she failed to become a successful author and grew up with the suppressed desire and unconscious silence that emerged inside her.
She learns to hide herself and her individuality. Only Jaya's father encouraged her to write and he tries to break her silence, after her college she got married with Mohan who was very successful and had a reputed job.
In her relationship there was no space to express her point of view. They shifted to Bombay, and had two kids Rati and Rahul. She takes care of her household and the kids.
One day her husband Mohan is suspended from his job due to misconduct and an inquiry has to be established in this offence. They both have now faced a drastic situation. It stands to see as to what will happen next in this story.
About the Author
Picture Credits - New Indian Express
Sakshi Deshpande was born in Dharwad, Karnataka(1938). She was the second daughter of her parents, father kannada dramatist and writer Adya Rangacharya and mother Sharda Adya. She belongs to an upper middle class family.
She studied in Mumbai and Bangalore for her law and economics degree, she also studied journalism from Vidya Bhavan and worked for a couple of months as a journalist in a magazine named Onlooker.
She is one of the finest writers of Indian contemporary literature. She was married in 1922 to Dhirendra H. Deshpande who is a medical doctor in a G.S. Medical college and have two sons, Raghu and Vikram living in London.
She is also a normal house wife with no career who was restless being a housewife and a mother. She gets alone and isolated with no friends in London, when they returned to India her husband stimulated her to write about her experiences. Hence, leading to the making of her first book ‘The Legacy’.
She published her sorry collection in 1978 with her first novel ‘The Dark Holds No Terror’ in 1980. She won the Sahitya Academy Award for her novel ‘That Long Silence' in 1990 and was also awarded the Padma Shri award in 2009.
Her novel was shortlisted for Hindu Literary prize in 2014. Some of her works are: If I die today(1982), Come Up and Be Deed(1983), Roots and Shadows(1983), The Intrusion of other stories (1993), A Matter of time(1996), The Binding Vine, The Feminist Press at CUNY(2002), Small Remedial (200), Moving on(2004), Shadow Play, Aleph(2013), Strangers to Ourselves(2015).
Her children books are Summer Adventure, The Hidden Treasure, The only witness, the Narayanpur Incident. Her work centers around women's lives and status in Indian society her targets are Indian marketplace.
About the Book
This book portrays a realistic view of unavoidable silence of middle class Indian women and a true feminist condition, hope ,fear , aspirations frustration. For This book Sashi Deshpande won a Nobel prize in 1990.
The book displays a general situation of every middle class educated Indian woman , a story of every woman who was born in this era of awareness, freedom, their own rights, financial freedom, liberty and authority where silence still continues and exists.
This book consists of the main character Jaya who lives with her husband Mohan and two kids Rahul and Rati, her sister Kusum and brother Ravi. When you read this book you can easily relate it with your surroundings and the flow of this book is great, you are really going to enjoy it.
Famous Quotes
"Things can never be as they were.it's astonishing how we comment on change ,as if change is something remarkable.On the contrary,not to change is unnatural,against nature"
"Surely there comes a moment in every human's life when he of she says,like the sibyl-I wish to die "
"It's not just that life is cruel ,but that I. The very process of our birth we submit to life's currently"
" A women can never be angry;She can only be neurotic, hysterical, frustrated"
Self-Analysis
In this 21st century we all are still living in a traditional society. Indian women are still manipulated and socialised towards the prospective and are not able to express their own self. A woman's family is supposed to be everything for her apart from dreams and desires.
Cost and value of dreams seems less in front of family and their nurturing. Most women face a problem in their relationship because of this and suffer from an identity crisis.
The Bottom Line
“When I was child, film music was considered so outre that it was banned by radio. Looking back, I realized it was part of the pseudo-puritanism of that time, just after Gandhi's death; those lilting songs were enjoyable and frivolous -therefore wicked.
Perhaps it was this that made the whole business of listening to them-from radio ceylon-such a shameful and furtive affair. Yes, it had to be furtive , for my father whose own taste in music had been austerely classical ,had despised my addiction to the called 'that disgusting mush'.
He had tried best to wean me from the habit , to make me love Paluskar and Faiyaz Khan instead of Rafi and Lata; but he had failed.”
"Those women were sitting on the bare ground, right in the dirt, mind you, not even a bit of newspaper or a mat under them. Just sitting there on the ground like beggars. Imagine Jaya, people like us in that situation! "
My rating for this book - 4.4 out of 5
Get your copy from Amazon - That long Silence
Written By - Shiva Mohini
Edited By - Umme-Aiman
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