The Dark Holds no Terrors

Shashi Deshpande ji is undoubtedly one of the most prolific writers in Indian English literature.Her novels seriously deal with the genuine troubles,hurdles that a women come across in her life and hence her novels are mainly centered around female protagonists.The novel is a powerful portrayal of one woman's fight to survive in a world that offers no easy outs.In this novel 'The Dark Holds no Terrors',Deshpande ji becomes a ventriloquist when Sarita,the central female protagonist narrates the bleak part of her life and we as readers are bound to fall sympathy with her in this regard.The lines''Why are you still alive....Why didn't you die?'' addressed to Sarita by her mother after her brother Dhruva's death are heart-warming;it is such a painful reality to bear that a mother in a family is so possessive about her son and on the other hand treats her daughter as a burden,almost as a commodity.Therefore without knowing much she accuses her daughter Sarita of killing her brother Dhruva which actually was an accident(Dhruva fell into a gutter,a well in a marshy land).The sense of a false guilt haunts Sarita throughout her life because after that incident her mother never used to talk to her much and later on her death bed also didn't mention about Sarita.Sarita's marriage life is unhappy,her adjustments with her husband Manohar is not right because she wants a room of her own,she believes that something concrete,effective in life can be done even without getting married.The derogatory position of women as a whole in our society is very well reflected in the novel which draws the readers attention. Dhruva can do something good than her testifies the fact that he is a boy and hence he can do,while Sarita is a girl and hence she can't.The discrimination is terrible and it shatters Sarita;she often thinks about her birth,why did she come to this earth if her parents were so indifferent about her and wanted to talk about her marriage only because they felt it their responsibility to ler her off.Although Sarita returns to her father's home in order to escape the nightmarish brutality inflicted by her husband upon he,yet she gets no peace.The spirit of feminism is wonderfully highlighted in this novel;Deshpande ji perhpas tried to convey the message that there is much more to life than dependency upon mariage,parents and other such institutions....very true.After reading the novel,the effect of the events and incidents lingers on and on and on and ultimately binds the mind...leaves gasping for breath.