mybookjournal

The reason why I love all Shashi Deshpande’s books is because I can relate to her writing so well. Her protagonists though traditional yet are rational and practical. They have a feminist undertone which some what makes the character very real and relatable to me though dwelling upon the past like all her protagonist do is not one of them. 

'Dark Holds No Terror' revolves around Sarita, a doctor by profession, an independent women, at least thats what she tries to portray but underneath, there is an emptiness in her which she is unable to fill. Is it not being a good daughter to her parents? or not being a good wife to her husband or failing as mother to children is one of the reason? She is unable to figure out. There is always something she is guilty of no mater what she does but she is not able to grow out of it. Perhaps to search that ’something’, one day Sarita leaves her husband, children, her profession and goes back to her maternal home. Wherein she is haunted by her mother's death as well as by her fathers silence. She dwells upon the past, how in her childhood days her mother used to accuse her of her brother’s death even though she was just a child then and how now she is unable to cope up with her husband and children with that past baggage. Yet, somehow she feels safe here at her maternal home, alone, at peace, out of all the daily chaos, with no one to interrupt her thoughts so that she could come to conclusion. Is Sarita’s journey to find herself is fruitful in the end? May be!

This was terrifingly dark and haunting novel. Though the narration used to jump from third person to first still it was not odd, i could go with the flow easily. May be i am accustomed to Deshpande’s writing!