When I read Shashi Deshpande’s novel That Long Silence in the first year of my graduation, how little had I known about its depth other than pure academical intentions. I thought of that novel on and off over the years for some purpose or other.
That Long Silence is not an imaginary story. It is a story that happens in every middle class and educated Indian woman's life. The Indian women in this era are born at a time when there is much awareness about her rights, liberty to express her ideas, freedom to enjoy finance and the chance to stand for a cause. Still… they have a tradition of silence to continue!
This silence is not visibly forced upon them but something to be knowingly followed. The conditions may be different from family to family, but as Jaya in That Long Silence, at some point women are forced to be silent in all families.
The protagonist Jaya is an educated middle class woman who lives with her husband Mohan and their kids Rahul and Rati. She is the typical Indian middle class woman in the present century, caught in between her realizations and the restrictions. Her father brought up Jaya as an "individual", who has the rights in the society irrespective of gender. When she thus assumes her role in the society, this upbringing still looks strange in front of the family she married into.
Immediately after her graduation Jaya gets married and steps into her role as a dutiful wife, affectionate mother, "carefully being" dutiful to her in-laws…. to Aa, Ajji, kaka and her relatives. Her husband Mohan also plays his role as a dutiful Indian husband and never looks up to consider any imperfections in the life. As time goes Jaya's dutiful behaviour to Mohan and his family becomes a routine.
Jaya ponders throughout the novel for her role clarity, her life or is she living for someone else! She searches her identity as an individual and where her emotions are getting subdued! She, a failed writer and who had been forced to change her name as "Suhasini" in marriage, get haunted by memories of the past.
In the meantime, Mohan leaves home due to his failure in career and to avoid the situation of "two bullocks yoked together." By the end of the novel Jaya gets back to her destined role, being present to the happiness of the family and ready to subdue her emotions.
That’s what finally happens, right? Conciliation with your destined role!! Many of the readers can identify with one or other situation of Jaya’s story in your own life. You may find happiness or peace there but the silence will continue to echo!
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