We see Indian women writers like Shashi Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Kamala Das and Shobha De, just to name a few, who hold their own in the woman writer's world of initial rejection, dejection, familial bonds, domesticity and whatnot. It is amazing to note that these writers and many more have climbed the ladder of success the slow and painful way. Arundhathi Roy's phenomenal success took everyone, including herself by surprise. After all, she did admit that she had just been "fooling around" on her new computer and that it took her at least five months to realize that she had a story, let alone a novella in the making, though she had always known she would be a writer.
Shashi Deshpande, on the other hand, started out just like any other starry eyed young writer- in- the making. Like innumerable potential women writers she began her work with national magazines such as Femina and Eve's Weekly, slowly branched out to more serious literature oriented magazines such as The Illustrated Weekly of India, The Junior Statesman and so on. She has also mentioned that writing is a gift, sometimes like a fountain that spouts out words. Although she had the writer's gene in her system she has had her share of writer's block too. There have been times when she would not be able to write even a paragraph! According to her, writing is more like a 'patchwork quilť. Bits and pieces come together at odd times and places and finally merge as a sequenced whole.
Kamala Das, the controversial writer who had her feet firmly on the ground and could get to the brass tacks in no time at all. She had a child marriage and three children followed. Her husband agreed that she should follow her instincts and in the process, augment the family income. But being a woman, however, she could not enjoy a regular morning-till-night working schedule. Her writing schedule was, on the contrary, a night-till-morning affair when the family had all gone to bed. Her working table was the kitchen table where she would cut up the vegetables, get the table cleared, and then, start typing. Though this working time-table reflected on her health, it did give her time to manage a home as well a woman's idea of an essential pre-requisite for a job.
These women writers have given literary work in India an unmistakable edge. They are able to sensitively portray a world that has in it women rich in substance. Their women are real flesh-and-blood protagonists who make you look at them with awe with their relationships to their surroundings, their society, their men, their children, their families; their mental make-ups and themselves.
Now writing in India has not been treated as a medium for entertainment alone. We have a vast storehouse as far as non-fiction is concerned. Women writers in India do not merely write jet-set tales of intrigue and fantasy. Shobha De has moved away from the beaten path and has actually undertaken a serious analysis of the man-woman relationship in marriages. She has made certain insightful comments that will do the average Indian woman a lot of good. For instance she advises that a woman ought to announce to her partner right at the beginning of the relationship that she too has a set of priorities and prerogative other than him because men don't like to be taken by surprise.
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