Vandana Pathak

Sudha Murthy: Study as a Novelist

History of Indian Fiction in English Many Indian Male

Novelists Many Indian Female

Novelists Toru Dutt Arundhati Roy Shobha De Jhumpa Lahiri Manju Kapur Anita Nair … and Sudha Murthy

Sudha Murthy Literature with ‘L’ and literature

with ‘l’ Sudha Murthy as a Novelist and

Bio Note Her Oeuvers: How I Taught My Grandmother to

Read Something Happened On The Way

To Heaven The Old Man And His God:

Discovering the Spirit of India The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk Wise & Otherwise Gently Falls The Bakula The Accolades Galore

The Bird with Golden Wings: Stories of Wit and Magic

Dollar Bahu Grandma's Bag Of

Stories (Children's fiction) The Magic Drum And

Other Favourite Stories (Children stories)

House of Cards The Mother I Never

Knew (Two Novellas)

Characters

“For me Writing is like breathing.” Middle Class in India, Modern Educated Women Protagonists, Economically Independent, Independent Outlook, Conscious of Their Identity and Place in

Society,

Characters

Her characters are her

“mental daughters who live with me for two to three years, go wherever I go and whom I bid a good bye after the work on the book is over”

(News: My Characters Are Like My Mental Daughters: Sudha Murthy, August 30, 2010/PTI, Bangalore).

Gently Falls the Bakula

Husband Wife Relationship, Deals with how the single minded ambition of

one partner can spoil a beautifully nurtured relationship,

Shrimati-the Protagonist is torn between her duties as a wife and her desire for a career-plight of a middle class woman,

Dollar Bahu

Gauramma is the Mother-in-law, Jamuna is her Dollar Bahu, her simple bahu daughter-in-law Vinuta. Gauramma is a greedy woman. Has three children Chandru, Girish and Surabhi, Lives in a small house in Bangalore with her husband Shamanna. Chandru, the eldest son, is settled in America and is married to Jamuna,

only daughter of rich parents. Girish the second, is a bank clerk and married to Vinuta, Vinuta is a sweet young woman who works hard day and night and is

perfect in household duties and her duties to her mother-in-law. But between Jamuna’s Dollars and Vinuta’s selfless devotion, Gauramma

always finds her favour with the Dollar and ignores what is truly priceless – Vinuta’s devotion and selfless love.

Mahashweta

Anupama happily married to Ananad-a fairytale marriage,

Develops a white patch-on arm and foot, It is leukoderma, She is abandoned by her husband and in-laws, Returns to her natal home in village, Social stigma, barbs and ostracism, Thinks of suicide, Vows to rebuild her life,

Female Characerts

Three Types:

The Sufferers

The Oppressors

And the Helpers

Elaine Showalter’s

Three Phases in

Feminist Tradition: Limitation Protest And Self Discovery

Myths(Each myth/tale has to be decoded)

Gently Falls the Bakula Bakula-its freshness, whiteness and its lasting

fragrance even after it is wilted, Dharmashastra and Bhamti-Both Srimati and her

husband interpret it differently, perspectives differ, Drinking of Halahal by Shiva-swalloing of all

insults by Srimati,

Myths in Dollar Bahu

Dollar as the new Myth

Sage Kashyap and his two wives-Vinuta and

Kadru,

Vinuta’s son is Garud and he fetches nectar after

100 years,

Myths in Mahashewta

Mahashewta –the novel in Marathi by Dr. Sumati Kshetramade and it deals with the issue of leukoderma,

Story of Banabhatt and his Kadambari, Love of Princess Mahashweta and hero

Pundarika, Rohini and Chandra, Lakshmi and Narayana, Allusion to Swapna Vasavdutta,

Interwoven Motifs

Realistic Portrayal, Women who shoulder

responsibilities and never run away from them,

Love, Marriage, Human Relationships-

Hisband-wife, with MIL,SIL and others,

Sacrifice,

Patriarchy, Pygmalion Complex, Suffocation, Submissiveness, Monotony, Male Domination Loss of Individuality, Oppression, Male Child Preference, Motherhood/ Barrenness,

Interwoven Motifs +

Self Respect, Quest for Identity, Empowerment, Status and Position as a

Woman, Values, Resilience, Individuation, Women in Various Roles, Woman as a Human Being

and Not a Sex Object,

Subjugation, Envy, Ambitions, Possessiveness, Power, Money/Greed, Generation Gap, Attraction of Foreign

Countries/Lure, Double Standards, Hypocrisy, Marginalization,

Interwoven Motifs +

Education/Learning/ Career,

Marriage as a Commitment,

Inner Conflict, Disillusionment, Dissolution of Marriage, Stereotypes, Brain Drain, Inner Strength, Deeep Psychological

Trauma,

Class Conflict, Lust/Passion, Stigma, Gender Bias, Existential Predicament, Loneliness/ Alienation, StagnationTradition Vs.

Modernity, Stagnation, Women as Rebels, Self Will,

Feminism

Theories of Feminism,

Waves of Feminism,

Liberal Feminism,

Radical Feminism,

Psychoanalytical Feminism,

And Indian Feminism

Western Feminists

Daly Mary: Beyond God the Father, Elaine Showalter: Towards A Feminist Poetics, Kate Millet: Sexual Politics, Betty Friedman: The Feminine Mystique, Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch, Simone De’ Beauvoir: The Other Sex, Virginia Woolf, Sherry Ortmer, Barbara Christian, Lilian Rubin,

Indian Feminists

Tarabai Shinde,

Kamla Das,

Gauri Deshpande,

Amruta Pritam,

Kamla Bhasin,

Vidyut Bhagwat,

Conclusion

Her women characters are of two types: the women who are willing to

submit before custom bound restrictions of matrimonial life and the

women who when humiliations and injustices seriously do affect their

self respect, do not hesitate to rebel and revolt.

 

Conclusion

Sudha Murthy creates a problem for her women

characters and makes them strong enough to fight

against it and carve a niche for themselves or create

their own space. The ability to tolerate, accommodate

and also absorb their own cultures being conscious of

their Indianness marks her protagonists as special.

Conclusion

In her analysis of post-modern dilemma of

women characters, she concentrates on their

achievements of education, career of women

and the problems they face outside the

threshold of their homes in basically male

dominated social set ups.