Chapter - I

INTRODUCTION

Namita Gokhale was born in Lucknow in 1956. She

spent her childhood between New Delhi and Nainital, and the
areas around it. When she was only eighteen, she was married

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to Rajiv Gokhale. Her first publication was the film magazine
Super, which was published from Bombay in late seventies. It
also attracted criticism for the explicit depiction of sexuality.
She came to light after the publication of Paro: Dreams of
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Passion in 1984. This fiction is a satire upon a certain class of
people living in and around New Delhi and Mumbai. Elite class
received it with much admiration. A lot of critics failed to
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admire her first attempt as few episodes involving sexual
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activities were frankly depicted in this novel. In this novel Paro

is seen chasing pleasure by entangling affluent persons in the
society. She entice and entangle them one after the another and
leads lustful life, enjoy their company and exploits them. She
ultimately meets her tragic end. But on account of her nefarious
activities Priya looses her husband and adopts Paro s way of
life. The novel was applauded by many for the reason that
readers love to read bare-facts of life with interest and
sympathy.
Even the London Magazine remarked: Paro is a
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magnificent creation.

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 Unfortunately, Namita Gokhale fell seriously ill.
Shortly, afterwards her husband died. But she endured the
bereavement courageously. After recovering from illness she set
forth to write her second fiction Gods, Graves and
Grandmother (1994). This is the story of Guidya and her
almost aged grandmother (Ammi), who, along with Guidya s
mother, fled from their small town to the suburb of a Delhi. It

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was of course, on account of, some scandal and disgrace they
had to suffer in their original place. Ammi setteled along a
solitary roadside corner in the suburbs of Delhi and gradually
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became a famous Bhajan singer. Subsequently, temple was
raised and various devotees permantally started to live and
function as astrologer, beggar, merchants selling flowers and
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other pooja items around the temple there. After few years
when the temple became a famous religious site, one night
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Ammi was found dead. Gudiya and the persons concerned were
dejected and disappointed. Her devotees however, gracefully
buried her remains. Later on, Gudiya married with Kalki who
later on, deserted Gudiya with her infant. Tradition,
superstition, trade, intrigues & muscle power among the greedy
devotees ruled the scene there after.
The experience of love and passion, illness and
death, has shaped Gokhale s work. For the author, the act of
writing implies not only a therapeutic act, but also a general
expression of experience in various spheres of life of different
characters of her fiction. Her every book is written very

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 sincerely, studded with the facts and also certain amount of the
paranormal activities, because the aim of the author is to
harness a way of seeing things beyond her own limitations and
expanding the limits of the reader s assessment. There is
element of surprise and suspense to make the text interesting.

A Himalayan Love Story, 1996, trails the lives of

Parvati and Mukul, both of whom grew up in the Himalayan

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town of Nainital. Parvati is trapped in an unhappy arranged
marriage with Lalit and she is finally caged up in a mental
asylum. Her former lover Mukul flees from his home where
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restrictive and conservative atmosphere prevailed among his
family members and was not congenial for him. He lands in
Hong-Kong and joins a lucrative job and marries with a
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foreigner girl. He after a few years however, only returns in his
middle age to fulfil the last wishes of his former teacher in his
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hometown, and to search for the unrequited teenage lover

Parvati. This is a wistful tale, beautifully written. As, has been
stated in a review of the book:
A Himalayan Love Story.. flits by you with
all the softness of a Kumaoni shadow yet
stays within you with the shy resonance of
leaves falling on a sunlit hillside.. Gokhale s
characterisation is so powerful and real, it
seems the writer has a stealthy knack of
almost whispering in your ear as you read
along, without the subjects ever intruding..

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 The best writers live in the real world of
fiction. Namita Gokhale seems to have
moved in a long time ago.2

Namita Gokhale has become a renowned fiction

writer. The very fact that a renowned publisher like penguin has
published most of her books which speaks about the quality and
popularity of her works.

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Her next novel- The Book of Shadows (1999) is an
ambitious account of life that explores the nature of reality, love
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and faith. It tells the story of a young university lecturer whose
fiancé has killed himself. Thus, Anand s sister makes her
responsible for the incident and takes revenge by deforming her
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face through an assault with acid. Rachita learns to endure her
pain and agony by shifting in a remote house of her relative at
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Ranikhet. The violent and tragic tale of the former inhabitants

of the house that is revealed to her by the old rustic and faithful
servant, Lohaniju. This grotesque tale is intimately and vividly
narrated.
While living amidst the cool, beautiful, grand
splendour of nature, the author has been a witness to several
exciting and interesting events that occured in the residence of
Ranikhet. Here the author speaks through Rachita. There is also
a glimpse of few rustic, honest, hardworking, loyal but
economically weak natives. They follow their abiding tradition,

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 customs and deities and reside within the compound of the villa
Rachita has occupied.
The author has repeatedly shown her several
characters live in the same villa, enjoying, lurking and working
around the places situated in Kumaun hills of Uttarakhand,
wherefrom she hails. The descriptions of the natural beauty of
her dwelling place also provide a feel of fragrance of the hilly
environment to its readers.

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Among the three non-fiction books written by the
author. Mountain Echoes (1998) is a book of biography
narrating the reminiscences of a generation of older women
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living in the Kumaun hills. They are shown contributing to the
welfare of the society in their own way. It is a recollection of
various important anecdotes of their life, which also influenced
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the local society of their time. These four talented and highly
individualistic ladies belonged to the families of upper middle
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class and were known locally to everybody. These ladies affirm

the strength and vitality of Kumauni culture and its tradition.
This is a fascinating document of change and continuity,
recounted with wit, humour and honesty.

The Book of Shiva (2001), is an erudite and

impassioned narration of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva who is
found presiding among all other deities of Hindu mythology.
Shiva is the Destroyer and the Protector, Supreme Ascetic and
Lord of the Universe. He is known with different names and can
adopt different forms such as Ardhanarishwara, half-man and

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 half-woman; and also as Shiva-Shakti which is a reconciliation
of male-female polarities; He is also Neelakantha, who drank
poison to save the three worlds, and yet, when crazed with grief
at the death of His wife known as Sati, set out destroying the
offender . Shiva holds within him the answers to some of the
greatest dilemmas that have perplexed mankind.
Namita Gokhale is a literary genius who has written
about the twelve Jyotirlinga worshipped at different places of

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our country including the famous temple of Lord Shiva at
Kedarnath situated in Chomoli district of Uttarakhand state but
has omitted to mention famous and age old temples of Shiva at
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Bageshwar and Jageshwar. Her in depth study about Shiva is
admired greatly among the English language lovers as a rare
book available on the subject. This is a stupendous effort of the
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author not attempted by any of her contemporary writers.
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Gokhale s recent book, Shakuntala: The Play of

Memory (2005), first appeared in Hindi translation before its
English edition was published. The plot is inspired by the play
Abhigyana Shakuntalam, written in Sanskrit by the great Indian
poet Kalidasa in ancient times. This is the story of a young
woman who learns through a blind priest about the mystery of
her former life, to which she promptly come to terms with
accordingly. It plays with the recurring theme of memory and
desire. More than one critic to Hermann Hesse s Siddhartha has
compared it. Once again, Gokhale links a woman s tragic love
story to religion, which is also a part of country s history and

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 philosophy. Accordingly, she recalls, that she herself was
Shakuntala spirited, imaginative and adventurous but destined
to suffer the samskaras of abandonment also. It is her original
work based on a historical context.
Shakuntala is suspicious and jealous about the
fidelity of her husband, Srijan. Consequently, he brings another
woman in the grab of a maiden to assist her. Shakuntala
assumes the identity of Yaduri, the fallen woman, who deserts

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home and her duty for the sake of the company of a Greek
traveller whom she meets on the banks of river Ganga. They
enjoy their journey together up to Kashi, and on reaching there,
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Shakuntala surrenders to a world of pleasures. She enjoys
complete freedom from the rules and bonds of society to which
she aspired. But subsequently, restlessness and frustration soon
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compels her to forsake this world. As has been stated in a
review of the book:
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A hauntingly beautiful book.

The Telegraph has also remarked about it as:

Original and heart-rending, Shakuntala
enthralls in its vivid portrayal of the tragic
life of a woman whose desire to live on her
own terms is thwarted at every turn by
circumstance and the age in which she lives.
Namita Gokhale combines her extraordinary
gift for storytelling with history, religion and

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 philosophy to craft a timeless tale that
transcends its ancient setting.4

Namita Gokhale, a well-read person, excels in the

craft of fiction. However, regarding her depiction of Indian
woman in her fiction, question has often been raised. It can be
admitted that every Indian woman does not behave like Paro,
Priya and Shakuntala but the old order is almost dead though

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the new is yet to be born fully. When critics discussed this
novel in various seminars, naturally they analyzed her art of
narration, her understanding of human nature, her portrayal of
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contemporary society, her language, her literary background
and her faith in the future.
Like Henry Fielding, she knows the importance of
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genius, learning, conversation and capacity to feel. Due to her
natural talent she knows how to analyze people of different
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nature i.e. she possesses the skill of invention as well as the

sense of judgment. She creates wonderful situations out of
common stuff of life though she selects and describes every
event meticulously. Secondly, she continues to enhance her skill
to depict the characters of different moods, circumstances,
events, according to the demand of plot or fiction .She is master
in the art of narration as well as expression. Thirdly, being a
journalist, she regularly meets people from the different
sections of society and listen to their problems and solutions
thereof. Being the product of Kumaun region she herself
intimately knows the traditions and rituals of the people of the

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 area. She understands the urban people along with their
limitations, anxieties and stressful living. Fourthly, she loves
her characters whether they are good or bad, just like a mother
who, blindly, bestows equal love to all her children but
deprecates their misconduct. Like G.B. Shaw, she is not
prepared to write only for art s sake alone. Her ethical purpose
is always clear though she can t be called a propagandist and
iconoclast. She has explored new realm of experience and

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revealed imaging deaths and frivolities of human consciousness.
Like Pope, she writes satires on the follies, vanities
and whims of the people she depicts in her novels. Like Charles
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Dickens, Thackeray and Meredith, she also describes the
miseries of poor people. She has thrown light on the deepest
recesses of the mind and depicted psychic processes with
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remarkable art and skill. As an awakened citizen and alert
journalist she raises her voice against corrupt Indian politicians
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as they promise to accomplish a lot but fail to carry out their

promises and do little or no constructive works in public
interest. There is no denying of the fact that she understands the
miseries of ignorant, uneducated and poor Indian woman who
have almost no support from any corner. Quite often her female
characters have to face atrocites and dishonour and are bound to
face problems to protect their dignity and honour throughout
their entire life. Further, there is also another lot of women
coming from affluent families who avail all type of modern
comforts and are indulged in frivolous talks and are vulnerable
to lead immoral way of life. Vinay kripal aptly remarks:

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 Namita Gokhale exhibits an ideology of a
sub-culture of North Indian upper middle
class women, those who need to kill time in
dinner parties, gossip about the shared
secrecy of sexual escapades look at woman s
world with a vacillation between the woman s
authoritarian world view (feminine) and
being an object of man s world. (unlike

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Shourie Daniels), she uses a fictional device
to exalt woman s ideological world view
based on her reflexive action in areas of
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sexuality, security and economic needs by
using the fictional voice of molestation and
that of authority in the Edward Said context,
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transforming it, however, in terms of the
feminine point of view. The author s voice of
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authority is embodied in the protagonist

character. Paro and the voice of molestation is
embodied in the narrator s voice who is not
completely adsorbed of the male-oriented
socio-economic world view.5

After her husband s death she fell ill and was

confined to bed for almost two years. She had to look after her
two young daughters. Simultaneously, she was bound to fulfill
her commitments to society and family. The agonies of life
have made her tough and like Santiago, the hero of The Old

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 Man and the Sea she accepts that one can be destroyed but
should not be defeated. After a storm trees also take deeper
roots. Merely, worrying is the misuse of imagination. As the
Hebrew sage Hilel has rightly said:
If I am not for myself
Who will be for me?
And if I am not for others,
What am I?

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If not now when?

Inspite of all hurdles and miseries, she has learnt to

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survive in this cruel and vicious world. Her pathetic condition
resembled to the description by the poet W.B. Yeats:
So, like a bit of stone I lie
Under a broken tree
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I could recover if I shrieked,
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My heart s agony.

The author is a lady of great gifts due to her mental

strength she prepares to struggle for her future. Pain has became
a part of her life but she endures it quietly. But she gets
optimistic and determined to proceed ahead in the moments of
turmoil. And consequently, she enriched English literature with
her books of fiction that followed.
Under these circumstances one can rely on the
maxim that life is not a bed of thorns but also a crown of roses.
After all, how truly, John.A. Shedy has remarked:

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 A ship in harbour is safe but that is not
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What ships are built for.

Moreover our illustrious poet Shri Rabindranath

Tagore has already told us:
You can t cross the sea by standing and staring
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At the water in the beach.

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Namita Gokhale after her recovery from the crisis
came forward to write her works because she has infinite
passion for writing and her efforts speak about it in shape of the
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books that followed. Perennial flow of creativity cannot be
withheld forever as happens in the case of the water in great
rivers of the world. She is a gifted and artistically rich novelist
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who makes a vital and significant contribution to English
fiction.
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Traditionally an Indian woman is placed in second

position to her husband because she remains directly under the
guardianship of a male person since birth to her death. Without
male shelter women is vulnerable to the criticism and
suppression by the male dominated society. But at the same
time women are held in a great esteem in our country they are
termed as Devi by man provided they do not flout the age-old
traditions and customs of the society. But in the garb of
protection, women are deprived of the privileges to education
and other civil rights even granted by the laws of our land. This
situation has naturally excited the author and accordingly, her

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 women characters are inclined to deviate from adhering to the
male supremacy in Indian society as is apparent from the main
female characters acting insurgently namely Paro, Priya,
Rachita, Shankuntala occurring in her famous novels. They
have kept themselves at a respectable and almost independent
place and seem advancing towards achieving emancipation
individually. But most of them come from the upper middle
class. She has not written as much for the emotionally,

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economically, socially downtrodden women languishing in the
lower or lowest level of society, as yet.
Namita Gokhale also has natural, irrepressible
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ability to write. She has the talent to sort out her plot and
characters in the society around her to which she is fully aware
of. Regarding her approach to art and innovative ways Vinay
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kripal remarks:
That is what happens to a writer who
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says something new in an innovative

way. That is what happened to
Hemingway when he became famous
first in France rather than in the U.S.A.
what is important is that Namita Gokhale
has something to say; her Indian
reviewers fail to recognize the technique
which her compulsive readers explain as
the appetite for a conceptual text peculiar
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to woman s mind.

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 Namita Gokhale has her own vision of an ideal
society, an ideal person, an ideal nation and an ideal world.
Like Emily Bronte, she is visionary:
Silent is the House - all are laid asleep;
One, alone, looks out o er the snow wreaths deep;
Watching every cloud, dreading every breeze
That whirls the wildering drifts and
bends the groaning trees.

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Cheerful is the hearth, soft and matted floor;
Not one shivering gust creeps through pane or door;
The little lamps burns straight, its rays shoot strong
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and fare;
I trim it well to be the Wanderer s guiding star.11

Namita Gokhale is the guiding star to her readers

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and they get solace and delight in moments of restlessness from
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her novels and short stories. Like Rabindranath Tagore, she has
positive vision towards life and relates pain with pleasure,
beauty with ugliness, action with inaction, evil with goodness
etc. as they can t be separated from each other.
The rich
Will make temples for Shiva,
What shall I,
A poor man,
Do?
My legs are pillars,
The body the shrine,

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 The head a cupola
Of gold,
Listen, O lord of the meeting rivers,
Things standing shall fall,
But the moving ever shall stay.12

In the post independence-era Indian English fiction

enriched by various renowned Indian writers. To mention few

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among them.
Mulk Raj Anand, a product of Ghadhian-era wrote
extensively about atrocity faced by Indian people under British
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Raj and existence of various social evils rampant into the Indian
society.He showed a strong antipathy for British imperialism.
R.K. Narayan draws true image of India .He wrote
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in the backdrop of a simple, agrarian town of Malguddi,
inhabited by rustic villagers and a few government servants.
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Love, sex, and tradition, sometimes superstition is portrayed.

The pen picture thereof, has been beautifully and realistically
drawn.
Rabindranath Tagore a luminary of Indian literature
also contributed in the field of novel writing, which depict
social conditions prevailing at that time.
Bhabani Bhattacharya, wrote on Indian socio
cultural setting his novels are written in first person narration.
Nassim Ezakiel who is a poet also, wrote about, the
immediately and directly related environment of his time.

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 Khushwant Singh wrote novels decorated with a
dose of sex and romance and is still contributing an interesting
description of our social activities.
Raja Rao presented Indian sensibility in most of his
novels consisting events of pre Independence era.
Ruskin Bond scantly produced novels. It contained
a tinge of longing for some one lost and revelation of few
events influencing a persons life such as romance, corruption in

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the field of education, untouchablity, universal brotherhood and
love without commitment.
Among the women novelist Nayantara Sahgal wrote
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on human situation in contemporary society and a lot about
politician, businessmen and bureaucrats. She is the supporter of
individual freedom.
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Kamala Markandaya, wrote on the themes to lash
between westren eastern values, middle class respectability
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and Indian village life.

Anita Desai wrote about women oriented novels
with reference to the impact of westren culture on our eastern
one. She has made interesting presentation of inner experience
of a woman.
Shobha De and Arundhati Roy wrote about the dark
acts of sophisticated class and also about the fast growing
materialistic attitude of contemporary society.
It is a fact that every successful writer writes on
being influenced by the social, political, economic,
psychological and several other factors in the society, which

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 excite or influence her. Writer s increasingly grow in
understanding and awareness and thereby become susceptible
to, or get inspired to pen down their reaction on particular
aspects of incident attracting their concern and about the
characters acting therein. This makes naturally a difference in
the assessment of their quality and achviement in the art of
novel writing. Hence a comparison between any of them seems
not wholly justified enough.

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Yet looking at the works of Namita Gokhale
critically, we can say that she is a versatile writer for she has
tried her hand on non-fiction also. She has described about the
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rich businessman as well as the people struggling hard to earn
their living .She has also given place in her fiction to the middle
class people with their frivolities and limitations. She has also
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touched class consisting Tantriks and Pandits who earn by
befooling the people vulnerable to follow such tricks in the
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name of religion, spirituality and tradition. She has written

about the western culture and vain traditions followed by them
in India. She has not merely discussed incidents but has also
carefully ensured that such imitation and growth is not forever.
What goes up will come down and this compels its reader to
prospective thinking and proceeds on towards positive side.
Her literary works are like a mirror before the entire
society, which tells us that no man can become wise by chance.
They have to work hard and shun the unbridled pleasure and
move forward in positive direction for a fruitful result. Thus,
her works are like a flower with fragrance. Her fictional works

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 is gripping and enthralling and contain many complexities but
expressed in a natural way. She writes about the cross-section
of society western and eastern, and this is enough to proof that
she has achieved literary maturity in a short span of time.
Her language and description is lively, sometimes
humorous, pathetic, romantic and entirely attracting. She writes
about infamous characters and also about sacred European
priest. Her style is spontaneous and a mixture of fiction with

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real life.
Namita Gokhale s fiction describes women with a
view to protect her pride and dignity. There is expression of
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genuine affectation among the characters having similar
conduct, which make the atmosphere of the plot or the story
thrilling yet appealing. Her works are exemplary. Namita
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Gokhale advocated for leading a life of virtue and righteousness
but she has not tried to impose her findings by sermonizing to
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its readers in any way .Her such attitude matches to the saying
that giving a fish to a person will eat it one day but telling him
how to successfully fish out, he can eat it everyday. Therefore,
she has attained a conspicuous and distinguished place in the
literary world.
Thus, Namita Gokhale is one of the significant
writers of this century and can be ranked with V.S. Naipaul,
Khushwant Singh, Nina Sibal, Shashi Deshpande, Shobha De,
R.K. Narayan and Bhabani Bhattacharya. Dr. Rashmi Gaur
aptly remarks:

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 ............ Namita Gokhale emerges as a
committed feminist author. She has
successfully portrayed the insensitive
fatality of options, which the society has
cringingly given to its women. Even though
she is unable to develop a decisive stand on
these issues, she has successfully recorded
and documented the hopes and fears, the

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concerns and tensions of the contemporary
educated woman and therein lies the success
of the novel.13
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Namita Gokhale being herself a literary personality
has rendered a great service for counting upon the women of
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importance and relevance, so far, unsung, in the days gone by.
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