Dr. Sapna Dogra
Pitch-perfect Novella of a Woman Appropriating her Identity | Introspection - Sandhya Joseph
Sandhya Joseph is a writer who typically investigates the many and varied shades of emotional complexities inside human interactions. She prefers simple everyday characters and their stories rather than pursuing stores of epic proportions of universal strife. Her characters go through a breakthrough as they witness epiphanic moments of self-discovery and agency. Introspection is a searingly powerful, tightly constructed novella that explores issues of patriarchy, flawed conjugal relationships, indifference to women’s labour, women’s identity in the modern world and the place of art and writing in society to bring about a change. The novella employs dramatic monologue as a technique to tell the story of a woman who despite living in a stifling patriarchal set-up manages to assert her identity and selfhood. The introduction tells us,
The author has tried to incorporate the following features of the dramatic monologue form into this novella:
1. A character utters a long narrative that makes up the entire literary piece.
2. This character (narrator) interacts with or speaks to another person. This listener’s voice and comments remain unheard by/unknown to the reader.
Clues about who the listener is and what he/she may have said is provided in the narrator’s “monologue” itself.
3. The text ends up revealing the narrator’s true temperament and “character.”
The listener character here also functions as an avatar for the reader himself/herself. That is, the reader can imagine that the protagonist is directly having a conversation with him/her.
The novella opens with the narrator Nirupama inviting her friend and the readers into her home and her life’s journey.
It’s you, sister! Come, come in. No, don’t bother to remove your chappals. You don’t have to leave your chappals outside the door. Why should you, my friend, worry about such formalities? (3)
She begins narrating her life story. She tells that being an “upright, beautiful, obedient daughter” (6), she had a conventional childhood. She does lament the fact that things are changing and the society she dealt with was rather conservative.
Now things are changing in this city we live in. Women have become bolder, more assertive; they are demanding and have more control over their individual lives and sexuality. (7)
She was privileged enough to have a college education, being a single girl child. But her mother was conservative. Having “limited agency and influence” (11) over her life she regrets that she didn’t rebel more. She settles for an arranged marriage with Roy.
The ‘boy’ who had come to see me was a bit too fat and his teeth weren’t right. His manners were rather pompous; now and then he’d casually say something to belittle my father and pretend to be unaware of it. I did not find Roy attractive in any way. . . What was I to do other than trust my parents’ wisdom and experience? Perhaps a girl in this position today would speak up, would resist. But I am still not sure if I really had a choice. Could I have refused to marry Roy? Truly, I don't know. (10)
Finding no place in her husband’s heart she was relegated to the corner of his bed, with a mechanical physical relationship.
Within minutes I’d hear him snoring away, while I’d lay awake overpowered by a sense of empty disillusionment. It was all so mechanical, so functional. There was no compassion, no passion (13).
Mother in law’s tongue was “spiteful and sarcastic” (14). She was made to feel small and belittled like a “permanent live-in maid”. Living in times when “divorce was virtually unheard of” (15). Her life changed after her children. She distracted her from the arid and mundane life imposed on her. Trapped in a loveless marriage, bound by “social conventions” (20). A twist in fate brings her financial freedom. Roy never appreciates Nirupama’s body and self. He is blatantly dismissive of her. Not that she lets go of her conservative upbringing but she begins to see things in a changed light after her children are married. She finds her catharsis in writing that exhibited “independent thinking” (32)
The novella is predominantly narrative. I wish it had more dialogues by Roy and Dolly. Roy’s character could have been fleshed out to give more credibility to his erratic behaviour with Nirupama. Their conjugal discord is intriguing and saddening at the same time. While Roy never treated her with respect, she also draws pleasure in deliberately not attending to his likes and dislikes and bemoans her “unforgiving heart” (34).
The book is well brought out with hardly any errors. The title is apt and the cover is interesting.
There is a glossary of non-English words. The best thing about the book is the language used. The word choice and lucid language are a bonus. All in all, it’s a fairly decent thought-provoking read.