remain in the family now. Her family.”7
Manorama emerges as an insecure woman in the novel. She represents the domineering woman who takes the traditional superior place of her husband. She breaks the image of suppressed wife. Both Kalyani and Shripati are forced into a loveless marriage by her. It is a clear dig at the conservative society where marriage and son are the only things that matter. Through the portrayal of the second generation pair, Kalyani and Shripati, Deshpande depicts the predicament of women who are confined in the framework of traditional marriage and lead a life of self-denial and suffering. Kalyani’s life is an example of forced incompatible arranged marriage in which a woman has to suffer endlessly. Even if marriage fails in giving happiness of any kind to woman, it is preferred because it gives a security and a sense of dignity to woman in society. Kalyani is the only daughter of her parents. She is not allowed to complete her studies because marriage is the main consideration for her mother. She has to accept her uncle as a husband in order to prevent the property from going away in the hands of others. This is the main reason of “the hopelessness that lay within the relationship, that doomed it from the start” (p.143). Manorama’s bitter attitude towards Kalyani gets soft when Kalyani gives birth to a son. But this child turns out to be mentally retarded. Kalyani’s real tragedy begins when her four-year-old son, Madhav ,is lost at railway station