Snared in the Political Web of Patriarchy
Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay
NAMASTE SAMTHAR by Maitreyi Pushpa Rajkamal Paperbacks, 2021, 160 pp., 199.00
October 2022, volume 46, No 10

This Hindi novel is a recent composition of the renowned Hindi novelist Maitreyi Pushpa who is widely known as the author of Idamnamama (that is, Idam Na Mama or ‘It is not mine’) and Chaak (Potter’s Wheel), and many other novels. She also made news with her subversive autobiographical narratives and is known as a feminist novelist who has based her writings on women’s issues. Therefore, it is to be expected that the present novel would also revolve around such a theme. It is the story of an idealistic woman in a medium-sized town enmeshed in the web of political intrigues.

Kuntal, the female protagonist, is a literary person who has been in reciprocal love with the part-time narrator of this story, Krishna Bihari Shrivastava, who becomes a Hindi teacher in a school. Shrivastava develops cold feet, distances himself from the love affair, and gets into a conventional marriage within his caste with a girl of his parents’ choice. Kuntal is left alone to fend for herself.

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