The Theme of Loss and Grief in Shashi Deshpande's Small Remedies

A writer throws light on the darkest aspects of life and motivates the reader by projecting the human realities through their fictional characters. Success and failure are the part of impermanent life. Have we ever tried to analyze the struggles and challenges behind one's failure and success? In a patriarchal society, women have to undergo multiple struggles and challenges and require an indomitable spirit to quench her thirst of success. It is highly important to analyze the psychology of women in her loses and happiness. As a woman novelist, Shashi Deshpande novels mostly centered on Women's lives and their challenges to survive in the Indian society. The female protagonist in Small Remedies has gone through several loses and grief beyond her success. Other women characters also built their strong identity after crossing all the barriers and awakening the collective consciousness.


Introduction
The present research paper intends to study women's life, their loses and grief beyond their success and identity with the reference to Shashi Deshpande's Small Remedies. The characters in the novel are facing heavy loss and grief beyond their success and identity. This could be seen in the three important women characters Madhu, Savitri Bai and Leela. In reality, human builds a strong personal identity after facing several struggles, sufferings, agony, several loses and grief. Although they win in the end, one can't deny that they haven't had any loses in their past. Especially for women, it takes long time to reach the top and she has to cross through the barriers to reach. Shashi Deshpande novels represent the ultimate epitome of women's grief behind the success. Savitri Bai obsessed with the music. She had a successful career. Through her life, we could know that gross gender discrimination prevails in the field of classical music as well.
When Savitri Bai wished to play the tabla, her grandfather refused it. Girls were restricted from playing musical instruments. Savitri Bai's struggles were expressed in this novel: " How much longer it takes for a woman to reach the top, how difficult it is for her to break through the barrier to get there."(224) She had to face many struggles to come up in her life. She gained popularity and reputation in her music profession but not in her personal life. When Madhu was asked to present Savitri Bai's biography as a heroine, she refused to write.
Instead, Madhu reflected her as daring independent nature that makes to seek her own identity and elope with a Muslim the tabla player. Savitri Bai had a sheltered life in her childhood and also as a daughter-in -law in a Brahmin family. Later, there were several gossips about her personal than career life. She was hurt when the grandmother asked her to stop singing immediately in her family gathering scenario.
Savitri Bai didn't express and reveal about her personal life which had pain and grief.
It is unclear about Munni and her relationship with mother. However, as a reader, one could understand how much pain and struggles she would have faced attaining her identity as 'singer'. It is not easy for an Indian woman in 1980's to come up on the stage. If someone is really famous in the media, her virtue was tested. Savitri Bai deserves to be appreciated for her talent and guts. Gender discrimination in a society exactly puts the female down in spite of her dedicated hard work and talent. She was neither allowed to choose her life partner nor career. Savitri Bai had been highly criticized by the society and family for eloping with her lover a Muslim -tabla player that disturbed her psychologically. Our society was so conditioned as to categorize women as immoral and slightest deviation in their past from the normal course of behavior (Amarnath, Vol.2 ). Madhu realizes that for a man( her father) was acceptable for the way they live by breaking the conventional rules indulging themselves in drinking alcohol and having immoral conduct.
Even Savitri Bai's grandfather breaks the orthodoxy. Women should not live her life on her own. Through this novel, Shashi Deshpande expressed the lack of female's identity and freedom but culturally man has: "Being a man he could get away with much; He could live the way he wanted to without open censure or disapproval."(139) Society plays an important role in assigning women rules and roles. In our Indian society, each family had its place marked out for it according to religion, caste, money and family background (Jasbir Jain).
Society and its dimensions on women had greatly impacted the lives of Savitri Bai, Madhu and Leela. Imposing certain rules and customs will make their condition worsen. It added fuel and the grief more.
Although Leela was a widower, she has been criticized for having the second marriage with Joe; Savitri Bai was also criticized for elopement. Savitri Bai attained huge famous in singing but lost respectability as a woman in the society. This could be firmly seen in Madhu's words: "In Neemagon, she was 'the singer woman' and there was something derogatory about the words, Yes I can see that now about the way they said them." (29) Savitri Bai had to endure great mental torture as she was treated like an untouchable among woman. However, her father-in-law never discouraged her from singing. The little freedom she enjoyed was a great cause for contempt and jealousy towards other women and they would throw caustic remarks on her way back from her music classes ( Amarnath Vol.2 ).
The stress and torturous experience that Bai has undergone is revealed in the following lines: "But the subtle cruelty of persistent hostility leaves deeper wounds. There is always the desires for the purpose of the family. At last, she also died. However, from the beginning to end she has been portrayed as Madhu's aunt who guides Madhu. Leela epitomized as courage woman. Madhu proudly acclaims that Leela was ahead not only of her generation but the next one as well.
Leela, a widower and social reformist in the political side gave higher challenges and pain. She lost her husband which added grief and sufferings more. Despite all struggles, she was projected as a warrior and reformer and won hearts of the people.

Madhu:
Madhu, a protagonist of the novel, struggles throughout her life and pinned with grief from childhood to adult. Since childhood, she was motherless and felt the longing for that.
Her father accompanied and has taken care of her. She was brought up with two male company, his father and servant Bala. After the sudden death of her beloved father, Madhu started to stand by her own. Her friends, Joe and Leela supported Madhu to overcome. she faced much crisis and loses side by side. As she grows, problems in her life also increased.
When joined an office in Bombay, she was tortured to Dalvis sexual harassment. She felt lonely and her mind suffered more. Her marriage relationship was happy for some time until the death of her son Aditi. Madhu was disturbed by her nightmares. She was pinned in grief and desperate when she innocently reveals about the relationship with a man at the age of fifteen. When she exposed Chandru's abuse, her husband Som reacted as " Tell me the truth, tell me the truth. (258)