Inspiring Woman Of The Day

Shashi Deshpande’s writings never fail to reach out and touch the deepest corners of readers’ hearts.

Shashi Deshpande was born in 1938 at Dharwad district, Karnataka. Her father Shriranga was a celebrated writer and dramatist. Well educated Deshpande, with three degrees in various fields such as Economics, Law and Journalism published her first works in the year 1970. From then on she has been continuously writing in varied genres including fiction, children’s books and short stories. Her most important works are That Long Silence, The Dark Holds No Terrors, The Binding Vine, A Matter Of Time and In The Country Of Deceit.

Her writings are simple and often focus on issues concerning middle class women whose lives are entrenched in sorrow, suppression and dilemma. Her stories are cathartic in the sense that they voice the lives of so many suffering women who have no say in this world. “I never decided that I was going to become a writer, it was never a conscious decision,” she says but we are all only too relieved and thankful to have such a gem of a writer.

The book That Long Silence garnered her with the Sahitya Akademi and Nanjangud Thirumalamba awards. She is also a recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award.

Why we find her inspiring:

– For raising concern for the drudgery of millions of middle class women in India through her fiction

– For being such a versatile and motivated writer throughout

Suggested Reading:

http://www.accenture.com/Microsites/vaahini/centre-stage/Pages/a-passion-for-words.aspx

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/finding-ghosts-in-people-heads-shashi-deshpande-ships-that-pass/1/212933.html

*Photo credit: The Hindu.

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