The Thousand Faces of Night: Review

Pulse

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 16:46

The celebrated Gita Hariharan's debut novel Thousand Faces Of Night can be seen as the depiction of a single face of thousand lives. It is the face of thousand of Indian women who are caught in the 200-year-old customs and traditions. The novel has the smell of our mother and grandmother's laps and their weak fingers will once again soothe our tired forehead as we go through this novel.

The novel is woven around three generations of women-Devi, Sita and Mayamma. The novel brings forth the idea how despite the generation, background and the education that an Indian woman attains, her fate is to fall back into the century old customs at least to a small extent. The Indian society demands at least a pretension from their women that they are obeying the centuries old routines.

When Devi returns from her education at America, tradition and the old order of things are ready to reclaim her into an arranged marriage. As she gets exasperated with her pompous husband Mahesh, she learns the vital duty of any Indian wife- pretend to be a good wife; pretend to love entertaining your husband's family and friends, pretend that you are never sick or angry.

Devi learns the vital duty from her old family retainer Mayamma, who got married when she was still a girl to a drunken husband and abused by mother-in-law, husband as well as her own son. She advises Devi that the key to marriage is the ability to endure—and go on..

Devi's mother Sita follows this theory well in her life. She sacrifices herself to the Gods of reason, order and progress. All through her life, she fulfills the role of a dutiful daughter, dutiful wife and dutiful mother. Despite her daughter's western education, she is able to take back her daughter into the Indian culture with these qualities.

The novel clearly gives the idea 'A woman meets her fate alone'. However it leaves behind some questions that are unanswered. Will this situation ever change? Are women helpless preys to their conditions? What is the way out of theses dilemmas? The questions remain unopened as explosives.

With a poetic, measured and teasing language Gita Hariharan has created a profound novel. The writer tells in an exclusive interview to Oneindia.in that the novel came to her as a gift. This novel is strongly recommended for any Indian women who are experiencing similar fates in their lives.