Small Remedies

by Shashi Deshpande

Shashi Deshpande's latest novel explores the lives of two women, one obsessed with music and the other a passionate believer in Communism, who break away from their families to seek fulfilment in public life. Savitribai Indorekar, born into an orthodox Hindu family, elopes with her Muslim lover and accompanist, Ghulaam Saab, to pursue a career in music. Gentle, strong-willed Leela, on the other hand, gives her life to the Party, and to working with the factory workers of Bombay.Fifty years after these events have been set in motion, Madhu, Leela's niece, travels to Bhavanipur, Savitribai's home in her last years, to write a biography of Bai. Caught in her own despair over the loss of her only son, Aditya, Madhu tries to make sense of the lives of Bai and those around her, and in doing so, seeks to find a way out of her own grief.

Genres: Fiction, India, Short Stories, Literature, Indian Literature, Contemporary, 21st Century

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Novelist and short story writer, Shashi Deshpande began her career with short stories and has by now authored nine short story collections, twelve novels and four books for children. Three of her novels have received awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award for `That Long Silence'. Some of her other novels are `The Dark Holds No Terrors', `A Matter of Time', `Small Remedies', `Moving On', `In The Country of Deceit' and `Ships that Pass'. Her latest novel is `Shadow Play'.Many of her short stories and novels have been translated into a number of Indian as well as European languages. She has translated two plays by her father, Adya Rangacharya, (Shriranga), as well as his memoirs, from Kannada into English, and a novel by Gauri Deshpande from Marathi into English.
Apart from fiction, she has written a number of articles on various subjects - literature, language, Indian writing in English, feminism and women's writing - which have now been put together in a collection `Writing from the Margin.' She has been invited to participate in various literary conferences and festivals, as well as to lecture in Universities, both in India and abroad.

She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2008.

List of books by Shashi Deshpande

Dark Holds No Terrors (1982)
That Long Silence (1989)
A Matter of Time
Moving On
Small Remedies
Shadow Play (2013)
The Narayanpur Incident
If I Die Today
In the Country of Deceit
The Binding Vine
Ships That Pass (2012)
The Intrusion And Other Stories
3 Novels : A Summer Adventure, The Hidden Treasure, The Only Witness
Come Up & Be Dead
Collected Stories (Volume - 1)
Collected Stories (Volume - 2)
Writing from the Margin: And Other Essays

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite an interesting departure from my normal reading. This is literary fiction by an author who is apparently very well known in India, but practically unknown in the West. If marketed here, it would probably be called "women's fiction," because Small Remedies is a very introspective first-person narrative by a woman who has lost her son, and as she traces the histories of two other influential women in her life, while also unveiling all her other formative experiences, she ties a multitude of narrative threads together as a way of putting a coda to her grief and loss. It's the sort of story that, let's be honest, will appeal to women more than men, not just because it's mostly about women, but because it's all about feelings and interpersonal relationships and all that. There is not really a lot of plot here; rather, there are a bunch of different characters, all of whom have some relationship to one another, some very significant, some only tertiary, and the book is about the unveiling of each one's story and how it relates to the central theme, of dealing with memories, and loss, and the things people give up.

One of the things that made this book more interesting to me was of course the fact that it's 100% Indian fiction — although written in English, it's by, for, and about Indians. Shashi Deshpande offers no concessions to the non-Indian reader, she simply assumes that you are familiar with all the cultural references she describes, just as an American author will talk about AP classes and private health insurance and Top 40 radio and football and deer-hunting under the assumption that an (American) audience knows exactly what all those things are and how they work.

To draw an analogy, you can always tell a non-American author writing about America because there will be a positive obsession with guns, like the average American has a gun collection sufficient to arm a small militia and the most important political issue on our minds is always the 2nd Amendment. (Now in fairness, that does describe some Americans, but certainly not the vast majority.) Likewise, a non-Indian author writing about India will almost inevitably put an elephant somewhere in the book, and Ghandi must be mentioned at some point, and we'll get helpful infodumps about Hinduism and Indian food and clothing, etc. Whereas Deshpande just mentions dhotis and pithla, etc., as casually as an American author will mention t-shirts and hamburgers. Not Indian, don't know what pithla is? You can go Google it if you feel the need, but the story flows on quite understandably even if you don't recognize all the terms.

Anyway, Madhu, the first-person narrator in this slow, carefully arranged book, grew up in a single-parent household with a father who was a small-town doctor. Having had no real female influence in her life as a child, she subjects her relationships with other women as an adult to a great deal of examination; one senses, trying to figure out how her own lack of a mother figure has changed her. Madhu is a journalist and a writer, and she's been sent to write a biography of a famous singer, now quite old and in failing health, who has had a somewhat tumultuous and scandalous life and career.

From the moment Madhu arrives at the home of Savitribai Indorekar, there is something unspoken hanging between them: Madhu was a childhood friend of Savitribai's daughter, a deceased daughter whom the singer has practically excised from her life, a daughter who likewise did her best to rewrite her own life story to eliminate her mother and her stepfather from it. It's implied throughout Madhu and Savitribai's conversations that Savitribai knows who Madhu is, from the latter's childhood hanging around the singer's house, and knows what is being unsaid and unasked, but will Madhu ever go there?

Tied into the story also are Madhu's memories of her aunt, Leela, her first mother figure, who looked after her after her father died. And finally we get to the real linchpin of the story, the tragic death of Madhu's son, Adhit, and how this caused her to try to redact her own memories, and how it affected her already strained marriage with Adhit's father.

There are many personal revelations in the book, some of which almost have the character of "plot twists," but really, there isn't much of a plot, just a narrative, and the thing the reader is waiting for until the end is closure, for all of these people. Will Savitribai ever acknowledge her daughter? Will Madhu make peace with her loss? Will she and her husband reconcile?

The undercurrents of social tension tying both the larger and the personal stories together add verisimilitude to the novel: they aren't what the book is about, but they are there. Savitribai was a Hindu woman who married a Muslim man. It was an act of terrorism (the precise cause and culprits are never explicitly stated) that killed Madhu's son. The "climax" of the novel is Savitribai's Muslim protege singing at a Hindu temple, causing threats of unrest and violence. But these things, again, are not the point of the story, just themes tying everything together.

I can understand what she's saying, even if I don't know all the words. Obediently the boy lets himself down in a namaskar at my feet, the skinny body straight as an arrow, the scapular bones, like two wings on either side, slanted like those of a bird in flight, the newly-shaved head giving him the look of a fledgling bird. He gets up swiftly in almost the same movement. I touch him on the head.

What do I say? Ayushman bhava? Chirayu bhava?

May you live long. But what blessing can contend against our mortality? Mustard seeds to protect us from evil, blessings to confer long life — nothing works. And yet we go on. Simple remedies? No, they're desperate remedies and we go on with them because, in truth, there is nothing else.

[Kriti singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book: Small remedies
Author: Shashi Deshpande
Favourite quote: knowledge comes later, out of coping with the experience that follows your action. Knowledge is always the inseparable twin of pain and suffering.
Review: The story revolves around 3 women, Madhu the narrator, Leela and Bai. All are women who have led extraordinary lives but have their own painful pasts and secrets.
Madhu Leela’s niece travels to Bhavanipur,savitribai’s home in her last years to write a biography of bai.
Madhu caught in her own grief, tries to make sense of lives of bai and those around her and in doing so finds a way out of her own grief.
Let me just get this out I think Shashi Deshpande is one of the best Indian authors I have read. Her control over her writing , expressions and emotions will leave you spellbound at the end of the book. It's heavy,sure.It lingers in your mind for a long time after you put it down. I found the book providing a fascinating insight into female relationships and I love the fact how all her female are so strong poignant and fearless. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to read something different.
4.5/5

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An interesting, gentle, well written novel set in India in the early 1990s. The story is narrated by Madhu, a married writer, whose only son, Aditya, died in 1992 at the age of seventeen. To recover, Madhu travels to where an old famous classical singer, Savitribai lives. Savitribai wants Madhu to write Savitribai’s biography. Madhu’s father, a doctor in a small village, died when Madhu was young and Madhu was brought up by her father’s sister, Leela. Leela is a gentle, strong willed woman who gives her life to the Communist Party and to working with the factory workers of Bombay.

Savitribai, born to an orthodox Hindu family, elopes with her Muslin lover and accompanist, Ghulaam Saab, to pursue a career in music. Savitribai has an illegitimate daughter, Munni. A rift between mother and daughter occurs.

This book was first published in 2000.

[Jo Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had expected this book to be a fairly typical inter-generational, soap opera-esque Indian novel with the usual multitude of characters, and was pleasantly surprised at how personal the novel was.

I also liked how Deshpande's prose style wasn't self-consciously Indian (which with other Indian writers can get a little too...vernacular) so I felt like was a reading the work of a good writer, rather than a good Indian writer.

[Deanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed, and very involved. The story revolves around 3 women, Madhu the narrator, Leela and Bai. All are women who have led extraordinary lives by the standard of the day and all have tragedies and secrets of their own.
It's a complex novel which explores both the past and the present in the lives of Bai and Madhu, Madhu is engaged in writing a biography of Bai. It is whilst listening to Bai that Madhu remembers her childhood when she lived near the singer, so she's aware of the things the woman doesn't mention. It also gives her a chance to come to terms with things that have happened in her own life.

[Aarzu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am left with so many feelings with which nothing can be done.

[Nr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would rank Shashi Deshpande as one of the top Indian authors today.
Small Remedies starts with a lady who has lost a son, and is now trying to get over her loss by writing a book on a doyen of Hindustani vocal music.

The book provides a deep insight into the lives and relationships of various women - 2 women who defied cultural and societal norms of their times. Savitribai - a leading classical singer - who defies her marriage and customs to achieve her ambition of being a leading singer. Similarly, Leela (protagonist's aunt) who works with mill workers to provide them rights. The book also dwells into how various women deal with loss / frustration and how their childhood shapes their relationships later. Each of the women in the book -the protagonist, aunt Leela, Savitribai, or her disciple Haseena and daughter Munni - deal with these issues in the book in their own ways.

I found the book providing a fascinating insight into female relationships - set against the backdrop of semi-urban Karnataka / Maharashtra. Extremely well written!

[Natasha Borah · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is very different from books i have read..the writing style, the way the characters relate, the plot, etc. it's not really a happy book. it is quite intense. the writing style is like giving the reader pieces of a jig jaw puzzle, and you can see the picture bit by bit. loved the book in a melancholic note.

[Samyuktha jayaprakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already going to my favorites list. I've never read something more honest and hauntingly beautiful. Living so many lives and stream of consciousness was as if I was in someone's head. As gripping as any thriller. Truly Indian. So beautiful.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

#Second Post-Grad Era [2005] – My time with Deshpande:

The beauty about this tome is that it’s structured as a biography within a biography. Commissioned to write the biography of the eminent classical singer Savitribai Indorekar, doyenne of the Gwalior Gharana, Madhu Saptarishi, the protagonist, discovers interesting and intriguing facts about her and her strange family. She has led a sheltered life both as a daughter and a daughter-in-law in an affluent family but her independent nature makes her seek her own identity.

Savitribai elopes with a Muslim tabla player to live in a strange town, makes a name for herself as a classical singer, and has a daughter with her paramour.

However, her avant-garde father and grandmother disapprove of her as Savitribai is known as ‘the singer woman’, a pejorative term for a middle-class woman. Her father-in- law has a thumri singer as his mistress. He visits her regularly and openly. But for him also, it is scandalous that his daughter-in-law is pursuing a career in music.

Savitribai is involved in a scandal with the Station Director of the Neemgaon radio station, who helps her secure singing contracts; he is reputed to be her lover.

A daughter is born to them. She is considered an immoral woman, “a woman who had left her husband’s home.”

Savitribai keeps away from her illegitimate daughter Munni as that would tarnish her image.

Savitribai becomes exaggeratedly selfish and possessive in her quest for identity; she disowns her child as she doesn’t want to sacrifice, her hard-earned name and fame for this “blemish” on her character. She selfishly keeps Munni out of her life. Her own daughter, Meenakshi Indorekar, also leads the life of a disowned child. Like her mother, she too wishes to obliterate her past.

Leela, Savitribai’s biographer Madhu Saptarishi’s aunt, is yet another woman character in the novel. She is a communist and an independent woman.

Having participated in the freedom movement, she parts ways with her party which ignores merit in favour of gender. A social worker, Leela, after the death of her husband Vasantha, comes in contact with Joe, a widower with two children. They fall in love and marry.

Madhu himself is a victim of double standards being practiced in society where “Purity, chastity and intact hymen ... are the truths that matter,” and all other truths are irrelevant….

[StephBad · Rating 2 out of 5]

La mia prima volta con un'autrice indiana di cui non conoscevo nulla e di cui tuttora so pochissimo, anche in rete in italiano non si trova quasi nulla. Un titolo che mi colpisce, una quarta di copertina che mi cattura: piccoli rimedi per una madre, per una coppia di genitori che improvvisamente non sono più tali: il loro giovane ed unico figlio muore, nel caos di rappresaglie politiche che sconvolgono il Paese. Un tema così struggente e delicato non poteva passarmi inosservato, specialmente da quando sono mamma anche io. Un dolore sordo, acuto, folle che distrugge i principi della logica e della razionalita, sopravvivere ai propri figli. L'indicibile dolore, tremendo annullamento del senso della vita. La protagonista decide di "curare" la propria insopportabile fatica di vivere allontanandosi da casa e marito, che ormai non riconosce e non sente più, perche nulla sara mai piu come prima. Come? Ricostruendo due vite: la vita di una cantante famosissima che era sua vicina di casa quando era bambina e quella di una zia, che le ha fatto da seconda madre. Ho già Spoilerato molto, non vado oltre. Dico solo che.... Non posso dare più di 2 stelline.

Confuso, raffazzonato, inconcludente. Il tema centrale, il dolore assurdo del sopravvivere a un figlio è trattato in modo poco chiaro.

Punti di forza: Qui e là bellissime frasi da appuntarsi come citazioni.

Punti deboli:
Troppe parentele dei personaggi abbozzate a random e mal spiegate
Periodi troppo lunghi e pieni di congiunzioni avversative che fanno perder il senso iniziale del discorso.
Poco chiari i riferimenti sociali delle rivolte che fan da sfondo allo svolgimento della storia.
Pecche dell'editore:
Molte sviste grammaticali ed ortografiche.
Scomodissimi note di traduzione e glossario al fondo del volume:termini e richiami alla cultura indiana/indù e marathi difficili da intuire o conoscere precedentemente: vanno messi a piè di pagina assolutamente. Dover ogni volta andare al fondo del libro rallenta e disturba tantissimo la già poco lineare scrittura.
Peccato, mi aspettavo molto, molto di più.
Voi che lo avete letto che ne pensate?

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small Remedies takes place in India in the 1990s. The narrator is Madhu Saptarishi who is writing a biography about the Hindustani singer Savitribai Indorekar, known as Bai. Bai left her husband to live with her Muslim lover and accompanist Ghulaam Saab. Madhu’s aunt Leela is also a major character in the novel. Leela was involved with trade unions and the communist party in Bombay. The narrator Madhu has left her husband Som after they lost their 17-year-old son Aditya who died in a terrorist bus bombing. We later learn that the singer Savitribai also lost her daughter Munni in the same bus bombing. We slowly hear more about all of the characters and their intertwining lives in middle-class India.

The novel is mostly told from Madhu Saptarishi’s point of view. Small Remedies is the name of a children’s health book that Madhu constantly turns to as she is raising her young son Adit. The story starts directly in the middle of action with tidbits slowly revealed about the numerous characters, their relationships, and histories. Indian music and culture are a big part of this book.

This was an enjoyable novel to read. The story slowly starts to make sense with several jumps to past events to fill in missing details. It feels a bit like an Indian Bollywood movie at times. We hear about family trauma and scandals involving the numerous characters as they are just trying to survive and find love and happiness in their lives. The mystery about Savitribai’s life as a famous Hindustani vocalist is slowly revealed. There is plenty of tension and drama with interesting revelations that turn up towards the end of the book.

This book is on Boxall’s “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list.

[Rajendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course, the story has a strong dose of feminism; however, it would be a mistake to label it feminist- least of all in the negative sense. That is because while most of the barriers and taboos that the brave women strive against remain faceless, there are plenty of caring and supportive male characters- with one unexpected exception. Also, the novel tries to weave a range of issues besides feminism, including interfaith relations, politics and above all struggle of a mother trying to come to terms with the loss of her child.
The book, especially its first half is written as a flow of thoughts with events performing only a supportive role. It is charming in the beginning. Later, it becomes tedious as thoughts as expected, tend to be repetitive, giving an impression of repetitiveness to the events as well. Overall, the effect is that of an incoming tide, each wave covering a little more ground and retreating.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. A persistently thoughtful narrative voice weaves the story of a few members of a larger, variously inter-connected group of humans. Mysterious, overlapping pasts, a vaguely menacing society of politics and judgment hovering around the edges, and lush emotional details make this a compelling read.

[BrieflyGorgeous · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟
Written so beautifully. Filled with melancholic prose. Almost didn't want the book to end. Glad I read this one.
P.S. read this for college and it's surprising that I ended up loving it. My thoughts on books from my college syllabus are usually very grey.

[Susan Webb · Rating 2 out of 5]

The conflicted role of women in Indian society. But there are so many Indian words, phrases and references that without a glossary I lost a lot of the story and its meaning. Also so many threads it was difficult to follow and the end seemed abrupt.

[Radhika · Rating 4 out of 5]

so well written.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all the best place to buy this book is from http://www.indiaclub.com. and secondly I’m still not too sure on whether I like this book or not. Here are the reasons:

Leela is a writer, sent by the small magazine company she works with, to write a biography on the famous singer Savitribai (now known throughout the novel as Bai). Madhu finds out that Bai was her next door neighbour and that she was good friends with her daughter Munni.

From this point on Madhu starts escaped into her torrid past. In fact the more she interviews Bai, the more demons she exorcises until she reaches a state of purity through the power of memory. Honestly to actually give away these events would be churlish of me and I’d rather have you read the book and find out about the the type of life Madhu, and to a certain extent, Bai leads.

Deshpande is an excellent writer and does not go for the obvious. Like Arundhati Roy she gives away bits and pieces, revealing everything in the final chapters of the novel. Also her writing style is elegant and flowing. My gripe is the plot itself, which is way too pessimistic. Sure there are bad moments in life, but it does not consist solely of awful events and Madhu’s life is like some horrific car crash – deaths, affairs, cheaters liars and so on. True we all suffer in life but not as much as Deshpande’s characters. It is a downer of a book and there were times where I struggled to finish it.

Yet now reflecting on it you can’t help admire the pure power and honesty of Small Remedies, so as I said i’m still in a limbo stage here.

[Divya Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely touching and intense read. It's one of those books that leaves you wondering and in a daze after the conclusion- it's that unsettling feeling. To have touched upon several sensitive matters, also considered as "taboo" by many, is a daring task by itself- and to implement that so beautifully is an achievement for sure.

The characters are real. The storytelling is flawless. the intensity and intimacy between and of the characters are surreal! The intricacies and nuances of language, tradition and beliefs have been captured beautifully by the author.The upheaval of my emotions through the book have been transitory, JUST like the characters and their own emotions.

It's heavy,sure.It lingers in your mind for a long time after you put it down as well. But that's the beauty and essence of this particular book.
A lot of pondering,wondering and questioning came to mind through my journey of reading this book. Highly recommend it for souls that seek real, passionate and honest writing.

[Jessica Haider · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really difficult to get into this book and I have to admit that I was never fully into it. There were too many characters thrown at you at the start of the book and I didn't really care the least bit about the narrator until about page 150. There were about 80-100 pages in the middle that I quite enjoyed...but otherwise I just was too drawn in.

[Rakhi Anil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book about human relationships, feelings, emotions etc. I wonder how the author managed to fill a book with these. Of course there are several characters in the book, each very different than the other. There is no right or wrong and black and white, most characters are grey as with real life. Very touching and poignant. Shashi Deshpande is one of my favourites.

[Janeh227 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madhu, in mourning over her son killed in a bombing, visits a famous singer, Bai, to write her biography and in this process, works through her own grief. Beautifully written, shows complexities and conincidences of life in a realistic way.

[Ataur Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. But brilliant in an understated sort of way. It is a story of relationships, of families, of love, of longing, of betrayal, of pain..

Great writing.

[Abeer Hoque · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely written, and the characters are carefully drawn out. But I found the story slow and not very compelling.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, well written book. I was truly surprised how this story appealed to me. I look forward to reading other books by this author.

[Kb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obliquely about women who transgress the boundaries that society places upon them but more about a mother and her grief. It's a gorgeous story. (But I thought it was going to be about Leela.)