Nalini Sharma hails from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. She is a bilingual writer and writes with ease in English and Hindi. She has five books in Hindi to her credit. Guldasta, a collection of Hindi poems, Ek Bar Phir, a collection of short stories and poems in Hindi, an Unkaha Sach – a novel in Hindi, five books in English: Orchid Vol I & Vol II (Collections of poems in English) The Portrait - A Collection of Short stories and poems, besides the Unwed Mother – a collection of short stories in English.

She is also the recipient of many awards for her Hindi and English books. Sahitya Sree and Shresth Sadhana Samman from Akhil Bharatiya Bhasa Sammelan, Bhopal for Ek Bar Phir, Suman Chaturvedi Purskar – 2004, for her debut novel, Unkaha Sach, in Hindi, and for her writings in English, Poets International Conferred on her the award of Best Poet of the year 2003. These awards evince her excellence in literature and intimate knowledge of the society and milieu in which she lives.

She herself confesses:

All the stories in this collection depict a realistic picture of human life mostly of women belonging to different strata of society in different hues and forms. Their nobility and wickedness, success and failure, dreams and aspirations, conceit and deceit, prejudices and hypocrisy, joys and sorrows, revenge and sacrifices confidence and difference, fears and doubts, struggle for identity of their own with an intense desire to prove their worth for self-realization and their reactions to different situations and circumstances (preface The Unwed Mother)

As such, Nalini Sharma is one of the contemporary story writers whose texts often feature depictions of everyday events and portrays the true picture of women characters. She chose short story as a suitable and powerful weapon to expose the suffering of women in the male dominated society. 

The ‘Unwed Mother’ is a collection of 17 stories that are woven around the teenage girls and middle-aged women. Her women characters are the victims of men-centric world. They have to struggle (with in the family and outside of it). They realize their abilities and position and react appropriately in the male characteristic society. Her stories are marked with sensitiveness and emotion. They are interwoven around their troubles and tribulations of women. They replicate the feministic perspective and carry the traditional elements of a story like exposition, complication, crisis, climax and resolution. She portrays the complicated world of human nature in general and women’s personality in particular. The stories represent the plight, desires, hopes, fears, aspirations and frustrations of women. They project the difficult state of female characters between patriarchal society and women individuality. They portray the emancipation of women and their struggle to explore the ways for self-identity and expression. They analyse the dissatisfaction in love, life and tyranny of male supremacy and finally the search for self-identity and liberation.

I have taken up Nalini Sharma’s Story fitted ‘Justice’ for critical evaluation. The narrator in the story (Justice) becomes alone because of her hi fi lifestyles and behaviour. She did not bother much about her husband and children. She is self-centric lady who doesn’t care for family for the sake of her pleasures. She has no adaptability and adjustment nature.

Rajat, my husband, likened me to a cat, because I loved self-comforts more than anything else in the world even my children. My mother blamed for not adjusting well with my husband. Rajat felt that there was something wrong with me because I lacked maternal instinct. I preferred to be cared and tended by somebody than to take care and tend my husband and children. It was only my selfish need that made me crave for Chitralekha (Justice 91).

Chitralekha was a cook, house keeper and personal maid of the narrator who is a fifteen year old girl and who become the centre of attraction. She is described by the narrator as one doing the motherly duties in the kitchen.

Chitralekha, I fondly reminisce, would take care of me so lovingly as a mother would. She was in perfect command of my house, cook, house keeper and my personal maid all rolled in one. I had become so dependent on her that life, now, seems unbearable without her (Justice 89)

Traditional Indian families received the services of working maids in their houses. Chitralekha, around whom the story revolves, is the central figure of the story. One day, the leaking tap in the kitchen needed repairs and the plumber Veeru was called in to attend to the work. He came and went inside the kitchen where Chitralekha was cooking. The narrator trusted her to supervise the stranger’s work. More than an hour passed by, the boy was still inside. The narrator suspected that something wrong was going on.

Both of them were sitting on the ridge of the kitchen platform totally engrossed into each other oblivious of the world outside. “Milk boiling over had extinguished the flame. I ordered both of to get out of the chicken” (89).

Chitralekha was enticed by Veeru, a plumber who was married with two children. The story describes how innocent girls are duped by men in the name of love to quench their physical thirst. Veeru makes his livelihood by “doing odd jobs helping ladies by carrying out various repairs in the absence of their husbands. He knew very well his way around. Favourite among ladies, he knew all the tricks to entice young girls who served to swoon over him (90). Having witnessed this episode, the narrator thought her image and prestige would be damaged. She scolded Chitralekha angrily and threat ended to inform her father again, no signs of Chitralekha were found when the narrator returned on one afternoon after presiding over a function at a local girl’s college. She thought that Chitralekha must have eloped with Veeru.  I cried alone at night and prayed God for her safe return for my sake. I felt quality and ashamed of myself as I had never cried or prayed so earnestly for my husband and children as I did for Chitralekha (91).

A week had passed and the villagers were still hunting for the narrator. One morning, the narrator saw a police jeep pass by. It was revealed that “a woman’s body half eaten by animals and insects had been found lying on the other side of hills among the trees” (92).

It was Chitralekha’s dead body and to which the narrator was called for identification. It was an easy job for the narrator. The plumber, Veeru was suspected of having killed Chitralekha. At this point of time, another interesting episode took place. The father of plumber’s wife approached the narrator and persuaded her not to destroy his daughter’s home. “I must save plumber’s life for the sake of his wife and kids” (92). Veeru appeared before the narrator. Though angry with him for being the cause of Chitralekha’s death, the narrator asked him to come inside home and gave him food to eat. Nalini described the situation as:

After eating, he looked a bit in control of himself and told me that the day before when he tried to enter his house in the dark of night he was frightened to see Chitralekha’s brother hiding there holding his wife and children hostage while the police waited outside to nab him (92).

The narrator felt that Chitralekha was killed because of Veeru who was guilty of betrayal and who committed an unpardonable crime. He had cheered not only Chitralekha but his innocent wife and children. Having learnt that Chitralekha’s brother was hiding in Veeru’s wife, the narrator informed the police who came on spot and put him behind the bars. There was no threat for his life when Veeru was told about his arrest.

The narrator protected Veeru instead of putting him behind bars just because he went by his word given to his father-in-law that her daughter’s family would be saved at last. After repeated threats, Veeru confessed that his wife had killed Chitralekha before his eyes only and now she was after his blood.

In conclusion, the story is noted for tit for tat tactics or blood for blood revenge. ‘Justice’ as the writer titled it, is fit and appropriate. All illegal relationships would one day come to light. This episode is not just the isolated case in the world but the most common of the incidents taking place. Physical attraction does not last long but mental illumination is what the writer stresses the point in argument.  The fair treatment was meted out at last.

Work cited

Sharma, Nalini. The Unwed Mother (A Collection of Stories). Raipur: Vaibhav Prakashan, 2005, Print.