book review women extraordinaireauthor suchita malikpublisher rupa publications indiapages 295a book that has a story of a woman wrapped inside its pages cannot be an ordinary one by this virtue author suchita maliks latest book is an extraordinary tale of three generations of women kaushalya shobhna and nayantara who stand tall in the face of adversities and inequities in life the main protagonist of the novel is kaushalya whose resilience is unmatched widowed at a young age with a child kaushalya is remarried to her brotherinlaw her voice is her strength she refuses to be suppressed by patriarchal norms and societal dictates at any given circumstance kaushalyas daughter shobhna is her mothers mirror image she is different from her brothers whose apathy toward kaushalya is unwarranted and reeks of gender prejudice for shobhna too her daughter nayantara becomes her anchor in more ways than one the beauty of this novel is how women become each others pillar of strength they are not vulnerable nor at the mercy of men in their respective families these lines for a long time shobhna had been the anchor of kaushalyas life indicate the crux of the novel the camaraderie shared between three generations of women is exemplary in an exclusive chat with us author suchita malik tells us what inspired her to write the book the relevance of a womans narrative in literature why she chose the partition history as base of her novel and much moreexcerptsout of the three women kaushalya shobhna and nayantara who comes out strongest according to you is nayantara the most free out of all out of the three i consider kaushalya to be the strongest it is she who is up in arms against the societal norms for her outofthebox thought process as well as the twists of fate in her life her neversaydie attitude and an ability to maintain remarkable grace when under pressure make her a force to reckon with nayantara who has inherited her grandmothers courage of conviction in dealing with odds in her life may appear to be free initially rooted as she is also in her traditional outlook but she still has to run through the mill of life in order to be compared to kaushalyawhat inspired you to write women extraordinaire the inspiration behind writing women extraordinaire has been two literary masterpieces maxim gorkys mother and bertolt brechts mother courage these women of substance proved their mettle against the most difficult circumstances and became beacons of untiring strength when pitted against formidable forces either natural or manmade their characters stayed in my subconscious ever since i read these masterpieces and later emerged as the character of kaushalya in women extraordinairetheres a parallel between the history of partition and a womans caged existence therefore does the backdrop serve to be an allegory yes the partition forms the base of the novel even though it is not so much about partition or its aftermath rather it spans almost a