A perfect detective thriller "If I die today" brings out the problems of the patriarchal society in a very subtle way. Revolving around the theme of murder and tense nesses If I die today is indeed a great work by Sashi Deshpande.
Shashi Deshpande was born in Karnataka. Being a daughter of the renowned Kannada writer and Sanskrit scholar, Shriranga she has a flair for writing from her childhood. She has degrees in Economics and Law as well as a postgraduate degree in English and a diploma in Journalism. Her writing career began after the birth of her two sons, with a collection of short stories, The Legacy, which came out in 1978. Since then four more collections have been published. She is also the author of four children`s books and six novels. In her writing career the Sahitya Akademi award was bestowed on her. Many of her creations got many awards. Her work has also been translated into a number of Indian and foreign languages. Shashi Deshpande is well known in literary circles for depicting the everyday life of the average Indian in her own special style. She never tried to portray India as an exotic land, full of magic and mysticism - a formula that has succeeded in gaining international readership for other authors. One remarkable character of Deshpande is her choosing to tell stories about ordinary people playing out the scripts of their lives.
Synopsis:
`If I Die Today` by Shashi Deshpande is a detective fiction. The narrator is a young college lecturer who is married to a doctor. They live on the campus of a big medical college and hospital. The story gets a twist on the arrival of Guru, a terminal cancer patient. After his coming the lives of the doctors and their families get disturbed. Old secrets are revealed, two people murdered, but the tensions in the families is resolved after the culprit is unmasked. One of the memorable characters is Mriga, a 14-year-old girl. Her father, Dr. Kulkarni, appears modern and westernized, yet he is seized by the Hindu desire for a son and heir, and never forgives Mriga for not being a son. Her mother being a weak person never live according to her own wish. She is a sad, suppressed creature, too weak to give Mriga the support and love. And evantually Mriga grew up without a well balanced brought up. The story again concentrates on the patriarchical society in a very delicate way.
`If I die today` by Shashi Deshpande was published by Vikas in the year of 1980.
`If I die today` is a fictional story by Shashi Deshpande. This is a marvellous novel by the author depicting the story of Mriga as well as other characters. The author once again tried to highlight the matter of patriarchical society and its problems as a whole.