Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Wind Beneath My Wings

1999; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/097152159900600205

0973-0672

Nabaneeta Dev Sen,

South Asian Studies and Diaspora

Nabaneeta Dev Sen, narrates the influence her mother Radharani had on her as a person. Starting with her grandmother, she said Narayani's will was supreme, that she was extremely rigid and rather narrow-minded. She remembers that her grandmother was not fond of her granddaughters, which may be because Nayarani had internalized all the patriarchal Brahminical values and applied them vigorously in her own life and the lives of her children. However, Radharani rebelled against the patriarchal values, she became a remarried widow and had to face the humiliation of being one. She was a celebrated poet but critics attacked her views through the backdrop of her personal life, which goes to show the kind of humiliation a remarried widow has to face in the kind of society she lived in. For Nabaneeta, her mother was her best friend and her worst enemy. She became totally dependent on her, needing her advice for every little thing--practical, emotional, intellectual. She says that if her mother could have been less overpowering, she would have been a different person.