Won't You Stay, Radhika?

After her widowed father marries a younger woman, Radhika's world fallsapart. She feels betrayed-the emotional and intellectual bond that shehad forged with him since the early death of her mother breaks with thatsudden marriage. To escape the unbearable situation at home-the growingrift between her and her father-Radhika moves to Chicago to pursue hermaster's in fine arts. She returns to India two years later, burdened by asense of alienation and homesickness, only to realize that while nothing hadchanged in her country, everything had. The family that she had longed tobe reunited with barely acknowledges her arrival. The sense of belonging ismissing, leaving her in 'an emotional state of in-between-ness, of universalunbelonging'. As days pass, Radhika is paralysed with ennui, which tingesall her relationships-romantic or filial. So she lies on her takht, bored,immobile, uninspired...An extraordinary chronicler of the inner lives of the urban Indian woman,Usha Priyamvada is a pioneering figure in modern Hindi literature. Won'tYou Stay, Radhika?, first published in 1967, expertly explores the stifling andnarrow-minded social ideals that continue to trap so many Indian women inthe complex web of individual freedom, and social and familial obligation.Daisy Rockwell's sensitive and skilful translation brings this poignant Hindinovel to a new set of readers.