A Silence of Desire

‘He was not himself because his wife was not herself because in marriage you acted and reacted one upon the other however much you wished it otherwise and whether you wanted to or no.’ Dandekar is a routine-bound government clerk who is able to provide his family with a comfortable life. But his ordered existence is thrown off course when one day he comes home from work to find his wife Sarojini missing. On her return she gives him an excuse for her disappearance which he realizes is a lie further rousing his suspicions. Doubt and mistrust plague him and he puts his career in jeopardy when he begins to trail Sarojini in the hope that he might find her with another man. But when he stumbles across the truth he gets more than he bargained for. In A Silence of Desire Kamala Markandaya explores the tension between the East and the West-between superstition and science faith and reason tradition and progress-in a profound manner. About the Author Kamala Markandaya (1924-2004) was born in Mysore. She studied history at Madras University and later worked for a small progressive magazine before moving to London in 1948 in pursuit of a career in journalism. There she began writing her novels; Nectar in a Sieve was the first of ten to be published in her lifetime. Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice continue to be taught in universities in India and abroad.