Daughters Inherit Silence
by Rasana Atreya
Jaya is bound by tradition to take care of her late husband's family, and she takes this responsibility seriously. An engineer and a businesswoman in contemporary India, she is also the mother of a ten-year-old girl. To Jaya's sorrow, no one in her family has room in their lives for her shy daughter, who has cocooned herself in her grief. A series of events shakes up not only their lives but also Jaya's long-held assumption that when a woman marries a man, she also marries his family. And that this marriage doesn't end when the husband dies. In a moment of truth, she realises that she's spent so much time focussed on being the Perfect Indian Woman, she's lost her voice. She fears that if she doesn't learn to speak up—even at the risk of being ostracized by the community—silence will be her daughter's inheritance as well. Daughters Inherit Silence is a compelling tale of one woman's struggle to find fulfilment in a society where she's caught...