A housewife with degrees in economics, law and journalism, Deshpande has a feel for the complex etchings of a woman's mind. Over a writing career of almost two decades, Deshpande's novels—Roots and Shadows, That Long Silence, The Dark Holds No Terrors, among others—have been a strident voice speaking of the Indian woman's struggle to carve out an identity of her own—autonomous of, yet never rejecting traditional social roles.
But Deshpande's latest title—A Matter of Time—is an aberration. Always competent if not an inspired writer, she has faltered in this...

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