"In the Country of Deceit" - Book Review by Deepshikha Patangay of BA Final Year

Picture Credit : Special Arrangement

The book "In The Country Of Deceit" is written by Shashi Deshpande. The book was published by Penguin Groups in the year 2008.

Shashi Deshpande is an Indian novelist. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri Award in 1990 and 2009 respectively. She is the daughter of Kannada dramatist and writer Adya Rangacharya. She has written novels like “The Dark Holds No Terror”, “That Long Silence” and so on. She emphasizes more about the problems of Indian women and the stories of their dark struggles through her writings. 

“In the Country of Deceit” narrates the doomed love affair between an unmarried woman, Devayani, and a married police officer, Ashok Chinappa. In the novel, Deshpande touches upon the themes of desire, guilt, deceit, adult love, and physical relationship outside marriage.
Devayani, a young 27-year-old woman was an English teacher. She moved to Rajnur after the death of her father. She had an elder sister, who is more like her best friend Savitri. Savitri was a married woman who had children.

The novel starts with the description of Savi’s housewarming ceremony. Devayani describes the love, bond, and affection that she has towards her sister. As her elder sister was married and had kids, her uncle and aunt also wanted Devayani to get married. Through the letters, her aunt Sindhu talks about the marriage proposals for Devayani. As she is living alone she is under constant pressure to get married. But according to her, she feels that she is settled. She questions in her heart, that what more is required to fill the word “settled” as she had a job and her own house. She rejects the marriage proposals that her aunt had sent her.

Later, Devayani happens to interact with Rani, whose real name is Priya. She was a former actress, married to the Ranjur’s District Superintendent of Police Mr. Ashok Chinappa, and had children. Eventually, Rani and Devayani become good friends. When Rani was busy in the film industry looking for many opportunities, her husband Ashok approached Devayani.
Devayani and Ashok would spend time together, as they started dating. When Devayani shared her darkest secret which is, “Dating A Married Man!” with her sister Savi, Savi was very upset. Despite Savi explaining that it was wrong Devayani did not care and started to spend more time with Ashok. For the first time, besides all her life problems, including the family property dealings, Devayani felt good with Ashok. She was falling in love with him. Whenever Rani was not in town, Ashok and Devayani would meet secretly. It was the darkest secret of them as they had a physical relationship. For her, it was love as no one approached her the way Ashok had approached her.

One day, Devayani fainted and was admitted to the hospital. She started to think from her sister’s point of view and started to feel guilty for falling for a man who was her friend’s husband. She was guilty of cheating on her friend but at the same time, she was in love with her husband. This made her feel stressed and she fainted. At the hospital, Ashok confessed that he was deeply in love with Devayani and wanted to marry her. Though he had other women in his life, he told that he never felt the way he felt towards Devayani. She was upset and she wanted to ignore him, at that moment, Ashok proposed to her and told her that he could leave his children and wife for her. This made Devayani feel that Ashok was her true love.

After days, when she was spending time with Rani, she got to know that they were shifting from Rajnur. Ashok had not told her about it, and Devayani felt insecure. He constantly spoke that he would leave his wife and children for her but, when the day came, when they had to shift to another town, Ashok left her. He told her that he has a family and he can’t leave his children and left without any contact. Devayani felt as if her world had collapsed. The desire to love a married man has torn her heart into pieces.
During her tough times, her family did not leave her side. Her sister and aunt took care of her and advised her to move on. Devayani left her past behind in her mind, but carried the guilt in her heart and tried to move on.

In my opinion, I feel this is one of the finest works of Shashi Deshpande who fabulously narrated the story. The desire and the guilt that Deshpande brings up with the situations by addressing the bold choice of Devayani speaks of how open-minded Devayani was. But her bold choice of loving a married man had made her life miserable. Even today, in our society this is one of the darkest secrets of the majority of girls. Deshpande brings out the reality of society in her novel. To find love, it doesn’t mean that women must find single men, until and unless it is in India. Her bold choice makes us understand that to love and to receive love from the same person is enough to live a happy life. But as Ashok cheated, most of the partners cheat to fulfill their nasty desires. Surprisingly India has more ‘Partner- Cheating’ cases but hardly there are people who love their partners. Love is a fancy feast that has its challenges in life. And sometimes love brings us into a situation where we have to choose “Do or Die”. “A Fancy Feast That’s What Love Is!”