Small Days And Nights: Tishani Doshi’s novel expands the definition of motherhood | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Small Days And Nights: Tishani Doshi’s novel expands the definition of motherhood | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Ishita Sengupta |New Delhi |Updated: May 12, 2019 5:53:31 pm

Small Days And Nights: Tishani Doshi’s novel expands the definition of motherhood

Tishani Doshi’s latest novel, Small Days And Nights is a deeply layered work underlining the existence and experiences of outsiders, their inability to belong, that often later transforms into their refusal.

Tishani Doshi, in her novel, detaches the ideal from the idea of motherhood. (Source:Jonathan Self)

Moments after being privy to a conversation between two women regarding children — the need to have them or not — Grace is asked by one of them, does she want kids? “I have inherited a kid, that’s plenty,” the protagonist of Tishani Doshi’s Small Days And Nights replies. The word “inherited” — so sterile in its implication — seems like an apparent misfit here, a wrong usage almost. One inherits inanimate objects, land, wealth, not children. And yet, Grace indeed had inherited a kid, one she had no knowledge about —  her elder sister Lucia.