“Being God’s Wife” is No Easy Matter

Abstract

This article studies Nandini Sahu’s short narrative fiction entitled, “Being God’s Wife,” which comes at the end of her story collection, Shedding the Metaphors (2023). This piece of selective biography makes the central figure in the story, Baba, a kind of prism through which he, his times, and his society are viewed. The article studies this story as a feminist document that contains Indianness. What is under focus here is a textual analysis of “Being God’s Wife.” What emerges through the textual analysis is that Sahu makes frequent use of the literary device called, “flashback.,” This gives her several advantages in the narration. The article shows the aptness of the title, “Being God’s Wife,” in which the wife is given barely three paragraphs. It is not just about the wife, but it is in fact about the godlike figure of Baba, her husband. This article analyzes the story with the help of theories of narrative fiction and the short story, given to us by scholars such as Claire Tomalin, Alice Hoffman, and James Stevens. The story reveals that when you love someone as much as the author loved her father, you expect them to be with you always, unfailingly. And, if that someone fails to be with you in your time of need, you begin to hate him for that time. The author seems to be somewhat like Sylvia Plath in her relationship with her father. She even mentions Plath’s poem, “Daddy,” in which the author is similar to the American poet and novelist.