In Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, we are shown what it is like for Kavita to go through hardship after hardship. However, this strong woman manages to commodore these hardships and grow strength from these hard times. Even though it takes a bit of a mental toll on Kavita as her first two children are taken away from her, she is told the family is moving from their home town for the sake of their son Vijay, and that she must face the fact that her mother is dead and her father is following close after; this strong woman manages to see the light and allows these challenges to strengthen her spirit.
First of Kavita was forced to give up her two daughters by her husband Jasu due to the Indian culture not being tolerant to women giving birth to daughters, as opposed to sons. Giving up her two children and living with knowing one of them is still out there had to be mentally draining. Jasu being the reason for her first daughter being murdered as he gave the baby to his cousin to kill in the woods and for Kavita having to give Usha to the orphanage to save her life. When their son Vijay is born “Only Kavita has an aching cavity in her heart for what she’s lost.
She sees the pride in Jasu’s eyes as he holds his son and forces herself to smile while saying a silent prayer for this child. She hopes she can give him the life he deserves. She prays she will be a good mother to her son, prays she has enough maternal love left in her heart for him, prays it didn’t die along with her daughters. ” (71) Through out the years she shows strength from this as she has moved forward in life, raising Vijay as best as she can all while hoping Usha has a good life.
Kavita has never stopped thinking about Usha and her first child, not even for a day. She goes to the orphanage every chance she gets in hopes to see the little girl she once gave up “or does she [go there] simply because it’s become a habit, like a scar etched onto her body, one that she can’t help but think about, scratch at, pick at, all the while hoping it will miraculously heal one day” (286). I don’t think a mother ever forgets about a child they have let go of whether it be via abortion, adoption or miscarriage/ death at birth. A mothers’ love is eternal.
Secondly, Kavita and Jasu leave the only home and family Kavita has ever known to have a better life for their son Vijay. However, once they are in Bombay they find it to be not what they expected as they live in poverty for quite sometime. This is Jasu’s idea but not per say his fault as he wanted this so they could have a better future for themselves but mostly for Vijay. When things are not going well in her home town and Vijay is no longer their innocent little boy Kavita begins to ask “Was it the right decision to leave, to leave their families so many years ago?
Things might have turned out differently if they hadn’t. They did it for Vijay, but in the end he was lost to them” (363). From this doubt and need to pull through, she becomes stronger and more independent as she no longer has her parents to fall back on financially or for guidance as a mother. Kavita learns to becoming trusting in her husband, hard working and supportive. Thirdly, Kavita’s mother passes away and her father is slipping away, this is Kavita’s own fault for not going to visit her parents before illness.
Although she has learned from this event that love is powerful, and that she must remain strong for her father and family. She realizes that “She has spent twenty years far away from her family. She lost first her daughters, then her son, and now her parents. The only relationship that has prospered, against those many cruel complications, is her marriage to Jasu” (364). Her father “can’t recognize when his own body needs to go to the toilet, but he notices the first night in fifty years his wife is not sleeping beside him” (313/314).
Such a powerful love her mother and father had, that Kavita now finds she has with Jasu through all the hardships they have overcome. In the end Kavita is only made stronger by all of the challenges she is faced with. She becomes brave in her abilities to pull strength from within her when there would appear to be no hope. She suffers loss in more ways than just losing family in life, yet Kavita manages to love and take care of her family like nothing has ever hurt or phased her. Her life was not easy, yet it made her into a respectable brave and wise woman.
