Shahana Dattagupta

Ten Avatars Shahana Dattagupta

Ten avatars of woman are explored through the telling of little incidents and big turning points in the lives of female protagonists: a little child amidst parental dissonance, a girl at puberty becoming vulnerable to predators, a cynical teenager struggling with her national identity, a young graduate student returning to travel in her native land, an arrange-married wife striving for independence after emigrating, a single woman seeing the reflection of herself in a white man, a first-time mother struggling with motherhood away from home, a divorced woman reinventing herself in foreign land, an early-forties woman embracing the truth of her sexuality, and a woman in her twilight years reflecting back. This collection of stories weaves together intimate cross-cultural experiences, with variegated vignettes unique to the Indian- American expatriate experience in contemporary times, yet reveals the universal essence of being female.