Sahadev Sahoo

Concubine Sahadev Sahoo

"Madhavi is beautiful, talented and innocent. She is not good at studies, but is a talented dancer and poet. Her mother, brought up in middle class milieu, is apprehensive lest her beauty and talent lead her on the wrong path; bring bad name and misfortune to their family. The mother and the daughter fail to understand each other. Madhavi has to discontinue her dance. Her dance teacher considering combination of beauty, talent and innocence in her and middle class background of her parents, predicts that she has much suffering in life. // The story is told against the background of those momentous events India has experienced during the years 1984-85 to 1994-95, such as assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi by her own bodyguards, commission of Sati in Deorala village, lowering of voting age to eighteen, assassination of Rajeev Gandhi, nationwide agitation against implementation of recommendation of Mandal Commission report, etc Her parents give Madhavi in marriage to an engineer posted in New Delhi. After marriage, she discovers her husband is a debauch and a crook. He is already married and staying with his wife without the knowledge of his parents. He tortures her and forces her to engage in immoral act. Madhavi escapes from his clutches, but cannot go back to her parents. Sanat, a self-made man, teaches History in the college where Madhavi was a student. He finds her talented and falls in love with her. But he cannot express it to her, nor could Madhavi understand his feelings."