Recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for her novel That Long Silence, Shashi Deshpande's success as a novelist can be measured by the wide readership she appreciates, and the number of critical studies available on his works. A brief survey of the available reviews of Deshpande's fiction shows that his critics always remained preoccupied with the question of women in his fiction. The treatment of women has been discussed by shifting the focus from one aspect or another of their existence. The critics' interest in the treatment of women and their problems is certainly understandable, since most of his novels have women as protagonists. Almost all of Deshpande's female characters turn out to be victims of society's patriarchal thinking. the roles they are expected to play are not consistent with the freedom and individual identity they aspire to. Therefore, the feeling of estrangement from their bodies, from their aspirations and ideals, and sometimes even from the work routine in which they are trapped, seems to be a common feature of their lives. What sets Shashi Deshpande apart from his contemporary writers is that although his novels present a world afflicted with hatred, fear, anger, loneliness and emptiness, they are not shrouded in overwhelming, unrelieving sadness. His art is not an art of death but of life. It takes an artist like Deshpande to affirm the value of life and human potential to emerge from the darkness of despair, while depicting the realities of disintegration, disappointments and loneliness. Although glimmers of positive attitude can be seen here and there, in some minor figures as well, it is the protagonist who, mainly through her... middle of paper ...... worries about us. (246) and Kalyani and Aru, standing at the threshold, bid farewell to Gopal. Chanchla K. Naik (New Delhi: Pencraft International, 2005), p. 198.2Vimala Rama Rao, “In Conversation with Shashi Deshpande,” The Fiction of Shashi Deshpande, ed. RS Pathak, p. 257.3Shashi Deshpande, A Matter of Time (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1996), p.254. All subsequent references to the text of the novel are from the same edition, and the page numbers in all such cases have been given in parentheses immediately after the quotations.4Vimala Rama Rao, p. 256.5Meenakshi Mukherji, “Sounds of Silence (Review of A Matter of Time),” Indian Review of Books, March-April 1997, p. 31.6Vimala Rama Rao, p.. 257.