Family crisis

Editor's Note:This article is in Gujarati. It was originally written in 1938. It has been scanned from વીસમી સદીનું ગુજરાતી નારીલેખન ("Vees-mi Sadee-nun Gujarati Nari-lekhan", 20th Century women's writing in Gujarati). Nikhil Desai has provided this brief description of the article. .

This memoir - કૌટુંબિક આપત્તિ (Family crisis) - is by Sharada Mehta (1882-1970), who was one of the first Gujarati women college graduates in Ahmedabad. The memoir begins with her circumstances in 1901.

The author's wedding had taken place, but she had continued to stay with her parents to complete her last college examination . Just then, her mother-in-law passed away, leaving behind two sons studying in England (one of them the author's husband), a daughter, three young children including a four-year old daughter, and three other children. She mentions how her mother-in-law was enthusiastic about her going to college, and her father-in-law insisted she complete her college examinations before moving in to help with the young children.

She also describes her experience with running a remedial class for a year or so for girls who had dropped out of school, before moving to Vadodara (former Baroda) when her husband returned. She found the Vadodara environment more conservative than in Ahmedabad. She and her husband were unusual in going out for walks together, and even the king seemed to have not been favorable to it initially. She does mention, however, that within a year, a lot many more couples had started taking walks together near the Race Course.

The story in Gujarati, scanned from the original, is available by clicking here in pdf format.

Story in Gujarati © Sharada Mehta 1938

Synopsis in English © Nikhil Desai 2011