A WOMAN’S PEREGRINATION FROM SUBJUGATION TO LIBERATION IN KUNDANIKA KAPADIYA’S SEVEN STEPS IN THE SKY

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Women carry sacks of inhibition since ages. Be it their childhood, adulthood, or old age, be it their unmarried state or married life they are expected to stand in the castle whose walls are built with bricks of patriarchy and adhesive of male-dominance. They live in a room where windows are shut, curtains are never pulled off, entrance or exit is a patriarchal threshold, and ceiling is a continuous reminder of their dependency over a male figure. A woman, throughout her life, yearns to break the glass of the window, eager to cross the doorsill, longs to shatter the ceiling to live a life of her own choice. To walk her steps towards the free sky. The foregrounds of Indian marital positioning are immutable. It is further rigid for women as for men. When it comes to the idea of ‘marriage’, there is a distinct set of rules for men and women. Look at a general perception where in order to be ready for getting married, a girl should know how to cook and a boy should know how to earn. Regardless of it, literature is a medium to bring change in the general perceptions and a revolutionary or rather controversial novel in this context is Seven Steps in the Sky which tours feminism. It is a story of Vasudha of almost every Indian middle-class house which is told by Kundanika Kapadia. Vasudha, who has always wanted to fly like a free bird, feels herself caged in her married life. Suffering subjugation and denial of identity by her husband Vyomesh, she finally finds her true place to be at. Kapadiya wrote Seven Steps in the Sky originally in Gujarati as depicting the treatment, suppression and struggles of a woman before and after her marriage. Hence, this paper implores the journey of a woman, or every woman through Vasudha from concealment of her identity to her freedom. The paper examines various concerns delineated in the novel by Kapadiya. It also unveils the feministic approach and questions it raises for upliftment of women.