An Insightful Display of Diaspora in Preeti Singh’s Circles of Silence

Abstract

Preeti Singh, the valuable gifted writer, currently lives in Kuwait with her diplomat husband. Like all contemporary female writers she also has joined the race to give the readers the view of life perceived by female writers. This upcoming authoress has generated considerable ripples with her maiden novel Circles of Silence. The peripatetic course of Preeti Singh's life in the United States, Egypt, Afghanistan, India and Kuwait has helped her present a multidimensional view of life in her first venture. Though Nilanjana Roy (2002) feels “(t)o call Preeti Singh an emerging Indian writer might be taking things too far” yet her credentials as an engaging writer cannot be brushed aside. This editor of the Oxford University Press, New Delhi has contributed in the arena of articles, reviews and short stories to inch towards her own creative work. Her exposure to other nationalities and varied life styles has given her first hand exposure to the feeling of diaspora, a feeling of mixed losses at multiple scales. “Normally diaspora fiction lingers over alienation, loneliness, homelessness, existential rootlessness, nostalgia, questioning, protest and assertions and quest of identity; it also addresses issues related to amalgamation or disintegration of cultures” (Jha 2006 97). This paper attempts to trace pangs of diaspora encompassing nostalgia, pain, rootlessness, stillness in life and a lingering desire to be embraced and accepted with warmth.