Also Read
Sampath's Wife Kamala is a minor character in the novel. She is described as a frail person of about thirty-five, neither good-looking nor bad-looking, very short and wearing a saree of faded red colour, full of smoke and kitchen grime. She is a mother of five children. Four of them are daughters and the youngest one is a son. She is a home-bound lady who is all the time harassed and oppressed by her heavy responsibility of rearing up a big family. Her husband, Sampath, does not pay much attention to her anxieties. She has to fend her way almost singlehandedly. Sampath takes her lightly and thinks that she feels unnecessarily worried about children. Sampath tells Srinivas about his wife's bad temper at ten everyday in the morning when she has to prepare the children for school. He says:
"Everyday at ten a.m. she is in a terrible mood; just about the time when the children have to be fed and sent to school and shopping has to be done and some lapse or other on my part comes to light, and all sorts of things put her into a horrible temper at that hour and she will be grumbling and finding fault with everyone."
 |
| Sampath's Wife Kamala |
She is hesitant, bashful and reserved in her behaviour before a stranger. Sampath introduces her to Srinivas when the late comes to nis house. She stands behind the door and does not come out in the open before Srinivas, She feels embarrassed and blushes in his presence. There is an awkward silence between the two. She heaves a sigh of relief when Sampath tells her to go back.
Sampath's wife is timid. She does not have the courage to tell her husband about his undesirable conduct in having extra-marital relations with Shanti. That is why, Sampath feels free in developing amorous relations with Shanti. He is insensitive to her hurt feelings. He decides to marry Shanti as his second wife and rationalises his decision on the plea that he will keep both his wives in equal comforts like giving each a car or a house. Sampath's wife goes to Srinivas's wife in order to enlist her help and sympathy in dealing with her erring husband. Srinivas tells Sampath about the worries of his wife on the issue of his second marriage. He does not take her seriously. He retorts that his wife is susceptible to such fussy moods and the same will pass and she will be saner. The wife-husband relationship delineated in the novel between his wife and Sampath is superficial. There is nothing significantly common between the two. Sampath lives a life apart from his wife and family. He feels unfettered in his relations with Shanti. She is weak-kneed to the extent that her resistance against her husband's intention of second marriage fails to alter his mind nor does she rise in revolt loo assert her righteous claim.