Dancing Toes- Expressing Self in Mrinalini Sarabhai’s The Voice of the Heart

Abstract

Autobiographies of public women relate that women are no less than men in intellect and skill. This paper will explore the construction of the various aspects of self in the autobiography of a public woman − Mrinalini Sarabhai, the development of her ‘self’ as a renowned public figure and how she fulfils her role as a daughter, as a wife, and as a mother. An exploration of the self of the author will bring out how she fulfilled her domestic roles, people who encouraged and motivated her to pursue her education and subsequently her career, her experiences in acquiring the status of a celebrity, and how the private self and the public self of a celebrity woman exist without clashing with each other.