Can women run a man’s world? Two recent books, A Star Named Bibha and Other Stories (HarperCollins India) and The Incredible Life of Arati Saha (Speaking Tiger Books), answer with a resounding yes, documenting the inspiring stories of pioneering women who broke the gender glass ceiling. Set in a time and space where decisions were made for women instead of being taken by them, the protagonists of both books took charge of their own lives, blazing a trail that countless women have followed since.
Indomitable women broke boundaries and sought to create a more equitable world
Bibha Chowdhuri TT archives
In A Star Named Bibha and Other Stories, writer trio Anwesha Sengupta, Supurna Banerjee and Simantini Mukhopadhyay bring together biographies of 30 women, between the late-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries, who defied gender norms of their day to pave the way for the women of today. Written as an endeavour to empower young minds through the stories of remarkable women, the book emphasises on every single individual journey, shaped as it was by caste, class, religion, occupation and place of birth. The easy-to-follow and engrossing language hooks the reader from the get-go, with greatness unfolding with every passing paragraph.
From the earliest female educators of India (Fatima Sheikh and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain), who fearlessly championed the cause of female education, to the first Indian woman to perform in a circus with tigers and horses (Sushila Sundari), to India’s first high-energy woman physicist to earn a PhD in physics (the titular figure of Bibha Chowdhuri), to the sculptor who brought ancient Bengali sculpting into modernity (Meera Mukherjee), to one of India’s earliest freedom fighters (Bhikaji Cama), to India’s first actress (Durgabai Kamat) and many more — these indomitable women broke boundaries and sought to create a more equitable world. The book also celebrates the multitude of experiences, both historical and personal, that defined these women.
An ordinary girl from Kolkata who dared to dream the impossible and eventually achieved it
Arati Saha Pinterest
Swati Sengupta’s The Incredible Life of Arati Saha: The Swimmer Who Wouldn’t Give Up may narrow the canvas to the celebration of a single life, but it is no less powerful in evoking the strength of womanhood. The Speaking Tiger text is a tour de force of will and delves deep into the life of Arati Saha, India’s youngest Olympian and the first Asian woman to swim across the English Channel. The book is a part of Speaking Tiger Books’ The Incredible Life series, in which Sengupta has designed illustrated biographies (also for young readers) of many Indian icons whose bravery and determination have set them apart. The other historical figures who have been included in the series are Milkha Singh, Jhalkaribai, Birsa Munda, Savitribai Phule and Bhagat Singh.
In this book, Sengupta has narrated the life story of an ordinary girl from Kolkata who dared to dream the impossible and eventually achieved it. Saha’s story talks of unending perseverance and hard work, which included swimming for 16 hours at a stretch. Having won medals in the National Swimming Championship in Mumbai at the tender age of eight, Saha was one of the four women to represent India at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. From her performance at the Olympics to swimming across the English Channel, Saha’s story is one of overcoming the odds time and again, of confronting failure to embrace success. The momentum generated by the words makes this a riveting page-turner, with the reader becoming an active participant in Saha’s journey as she swims her way into history.
While modern Indian society has no shortage of contemporary female role models, Indian history has largely airbrushed out the contributions by women in making our country what it is today. The aforementioned books do an impressive job of countering this, portraying women not only as heroes, but also as human beings, with their own set of failings, vulnerabilities and regrets. Read together or in isolation, they serve as timely and powerful reminders of the greatness of women who conquered seemingly unscalable challenges not in spite of their gender but because of it.