Girl power that inspires
Aradhika Sekhon

Not Just Girls
by Deepa Agarwal. Rupa. Rs 90. Pages 112.

SO claims the age-old nursery rhyme. "Not quite", negates Deepa Agarwal. There’s much more to girls than sugar and spice. Girls are certainly more complicated and infinitely more gifted and multi-dimensional than boys. Perhaps, that’s why Agarwal has titled her book of short stories Not Just Girls.

Agarwal has authored over 30 books for children, ranging from mystery books to picture books to adventure stories, ghost stories and fantasies. She has received many awards for her writing, including the National Award for Children’s Literature in 1992-93.

Aimed at a young readership, Not Just Girls contains seven stories illustrating the empowerment of women from pre-adolescence onwards. The protagonists of all stories are teenaged girls who have a lot of growing up to do, but who are pretty decided and reasonably clear about the roles they have to play. While shouldering their responsibilities, they break the boundaries of their traditional roles. They transcend the notions of girlhood as perceived by Indians, which necessarily conform to the ideals promoted by the old nursery rhyme. So it’s not just "sugar and spice", but also "fun and frolic, doubts and fears, courage and determination"—a bit of all that goes into the making of girls.

Agarwal looks at the various strata of the Indian society to draw out her protagonists. Courage and the other qualities of the heart and the head, she seems to claim, is not confined to those who have advantages of birth and money. The courage of Radha, whose mother is an ailing widow and who must sweep and swab in houses to keep the hearth burning, is even more significant when she dares to take on the mighty Santa Dada, the drug lord of her slum colony. She is convinced that they do not have to surrender to their fate.

There are also stories of female bonding among unlikely partners from vastly differing social and economic backgrounds. This is evident both in Goat Bells, where a city girl, Janvi, meets and becomes friendly with Rajuli, a poor village girl, who herds goats, and in Fire, where Puja and Mitu are exceedingly fond of the maid’s daughter, Paruli. The friendship and understanding among the girls gets them to break boundaries and perform heroic acts that perhaps, individually they may not have been able to perform. There is a fascination for each other’s way of life and curiosity to learn from the other.

There is also a certain amount of growing up to be dealt with, as when Paruli must get married and Puja has to deal with it. Paruli returns a subdued Paruli, who seems to be in a permanent state of embarrassment after getting married, Puja realises that Paruli is not her playmate any longer. She has entered the world of grown-ups, where she can’t follow her.

The story Do You Want To Play Football is an in-your-face attempt by two girls—Monica and Nidhi—to break the parameters set by their all-girls school. "Football is not really a game for girls," decrees the school Principal. Undeterred, Monica takes on the neighborhood boys’ team, challenging their leader with: "You are afraid to give us a chance." The in-your-face attitude extends to preventing a thief from mugging a woman pedestrian. Monica even manages to get her own football team in school.

When Haria Comes is about 12-year-old Madhuli and her blind grandmother, who are waiting for her brother Haria, who works in town to earn money for his grandmother’s operation. Madhuli gradually realises that she is capable of doing much more than she believes and she doesn’t need to wait for for her brother to return.

The strength of the compilation lies in the slant towards women’s emancipation. The message is that bravery, courage, endurance and determination are not specifically male virtues. The stories are simple, if not simplistic. However, the authoress’ attempt to inspire girls to believe in themselves is not misplaced.

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