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Shakti: Real-Life Stories Celebrating Women Power IT is often said that women make the world a better place to live in with their care, love and affection. Yet, women around the world continue to be submitted to inhuman behaviour at the hands of men whom they nurture. Why?
M.K. Dhar has filled up this lacuna by choosing to write about 14 women around him who emerged as heroes in their day-to-day lives. The author joined the Indian Police Service and then was seconded to the Intelligence Bureau where he had ample opportunities to see ordinary women prove their mettle. These women left an imprint on his impressionable mind and he has recorded their acts in this book, aptly named Shakti. There are protagonists whose predicament forced them to shun their inhibitions and come to the aid of people around them. The example of Manorama leaves one shocked. A Christian, Manorama tried to save a servant, Rahman, a Muslim, working in the author’s house, from a mob that came to attack the author’s house. The mob in East Pakistan, fresh with sentiments of the birth of Pakistan, wanted to eliminate the Hindu household. But they underestimated the courage of the author’s Mano didi. The latter was a tenant but could not see the frenzied mob take on the family’s old, loyal servant. She saved him from sure death but got molested by the crowd that comprised of Muslims. Years later, when Dhar met her she had forgiven her tormentors and dedicated her life to serving society. Sampuran is another woman whose story is very tragic. A victim of the riots of 1984 in Delhi, Sampuran lived to tell her tale. The riots, as rumours abound in real life, gave an opportunity to some people to settle their personnel vendetta. A college-going girl and the daughter of a decorated soldier of the Indian Army who believed in secularism, Sampuran was molested by citizens whom her father defended all his life. The author and his wife adopted her and she went to pursue a postgraduate course in Oxford College. Sampuran now lives in peace with her adopted daughter, a Japanese female child. The author was inspired to write this book by his wife, Sunanda, whom he lost to breast cancer. She believed that "there were many courageous women deserving the status of goddess-ness." She had been a witness to the bravery of some women while she had heard from Dhar about other women who had impressed him in his journey of life. Seeing the irrepressible strength of such women made her respect these women "as epic characters in their own rights". These real-life characters impress with their grit and determination in the face of all odds. It is the author’s tribute to womanhood, as he writes, "I hope I have been able to understand these unique particles of energy, whose acts of greatness and godliness were drowned in the cacophony of male chauvinism." Dhar has indeed done justice by chronicling the lives of such never-say-die women. Through this work he comes across as an acute, sensitive observer of people. One can feel his contempt for wrongdoers and his helplessness when he was a young child or when he was a part of the system. His conscience pricked him and this work is a result of that uncorrupted conscience. The language is simple and the stories are thought provoking. For example, while writing about Reba who faced odds, the author adds, "Reba was there to prove that a woman was born and reborn several times in one lifecycle." A contemplative work that wakes the reader from one’s reverie to cherish women and their spirit.
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Surprisingly,
women emerge out of all torture stronger and more resilient. Such women
exist around us as we go through our journey of life, blissfully
ignoring them while trying to find women of substance at the national
and international levels.