Inspiration in the land of despair - A story re-told

The following is my article that has just been published in World Pulse - an action media powered by women of 185 countries. The article is my 2nd assignment as a Voice of the Future Correspondent - an honor I received in Nov'2011 by World Pulse. You can also read it here. Why am I sharing this here? Because, it is not everyday that you get to hear that a landless and tribal woman, despite being caught in between the frying pan and burning pyre (the Maoists and the Army), is trying to do pull a community out of poverty, discrimination and injustice. 

Me and my muse: with Sukhantibai, the barefoot soldier who fights social injustice with the weapons she has: strong will and honesty.

November’2005. In Handitola- a remote village in central India, people were faced with a horrific situation: a young Dalit (a marginalized community) man had hung himself and the body was on the verge of decomposing. But nobody dared go near him. They all had their reasons: for some, the boy was an ‘untouchable’, while others were plain scared. Then, a woman of 50 came up, with a sickle in her hand. She stood upon a stool, and, as the whole village stared in fear and awe, cut the rope and lowered the body. Next week, in a meeting in which they had to decide who would be their ‘Sarpanch’ - the head of the village council, everyone voted for this woman – the most courageous one among them. And that is how Sukhantibai - a Gond (a primitive tribe) woman, became the ‘Sarpanch’.

In The Line Of Fire

7 years later, I am meeting Sukhantibai today. I have traveled for 3 days to reach her village in Rajnandgan – one of the 78 districts identified by the government of India as ‘Maoist affected,’ meaning places that have borne maximum brunt of the Government vs Maoists (communists) armed conflict.

On my way, I have been feeling the suspicious glare of several people, and, since I reached the district, my mobile phone has gone off the network.

9/11 - My Story

I was recently asked by someone how the terror attack of 9/11 affected me.

My first reaction was: It didn’t affect me at all. I was in Chennai (India) on that day. I remember munching on some snacks and watching TV, when suddenly on the screen CNN flashed ‘America Attacked’. I was shocked, but thousands of miles away, in the comfort of home. I hardly felt the heat.

And then, I remembered, it’s not true. 9/11 did affect me, indirectly of course, but it sure did.

As I said, I watched the news of the terror attack on TV and said ‘phew!’ like millions others.

However, unknown to me, the life of someone in my own family was about to change drastically: My brother in law – then an employee of one of the largest audit firms - had just been transferred from India to NY and was about to resume his office which was located in the WTC building. On the day of the attack, he was in India; his wife - my sister - had just delivered their second baby and the family was to fly to NY in a week. They had already packed, sold off their furniture, the kitchenware and pretty much every other household stuff.