“The most awe-inspiring things in the world, started with the smallest of initiatives and at the smallest of places”
Maitridevi Sisodia who is currently posted as Deputy Collector, Stamp Duty, Vadodara with additional charge of Special Land Acquisition Officer, Narmada Project and her co-author Gaurav Julka who is based out of Singapore, working as a senior manager with Electrolux decided to pen down their thoughts on women and the countless issues faced by them naming the book inspired from an story from the epic ‘Mahabharat’—Contemporary Cheerharan.
“The idea of this anthology was born out of a simple conversation between us authors, as we were sharing our angst about the plight of women and the countless issues faced by them. We decided we wanted to express our infuriation with words, without sugar-coating anything and expressing reality as it really is – partly from experience and partly from observation, ”they said.
This is a collection of works comprising of poetry, essays, short stories, diary entries, epigrams, open letters written by the co-authors. A shloka in Sanskrit states that – “यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः”, which means that the Lord resides in the land where women are worshipped. For all lofty cultural ideals, the reality is pitiful. Gender bias and sexual harassment largely plague the lives of most women, holding them back. In this book, there are various emotional accounts based on some real stories, illustrating the hardships that are the unfortunate reality faced by thousands of women – be it dowry, domestic violence, acid attacks, forced prostitution or rape. In this book, you won’t simply find short stories or straightforward open letters; we are here to represent our voice using art & literature in the hope that our country has eyes to gawk the reality.
We are here to enunciate.
The book aims to shed light upon these issues, so the reader can all collectively agitate to change this repulsive culture of wronging women, which has set in like an indelible stain on India’s social fabric. We deserve better; we can do better; and, we must do better. The society can only flourish when it is fair to all. This book is a clarion call to voice the concerns, fears and desires altogether for an India which is free from gender bias, where women do not have to settle for feeling unsafe as a way of life, where women have equal access to opportunities, where women aren’t held back by fences, barriers and ceilings at every stage.
Here is an glimpse from Q&A Session with the authors:
What/who inspired you to write on this topic?
Gaurav and I both were part of AIESEC during our college years, Gaurav had a blog and I used to write for magazines. The idea for this book sparked from a Facebook conversation between us coauthors. We were sharing our angst against the plight of women and the countless issues faced by them. We decided we wanted to express our infuriation with words, without sugar coating anything and expressing reality as it really is – partly from experience and partly from observation.
When did you start working on this project?
We started writing the pieces back in 2013-14. Initially, we just wanted it to be a self-published E-book, which is fairly straightforward for any budding writer to do. The first draft was ready by 2014. As we were invested in the process over the time spent writing different pieces for the book, we felt like taking a chance at publishing a paperback. This led us to submitting of our manuscript with many publication houses. We received a few negative responses and few publishing houses showed interest but needed heavy investment from authors. At the same time, due to personal and professional commitments of both co-authors, this project went onto back burner.
In 2019, BecomeShakespeare selected our old submitted manuscript for Wordit Art Fund. This art fund is specifically to encourage new authors, with really author friendly terms and little direct investment from authors. Due to the art fund, this book got a new lease of life. We rewrote a lot of the old pieces, added some new pieces. And the book “Contemporary Cheerharan : Women fighting Injustice and Indignity” has finally been published .
How is the response so far?
The response has been really warm and enthusiastic. Within the launch week, our book came in as the second best seller under “Hot New Releases” in Anthologies genre. We also came in as the third best seller in Social welfare and social services genre.
“I’ve been awarded with Sahityakosh Salman 2022 at Ne8x LitFest. Further collaborations and engagements are in the works”, mentioned Maitridevi Sisodia.
