May her tribe increase

 Her village in Bihar would not have had its moment of glory had she not opposed her father’s diktat and sneaked out to study. She single-handedly turned Lucknow’s Prince of Wales Zoological Garden into India’s first zoo to use solar energy. She may be better known as Arundhati Roy’s mother, but had it not been for her, Syrian Christian women in India wouldn’t have had equal rights to their parents’ property. For scores of small-town girls, who harbour dreams of a flourishing sporting career, they have proved to be icons. And, stepping out of her superstar husband’s shadow, this filmmaker has made a splash with her debut film. We present women whose ‘never-say-die’ attitude has inspired many to follow in their footsteps. 

Reena on her super skis

Meet Delhi-based Reena Kaushal-Dharmshaktu (38), the first Indian woman to ski to the South Pole. She was part of the Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctica Expedition that comprised eight women — drawn from five continents — under the leadership of British polar expert Felicity Aston. The expedition was conceived to spread the message about women’s empowerment, climate change and environmental degradation.

Setting out from the ‘Messner Start’ on the ice shelf of Antarctica’s coast facing South America, at 82 degrees latitude, they navigated a route past mountain ranges and over wind-formed waves of snow.

“Every day, for 38 days, we skied for 10 or more hours. There was nothing to see in that frozen wilderness. We were the only living creatures. Yet, we felt a wonderful energy all the time,” says Dharmshaktu.

Her message to women: “If we could achieve our goal, anyone can achieve theirs.”

Yasmin Bajoria

Karate kid & calendar girl

Sakrisariya in Muzaffarpur district, Bihar, had its moment of fame thanks to Asma Praveen (19), who catapulted her family and village to fame by being chosen for the prestigious United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 2010 calendar. Asma was chosen not just because she is the first girl in her community to attain a brown belt in karate, but because she had successfully overcome all hurdles to pursue an education.

Born into a conservative Muslim family, Asma was not allowed to step outside home, unescorted, and her family was opposed to her studying beyond five years in a madrasa. But she decided that as long as the chores at home got done, it would not hurt anyone if she quietly went out to study. Jagjagi, a learning centre for girls run by Mahila Samakhya (MS) in the village, had an enthusiastic teacher, who selected her for the Mahila Shikshan Kendra in Muzaffarpur,  where she could pursue higher studies.

Asma’s mother played a pivotal role in convincing her father to send her to a school 23 km away. It was at the Kendra that karate became a part of her life. At the end of the nine-month course, not only did she do well academically, of the eight levels of excellence in karate, Asma had achieved six.

“My determination to be educated gave me confidence to find a solution to my problem,” says Asma.

Swapna Majumdar

Sunshine girl

Lucknow’s Prince of Wales Zoological Garden is India’s first zoo to use solar energy. Soon, everything here — from the water pumps, the animal hospital and nursery to the vehicles that ferry visitors and quaint decorative lanterns at the main gate — will switch to green energy.

Who’s the green force behind this change? It is the thirty-something, salwar-kameez clad zoo director Renu Singh. “It was a workable idea and what really excited me was that we could cut down on the huge electricity bills, which amounted to Rs 7,84,000 every year. It will also set an example of how functional use of solar energy is possible in our day-to-day work,” she says.

Singh’s environmental activism has greatly enthused zoo employees. Even the environmental lobby is all praise, calling the oldest green confine in Lucknow an “apt place to start such eco projects”.

Anjali Singh

Revisiting the rebel

Mary Roy is a rebel, an activist, an educator and mother of activist-novelist Arundhati Roy. Her life is proof enough of her ‘never-say-die’ attitude. It was she who fought an archaic inheritance law and ensured the historic Supreme Court verdict that changed the lives of Syrian Christian women in India, giving them equal rights to their parents’ property. That was 24 years ago. This November the court gave her access to the parental property she had contested.

Yet, despite the judgment, Mary Roy knows it is not easy to change mindset. “This judgment has not created any ripple effect on the Syrian Christian families in Kerala,” she observes. What it may have done at the most, she believes, is to make parents realise the absolute necessity of writing a valid will.

Disappointed she may be, but Roy has not given up hope of a more gender-equal future. It’s in education that she sees a way forward. “I walk into a shop and I see only women — as entrepreneurs and sales-girls. From the lower middle-class NRI nurse who single-handedly creates wealth for her parents and her in-laws to the B-school educated HR professional, I see that Malayali women have been empowered through education,” she says.

Shwetha E George

Magnificent Mary

She’s been dubbed ‘Magnificent Mary’ by the International Boxing Association. Mary began her winning ways by taking the gold at the 1st State Level Boxing Championship in 2000 —  her first tournament.

Since then it’s been a gold rush, the latest being the gold at the Women’s Boxing Championships in 2010.

Success did not come easy. “My father was okay with athletics. When he came to know that I box, he wasn’t too happy. He thought that I would end up with a broken face and that would end my marriage prospects,” she says, chuckling.

Marriage, motherhood, and many gold medals later, she now has her sights set on an Olympic medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Indian women from small towns dazzled at the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in October. Whether it was the young tribal girl from Nashik in Maharashtra, Kavita Raut, who won the first track medal for India in the last 52 years in the Commonwealth Games; or Geeta Phogat, the girl from Bhiwani, Haryana, who won the gold in the 55 kg wrestling; Deepika Kumari, from Ranchi, Jharkhand, who won the gold in archery; or Prajusha Maliakkal from Chalakudy, Kerala, who won a silver medal in long jump, the story of the recent Commonwealth Games had a distinctively small-town flavour about it. Suddenly, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore are being put in the shade and a new sporting India is rising from rather unexpected places.

Anjulika Thingnam & Harsh A Desai

Not just another star wife

At the packed premiere of her film in Toronto, debutante director Kiran Rao had a disclaimer: both about the film (“it is not a song and dance film”) and one of her lead actors (“this isn’t the usual film you see my husband in”).

At the Toronto International Film Festival, Aamir Khan definitely played the supporting role as his director-wife received critical acclaim for her maiden cinematic venture. ‘Dhobi Ghat’ will hit the screens in India in January 2011.

V Radhika