Womania: A Salute to the Spirit of Being a Woman

By Sanjay Tiwari

Choti Rani breathed deeply and held his hand with her teeth, she bit him hard and he started bleeding. Seeing no other way to set his hands free, Kunwar Ji rammed and threw Choti Rani in a corner. He grabbed his gun and pointed it at Sukhi, intending to kill her first, Just as he was about to open fire, the fumes from his barrels and the sound of the bullet filled the atmosphere. Everyone guessed that Kunwar Ji had shot Sukhi - and looked at Sukhi nervously. But she stood still. All of a sudden, Kunwar Ji fell on the ground. Every head turned to look at Choti Rani. She stood in a corner, holding a pistol in her hand. Her hair was loose, scattered and had fallen below her knees. She was dressed in black, and her eyes were red and fiery. Her disorderly curls and scars with blood oozing from them made her look like the Goddess of destruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Dec 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9789352065714

Book preview

Conclusion

Prologue

In India, it was believed that:

Yatra Naryastu Pujyante Ramante tatra Devta which means, Where women’s are worshipped there dwells the divinity.

In the same land, what is the state of women? Do they find the legacy of respect, honour and place in society? The journey of women started with the journey of this universe, as the mother of all human species, as the mother of civilization. Women enjoy different treatment in different parts of the planet. In some places, she is worshipped as the symbol of power. In some places, she is considered the goddess of beauty. In some places, she enjoys more rights than man, and in some places, women have no rights and are considered sex machines and reproduction agents.

We taught the world a lot through our rich cultural heritage. We spread knowledge across the globe. Our country is known as the birth place of the Vedas. Women have held major positions and have been respected in our civilization on many occasions. Today, we talk about equality, rights and liberty. We also provide reservation under various articles of our constitution, but I wonder if all this is really enough to give her the same stature and position that she deserves.

Woman is the most vital part of our life. We need her in every form of life, we need women in our life in the form of sister, wife, daughter, and most important in all of them we need her in the form of ‘Mother’. Yes, mother we need a mother to carry us in her womb. Every man is brought to life by a mother. We need her help in every single step of our lives. We need the blessings of a mother, the love and support of a wife, the concern of a sister, the purity and love of a daughter, and the solidarity of a friend. We know the importance and warmth of all these relationships. But why are we not providing women with the real respect they deserve? Why, in some part of our great culture, we kill them in the womb or murder her for fake honour? We need her in every phase of life. Why do we disrespect her with heinous acts like killing the girl child, honour killing, domestic violence, rapes and other forms of sexual abuses?

Every man has a mother.Why should a mother put on a veil to face her own son? Why should she live in fear of her husband? Why can’t she walk and move about independently? A woman gave birth to each of us. She gave her blood to form parts of our body. In return, is it that difficult for us to even give her a free environment to breathe in? A mother is the first woman in everybody’s life. It is only because of her that a new life comes on the earth

She gives birth to life, feeds it, pumps in the elixir of life into the newborn and nurtures it. She stays awake for nights at an end just to see that her child is alright. A small whimper from her baby makes her run to him, leaving everything else behind.

For years, she carries her child. She takes the pee and shit of her child on her clothes. A tear from her child’s eyes keeps her sobbing all day and all night long.This story is dedicated to all the mothers in the world. A mother nurtures her children equally, but all children do not return the love and care in equal measure, especially when she needs it most in her old age. Rather than taking care of her, we choose to send her to old age homes or to Ashrams. I leave you with the words of one of India’s greatest modern Hindi poet, Maithili Sharan Gupt-

Abla jeevan haay tumhari yahi kahani,

Aanchal mei hai dudh aur aankho me pani

(Oh woman, this only is the story of your spirit, you hold milk on your chest and tears in eyes)

[If this book brings any change in behaviour, attitude and confidence of women, even if one in a million gets inspired and dares to stand up and speak out against the odds facing her, this book will be worth all my effort].

Womania

This story is about a woman - but not any ordinary woman. It is about a royal woman, who belongs to a royal family. Sometimes, being rich and royal doesn’t guarantee a peaceful life. She also belonged to the royal family but she was also a woman and had to bear the pain of being a woman in a difficult society. The woman in this story dared to face her daily challenges rather than surrendering before them.

My story is about a lady who chose to live life on her own terms. She did what many can’t even think accomplishing. What she dared to do will make the souls of others shudder. This story is about a lady who sacrificed all the happiness in her life for the sake of others. She chose to life live for the welfare of others. This story is about a woman, a mother- about Mangla Devi. She is an inspiration to millions, a mother-figure to thousands of poor, helpless and underprivileged women – all of whom call her Amma Ji.

The brave lady not only changed her life but brought the revolution in the lives of many women. She gave them confidence to face challenges of life and challenges thrown in her path by society. She set a perfect example for women living deprived and suppressed lives. Mangla Devi is the hero of my story in the real sense. She is also the hero for hundreds and thousands of ladies who have known her. She is a source of inspiration that fought for the welfare of women and girl’s and brought changes in their lives. She sparked the flame of revolution in the heart of every woman she inspired, for respect and equality in society.

Inspired by her life and story, I titled my story as WOMANIA.

Characters

Neil Choudhary is the protagonist. Neil was an investment banker and represented the new age professionals, busy with a tight-scheduled job, a bright night life- that involved heading to pubs and parties and indulging in booze. He has his share of office romances and break ups leading to depression and agony. He is like most bachelors his age. The story is about how he loses his parents and all of sudden he was forced to visit India, where he accidently meets Mangla Devi and Zara. The story covers the journey of Neil’s life from a good son to a bad ass spoiled brat and looks at how he managed to re-discover himself in the company of Mangla Devi and Zara, and how he learned to find his inner happiness in the path of humanity and human service.

Mangla Devi- Popularly known as Amma Ji, she is among the main characters of this story and a source of inspiration to millions in the holy city of Varanasi. She lived for others. Humanity was her sole passion and she vowed to bring positive change in the lives of the poor and the underprivileged. Her ambition in life was to make women strong and daring, and to make them earn respect in society, and to make them self-dependent. She ran Ashrams for the aged and widows, and provided shelter to women left behind by their families and children. She ran an orphanage and school for under-privileged girls. She had institutes that trained women to fight or raise their voices against social evils like dowry, girl’s education, female foeticide, domestic violence and other abuses. Mangla Devi was a role model for millions across the globe. She believed in delivering without pomp and show. She wanted to be unknown and had her reasons for it, which will be revealed in the story.

Zara – The third character of the story was raised under the care and supervision of Amma Ji after her mother’s death. Mostly, she was called Bitiya Saheb. Zara is a young, educated, modern Muslim girl and is very open in her outlook in life. Zara is a free-spirited girl and is a perfect example of the bold and beautiful modern woman. She lives with Amma Ji and helps bring all of Amma Ji’s dreams and desires of serving humanity to reality. She is the only person who puts all her zeal and zest to fulfil every single dream of Amma Ji’s. She is young, sharp and beautiful. She devotes herself to her duty unconditionally. Her life changes when Neil meets Zara and cupid strikes.

My Life, my way

Iam Neil Choudhary, popularly known as Neil among family and friends.This is my story. I am the only child to my parents. I was born in Singapore. My father was Indian and mother was Singaporean- making me half- Indian and half- Singaporean. My father was in the Defence forces and came to Singapore on an Indian mission but never returned. Later, he married a Singaporean girl with whom he fell in love and settled here.

My mother died of cancer when I was still in school. My father never married again. He took care of me and filled the void of my mother with his love, care and pampering. My mother followed Buddhism and my father practised Hinduism. Indian culture and tradition were inculcated in me from my childhood days. My father took deep interest in telling me stories from the Ramayana, the Bhagwad Geeta and several other mythological stories. I was a good son and followed the rules seriously. With the rules of the house on one side and the Singaporean environment and my local friends on the other, I maintained a good balance between both of them.

After completing college, I did my Masters in Business Administration and after that I joined a Singaporean Bank as a Financial Advisor. Now, I was busier than before. I had no time for others, not even for my father or myself, even. In between, I had a few office romances and break-ups on a regular basis, like all other youth. My father and I maintained a good father-son relationship. We were very openand frank and were friendly with each other. I shared everything with my father as we were good friends and my father guided me every time.

Since I started my job, my father was all alone at home. There was no more talking and no more spending time together, there was no more discussion and I got busy with my job. I had very little time to spend with him. I had to take care of him, as he was growing old. I was young and ambitious, and like every other ambitious youth, I concentrated on my career. I had to grow my contacts in the corporate world. To achieve my ambitions, I had to spend more time out of home. Coming home late at night and leaving early was a regular schedule. He was worried about me and even asked me to get married and settle down. I told him that I hadn’t found the girl of my choice yet. Every morning, he made me breakfast and every night, he cooked dinner. He took care of my laundry. He took care of my every need. He never let me feel the void of my mother’s absence. But, in return I didn’t