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The Journey of Sangatin: Feminist thought wrapped in seven lives - By- Tarannum Manjul Live for today, for yesterday has gone and tomorrow still has to come. With this motto in life, this 24 year old young journalist gets going everyday. A through bred Delhite, this graduate in English honours (and several diplomas) went onto to become a journalist working for a leading National daily in Lucknow, (Uttar Pradesh) from the past 4 years. A true gemini to the soul, she loves meeting people and issues related to the underprivileged, women and children touch her the most. a budding development journalist, Tarannum loves writing about the feat achieved by her key areas, and can go anywhere to do that, with nothing stopping her.

'Sangatin Yatra – Saat Zindagiyon mein lipta nari vimarsh'

The narration is simple, yet it incisively raises many facts about the gender and girl child issue. Seven women pen down their lives and two give those words a shape. And world calls it 'Sangtin Yatra- Saath Zindagiyon mein lipta nari vimarsh'. The book, which was recently released by eminent hindi littérateur Maitreyi Pushpa, is not just a compilation of seven lives. It's a process of knowing more about the grassroots of the modern day gender movement. Here's what the book (named after the group in which these women are attached) means for its writers.

It all begin with an Indian professor of women studies coming from the USA to meet her friend who is working in an NGO in Sitapur. The friend asks her to have a look at the various projects going on in the district and also, meet some women who are attached with the movement not because they want jobs, but because it brought them out of their dark worlds. Thus the two friends became authors of 'Sangtin Yatra'.

The technique was simple. Seven women were chosen by the authors and they were asked to pen down their experiences since childhood, their opinion of their lives and also, the questions which they always wanted to ask but got no answers, in a diary. After every few days, the group would sit together and discuss the writings. The diaries were finally compiled into a book.

For Dr Richa Naagar, the brain behind the book, it is not just mere documentation for NGOs or the gender movement. Grand daughter of Dr Amritlal Naagar and a professor at the University of Minnisota, Dr Naagar felt that the book has somehow made her realise the harsh ground realities which are faced by the rural Indian women. “For me, they were not just pages of the diary, but a process of realizing what holds deep inside these women.”

Author number two is Richa Singh. Singh works with an NGO in Sitapur district towards strengthening and empowering women. Called Richa di by her juniors, Singh is a known name in Sitapur when it comes for fighting for the rights of the women. She is also a part of a non-profit group called Sangtin (meaning best friend in Awadhi), where she tries to connect women to each other to form groups. “For me, the book was certainly a peep into the lives of many other women with whom I work. I may have known them for years, but through the diaries, they opened up even more.” Singh was instrumental in collecting the women and also, convincing them to jot down their experiences since childhood in a diary, which formed the backdrop of the book.

The subjects, or should we say the co-author team members, are Anupamlata, Ramsheela, Reshma Ansari, Vibha Bajpai, Shashi Vaish, Shashibala and Surbala. For Surbala, the book helped her realise that she had so much to speak yet she never found a platform. “How many women are allowed to speak about what they feel is right? But the diary helped us to open up and pour our hearts out,” says Surbala. Anupamlata's experience was related more to the meetings than writing in the diary. “The meetings to discuss the diaries were actually a common place for us, where we realised that we had so much to share apart from our gender.” Vibha Bajpai too opined similar sentiments.

Since it was their own book, the Sangtins decided that they would publish the book too. “Its our way to expressing ourselves and we want everything to be done by our hands,” said Dr Naagar.

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