Ladybug's field notes

Apparently all three of them are very different. One is very fashion conscious and likes to match every accessory she carries, the other could not care less. One can not be found dead without her books and the other, well! she could die at the sight of a book till recently. One is fond of ethnic jewelry, the other revels in junk jewelry and  for the third one all jewelry is just that... "junk"! One has too many friends, the other  is very serious about her friendships and for the third, "Friends? ...ummm...will sisters pass off as friends?" But then, all three are passionate human beings. Very emotional. They share a strong bond to their birth place and home town. They love going back to their roots. Perhaps it reminds them that they faced several odds and still emerged victorious. They always win. You can be almost sure, if they are in the field hollering out for each other, its one of them who is going to win it. And if one of them does not actually win,...

I n the Baramunda bus stand of Bhubaneswar, Odisha I was asked to stand by the bus waiting to go to Phulbani. "I have the ticket with a seat number..see" I was keen to prove I was not an imposter. "Yeah yeah...that's okay but just stand by" the conductor said. "But why?" My initial surprise was soon turning into irritation. I was early for my bus. I did not want to struggle to keep my bag in the overhead compartment. The bus was all ready to go. It was nicely washed and the conductor had also put some incense sticks. Why couldn't I get on to the bus? "Oh..this is the problem with urban women..they don't understand a thing." He told his fellow conductor and turned to give me a piece of his mind, "Madam, you can not get onto the bus unless a man boards the bus first. It is inauspicious. Cant you see the bus is all cleaned up and you know very well that women are unclean on some days. Don't you? Can we ask around who is goin...

Mehroon was married and sent to her marital home only to find that her husband already had another wife. She was beaten up by her husband for not performing her wifely duties and the other wife did not spare her either. She ran back to her grandmother’s home where she grew up without parents to save her life. She now considers herself a separated woman and this “woman” is all of 15! This is not a story of North Bihar, neither a story from the hinterland of Rajasthan, it is only about 20 km away from Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal. I know we would love to find the religion in it. After all it is always the “other” who has all the problems and not us! But, Malati’s suicide in a similar situation a few days ago would not let us do so. May be now we will try to find the caste in it, after all it has to be the other!! Mehroon, Susmita, Tapasi and Mahroof …I met them all in the adolescent centers run by an organization in South 24 Paraganas. Their stories give a new meaning...

Nari sangh, that’s what they call their CBO or sangathan. Each nari Sangh has a separate name and the fascination is evident from the names they selected “ chingari ” (spark), “ bijli ” (thunder), “ sankalp ” (mission) along with names of myriad locally known female deities. Nari Sanghs started forming in villages of eastern UP early 2008. It was a time when the local organizations felt the need of going beyond working with elected women representatives and readying a ground for women’s leadership to emerge in a region now largely bereft of men. Men from this region migrate leaving behind their women to “man” the house and do more. But the social norms expected these women to remain hidden while shouldering these responsibilities. In their families they were to provide food to the hungry mouths and fetch water for the thirsty souls. But they were not to talk about the irregularities in the Public Distribution System (PDS) or for that matter had any say in deciding where the tube-wel...