In So Many Words

This volume will mark a new trend in dealing with womenâs varied experiences of life: individual introductions situate the narrator in a context â" and then her voice takes over, with no intervention from the editors (except to provide footnotes wherever necessary).

The personal narrative â" be it an autobiography, a letter or a diary â" has come to be recognised as an acceptable data source in history and social science. Literary critics and students of literature too find considerable use in reading the personal writings of poets, fiction and crime writers. In this book, readings of personal narratives help in painting various images of lives that we can only know at second hand. The m©lange includes memoirs, published articles, âportraits from memoryâ, a collection of essays , and an oral interview. In all, the self was the focus. The writings of Sailabala, Li Gotami, and Shakuntala go beyond a recounting of their lives and deal with spiritual and travel experiences. Three of the essays are excerpts from published autobiographies â" Sarala Devi Chaudhuraniâs Jeevaner Jharapata (Lifeâs Fallen Leaves), Kalpana Duttâs Reminiscences and Sailabala Dasâs A Look Before and After. Vidyagauri Nilkanthâs writings are essays and a selection of amazingly candid letters exchanged with her husband. Anasuya Sarabahiâs is an interview in Gujarati with niece Gira and Monicaâs a selection from an unpublished memoir. Li Gotami, whose original name was Rutty Petit, travelled to Manasarovar, and a few of the magazine articles on this amazing journey have been reproduced here.

Whichever form a woman chooses, writing about her self, is emancipatory; she may be a person who has so far received little attention from the family or the world. Or she may be one who is a well-known public figure â" yet little is known about her childhood. So she writes about many selves â" life is not about one coherent self but rather one of many lives and experiences. In other words, the pen gives woman agency â" she moves out from under the shroud of victim hood and becomes one who can write about her lives.

The volume also has some carefully chosen photographs, gleaned from personal collections, so far a neglected area of use in academic study. These provide an important visual context to the many worlds that the women inhabited.