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Beyond anguish
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Well-known writer Anees Jung is ready with "Beyond the Courtyard", sequel to "Unveiling India", released in New Delhi this week. ZIYA US SALAM speaks to the author struggling to find a ray of hope for her countrywomen.
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Anees Jung_Feeling the pain of women. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
THE CALMNESS and serenity of her writing is so beguiling for someone so anguished. "My writing is a gift. It is a natural. I don't work on it. I don't slog like many others. I look at things in a serene way. Putting emotion into my writing is not a good thing. My subjects are turbulent enough, I don't want to add to the anguish. For days on end I have not been able to sleep after speaking to some of them."
Welcome to the world of Anees Jung, welcome to a world where "The Night of the New Moon" is preceded by "Unveiling India" and now succeeded by "Beyond the Courtyard". Welcome to the world of a woman who was not allowed to play in her courtyard back home in Hyderabad when she was still young. Welcome to the world of a woman who still longs for childhood gooseberries. And a woman who travelled across the length and breadth of India to put together the stories for "Unveiling India". Some of them are about easily identifiable faces. Like that of Ameena, the child bride `sold' in marriage in 1992 to a man old enough to be her grandfather. And then rescued before it got too late. Anees goes to Ameena's place to learn that she has been married. Now to a widower with three children. Other faces are not as easily identifiable. Like a woman prisoner in Bhopal who murdered her husband and is happy to spend time in jail if her little son could be brought to jail too and attend the school on the premises. Or Laila, the daughter of a coolie who left behind poetry and paintings as she passed away at the age of 19, only for these to be thrown away by an unlettered mother.
Welcome to the world of Anees Jung, a woman who has been able to enter many a home unannounced but not unwelcome. She might say that women don't have freedom and might have even lost faith in `freedom', yet she was able to enter the households of her subjects without any pretensions. No questions asked, no expectations raised. "To me everybody opens up. I don't go as a researcher with a pen, paper and a tape-recorder. I go there as one of them. Your confidence makes people trust you. If you are honest, people will open up. Also, honesty of writing helps. People know there is nothing contrived. But I am not a non-participant observer. I encourage people to meet each other, to share."
She relates one incident of Bijapur where she entered a Muslim zamindar household with about 100 women, a house where no stranger had ever been allowed. "Not only did I enter there, I also took our photographer, a Hindu, whom I introduced as my brother. If you are sincere, it always helps in breaking down walls and communicating."
Talking of asking people to share, Anees herself has a few things to communicate, a few things which perturb her simply because she is one brought up on a culture of sharing, what people this side of the Vindhayas call as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb. "Modern Hinduism is getting on my nerves. I don't like anybody forcing things down my throat. Earlier Hinduism was like a fragrance. I have been to the Pasupati temple, the Jagannath temple. I respect Shankaracharya. I bow to the divine in any shape. Wherever I see something divine, or something charged with divinity, I bow my head there. However, nowadays a bunch of people is turning Hinduism into something quite else. These people are destroying it. They are twisting the arms of India into such a shape that it cannot embrace anything other than one religion. Wherever you go people are talking of magic, jadu-tona. These are just the things rational people, NGOs have been fighting. It is such a retrograde thing. Hinduism is being used to push the country back. This kind of mindset has shades of Hitler. We have to fight it before it consumes us all. Forget Shining India campaign. We need a campaign on India Brooding. We have the sad spectacle of thousands of cattle being left to die in Maharashtra because there is not enough to eat. We have women walking 30 kms to get a pot of water."
Yet, Anees Jung believes it is the women of the villages who are keeping alive the spirit of India. And yes, contrary to common perception, she promises no rosy future. "All the time I am crying from inside. Of course, I hope that things get better, but people don't want to look at reality. I have seen so much anguish that I promise no sunshine."
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