Life and Times of Shanta Toofani: Story of a Survivor
The book 'Life and Times of Shanta Toofani: Story of a Survivor' narrates the life story of Shanta Toofani. Shanta, a well known, committed activist of Delhi, who has struggled for the rights of people and against class oppression all her life.
THE BOOK ‘Life and Times of Shanta Toofani: Story of a Survivor’ encapsulates the narratives of life of an unknown yet someone whose persona we all would like to hear and learn from- Shanta Toofani. Written in the form of an open eyed account by the authors, the direct voices of Shanta Toofani in various chapters add a certain degree of vividness to the account. The simple life lived in a complex way yet in its essence is a life lived to the fullest is what this narration brings to us.
Shanta Toofani, as a child, learned the meaning of life with her mother passing away, later with the second mother killing herself and then separation with sister during migration from Burma to India with her father. In all these tales, there is deep pathos which can be summed up as ‘exiled at multiple levels’, ‘repressed psyche’.
The first part of the book has interesting narration from the personalistic angles of Shanta Toofani, talking about how she perceives inspiration as coming from spirituality about gratitude for nature, a pertinent note in this connection is her thought “compassion is value of dharma and charity is friend of dharma”. In this book, we can hear tones of marginalised existence in the hierarchical brahmanical societal set up, where she seems to be re-negotiating her identity at her own terms as she takes up cudgels over being dubbed as ‘achhut’, who was not a Brahmin.
These writings also bring to light the saga of this lady who never attended educational institutions in formal way yet could read between the lines of present day hedonistic educational scenario making people more self centered and wean them away from contributing towards society. She even had a Marxist bent of mind towards society where in absence of economic equality, accessibility to resources for all come at unequal plane. The paternalistic emotions of care and nurture are heard as she opposes the way children suffer when parents split terms due to rising pressures of life.
The part of the book pertaining to her experiences while travelling in buses are the kind of things which all of us hear- the public transport being inempathetic towards old people, people making noise in buses, eve-teasing, are some of the things which she points towards as to how she dared to raise her ire at. Such instances occur in our everyday existence, so empathy is the state of mind while going through this segment.
Struggle, deprivation, yet determination to trust the inevitable destiny were yardsticks to shape Shanta’s childhood. With marrying at age of 17, life didn’t change much. With death of one son and other son disapproving of mother in later years are some poignant times of her life which have been narrated, makes one think over the kind of inner mantle she had to take it all.
Moving away from personal insight and leaping towards her activism, part III, captures her social and political interventions. They portray the voice of the subaltern- who fights to let her due be heard. She comes forward here as a Durga who is battling at various ends- educating slum children by her association with Ankur, selfless concern to get money for a lady’s burnt house, standing up for rights of poor people at MCD meetings, AIDS Bhadbhav Andolan, Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam. These instances are like threads of an interwoven fabric of life.
How being exiled at level of mother, sister, wife, daughter, she overcame the trauma to give back good to the life and not sitting back and sulking destiny. In this struggle within, she was an epitome of compassion to others around her.
To sum up, a beautiful narrative to be read and pondered over. It may not have found space in mainstream discourse involved in covering up flamboyant things, the publishers deserve a credit to put an effort to it. It has in store a lesson of life for several of us, who in some way or other are victimised. Where Shanta Toofani comes to rescue is that we need to battle our way out of this process of victimisation, we need to tender our life a larger meaning beyond just focusing on one’s selfishness, based on honesty, courage and conviction.
The first part of the book has interesting narration from the personalistic angles of Shanta Toofani, talking about how she perceives inspiration as coming from spirituality about gratitude for nature, a pertinent note in this connection is her thought “compassion is value of dharma and charity is friend of dharma”. In this book, we can hear tones of marginalised existence in the hierarchical brahmanical societal set up, where she seems to be re-negotiating her identity at her own terms as she takes up cudgels over being dubbed as ‘achhut’, who was not a Brahmin.
These writings also bring to light the saga of this lady who never attended educational institutions in formal way yet could read between the lines of present day hedonistic educational scenario making people more self centered and wean them away from contributing towards society. She even had a Marxist bent of mind towards society where in absence of economic equality, accessibility to resources for all come at unequal plane. The paternalistic emotions of care and nurture are heard as she opposes the way children suffer when parents split terms due to rising pressures of life.
The part of the book pertaining to her experiences while travelling in buses are the kind of things which all of us hear- the public transport being inempathetic towards old people, people making noise in buses, eve-teasing, are some of the things which she points towards as to how she dared to raise her ire at. Such instances occur in our everyday existence, so empathy is the state of mind while going through this segment.
Struggle, deprivation, yet determination to trust the inevitable destiny were yardsticks to shape Shanta’s childhood. With marrying at age of 17, life didn’t change much. With death of one son and other son disapproving of mother in later years are some poignant times of her life which have been narrated, makes one think over the kind of inner mantle she had to take it all.
Moving away from personal insight and leaping towards her activism, part III, captures her social and political interventions. They portray the voice of the subaltern- who fights to let her due be heard. She comes forward here as a Durga who is battling at various ends- educating slum children by her association with Ankur, selfless concern to get money for a lady’s burnt house, standing up for rights of poor people at MCD meetings, AIDS Bhadbhav Andolan, Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam. These instances are like threads of an interwoven fabric of life.
How being exiled at level of mother, sister, wife, daughter, she overcame the trauma to give back good to the life and not sitting back and sulking destiny. In this struggle within, she was an epitome of compassion to others around her.
To sum up, a beautiful narrative to be read and pondered over. It may not have found space in mainstream discourse involved in covering up flamboyant things, the publishers deserve a credit to put an effort to it. It has in store a lesson of life for several of us, who in some way or other are victimised. Where Shanta Toofani comes to rescue is that we need to battle our way out of this process of victimisation, we need to tender our life a larger meaning beyond just focusing on one’s selfishness, based on honesty, courage and conviction.
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