‘I believe in discerning a person in first look.’ In a complex world, Anuradha Beniwal’s simplicity is beguiling. She carries it to the pages of her debut book, “Azaadi Mera Brand”. Published by Rajkamal Prakashan, the travelogue comes across as a whiff of fresh air in popular Hindi non-fiction. Hailing from a village in Meham district of Haryana, Anuradha travelled solo across Europe and has shared her experiences without a layer of pretension. And before I could draw comparisons with Queen , she tells me it happened much before the film happened.
But, she is in news not just because the book is setting new milestones in Hindi publishing industry. During the Jat reservation agitation, Anuradha was one of the rare sane voices on the social media. Her blog talks of freedom for women from being ogled at. A former national chess champion, Anuradha now teaches the game in London.
When we meet at a restaurant in Khan Market, Anuradha’s choice of language to express herself becomes the conversation starter. “To be honest I am more comfortable in Hindi. If English is not my limitation, it is not my strength either. I figured out that writing in Hindi comes more naturally to me. Also, I wanted to share my experiences with my village girls, my cousins, and they don’t know English. I am connected to my village Sanghi. My extended family still stays there. They are my friends and if I write in a language that they don’t understand, it doesn’t make a sense to me. “
On choosing the travelogue format, Anuradha says that is the only format she knows. “I am not an expert in Hindi literature. As a kid my mother, a M.Phil in Hindi, used to read out tales to me. Here I told my experiences, my stories to myself and kept writing.”
Before taking the Europe trip, Anuradha has been travelling solo in the country. “I explored Rajasthan, Kashmir Valley, Sikkim and West Bengal….” However, in the book India comes only in flashbacks. “I felt there not much on Indian perspective on Europe. There is lot written about how a western person looks at India but how do we see Europe. As we say in Hindi, there is a haooaa (imagined fear) around it. Europe sounds so distant for a common Indian, a place where only rich people holiday. I wanted to break that myth.”
The way she talks about her journeys you can make out that travelling is easier for Anuradha than writing. Were there no glitches, at all? “No, staying with a foreigner was not easy. By foreigner I mean somebody whose language I don’t understand, whose food I don’t eat. In Brussels, when I went to sleep at night there was no latch on the door. It made me uncomfortable. It made me uneasy. But as days passed I started trusting people. I think you have to give trust to get trust,” says Anuradha and in the same vein asks, “Does it make sense?”
It does, but this world is not just about sunshine. “Of course, there were moments, I won’t say bad but unpleasant. When I was in Prague, I was cheated in money exchange and I had very little money. My host said I should not have gone to that area. But these are the things that make a trip real and fun. Not knowing where you will stay in the next city. Like I was going from Prague to Bratislava and I was not getting a place to stay. It keeps you on your toes.”
Usually, in traditional families, things like where to stay, how to travel are decided by the men of the family. Being a sportsperson, Anuradha reminds she got control over her choices early. “At 14, I travelled from Chandigarh to Calicut alone. Of course, there was a coach but still I was incharge of so many things.” So what pushed her search for freedom? “The freedom to be able to walk on streets without being looked at, the freedom to sit on the roads and lie down on footpath because sometimes you feel like doing it. The first time I went to Singapore, I actually slept in a park. I don’t know how many men can relate to it. It was something really amazing for me. I felt invisible. And that’s an addiction which you want to feel again and again.”
On leaving professional chess, Anuradha, who once upon a time was one of the two leading players from the North along with Tania Sachdev, says she left the game for two reasons. “It is an expensive game and I come from middle-class family. After a level the coaching is really expensive. Haryana is known for its sports culture but chess is something they don’t know about. I was told aap to gotiyaan khelti ho. Now things are changing of course, but not then when I needed support.” After a point, Anuradha didn’t want to handle the pressure of winning and losing either. “I wanted to lead a normal life where you have to sit in exams once a year. I was tired of competition and I am not at all competitive now. I make my own races where I win all the time,” gushes the graduate from Miranda House.
Now, whenever she has money and time, she travels. “I can manage for days and a month but my dream is to travel for a year at a stretch.” Her next book is about her experience in Nordic countries where women are traditionally strong. “I am writing about my experience of staying with a lesbian couple. I was asked it must be exciting. It was as boring or normal as staying with a heterosexual couple. I have spent days with a divorcee, a mother of three children who lost her husband. We are often told the life of a woman is over as soon as she loses her husband. I want to break those ideas.”
Meanwhile, Anuradha is not shy of addressing the ills that plague Haryana. “I love my state’s culture and that culture is not about wielding a lathi all the time, domestic violence, playing cards in the morning, seeking dowry….The culture is about experiencing the warmth of relationship and enjoying the songs, food and humour that the state is famous for.” Many criticise her intervention as she no longer lives in the state. “I am still attached to the place and you can be self-critical only if you care. I am interviewing girls who have been brought from other parts of country for marriage because of declining sex ratio. It is scary how they don’t have any rights. On one hand you are asking reservation on the basis of caste and on the other you don’t know the caste of the person you have married.”
Having said that Anuradha adds it is wrong to say that the misogynist attitude is inbuilt in Haryanvi men. “My father is not like that. He was a lecturer in Government College and is now doing farming.” The problem is people don’t want to accept the issues. “Having a problem is not a problem but hiding it and polishing it is a problem. I say recognise it and root it out of the system.” For those who call her an outsider, she has recorded videos of her aunt and her daughters to highlight the core issues. “The problem is education. When I decided to teach my cousin English of 12th standard, I had to start from the syllabus of Vth class. When my niece applied for the post of a teacher in a primary school she was told her voice has Haryanvi touch and the salary of a teacher is Rs.2000-3000. These are the things for which one should protest and stage dharnas,” for once Anuradha gets slightly agitated. Denying political ambitions, she however, admits that she is being approached by political parties.
As we come to an end of our conversation, I wonder if someday a European girl could travel solo in Haryana and get the ‘invisible’ feeling… “Then I would say Bharat mata ki jai!” Anuradha brings me back to the present in an instant.
