Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
A BEACON OF HOPE FOR WIDOWS
For Mannu Ghosh, 93, life has come a full circle. From being socially outcast as a widow in the 1960’s and being forced to do petty jobs to earn money, to living at an ashram in Vrindavan and now finally as a motivator and face of widow empowerment. Winner of HT Woman Lifetime Achievement Award winner, this shy Bengali nonagenarian woman has not only tied rakhis on the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee but also travelled to France and other countries giving motivational talks to widows.
Mannu, who got a standing ovation during the HT award ceremony in Lucknow on Sunday, now wants to take up the cause further and motivate widows who are living a tough life. The softspoken woman expresses her pain and transformation in Hindi with a Bengali accent. “Abhi toh hum Holi bhi khelti hai, rakhi bhi manati hai and Deepwali bhi karti hai. Pehle to humein ko poochti bhi nahi thi, gaali deti they…bhajan main jate bhaga detey they aur kabhi-kabhi to dhakka maartey they. Ab to sab humko pyaar karti hai, bhajan ke liye bulati hai, haat milati hai, sab jagah jati hai… abhi to hum bahut khush hai. Sab Radha Rani ne hum pe daya ki. (Today we are celebrating all the festivals. Earlier people would shoo us away when we would go to sing bhajans and even abuse us. At times we were also pushed and shoved by people. But now everyone loves us and we are happy. It is all due to Radha Rani’s blessings,” she tells HT City
FLASHBACK
Born in a poor family in 1925, Mannu, who belongs to Kolkata, was married in Chakda locality in the same city when she was 16 years old. When she was 45 years, her life took an about turn as she lost her husband and three children to an illness. Since they were very poor, the family could not afford medical treatment. “Bimari mein sab guzar gaye ek saal ke bhitar. Hum log bahut gareeb they. (Due to illness all of them died within a span of a year. We were very poor.),” recalls Mannu and adds further, “After losing everything, I went to my father’s home but there also situation was bad. Bahut saal tak kothi mein kaam kare aur idhar udhar kaam karke kaam chalaya. (For many years I worked in a house and managed to eke out a living).”
JOURNEY TO VRINDAVAN
Mannu came to Vrindavan 25 years back. “Some people told me about Vrindavan so I went to Howrah station and boarded a train. After reaching Vrindavan, I started doing petty work including working in a tea stall. People asked me why I was working
like this…I should do bhajan-kirtan. So I went to Pagalbaba’s Ashram and devoted myself to God’s service. For singing bhajans I started getting some money, rice and daal and that’s how my life was going along. It was tough but somehow I kept moving,” she says with a smile.
In 2012, she formed a group of 40-odd widows and called it ‘Mahila Ashram’ and started moving in search of work. “We started making garlands, prasad, dress and puja material that we would supply to shopkeepers. From the money we use to buy food material and other items of necessity,” she tells HT City.
THE TURNAROUND
Meanwhile, looking into the plight of thousands of widows living in places like Vrindavan and Varanasi, Supreme Court intervened and asked NGO Sulabh International to take care of the widows living in despair in the last stages of their lives. The group saw leadership qualities in Mannu who had till then become a motivator amongst the widows and was a frontrunner in talking about their rights. She was nominated to motivate others widows to take part in rituals like Holi, Dipawali and Rakhi. “Earlier, widows were forbidden from taking part in religious festivals,” she says.
Talking about her experience on tying rakhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi she says, “I have requested Modi to come to Vrindavan and meet widows who stay with us.
He has promised to come but is yet to fulfil it. We are still waiting. I also got an opportunity to tie Rakhi to the President of India.” She has visited cities like Kolkata, Patna, Kolkata, Varanasi, Lucknow and Mumbai to deliver talks. Mannu, along with four other widows from Vrindavan and Varanasi got an opportunity to attend International photo exhibition in France on an invitation from European organization.
Currently, she lives with 200-odd widows at Meera Shabhagini Widows Ashram in Vrindavan. “Abhi to sab accha hai…agey Banke Bihari aur Radha Rani ki jaise kripa ho (Everything is good for now. As for the future, as God wills,” she says with a smile.
Ab to sab humko pyaar karti hai, bhajan ke liye bulati hai, haat milati hai, sab jagah jati hai… abhi to hum bahut khush hai MANNU GHOSH, ACTIVIST