She's a voice on women's issues, she's the voice of Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh’s well-known short story ‘Mark of Vishnu’, was Usha Mahajan’s first ever attempt at translating English writings into Hindi. The story serves to warn against falling prey to superstitious beliefs, thus encouraging progressive thinking. This may as well have been a sign of things to come for Mahajan, who has tirelessly highlighted social issues holding back Indian progress, in her prolific writing career.

She started writing only at the age of 36, when she had already had a bustling family life with her husband and three daughters. Talking about the birth of her third daughter, she recounts how the doctor told her “You have had a daughter again… even though she is pretty”. This subtly reflects on how women are viewed as a liability in the Indian society. She also noted, how the only consolation to being born the third girl child, is being ‘pretty’.

Highlighting women’s issues has been a particularly significant aspect of Mahajan’s writing, which spans 28 publications. Of these, 20 are her own works and 8 are translations. She received a KK Birla Foundation grant to write a book specifically on women’s issues, for which she travelled to various parts of India. This culminated into her book ‘Utho Annapurna, Saath Chalein’ (which, translates into ‘Rise Annapurna, let’s move forward together’; where Annapurna is the giver of food and nourishment and a female name). Talking about her research and writing on this subject, she stresses on the fact that if “men are blocking the way, women cannot move forward”. In this context, she highlights cases of dowry, women’s lack of control over their own earnings and the fact that they still have the dual responsibility of work and home.

“Badhaaon ke baawzood, Nayi aurat” (‘Modern women, despite hurdles’) is another of her female centric books. This work profiles a number of women, who have achieved the extraordinary and not given up in the face of difficult circumstances. These women come from various walks of life like justice, teaching and non-profits. Mahajan mentions how inspiring the stories of these women were for her.

But her biggest inspiration, perhaps, came from Khushwant Singh, who encouraged her to take up writing in the first place. She eventually translated seven of his books, including ‘Train to Pakistan’ and both volumes of ‘A History of the Sikhs’. She got in touch with him after being deeply moved by one of his articles. She made a cold call to him and they set up an appointment. “He encouraged me to read a lot, and to write what came in my heart” she says. Out of her own choice, she first translated a story of Singh’s into Hindi. He was surprised when she showed it to him, he had no idea of the initiative she had taken! But that started a very productive journey as a writer for her, as he gave her more stories to translate. Soon she started publishing, both the translations and her own works.

“He was a true gentleman” she says, about Singh. “Don’t go by what has been said about him, or what some of his later titles indicate. He always used to laugh these things off, saying that the people close to him know him well enough to know better.”

Hailing from a Punjabi family, which relocated to India from what is now Pakistan, Mahajan was born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh. After her marriage, she moved with her husband, spending over a decade in West Bengal before finally shifting to Delhi. This is where she started her writing career, which she continues to date.