Dare To Dream: Review Of Shinjini Kumar’s ‘Busy Women’

Busy Women (Penguin Business) by Shinjini Kumar is not just a book about women who are from “middle-Indian cities and towns and middle-class families”, but also about women across the breadth of the country who are making something out of their lives, often at places where building something of their own requires great courage, resilience and perseverance. How they succeed in achieving their dreams is told in a vivid and engaging style in the book. An important part of Busy Women is Kumar’s own story, starting from a village in Bihar, to extensive corporate C-suite and RBI leadership experience, and then to becoming the co-founder of a personal finance start-up for women.

Busy Women starts on a personal note with Kumar planning to move out of a metropolis to a smaller, mountain-based home. The process makes her ask the question: what is life like beyond the metros? Given her background, this is a question specially focused on women with ties to money—through their inheritance or organisation, or a company they set up or are a part of. The other important part of this query is: what is their contribution to India’s growth? To find an answer to this, Kumar travelled to 30 cities across the country and interviewed more than 300 women to bring out the story of “women building commerce and culture in Middle India”.

The book starts with literally the middle of India: Nagpur to Raipur where Kumar meets women entrepreneurs with varied stories. While there are women who inherited their family business, there are also those who studied and travelled abroad, then came to these (so-called) tier-two cities, and after a period of struggle, established their own companies. The struggle is ongoing because as Ruchi, one of the women Kumar meets, says, “Many of my friends want to work, but they don’t have the support of their in-laws.” The counterpoint to this lack of support is: “Have the courage to move out and just start whatever little you want to start, whatever you think you’re good at.”

Yet, as Kumar moves to other cities, the conflict these women face remains in the struggle in balancing family and work. As one of the patriarchs of a family business declares, “Women can choose whatever work they want to do, as long as it does not compromise their duties to their families.” From Nagpur to Coimbatore, women undergo similar struggles, and it is a testament to them that they keep going, despite the fact that their ambitions and aspirations, and sometimes even their need for survival, are questioned perpetually.

One of the most moving stories Kumar tells is that of Phoolbasan Bai Yadav from Raipur, who dealt with extreme poverty which made her and her four children feel that life was not worth living. But she persisted, going on to start a collective of self-help groups (SHGs) for women in Chhattisgarh that focuses on changing their lives through financial literacy, hygiene, nutrition and self-defence. Now she is thinking about a cooperative society. As Phoolbasan says, “I wanted to make a big change. I wanted to change the world around me. And I had to do it while living in the same society, which is the only one I knew. So, I could have either fought this battle at home, or the ones I fought.” So, Phoolbasan still wakes up early, does her chores at home, goes out for her collective work and then returns home to finish her remaining chores.

It is in the descriptions of the quiet resistance and change, balanced with the constant adjustment that women are still required to do, that Busy Women shines. While a lot has been said about both India’s growth stories and the biases and lack of choices for Indian women, this book shines a light on those parts of the country and those women who are rarely talked or discussed about. It also talks about the positive side of living in middle towns and about the hope that things can change for the better. As Neetu Singh, the owner of a business in Kanpur, including Little Chef points out, “Smaller cities give you a very nice blend where the short commuting distance, the touch with family, the happiness quotient and emotional solidarity with friends all have a calming effect…India is changing. So, it’s beautiful in a way.”

Having lived and studied in Kanpur, this incident struck a personal note. Reading this book, one remembers anew the warmth that smaller cities still offer and the opportunities for growth that the women who live there have carved out for themselves. In the beginning of the book, Kumar writes about her mother who was stricken with cancer and subsequently passed away, telling her, “boring kitab mat likhna”. Kumar has heeded that suggestion and written a book that is interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring, especially for women who are keen to start something of their own.

(Jonaki Ray is an award-winning poet and writer and the author of ‘Firefly Memories’ and ‘Lessons in Bending’)