Humans of Pink Innings - Jamuna Rangachari
Updated: Dec 5, 2019
No matter what the turmoils of society, Jamuna Rangachari believes in the strength of human beings to return to humanity.
Right from childhood, I have looked upto female inspirations as I felt they are most caring for others. I remember the time I went to school and my teacher asked me what I would like to do. I replied ‘I wanted no young girl to ever do housework but being in school and college as this was the time for them to study.’
This was the time when most household help came with their daughters to help them. In my own way, I would try to teach them but realised to change their perspective of life, we need to send them to school.
Later, I got married and following my dream of becoming a software professional first and then moved into writing as one of my dreams was and is writing as a tool to make a difference to the world.
I love music and feel strongly that music is the only language understood by all and is perhaps the language of a higher consciousness. We all know that we can be understood only through the choices we make, the challenges we have/will face and our response to each of them at every stage. This is the manner in which I request you to try and understand me, by understanding each step of my journey of life as it stands today.
In 2001, I was 33 and working as a software professional. I took reasonable care of my health. Every morning I would walk by the sea side and come back home and then go to work. Though I never really went to the gym or played any game, I usually used the steps instead of the lift as a minimum fitness routine.
I took my children to various classes, learnt a few things with them myself and had hardly one moment free. My husband did have a transferable job so we would keep setting up one house after another. I continued working and in fact, I even studied further and got many qualifications post marriage. On the family front, I was fortunate to have a great bond with my mother-in-law who was an encouragement on all fronts.
There was a part of me that also always wanted to be involved in some kind of social work and I had volunteered whenever I could with NGOs.
At this stage, there was a lot of communal disharmony in the whole of India due to the events in Gujarat and the Godhra riots. I just could not ignore this. I wrote many letters to magazines and papers on the misuse of religion.
“Amma, no one ever reads letters !’, said Siddart, who was just ten at that time. ‘If you really want to convey something, why don’t you write a story?’, he suggested.
Being a child, he considered nothing ‘impossible’. My daughter, Samyukta, then six, too fully agreed that stories were the way to go.
This set me going. I had never written anything till then neither did I have a background in journalism or literature. Still, I thought I would attempt writing fiction. My inspiration, sounding board and critics were my children, as it had to be stories for children.
Would I be able to convey the essence of religion, a lofty subject, in the form of simple stories? I wondered. Still, with Siddart and Samyukta by my side, seeing what I was attempting, I had to persist. Slowly but surely, a collection of stories emerged, on the humanistic aspect of every religion practiced in India.
Once the stories were ready, I contacted various children’s magazines and my stories were finally published in Tinkle, a children’s magazine.
After my stories got published in Tinkle, I thought I could publish a book with these stories. After sending them to various publishers from whom I did not get much response, I realized I should approach well known people interested in the subject of communal harmony, as that was the subject of the book I wished to publish.
I decided to get in touch with the well-known lyricist and scriptwriter, Javed Akhtar as he was vocally against any kind of communal disharmony. I traced his contact and met him with my collection of short stories.
He heard me out and surely felt this kind of a book was required in India and did recommend one of well-known publishers to read it. Soon my first book was published. And in no time my second book was also published.
Today, I am an author 6 books and wish to work in all areas that make all of us, including women and children completely empowered.
To name few I have authored three books for children, compiled and interpreted Teaching Stories-I and II for Life Positive and published a book “Dancing with Life” through Hay House.
Jamuna is also a regular contributor to Life Positive of which she has also been
the Assistant Editor earlier. Her articles have been published in Daily
News and Analysis, New woman, Khabar an NRI magazine, Wedding Vows and
Times of India among others. Her blog name is www.jai-joy.com
- as narrated to Sailesh Mishra
