The Memories of Dr Haimabati Sen translated by Geraldine Forbes & Tapan Raychaudhuri. Roli Books, New Delhi. Pages 407. Rs 495.
This volume portrays the struggles, pain and tragedy experienced by a courageous woman who had to find her niche in life overcoming the forbidding, literally asphyxiating, social conditions prevailing in Bengal during the 19th century. Forbes and Raychaudhuri have translated these memoirs, using the non-published material written in Bengali by the late Haimabati Sen.
Dr Sen was born to a Ghosh couple in 1866 in Khulna district in the present Bangladesh. Married at the age of nine and a half years to a 45-year-old twice-widowed father of two daughters, Haimabati soon became a child widow in 1876. Destiny had something different, though not exactly pleasant, in store for this extraordinary girl.
Despite her unsympathetic in-laws, she determinedly pursued her education. Shunned by her brothers after her parents’ death, Haimabati went to Benaras — the refuge of widows (by a strange coincidence the town is in the news thanks to "Water" — a movie on widows). Soon she was able to find employment as a teacher in a school established by Indian reformers.
Abandoned by her own kin and in-laws, Haimabati assiduously built a network of relationships. This was essential to survive in a hostile world. She was an attractive 20-year-old woman, enough to attract undesirable attention of the local rogues. She left for Calcutta to live and study in a "home" for widows there.
She remarried at the age of 23. She was able to pursue her studies even after marriage. She entered the Campbell Medical School in 1891 for a three-year course. She proved to be a bright student. When she was awarded a gold medal the college’s male students went on the rampage! An indicator of the perennially brittle male ego.
Later on she also won the Viceroy’s silver medal — so good was her academic career. Yet she found it almost impossible to find a job commensurate with her qualifications.
This very interesting biography tells us about the social, economic and political conditions prevailing in the 19th century India with the focus on Bengal.
This is the saga of a woman-pioneer who had to fight entrenched prejudices and hurdles to achieve her ambitions — modest by today’s standards but rather big considering her days. She was a professional doctor, of whose income her husband lived. It hurt his ego, but not enough to behave in a responsible manner. Tragedy was waiting to happen in her life. And it did. How? Read this engrossing book, you will find it more interesting and thought-provoking than most of the so-called best sellers.
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