Showing results by narrator "Deepti Gupta" in All Categories

Dia Mittal is an airline call center agent in Mumbai searching for an easier life. As her search takes her to the United States, Dia’s checkered relationship with the American Dream dialogues with the experiences and perspectives of a global South Asian community across the class spectrum.

This collection of short stories provides a glimpse into the lives of girls from all corners of the globe who were inspired by their experiences to bring about change in their communities. Each author has a different story of what it means to grow up as a girl in her own country.

In 1950s Bombay, Jaya Malhotra studies medicine at the direction of her father, a champion of women’s education who assumes the right to choose his daughters’ vocations. A talented painter drawn to the city’s dynamic new modern-art movement, Jaya is driven by her desire to express both the pain and extraordinary force of life of a nation rising from the devastation of British rule.

In a country bent on controlling women’s bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom, a resistance has formed. An armed group of women known as the Hamiyat have made a name for themselves protecting those too weak to fight back. And now they are going on the offensive. Three women among its ranks must make the hardest choices of their lives.

It is the winter of 1705, and the 10th Guru of the Sikhs is under attack by the armies of the mighty Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Under siege and isolated, Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s men are exhausted beyond measure, and 40 soldiers decide to head home. Back in the villages of Punjab, these 40 men are met by a fiery Sikh woman—a warrior who has been preparing all her life for this very moment—who leads the deserters back to the Guru. This is the story of that warrior, the fierce Mai Bhago, who chose the sword to symbolize her unwavering loyalty and devotion to her people and her faith.