{"product_id":"a-drop-in-the-ocean-the-story-of-my-life-9789354479892","title":"A Drop in The Ocean: The Story of My Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e'[Syeda Hameed] has spent her life working for the poorest, for\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewomen and for secularism. I witnessed her work for ten years as\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMember, Planning Commission. Her story opens new vistas and a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enew vision for all who read it.'-Dr Manmohan Singh\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'This is more than a memoir. This is history. Not as chronology, not\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eas pedagogy, not as apology but as a soul's life-story drawn by the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewing-flaps of bitter-sweet recall on the skies of truth-telling.'- Gopalkrishna Gandhi\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSyeda Hameed was nine years old when her first story was published in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShankar's Weekly in 1951. It was the start of a prolific writing career that would\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einclude the translation and editing of four volumes of Maulana Abul Kalam\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAzad's works, and translations of Hali, Ghalib, Faiz and Sarmad Shaheed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the story, 'You Have to Learn to Make Friends', also held within it the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eseeds of much that was to define her life in years to come. Born of an incident\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhen she was boycotted by the neighbourhood children because her name\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewas 'Syeda', it made her aware of her Muslim identity for the first time and, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein time, of the need for peace between Hindus and Muslims, Indians and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePakistanis. To this end, she went year after year with iconic journalist Kuldip\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNayar and others to the Wagah border to light a candle on the stroke of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emidnight on August 14\/15, and in 2000, took a 'bus of peace' to Lahore, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emet women who, like their sisters from 'the other side', yearned to forge\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebonds of friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore this, returning to India after 17 years in Canada with her husband, Syed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMohammad Abdul Hameed-a marriage of both happiness and heartache-\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eshe had built her life around the fight for human rights. As a Member of the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNational Commission for Women and, later, the Planning Commission, she\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etravelled across the country listening to the dispossessed, and taking up their\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecauses-among them, Sajoni Kisku, a Santhal woman who was beaten and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etortured for the 'sin' of picking up the plough when her drunken husband\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecould not; 19-year-old Maimun from Nuh who was gang-raped for marrying\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eoutside her gotra; and Tang Kumar of the Andamans, who lost his entire family\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eat sea and built a new life for himself as 'captain' of his village.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSyeda writes of many such encounters that gave meaning to her life, and of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esome extraordinary people who shaped it: her mother, Aziz Jahan Begum of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe royal Rampur family, and her father, the educationist Khwaja Ghulamus\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSaiyidain; her uncle, the writer and cinema legend Khwaja Ahmed Abbas;\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndira Gandhi, with whom she worked briefly; and Khushwant Singh, the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egrand old Sardar who was her literary mentor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSensitive, deeply human, intimate and often moving, this is an inspiring record\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof a remarkable Indian life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Speaking Tiger Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50923663229202,"sku":"9789354479892","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8e56ae3d-b10d-4872-acb7-e83328c11d94.jpg?v=1738958845","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-drop-in-the-ocean-the-story-of-my-life-9789354479892","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}