Letter to Ashima Ganguly

- Sampurna Chakraborty

Edited by Vasvi Singhal

To
Dearest Ashima Ganguly,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I write to you from your native land, hoping this letter, unlike the one by Gogol, doesn’t get lost in the post. At the outset, I want to commend you for your resilience and courage in navigating life in a foreign land and being the epicentre that anchors the entire household together.

You are more than the obedient daughter, faithful wife, and responsible mother of two. You constantly endeavour to strike a balance between your cultural heritage, ideologies, and life in the States. The constant struggle to fit in very much resonates with many of us who have ventured far from home, and who deal with loneliness and long to return home amidst the hullabaloo of a new life.

The stoicism with which you bore the sudden demise of your husband is profoundly remarkable. You endured a cumbersome journey of grief, yet you gathered yourself to provide stability to your children. Your clash with your children's ideologies shows how mothers all over the globe grapple with the generation gap between them and their children.

Today, the talk about women's agency is a pertinent topic. However, your marriage with Ashoke was not an exercise of independence but a step in the traditional Indian path of life. You moved across countries, leaving your life and family behind, yet somehow, maybe society failed to praise your sacrifices, much like how the myriad of sacrifices made by our mothers are often overlooked. We often fail to discern the fine line between “What is done out of Duty” and “What is done out of Love,” considering the very adjustments made by female counterparts to be obligatory. You have transcended all boundaries and serve as an inspiration to women all across the world.

Yours lovingly,
Sampurna.