Writing Has Been My Tool To Fight Back

Vanaja Pillai: We have such a long way to go before our girls see the semblance of fairness in this world. And that’s why I write!

I was about eighteen when I first picked up a really big fight. It was a hot, summer Delhi afternoon, and we were on the regular bus from the North campus college I studied at, to my home in Noida – really, really far. For several weeks now a bunch of boys were re-routing the bus to go via ITO instead of Pragati Maidan, for their convenience (Yes, that happened!) This added 30 mins to our travel time. But that day, something just flipped in my head, and I fought back. A bunch of girls followed me and we sat in front of the bus and refused to let it go, if it didn’t take the official route. We won eventually.

Was it the heat, or was it days of frustration and anger that built up? I don’t know. But even when friends and well-wishers questioned me later on why I would take such a reckless step (after all, those were Delhi gundas!), I knew and told them, that I could not have helped it. There is a point when you just can’t take it anymore.

Since then, and as I have grown older, writing has become that powerful tool for me to fight back. It gives me the ability to channel my beliefs and thoughts, and challenge people and situations that need to be questioned. And that is why I write.

Because it allows me to use my words to effect change, with passion.

I started off writing articles on LinkedIn about things I observed in my work life – about the startup world, the digital marketing space (where I worked), and about building companies that last with millennials. As my interests moved to gender issues and the need to make this world a better place for our girls, I wrote articles on why girls need to ‘raise their hands’ more, and what we must do towards gender equality.

About a year ago, I took a step back from my business role to see if there is anything I can do to catalyze the sure but slow move towards gender equality. I work with young women in the corporate world to help them cope with the challenges they face, and hopefully inspire them to reach beyond what they think is their potential.

It gives me the ability to channel my beliefs and thoughts, and challenge people and situations that need to be questioned. And that is why I write.

While on that path, I exchanged notes with a lot of women friends and colleagues on their journeys. Each is unique and special and carry the scars and badges of being a story of change. There are shifts happening around us towards giving women more opportunities and power, but the path to that is painful and often, overwhelming. The saving grace is that there are more of us in it, living similar stories in different worlds. In the cross-section of generations, economic strata, backgrounds and privileges, there are interesting and important stories to tell.

Omana, my first book, tells fifteen of these many stories. This is my fight to table issues that we skirt around, question behaviours that we normalise, and challenge the quality and impact of the changes we hide behind. We have such a long way to go before our girls see the semblance of fairness in this world. And that’s why I write!

Vanaja Pillai is the author of Omana. She live in Bangalore with her husband and her pet dog. The views expressed are the author's own.