Kamla Bhasin was one of India’s most well-known feminists. She never introduced herself as anybody else but a feminist. Even in the eighties, when the word feminism alienated, Kamla did not change her introduction. In her death a large section of women, men, trans people, Dalit Bahujan movement representative, are finding the social media to express their feelings towards her. There is a sense of personal loss among a large section of the people. What was it about Kamla which attracted people towards her? What did she do that left a lasting impression on people?I can tell this through my own personal story of knowing her.I met Kamla Bhasin in 1984. It was the month of September, the place was the first training of Sathins in the dharamshala of small temple town, called Padampura, outside Jaipur. The Women’s Development Programme had just been launched in Rajasthan and the first Sathin training (the key grass roots worker) was underway. Two fire brand feminists, dressed in very smart clothes were at the door step of the Training hall. The textile was handloom, the colours were earthy and the jackets too were cut beautifully. We understood that the two women were from Delhi. They were Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya, who were associated with Saheli Delhi. We looked at them with deep scepticism and wondered what these Delhites wanted to do in this training of rural women. Being the last week of the training, the sessions were being run by the Sathins themselves. So they slotted the two Delhi feminists grudgingly in their schedule. I don’t quite recall what the two spoke then but I remember the songs that they sang mostly in Hindi were mostly centred around women’s lives. Their repertoire was unending. But our Sathins were no less. The Delhi feminists had found their match in them. They had made the most beautiful songs in their local dialect, describing their suffering, their hopes, their dreams in poignant poetry. That impression even today has never left me. The zest and energy that Kamla spread, just infused in each one the appetite to sing more. The air in the room changed. It was filled with laughter, song, dance and the ended with us bonding even more. That was the beginning of knowing Kamla Bhasin and knowing Kamla the singer, the poet, the dancer, the sloganeering one and the witty one.
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