No Title
Partho Datta
THE GIRL WHO LOVED TO SING: TEEJAN BAI by Lavanya Karthik Duckbill, Delhi, 2021, 48 pp., 199.00
November 2021, volume 45, No 11

This is the story of a determined, stubborn and spirited girl who has become famous as Teejan Bai. She has been heaped with honours, but her journey from the humble Bhil village of Ganiyari (Chattisgarh) to the world stage was a struggle. Teejan’s birth was not welcome in her impoverished family, and her enthusiasm for playing kabaddi and climbing trees met the disapproval of her disciplinarian mother. She was mesmerized by her grandfather Brijlal’s performance of Pandvani—narration of tales from Mahabharata and wanted to sing also. Brijlal did teach her, but her community disapproved of women performers, and to stop her, she was married off at the age of twelve.

Lavanya Karthik’s accessible narrative tells the young reader (6+) what happened next. Teejan ran away from her marriage and settled in the neighbouring village of Chandkhuri, making a living by weaving mats, immersed in her music, seized by ‘paagalpana’, haunted by the rhythms of Pandvani–‘jhunjhuni’, ‘sa na na na mo ha’. Her first public performance to the small community of her village dissolved the resistance and scepticism of her audience. After this, there was no looking back.

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