Borders Bridges Belonging is a tale of two strikingly different worlds, and a journey through many layers of India - rural, small-town, urban, and global.
The story begins with a family of farmers leaving their land and finding a home along the border during the partition of India.
With curiosity, I asked for the location of Hindustan. To which came a loud response, 'Fitte Muh, right here, where we are sleeping, where else do you think?"
With many migrations, strong faith in education and constant pursuit of dreams, brings the author from her village to the American heartland.
'I grew up in a society that had embraced the darkness they had inherited, and I was living in one which was burning its own houses down for light. Was there really no middle way?'
The book becomes a panoramic and personal view of many Indias that occasionally knock on the doorsteps of each other. It is a hope-inspiring tapestry that weaves the journey of a village family along with India's. With its shares of chuckles and lighthearted moments to deep reflections, the journey becomes a moving memoir, showing how belonging to different Indias really feels. It leaves us meditating on the role we play in being a bridge to the other part.
Premlata Poonia grew up in the remote village of Likhmewala in Rajasthan, along the India-Pakistan border With multiple migrations, she completed her BA from Maharani's College, Jaipur, and her Masters from IMT Ghaziabad. Later, she moved to the United States to pursue an MBA at the University of Michigan, following which she lived and worked in the small town of Columbus in Indiana. After a decade in the US, she returned to her village to start an initiative for girls' education and empowerment, Hamari Laado. Borders Bridges Belonging is her first book.
There is not a whole lot new that someone in their mid- 30s could offer to fill an entire book. So 'Borders Bridges Belonging' isn't a memoir in a true sense; it is a we-moir. A reflection on the collective stories of many Indias, seen through the journey of one village family.
This book came about because I found myself in the contrasts of two starkly different worlds. The world of my village where my family had lived since 1947 the year of India's independence and partition, when the female literacy rates in most villages hovered close to zero. Many decades later, I became part of the first generation of girls in my village to access education, and yet many in my generation dropped off after fifth or eighth grade for lack of schools and willingness. With my father's determination, hopping through many migrations, I found myself sitting in a small American town and leading a billion-dollar business for a global company. Nowhere along the journey did I meet girls who came from villages like mine or from the Hindi medium government schools that were the hallmark of the first wave of education in India.
Somewhere the dots didn't connect. The bridges didn't take shape. The dreams didn't come true. To know what happened in between those dots, I traced back. From institutional gaps to societal practices to family commitments. But the book is not a data-driven analysis of any of these. It is a story of lived experiences. Of what I found and felt in constantly looking back in the mirror on that drive up.
From aunts and cousins in the family who remained illiterate to friends who dropped off somewhere along the journey, the internalization of it all produced a myriad range of emotions. From anger, injustice, guilt, determination, and a lot more. In sorting through these emotions, I tried to understand the journey and struggle the generations prior to me had undergone. The experiences of loss, lack of resources, and uncertainty of the future had rooted them into something extraordinary and produced an insurmountable amount of resilience, hope, and faith. The courage to cross borders and bridges whose outcomes they did not know. They had found their path and I had to find mine.
Sharing a story is one of those paths. The story of unrelenting hopes of untended hearts. Of imperfect and constant endeavors. Of experiences across many layers of India that led to wonder, joy, pain, grit, and resolve. The bits and pieces of which I found wherever I went in the world. Till I could find my way home.
In writing, the reflections produced moments that were raw. The perspectives that were unsuitable from another vantage point. Yet I had to allow myself to sit in that moment and portray them as is. To honor the lens that moment held. Knowing fully well the beauty that is evolution, and all the points that can and will come after.
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist