A Calendar Too Crowded

A Calendar Too Crowded is a collection of poignant stories and poems woven around the theme of womanhood. What makes this work of fiction different from other books that highlight the plight of women is its unique approach.
There are quite a few days in the calendar that are devoted to women. The aim of remembering and commemorating such days is simple enough; they serve the purpose of spreading awareness thereby attempting to protect the rights of women. Some of these marked days in the calendar have been imaginatively used as a starting point for the stories and poems in this book. So while the theme of a story under the month of January is inspired by National Day for the Girl Child in India (24 January), another story under the month of November takes up Elimination of Violence Against Women Day (25 November) as its focal point.
The intent, however, is to probe further and discover the ugly truth of women's continuing subjugation Some stories and poems explore the reality underlying popular misconceptions and misleading statistics that sometimes paint a rosy picture of women's emancipation and liberation. Others use simple and undeniable facts to hold up to scrutiny many of the fallacies that are often used against women in society.

Sagarika Chakraborty, born in Kolkata, studied law at National Law University, Jodhpur and is currently studying management at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Her projects and articles on diverse subjects-corporate governance principles with special emphasis on emerging and transition economies, monetary economics, religion have been published in Indian and international publications. She has also presented papers at international conferences as well as global forums such as Sydney, Wellington and Washington D.C.
Apart from delving into serious research work, she has also written light fiction and poetry for various online and print media. She is an avid salsa enthusiast. This is her first book.

The Year of the Woman' was a popular epithet that was attributed to the year 1992 when a number of female Senators were elected in the United States. The phrase since then has never been out of circulation. Not confined to the field of politics alone, it has also been applied to fields as diverse as business, films and sports, whenever a large number of women have hogged the limelight.
We have come a long way since 1992. Awareness of rights have increased and so have various organisations supporting. the said rights pertaining to women. Today an entire calendar can be drawn up dedicating days to women and protection of their rights.
This book, A Calendar Too Crowded, is my take on each month where a large number of important days are dedicated to women or life in general where women play a major role. The attempt is not to highlight how in January, there's a day in India dedicated to girl children, or how April has come to be officially declared as a month against sexual abuse throughout the world. The attempt is to delve deeper and analyse whether it is merely enough to rely on statistics and be complacent in the knowledge that the numbers indicate a better society in the making, or whether there is an urgent need to look beneath the covers and realise that despite all such dedicated days, there are 300 odd days when there is nothing special that life has to offer. Where each day is still an unending drudgery and where womanhood is cursed and trampled upon. It is also an attempt to look into houses where everything looks picture perfect on the surface, but there are blatant cases of domestic violence and gender inequality that have been swept under the carpet for fear of tainting the family name and image. The aim is to bring forth the bruises hidden beneath each lavishly draped body that need to be highlighted even on days which are not dedicated to campaigns against domestic violence. The desire is to evoke the realisation that a girl child needs to be gifted pencil and paper when she needs them the most. which may not necessarily coincide with World Literacy Day. Education must go beyond literacy if a child is to grow up to respect women and understand their lives.
All the voices that have found expression in this book through their stories are nameless, because no name would justify a voice which represents millions. They transgress all boundaries of geography, religion, age and caste to become one voice the voice of womanhood. Each and every voice in these stories can be connected to any woman you see around you and they seek to say that all women deserve to be happy every day of the year, because every day in the calendar of every woman's life is precious, just like yours.
Having said that, the days and dates selected by me to spin stories are the result of research on various cultures and nations across the world. Many of them are well-known days, celebrated globally and known to all. Some of the dates, owing to lack of established internationally earmarked days at the time of writing this book, or the absence of the same, have been taken from lesser-known cultures and their customary celebrations.