A faceless Mardaani

It was a normal day for Khula Laimayum Sahani as she started her scooter for home. A resident of Manipur, the 50 year old feisty lady had shifted to Delhi in order to pursue her passion – theatre. Her love for theatre activism had nudged her to spread her wings beyond the north-eastern nook of the country to land in the capital city. Little did she know that the events awaiting her that evening would be any less than a theatrical production.

Laimayum ignored the stifling Delhi heat as she drove her scooter amidst the multitude of vehicles teeming on the eastern Delhi roadways. Evening had set in and she was ruminating over the day’s events when she realized that she had already reached Patparganj. 

Not far from home now, she thought to herself.

Suddenly, she felt her sixth sense trigger warning signals as a bike with two men veered close towards her. Before she could sit up alert, the man on the pillion lunged at her and snatched off her gold chain in a swift action. Within the fraction of a minute the chain snatchers disappeared from the scene. Well, almost.

For, Laimayum had regained her composure by then and revved up her scooter. She didn’t stop to ponder over her ensuing action. She knew what she wanted to do, what she had to do. The chain snatchers had no idea what was coming for them.

Laimayum pursued the gang alone on her scooter relentlessly for 2 km till they were cornered and forced to stop. The goons did what they were best at – they snarled at her, threatening her of her life. But Laimayum was made of sterner stuff. She took no heed of the cowards’ threats and taking off her only weapon, her helmet, she proceeded to thrash them black and blue with it. Even in their wildest dreams the duo must not have imagined that the docile-looking woman from North-east India would turn out to be their nemesis. 

Later, Laimayum called up the police and handed over the yelping miscreants to them, lodging an FIR. Her ordeal was over. She had stood up for herself, displaying utter bravery. 

She is my Mardaani – a faceless woman. She could be you.

(Image courtesy: Blogadda.com)

This is written as a part of I am Mardaani activity exclusively at BlogAdda.com for Indian Bloggers.




Note: I stumbled across this news on Facebook and I was stunned at the courage of this woman. I could not find further details anywhere about the case and hence built up my own rendition of the story, based on the sole article I read. Although, I wrote this for Blogadda, I mainly wanted to share this incident on my blog because this made me proud. It makes me believe that there is a Mardaani in every one of us. We just need to wake her up when the time comes.

Update: Blogadda sent this postcard to me from Rani for writing about Khula Laimayum Sahani. Thought I would share it here with you :)