Ramsar (Rajasthan) The singing community of the desert village of Ramsar once swore to ostracise this polio-afflicted singer for going against the social traditions.
Singing on public platforms, they said, is a male privilege. And no matter how gifted the women were, they were to keep their voices within the confines of their homes. But Rukma Bai couldn't care less.
Her proud art belies what the people in this desert with a feudal hangover saw as her weaknesses. Both her legs are disabled but she has a great sense of humour, she sings and laughs like few can.
After almost sixty years of struggle for 'creating a place for herself', life has come full circle for this physically challenged singing survivor of the desert.
She has now 'been there and done that'. She has shared the platform with Shubha Mudgal for her album Man Ke Manjire and sang on BBC London. But that's when the real struggle began.
"I went to BBC London, after that the people of the village objected. They said she goes and sings on public platforms so she is bad, ostracize her," she says.
Rukma says she held on to hope to survive those days. But things have changed. The people of her village in Barmer near the Indo-Pak border respect her art as much as her strength.
Every time this folk singer sings in her guttural voice, she draws a motley audience around her courtyard. Kids, women, passers by listen in awe. "I never lost hope and that's available in writing," she says.
Rukma Bai first fought against her disability, then against the emotional trauma of being married to a man who eloped with her sister, never to come back.
"The people of our society said get her married. She's physically challenged, get her married so that she can have children to take care of her. Her husband of course has done nothing for her, he has eloped with another woman," says a villager.
Rukma was married again, but she soon became a widow. She now had three children to take care of. That's when she decided to do exactly what she thought was right - sing for a living.
While Rukma has struggled her way to success, for the little girls of Ramsar, taking their voices to the world is still a distant dream.
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