ROOH: Within Her

In the solo ROOH: Within Her, Urja Desai Thakore explores narratives in quiet, everyday, heroism across two millennia. A mythical mother (in a 2nd century CE Sangam poem by Tamil poetess Kaakkai Paadiniyar Nachellaiyar) who scours the battlefield in search of her son’s body, determined to disprove rumours he died fleeing the enemy. Renowned Gujarati author Zaverchand Meghani's account of Chaaran Kanya, a regional folk heroine: the teenage cowherdess who drives away a lion that dared to attack her favourite calf, while the entire village quakes in fear.

And then there are inspirational figures from Urja Desai Thakore’s immediate family. Her grandmother Nanda, who left home in 1946 to marry the man of her choice, a man outside her community, an act of daring and conviction in conservative, pre-independence India. Her great-aunt Brahmavidya who brought up Nanda’s children so Nanda could finish her education, work, become a celebrated author and composer…

Through ROOH: Within Her, Urja Desai Thakore connects distant past and recent history to individual choices, creative and personal, and celebrates how all of these seemingly minor narratives inspire our future selves.