It's not really possible for Phupu to answer the question, but that's not the point of this post anyway. Rather, it's about this woman, Phupu, who inspired and challenged me, and dragged me kicking and screaming into adulthood. She is the most remarkable person - man or woman - I have ever known.
I made this photo in 1981.
From the time I was 7 until I moved out of my parents' home and went to college, I lived with Phupu. I suppose technically she lived with us. But really we all lived with her. Or perhaps around her.
Of Tibetan Buddhist origin and Indian citizenship, she has lived in the depths of Calcutta, on 5th Avenue in New York, along the Corniche in Beirut, and in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The list goes on, for though she is of humble origin, she has traveled more than most people. I guess the reason she has seen so much of the world is that people who were lucky enough to enter her sphere of life never wanted to let her go. They would rather whisk her away to live with them. That's what my mother did. Phupu's simple and unabashed intelligence and humor and wisdom were so infectious that to this day, more than 20 years after she left us, I have friends who still ask about her. She touched them, too, in some deep, life changing way.
Phupu lives in Mumbai (Bombay) with her daughter and granddaughter, and is moving slowly towards 90. My sister and I hope to visit her next year or the year after. I find myself wanting to say, "before it's too late." But I have to stop and realize I was blessed to spend a decade learning from her how to live and how to love and how to be.
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March is Women's History Month. To celebrate and honor women, I'm posting a different woman's photograph each day during March and on into April.
