I grew up in the hills of Kumaon, taking it for granted in those distant days that women were stronger than men. I could see it all around me, in the tall straight backed women traipsing down the precarious hillsides, a mountain of branches and twigs balanced on their proud heads, in the old women clambering determinedly on to steeply sloping rooftops, laying out dung cakes to be used as fuel in winter. I could see it in the ancient crones , who would outrun the cows while chasing them out, when they strayed into our gladioli infested garden, slapping them on their rumps with rude authority.

These women, these mountain women of Kumaon, live in my heart and my imagination and turn up in my books with unfailing regularity. There is Hidimbi, the first and senior most of the Pandava wives, who was to appear as a supporting character in my YA novel ‘Lost in Time: Ghatotkacha and the Game of Illusions’. The noble demoness effortlessly took over the story, and became the central character and heroine of the book. There was the self-willed and whimsical Tilottama in ‘Things to Leave Behind’. And, most recently, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali, the first First Lady of Pakistan, and the subject of a recent collaborative biography which I worked on and wrote the introduction for.

I find the story of Hidimbi intensely moving. She staked her love and loyalty to Bhima and stood by him against all odds. Soon after she gave birth to their son Ghatotkacha, Bhima and the Pandavas left her to fend for herself as they continued their wanderings in exile.

There is a temple to Hidimba in the Kumaon hills, near Sattal. I think of her as a heroic and inspirational figure, and also tragic in her unreciprocated strength, generosity and giving. She seems to exemplify the true Shakti of the women, and the goddesses, of the hills, their tenacity and power of will.

Tilottama- ‘eccentric, headstrong, born-before-her-time Tilottama’ - effortlessly took over a complex historical novel and became almost the central character in it. She entered into my life and consciousness as well, in a way no character I had written had ever done.

And the Begum- born Irene Ruth Margaret Pant on Almora in 1905, champion of feminism and women’s rights, went on to become one of the most important and inspirational political figures in Pakistan. In my introduction I observed ‘ ...whenever I encountered the half-told stories of Begum Ra’ana I could sense the mountain grit in her, the legendary strength that comes so naturally to Kumaoni women.

To go back to the distant past, the wild and wise women of the Himalayas managed to frequently annoy, offend and infuriate the great patriarchal sages who roamed these mountains in search of salvation. The followers of Shankaracharya habitually sealed the shrines sacred to rebellious goddesses with the same ritual enthusiasm with which they re-indoctrinated Buddhist abodes and viharas.