Sadly, women have been kept in the background – whether it’s the case of movies of the case of literature. Most of the times, women characters have been offered the secondary roles only. Even if when the authors tried, they were not bold enough to let the women characters take the command of events in their hands and do whatever they wanted to do. Palak Kundra, in her very debut book entitled Bleeding Queens, has done something which we rarely see in the fiction of today. She has let her character run all the show of valour and make all the decisions of importance and take the proceedings in the entire narrative. Her protagonist, who is not only a rape survivor but also a courageous woman to hit back at her rapist, is a girl from a typical middle-class family – Diljit. She also has dreams like most other women do; she also wants to do something special like most others want; she is also raped by the criminals with sick perversion like many others; however, she does not accept everything with a mute like most others do. She comes out of the four walls covering her shadow and challenges the savages and defeats her and also teaches the world a lesson that silence and acceptance are not always a good option!

Bleeding Queens, a novel in Hindi, is surely a modern fiction book but the plight of a woman is the same – male dominance and male corruption with silent women and some crooked ones as well. Diljeet is supported by her brother Karanveer and her lover Rohit. She gives the readers something to think and she also gives the readers something to seriously ponder. As an author, Palak Kundra has been successful in creating the fiction which pinches the readers with the dusky realism. Nevertheless, she has not been quite at the same level with her plot as she has been with her theme. Maybe she wanted to keep the scope of the fiction limited to one character just to bring a new kind of narrative-force in the limelight – to say – a male Tamburlaine maybe!

The novel is written in common language which we speak everyday in India and the usual hint of Punjabi words are easily evident and shows us that the author, as well as the leading characters in the novel, are never out of their Punjabi roots. Diljit is a woman who wants to be an actress but he dreams are put on a hold when her soul, as well as her body, are tortured with the stigma of being raped. Nevertheless, she doesn’t lose all because of this crime against her. She has her courage and boldness and she fights back with a great valour. Her clinical insight in eliminating her culprits is as good as some serious detective novel. The readers will surely enjoy it!

To conclude, I will only say that this might seem an experimental novel to some of the readers with the foci being highly on Palak’s mouthpiece character Diljit. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the novel and the gravity of the theme cannot be neglected at all! How long will the women bear crimes against them with a mute reply? If the law fails to take its course, the hopes begin to despair and the justice is kept as captive, there will be bloodshed! And the same has taken place in the novel Bleeding Queens.

I will suggest the readers please read this book and make sure you leave feedbacks for Palak Kundra on her book on the Amazon page or on Goodreads. You can buy the book from the link below:

Bleeding Queens on Amazon

by Raju for BTR