A waltz with me? I’m sure men would kill for that. But why the stampede? Would it be because I’m gorgeous and witty or could it be because I’m a life-line to personal power and magic? Difficult question. But nothing’s too difficult for India’s beloved witch. How do most people react to me — I mean apart from overawed men? They’re amazed at my guts, curious about my amazing youthfulness, (you know that line, about ‘her loveliness goes on and on’), and yes, I’ll be frank, most wives are a tad envious. In fact, sometimes terribly resentful. Specially since my autobiography Beloved Witch zoomed in and up and refused to come down from the top.

But fascinating though the subject is, let’s stop talking about me for a while. What is ‘Wicca’? It comes from the old English ‘Wicce’ meaning the craft of the wise. An ancient branch of wisdom, going back, some historians believe, nearly 25,000 years

The first ‘witch’ was the Mother Goddess. Wicca came from a time when man first personalised and deified the forces of nature. It is a superior knowledge from which arose the concept of the Sacred Feminine, the Wiccan, the Witch. But perhaps because of that very reason — the emphasis on Feminine Power — it has faced inconceivable persecution and distortion down the centuries. In India, the persecution continues, and strangely enough is often fanned by distortions in the media. And we, being a very imaginative and credulous nation, swallow the stuff (of course, most of us are so hungry for a bit of sensation, we’ll swallow anything to break the boredom). For instance, remember Vishal Bharadwaj’s film Makdee where Shabana Azmi played a witch? From news reports, it seems they spent hours experimenting with that weird make-up they put on her. Blue-grey skin, horrendous hair, talons and a different coloured lens for each eye! And to top it all, at the end it turned out that the witch didn’t really believe in magic but was actually a ‘baddie’ with very worldly, commercial motives. Tell me, how low can you go? What I can’t understand is why women’s activist Shabana Azmi agreed to do this role at all. I believe (from these same reports) that at one point, while this bizarre make-up was being plastered on her, her husband Javed Akhtar commented in jest (one hopes), that the kind of make-up was unnecessary for Shabana’s face. So what was the bloke trying to say? That Shabana’s natural state was a weirdo, evil one? I wonder why Shabana demeaned women by appearing in Makdee in this light. No doubt, by so doing, she successfully endorsed the myths and tales of a country already steeped in superstition, which believes that a dayan is an evil and ugly worker of jadu tona. (By the way, dayan is derived from ‘Diana’, one of the beautiful patron goddesses of Wicca). It’s funny how vested interests can turn something so positive into the very opposite. Today, a hundred atrocities against poor, helpless women are being committed across the country by using such negative branding.

But what are the basic Wiccan traits in an individual? These days my Wiccan Brigade trains men as well as women in the craft. A Wiccan is strong in mind, does not give into coercion, can remain detached from the humdrum tweaks and punches of life, has guts, sensitivity and a measure of intuition, and recognises the possibility of human evolution into a superbreed.

Who were the famous witches in history, besides myself? Joan of Arc, also called ‘La Pucelle’. She came from Lorraine, a district famous for magic and paganism. Joan excelled in the mystical arts and was a leader of people. She was also a healer who believed that she did not need a middleman to communicate with God. She refused to kow tow to the System. She refused to say the Paternoster as an empty ritual. She dressed as a man when she pleased. She was a free-thinking individual. No wonder concerned lobbies wanted her out of the way.

But times are changing. Ipsita has made a difference. She has caused the wheel to turn. The other day, I was asked to speak at a rather prestigious club in Delhi. At the conclusion of the lecture, an elderly gentleman got up at the question-answer session and said he was quite overwhelmed by what I had said about this ancient branch of learning, which was also a way of life. He added that Indira Gandhi had been a great admirer of Joan of Arc. Why had it never struck anyone? He further added that Jackie Kennedy Onassis would qualify as a Wiccan because of the strength and courage she showed during her trials in life. I did not disagree with him. A perceptive gentleman. The same sentiments were voiced by the chair, when I was asked to speak at the Young Entrepreneur’s Organisation in Kolkata. These days, people old and young, from around the country are writing to me, wanting to be Wiccans. I have been invited as a guest speaker at institutions like the CII, St. Stephen’s College, IIT Delhi, Lady Shri Ram College, and the United Nations Women’s Organisation. And everywhere, there has been a clamour for more.

Of course, it has not always been wine and roses. For the last few decades in this country, it has been a long, hard and lonely fight. I have faced brickbats and death threats from vested lobbies. I have had bricks hurled at me while trying to investigate witch-hunts in the districts of Bengal and Orissa.

There have been concerted efforts to harass, defame, or extort. But I have done what I had to do and today, I hold the trumps. The Witch is a superstar. Feature films, projecting the true face of Wicca are being adapted from my stories. Talented actresses are lining up to play my character.

My publishers, Harper Collins say that Beloved Witch and Sacred Evil continue to spin off the shelves. And it is not only the elite who are wearing Wicca like a fashion statement. (How many times have I not been told that black is the favourite colour of Bollywood today?) But Wicca does not choose only the elite. Now, the time has come to bring Wicca to the masses. I have plans. You will not have to wait long.

Source

• CHAKRAVERTI, IPSITA ROY. Waltzing with the wicked witch. (2007, April 1). Financial Express. Retrieved April 1, 2007.

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