Journey and Grace: Out of India

Cynthia Sciberras
Aug 27
2 min read

Updated: Aug 28

Excerpt from YOKE: An Experiment with Destiny

Interviews and introduction by Cynthia Sciberras

Words by Karen Gee

Mother India is a vast, intricate tapestry with many faces, where the threads of the ancient and current intertwine. It is a place where the land hums with the weight of stories that stretch back millennia, and where the air feels heavy with the scent of possibility and chance encounters. It is a country where the soul can find sustenance in the beauty of its people, its colours, and its wild paradoxes.

Within this tapestry live three extraordinary women whose lives and work are themselves acts of transformation. These women defy the silences imposed on them by history, society, and tradition—not through rebellion for its own sake, but by singing new harmonies into old songs, by fortifying the structures they inherited with the electric power of their own voices.

Arundhathi Subramaniam is a poet of exquisite clarity and depth who moves between worlds: the divine and the human, the ancient and the contemporary. Her words are at once bridges and mirrors, connecting us to forgotten women mystics while holding up a reflection of our own yearning.

Parvathy Baul, a keeper of Bengal’s Baul tradition, carries centuries of sacred songs within her. But she is no mere vessel for the past. In a practice historically dominated by men, she dares to be both disciple and innovator, weaving a feminine presence into the spiritual and artistic lineage she stewards.

And then there is Rupi Kaur, whose journey began at a humble local open mic and whose poetry has since crossed borders. Through her art and activism, she reclaims vulnerability and strength, offering solace and empowerment to millions of women and young girls across the world.

Photos: Parvathy Baul by Cynthia Sciberras; Arundhathi Subramaniam by Meetesh Taneja; Rupi Kaur by Nabil Shash

These women are rewriting their worlds not by erasing what came before, but by showing us how the past can magically continue to pulse with lasting transformation. They are charting a path for future generations of female artists and thinkers, reminding us that tradition is not a fixed monument but a living, breathing conversation that asks us to imagine, not just what has been but what might yet be—a future shaped by women’s voices, boundless in their possibility and potency.