Mridula Sinha

Early life

Mridula Sinha was born on 27 November 1942 in the village of Chhapra Dharampur Yadu in Muzaffarpur district in Mithila region of Bihar state in India. Her father was Babu Chhabile Singh and her mother was Anupa Devi. She attended the local school in Chhapra and later studied at Balika Vidyapeeth, a residential school for girls in Lakhisarai district. From a young age, Mridula developed an interest in Hindi literature and exhibited a talent for writing prose in Hindi.

Shortly before she completed her bachelor's degree, Mridula's parents arranged for her to marry Dr. Ram Kripal Sinha, who at that time a college lecturer based in Muzaffarpur town, Bihar. After marriage, Mridula continued her studies and took a post-graduate degree in Psychology. She then took a job as a lecturer in the Dr. S.K. Sinha Women's College in Motihari. Shortly afterwards, her husband received his doctorate degree. She left the job and started a school in Muzaffarpur where her husband was working in a college. The school got name and fame in the town for its idealistic character.

Career

Meanwhile, with encouragement from her husband, Mridula honed her writing skills and experimented with the short story format. She was interested in cultural matters and village traditions. She wrote short stories on these topics and on folk tales that she gathered from the villages where she and her husband worked. Many of these stories were published in Hindi language magazines and were later compiled into a two-volume anthology named Bihar ki lok-kathayen ("folk-tales of Bihar"). She also wrote several novels and a biography of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia titled Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi. A film of the same name was later made based on this book.

Meanwhile, Ram Kripal Sinha's commitment to social welfare had taken him into politics at the district level. Mridula initially helped her husband in reaching out to the women of the constituency during his campaigns for election to the district committee. She found that with her knowledge of local tradition and cultural nuances, she had a strong connect with the people, especially women. She developed a very strong interest and commitment for social welfare, although she had no interest in electoral politics and never contested any election. She was named Chairperson of Central Social Welfare Board.

Political career

At this time, her husband was a cabinet minister in the Bihar state government. She was until August 2014 a member of the national executive of Bharatiya Janata Party. During the BJP's campaign for 2014 general elections, she was in-charge of the BJP Mahila Morcha (women's wing). On August 25, 2014, she was appointed as the Governor of Goa.

Sinha was also appointed as an ambassador for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. During her tenure as Governor of Goa, she also adopted a cow and a calf at the Raj Bhavan for the purpose of daily worship.

Literary contribution

Films & TV adaptation : Mridula Sinha's work Like "Jyon Mehendi Ko Rang, a novel is adapted into a T.V Serial and short Story l"Dattak Pita" and autobiography on Vijayaraje scindia "Rajpath se lok' path par" are made into feature films as "Dattak" and "Ek thi Rani Aisi Bhi" respectively . All her Major Literary works adapted in Films and T.V are by National awards winner film maker 'Gul Bahar Singh.

Translations into English

Honours

Sinha was conferred upon a Honorary Doctorate by the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.