A thousand thorns
’A Thousand Thorns’ follows Pushpa and Pushta, two young women with postgraduate degrees. They work as forest rangers – a typically male-dominated profession – in the arid region of the Thar Desert, in Rajasthan, India. Pushpa, a 25-year-old [in 2018] mother, lost her husband in an accident. Pushta, newly married, is 26 years old [in 2018] and is chastised for not producing a male heir following two miscarriages.
In telling the story of Pushpa and Pushta, Deepti Asthana aims to show how women across India are challenging gender-defined roles. Fighting their way through the patriarchal clutches of rural Rajasthan, these women – along with many others in villages across India – are subtly asserting their right to equality.
With education, modernisation and technology seeping into rural India, Pushpa and Pushta are aspiring to do more than their traditional roles. The women find solace in each other’s company and keep themselves busy preparing for their exams to explore employment opportunities and strive for a better life amid the arid desert and loneliness of their work.
’A Thousand Thorns’ is both a tender and strong tale of friendship, hope and transformation.
