Oh Women! Thou Make Us Proud

Inspired from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to focus more on the North-eastern region, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has decided to include success stories of women from the region in NCERT books from the next academic calendar. Subsequently, the council has recently sought the details of two inspirational women of Sikkim—singer Remanti Rai and kick-boxer Susmita Rai. Northeast Today caught up with the duo to know more about them and their work.

- Sayantani Deb

When Hobby Becomes Career

Born and brought up in Gangtok, Remanti began singing bhajan from the age of 6 while attending Sunday Bal Bikash classes. Gradually she started participating at various competitions and honed her skills as a singer.

“I always carried the aspiration to be a singer and my ambition always remained to be a singer in my friend’s Slam-books,” recalls Remanti.

For Remanti, music was just her hobby till her high school days. However, during her college days she began taking more interest in it and eventually learnt more about music.

“During that time learning music and opting music as a career was quite difficult in Sikkim. But without any formal training and with just a passion for it, I kept my belief alive,” she adds.

Getting candid, she says, “My parents have always been half hearted when it was about music. I believe they were simply becoming like one of those protective and concerned parents who wanted their children to get good education and settle down with government jobs. But the bitter part was that, I was opposite to their expectations as I always wanted to take the roads not taken. It was obviously a big dream for a middle class family girl like me to fulfill the dream and survive being a musician where there was no market.”