Nots & Crosses is a graphic novel, illustrating the biography of Phoolan Devi (1963-2001), who was also known as the Queen Bandit of India, and is portrayed as the reincarnation of Ching Shih (1775-1844), the most dreaded female pirate of China. This narrative features re-contextualized and thought provoking quotes by famous personalities on the lives of these women, illuminating the issues pertaining to oppression and how the notion of being powerful and strong, somehow, came to mean “To be tough and brutal like a man.”
The title “Nots & Crosses” is based on how girls are not supposed to act a certain way and all the obstructions and barriers faced by these women, this is what the “Nots” represent and the crosses are for how they crossed over these prejudices and defined their own path despite of being restricted and told not to.
One day I was happily playing in the lake and the other day I was
married. That is how things worked in our village. We sat on a boat
and sailed off to my husband’s village
I wish someone would have told
me that, just because I'm a girl,
I don't have to get married.
Marlo Thomas
The boat was being tamed by the small, yet powerful waves. I felt
sick and dizzy. I felt my eyes roll back and then, I had my first
reincarnation flashback.
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