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1 " I alone knew what I had suffered. I alone knew what it felt like to be alive but dead. "
― , The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend
2 " I decided I would go with them, but it would be at my father's house that I would eat. I would share his food, and his poverty. "
3 " Before I was married, I thought the sound of bangles jangling on my forearms would be delightful. I looked forward to being able to wear bells around my ankles and silver necklaces around my neck, but not any more, not since I had learned what they represented for the man who gave them. A necklace was no prettier than a piece of of rope that ties a goat to a tree, depriving it of freedom. "
4 " Sing of my deedsTell of my combatsHow I fought the treacherous demonsForgive my failingsAnd bestow on me peace "
5 " For days & nights, Phoolan related her extraordinary life via an interpreter. Recorded & transcribed, the typescript ran to 2000 pages. Writer Marie-Therese Cuny & I shaped this into a first draft. Then over several weeks in 1995, and with the aid of translator & journalist Vijay Kranti, Susanna & I read it back to Phoolan page by page. She would interrupt to correct errors, clear confusing contradictions, & add more recollections as they came to her. Phoolan signed her name at the bottom of each page, the only word she knew how to write. "