When going gets tough, the tough gets going. Debutant novelist Naheed Munshi has driven home the point as she has overcome her handicaps in reaching the point in her rather difficult life where few would dare to tread. Tanha Zindagi is her first novel, penned in Hindi, which was unveiled by eminent Gujarati writer Rajnikumar Pandya at the Orient Club in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Readers won't be faulted if they found traces of the writer's persona peeping from behind the characters portrayed in the novel. It is her first attempt in a language that she insists, comes naturally to her, for expressing her unalloyed thoughts.

One wished she did not press her readers into taking this view on its face value.

Born in a wealthy family, with her father engaged in the business of construction, Munshi was afflicted by polio in her childhood but says that she is grateful to her parents for not letting her feel the pinch even for a moment.

Her chance meeting with stage singer Bankim Pathak (himself polio-afflicted) changed her view towards life and inspired her to overcome all physical odds with the help of her mental and intellectual prowess.

Taking up career counselling and English language training to students going abroad, she helped many students make it big in their lives.

Munshi believes, as the back cover of Tanha Zindagi tells us, that her novel should inspire people, who are confronting a rough phase in their lives, to decorate their lives with fresh hopes and aspirations. It is the story of a girl who refuses to give up hope and courage.

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