4 min readUpdated: Mar 5, 2026 08:50 PM IST
Gayatri, a professor of psychology at FLAME university, owns a poster with the iconic lyrics by French singer and lyricist Edith Piaf. “No, I don’t regret anything,” it says. It encapsulates the guiding principle of her life.
She had bought it in Paris when, as a 24-year-old she had arrived in the French capital as a student. She met a man older than herself. He was well-settled, with a new house and a nice car. It was all going very well for two years, when he proposed. “At that moment, I said No. It wasn’t a simple No. I wrote him a registered letter to explain that I had just escaped a circus of early marriage. If I had been in India, I would have been married with children and a house. For me, love is not a good enough reason to fall back into patriarchy,” says Gayatri.
It was an unconventional decision but Gayatri doesn’t need to explain. Piaf’s lyrics tell her to live without regrets. “Every time I look at this poster, it makes me think that there are no rules,” she says.
Women live in shifting zones of time, places and people, making choices that come from a deeper belief. Every so often, she will find a tangible object that encompasses these beliefs or provides her with strength, encouragement and purpose to take her through calm and turbulent moments.
Gayatri speaks of the lesson learned from a poster in a testimonial that is a part of an art project, What Remains: Women of Pune, to be unveiled for International Women’s Day. Two French artists – Miléna Raczak, who has trained in film, art history, and cultural project management, and Mia Pérou, who specialises in long-form storytelling – asked a number of women about an object they owned that had marked, transformed or redefined their lives as women.
The experiences of 12 of them were filmed and will be showcased as part of “Voices and Threads”, a festival by the Alliance Francaise Pune (AFP), to mark International Women’s Day. The event will be held at The Box Too from March 6 – 8.
“Through these objects, everyday experiences become powerful stories of exchange, connection and intercultural understanding,” says an official statement from AFP. “Time passes. Places change. We move across cities, languages, cultures. Yet, something remains. A headband. A dupatta. A hockey stick. A bottle of wine. A croissant. A chef’s tweezer. An Édith Piaf poster. A baby swaddle. A quotation book. A simple, everyday object,” says Perou.
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The artists have been searching for the stories for more than three months. “We have been actively looking for women with powerful experiences. We have been talking to people when we went out, meeting new people and reaching out to women in other ways,” she adds. The work is a collaboration with AFP and comprises Indian women connected to French culture, and French women who have made Pune part of their lives.
Tanvi, a student chef, talks about interning under a difficult boss in a restaurant in France and trying to fit into the new culture and a new team. “Chefs need special tweezers. On Tanvi’s last day of work in France, her boss took her to the back of the kitchen and gave her a pair of chef’s tweezers. It was a sign of recognition as a proper chef on her own. That means a lot to her,” says Perou.
For another woman, it was a hockey stick, a reminder of a younger time when she was the captain of a hockey team. “She speaks about how the hockey stick helped her understand the importance of team spirit in her everyday life. It was a symbol that she could fight any loss. I think that it helped hold her up when she lost her husband,” says Perou.
The video testimonials will play out in a space detached from the main exhibition. “As a very wise animated character once said, Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. Perhaps, that is why these objects matter, even when they carry the past,” says Perou.
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