musingswhileunlearning

“Go up to the gate and talk to me in English from there and come back smartly”, my grandmother would tell me when I was in grade two or three. She was so proud of her English speaking grand children that she wanted to show them off to the neighbours! It was embarrassing, so the older kids would not oblige but I usually did, for it made her happy and I found it hilarious. There wasn’t much you could say from that distance anyway!  Credits:amazon.co.uk The English language and all things Western is seen through rose coloured glasses in India. Years under the British rule have led us to undermine our own culture and language, our skin colour and much more (for further clarifications consult Mr. Tharoor) and it is only now, that we are beginning to regain confidence in all things “Desi”(National-read Indian). I plead guilty myself. Credits: studylib.es A little earlier, as I was making chapatis, a task I dislike, I let my mind wander-that way the chapatis get made, albe...

Thoroughly impressed with the décor of my friend’s living room, I commented on its beauty while we were chatting, complimenting his wife for the awesome makeover the home got. He, modest and humourous as he is, said that he and his sons weren’t permitted entry. I was quick to add that she was smart alright or else it might have looked like the living room had been visited by a tornado! Credits: youtube.com                                       Later on, as I got on with my work, these words came back to me. It is funny isn’t it, how our living room is seldom visited by the members of the family- it is by far the handsomest room and yet, the room is never frequented by the inmates of the house, unless the television is placed there. It used to be the trend before but is increasingly dying down and so there is an unwritten ‘out of bounds’ sign in our drawing room forbidding us to sit t...

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, women on social media are busy posting #MeToo on their status, to show the world how widespread the problem is. Do we really need a survey of this kind? Have we been blind and numb so far that we need a survey to show that women the world over, have faced sexual harassment in some form or the other? I’ll bet that not a single woman has reached 20 without having faced the same- and not once! This survey won’t give you the #MeToo’s of uneducated, below poverty line women or even women who are educated but not tech savvy or women like me, who think this is a waste of time, for isn’t it obvious?  Credits: feminismindia.com                                                 Our social media is full of emotional ranting and ravings of people who let out their frustration on how everything that is happening around is d...

“Packages” used to mean parcels either boxed or soft packets, neatly wrapped. Remember “brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things…” Today, packages seldom refer to those. Even if you type on Google (whether in singular or plural), you have a whole list of tour packages to pick from. Unless you add “meaning” to packages/package, you would never know on the search engine that it meant “an object or group of objects wrapped in paper or packed in a box”!! Credits: americanas.com.br                         Seems rather lame to write a blog on packages, you would think! Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think of such a mundane topic either. After all, the aim isn’t to shoo people away! Well, something happened yesterday that got me thinking of packages. Package deals are everywhere today- in tourism, in beauty parlours (bridal package), for health check up (Women’s package!), Study packages, career...