musingswhileunlearning

Credits: eventznu.com Sunny Leone visited Kerala, God’s own country, on 17 August 2017 and was overwhelmed to see the population on the streets. She was touched by the love they showed her!! We know it wasn’t love!!! Forbidden lust, more like it! For a person who reads the Newspaper only for the crossword and Sudoku, astrology forecasts and comic strips, this huge event was missed. Recently however, while wrapping something in a newspaper, the image of a crowd and Sunny Leone’s name appeared with my very own Kochi written on it! I delved into the matter. I checked her out on Wikipedia and I am impressed! So much so that I am writing a blog of a nearly taboo subject, especially for a woman, while my sixteen year old son walks in and raises an eyebrow after reading the title. I had to shut down and shoo him away while he gave me an amused smile.   Credits: Hindustan Times My mind began working overtime wondering how hypocrisy entered our lives. I write this again, in...

Little did I realize, as I walked groggily to the front door this morning, that I was going to be shaken up from my stupor with something so unpleasant that would play on my mind all day- all through the million chores that awaited me and an ailing daughter! I let the maid in, who normally has a pleasant expression on her face. Short and round with a face to match, well rounded high and pink cheekbones and a face that is ready to break into a smile; she naturally brings out a smile in me as well. Only, today, she didn’t smile. Was it because I was still half asleep after my chaotic night?  Fifteen minutes later, after I had brightened up some more, I handed her a cup of tea and biscuits and began explaining to her what was expected of her that morning. As I finished, she asked me if I remembered her getting a call last evening from her daughter. I nodded with a vague “hmmm” wondering why she expected me to remember. “It was my daughter wailing at her plight, Amma.” “I don’t k...

“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...