Was the film 'Eat, Pray, Love' "Culturally Relative" About Women's Rights?

‘Eat Pray Love’ was showing in theaters in India about two weeks ago, and I have to admit, that like most here, I too went to see it just to see how the country looks on the big screen. But the one question that’s been nagging at me since is, “Why did they have to get Tulsi married?”

The seventeen-year-old Indian girl, Tulsi, who Liz Gilbert befriends at the ashram, has a colorful wedding in the film, which she does not in the book. True, films often distort their source to suit the audience’s whims. And a Bollywood style wedding would certainly spice up the visual appeal. Yet I found Tulsi’s wedding to be a symbolic slaughter of the spirit of this book; a mockery of one of its core issues.

Since Liz already travels, explores and writes, doing all she truly loves, what was her big soul-searching journey all about? In her own words: “I don’t want to have a baby,” an issue she wrestles with incessantly. “That deadline of THIRTY loomed over me..and I discovered I did not want to be pregnant.” And again, “I well know what desire feels like. But it [the desire for a child] wasn’t there.” Her real concern about motherhood, it seems is how she would be perceived if she openly admitted she didn’t desire children. She agonizes over how people would “judge” her. “What kind of a person does that make me?”  Read the article here on Pickled Politics

"The Bitch"

from WikiHow

A friend once joked about how much easier it is for him to be gay in India than in some parts of the U.S. In India, it is not uncommon to see two men demonstrating their affections for each other openly in public. Holding hands, hugging, entwining fingers, engaging in kitten play or riding pillion on a motorcycle wedged together like bread and butter. Are all these men gay? Who knows? Yet the same is not permissible for heterosexual couples.

Last year, walking down Camac Street, in an upscale neighborhood of Calcutta, I witnessed a disturbing incident. A man and a woman, probably in their early twenties, were walking ahead of me, laughing and joking, when the woman playfully reached out and grabbed her friend’s hand. They walked along, still talking and swinging their locked hands in a carefree manner, when a group of men, vendors who run little snack stalls that line the pavements, came charging. The men stopped short a few paces of the couple, and began to shout at them. “Bitch!” “Whore!” And a string of such epithets.

When Is A "Genital Nick" O.K.?

When I heard the recent May announcement by the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), to take a neutral stand on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and allow doctors to do a genital “nick” on little girls, I remembered the girl I will call “Lily. “

She was a Hmong-American girl  and one of my best friends when I was in college.

Lily came across as a cheerful and carefree person, but it was only when I got to know her closely that I found out that she had a deep and painful secret.  When she was about thirteen years old, and living in the mid-west, a Hmong American man kidnapped her and held her hostage in his house, where he also raped her.   In the eyes of the Hmong American community Lily was now “married” to this man.  Read the whole article here

11 Tips on What to Do With Photo Thieves

Photo theft is one of the banes of the internet.
It is not o.k. to sneak into a store or home, pick up something that catches your fancy and slink away without asking or paying for it.  Then why do people do that with other people’s work – their photos?
Like this travel writers site   Road Junky had an unauthorized photo of mine on their front page.  Not only did they not ask my permission, they did not even bother to give copyright acknowledgment. And I found out only because someone recognized it as mine and reported it to me.  They wrote back asking – which one?  How many stolen photos do these people have on their site? They finally removed my photo without so much an apology.
Usually that’s how we find out our work has been stolen.  But last month, for the first time I experienced the direct shock of opening a magazine and seeing my unauthorized photo stare back at me.  Someone had handed me the magazine, Kindle, a glossy new magazine that all the Barista cafes in Calcutta stock, and said, “It’s very progressive and targets a younger readership.  You should write something in here about your 50 Million Missing Campaign.”
Well I did write ! An angry email to the editor demanding an explanation.  The magazine has a disclaimer, which says any photo not credited is courtesy of Reuters.  Reuters! Really?  The editor hurriedly disclaimed that too.  No – it was the sloppy work of some untrained intern who probably thought that stealing was one of the magazine’s policies.
O.K.  – I was willing to buy that and give them a chance to make amends.  So I emailed that if they reprinted the photo with proper credit, paid me for it and sent a complimentary copy, I would accept that as an apology.
There was no response.
Well – things can happen that held up the response. 

Is Caste India's Brand of Racism?

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Finally the U.N. has woken up and is moving towards declaring the  caste system as racist and discriminatory.

What is India’s response? Defensive and unconcerned.  Surprise! Surprise!
Some argue it’s just a form of “social organization.” That’s what Gandhi said too. He opposed its abolishment.  But is that so?

The Sanskrit for caste, ‘Varna’ literally means ‘color.’ India’s ancient texts designate caste on basis of color and race.  The supreme brahmin is ‘white,’ and the lowest caste, also sometime called dasa (slave) is ‘black.’  In between you have the browns and yellows. Hindu scriptures are littered with pretty little epithets like "bull-lipped," "nose-less," "goblin," and "demoness." Indian scholars spend lots of time trying to explain these away as "not racist."

Through centuries of mixing India now is a conspicuous brown cocktail (of many hues), but not so to the Indian eye! A Brazilian journalist from the magazine  Super Interessante, while interviewing me last year, said that some Indians have explained how she can spot caste.  The highest caste are very fair.  The lowest are very dark.  I challenged her to randomly pick out a few people from the streets and test that theory.

ARREST THE POPE? WHY NOT?

Arrest the Pope? Why not?

Last night I watched a panel of journalists on BBC’s Dateline London discuss the Pope’s direct role in the cover up and protection of paedophiles in the Catholic order.  I realized with a bit of a shock, that the discussion was not about whether the Pope was responsible or not; with all kinds of evidence pouring out from all corners of the world, and a BBC documentary, the Pope’s explicit role in all this was irrefutable.  What the BBC panelists were discussing – was what could now be done with the Pope.

Suddenly one of the panelists said something like, “Well you cannot possibly arrest the Pope!”

And I immediately thought, why not?

If this was any other large, multinational organization with evidence of harboring an international ring of paedophiles, would not the topmost authorities be immediately liable to investigation and police action? If the CEO of that organization had this kind of direct evidential pile-up against him of actually leading the cover-up would he not be put under arrest?

So what excuses the Pope is what I would like to know?

Will the Indian Woman Challenge Her God?

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay is one of my grandmother’s favorite novelists, and she says so with an air of superiority. To like Sarat Chandra is to be acknowledged as a true connoisseur of literature in India.

So it is at the risk of being rebuffed that I say this:  Sarat Chandra's novels, particularly at the storyline level really get up my nose. I have tried reading them through all kinds of lenses—rose tinted, myopic, historic etc. etc. but they seem to always end up in the same place.

The female protagonist is always bovine and sweet-tempered. She has all but trashed her sense of self and individuality, and happily submits to the whims of her male counterpart, her family, and society, serving them all diligently, and allowing them to do with her life whatever they please. The male protagonist is almost a mirror opposite – self-seeking, irresponsible, thick-skinned and narcissistic. He believes that the world – including his family and the female protagonist are there to serve him and submit to his will. This in a nutshell is Sarat Chandra's idea of an ideal male-female relationship.