We have a gentleman who has been taking care of paying our bills, paying property tax, etc., for the past 10+ years ... it is his business. He comes from a very poor background, is a genteel, soft-spoken, and extremely reliable person, who has come up in life through hard work. He now has diversified to running a canteen on weekends, where his wife and mother cook and sell traditional Tamilian food. I have great admiration for him.
He has a daughter, an only child, a couple of years younger than mine. He often speaks about the need to educate her, stating that he might not be able to accumulate any great wealth for her, but can certainly educate her to a place where she can climb out of the perpetual cycle of poverty and ignorance that his family has been in for many generations. Nothing can take that wealth away from her.
Since he has no problems with it, I have often handed over my daughter's old books, games, and the excess of crayons, sketch pens, other stationery, etc., that we invariably seem to collect. Yesterday when he had come over for something, he spoke again about his daughter's achievements in academics and sports at school. He was obviously proud of her. While handing over some things that I had kept aside for his daughter, I asked him if he would be OK with taking some of the kid's old clothes in excellent condition - denims and such, which have hardly any wear and tear.
"No ma'am," he said. "My daughter doesn't wear jeans and t-shirts. She is very cultured."
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Just realised yesterday - my grandmother (the one I had blogged about) was exactly my age now, when I was born. I have photographs of a few month old me with her - she looks much older than I do now. Was it BECAUSE she already was a grandmother? Or did nearly a decade of being a widow in a more conservative society, one in which you had to stick to the traditional image of a widow, do that to you? Or is it just my imagination, because as a child, my memories of her were such?
Wondering.
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traditions. Show all posts
22 April, 2014
06 August, 2012
Sports, feminism and tradition...
Why do we, as a nation, favour cricket over all other sport? Why do cricketers get elevated to demi-gods? Why is a disproportionate amount of money and adulation expended on cricket? Isn't it unfair that other sports do not get their fair share of funds? India is doing fairly well at the Olympics, despite the the bureaucratic malaise and mishandling of all things non-cricket. Why do sportsmen willingly devote lives to sports other than cricket if not for the love of the game?
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Watched bits of a movie, Yentl. Set in the 1850s Poland, Yentl is the story of a Jewish woman 'with a man's soul in a woman's body.' She wants to study the Talmud, but cannot, as women are excluded from serious studies. Her father, recognizing her thirst for knowledge, teaches her the scriptures in secret. After his death, Yentl has no choice but to pretend to be a boy, dressing in male clothing, so that she can follow her dream of continuing her studies. Circumstances force her to reveal to her study partner that she is a woman. In the book, she then rejects his proposal of a marriage, and prefers to continue to masquerade as a man, so that she is not stripped of her right to study.
There has been a lot of controversy over Barbra Streisand's interpretation of the book. The book, Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, written in the 1960s, is supposed to be about the question of being a transgender. A man trapped in a woman's body, wearing a man's clothes to enable her to continue with her studies. Her rejection of her study-partner's marriage proposal is seen as proof of her being a transgender.
I wonder. I would lean towards Streisand's interpretation. A more feminist view of the whole thing. Yentl's sharp intellect and love of the written word, denied to women, would be reason enough for her to continue the status quo. For what guarantee could she have, once society knows her to be woman, to be able to continue to have her place in the scholarly world? In the movie, she rejects the marriage proposal, but embraces her womanhood, preferring instead, to leave the land of her birth, and go to America, the land of dreams and opportunities.
I was struck by her study-partner's reaction (in the movie) when she reveals her identity to him. He is just cannot get the idea, even calling her a demon in disguise. His refusal of the fact that she could have the capability to study what supposedly only men could- women considered good enough only for the house and kitchen. Then, the capitulation and his recognition of who she was- a woman who also had the brains.
Both the book and the movie are worth exploring.
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Rakshabandhan.
I wish it was more about just love between brothers-and-sisters rather than an expectation that a brother would always protect a sister. For, the flip side of this is that sisters grow up with a false sense of security and a belief in the white knight brother, rather than learning to fend for themselves. I am being disillusioned more and more by our 'traditions' every day, traditions that seem to exist to establish the skewed male-female hierarchy than anything else.
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Watched bits of a movie, Yentl. Set in the 1850s Poland, Yentl is the story of a Jewish woman 'with a man's soul in a woman's body.' She wants to study the Talmud, but cannot, as women are excluded from serious studies. Her father, recognizing her thirst for knowledge, teaches her the scriptures in secret. After his death, Yentl has no choice but to pretend to be a boy, dressing in male clothing, so that she can follow her dream of continuing her studies. Circumstances force her to reveal to her study partner that she is a woman. In the book, she then rejects his proposal of a marriage, and prefers to continue to masquerade as a man, so that she is not stripped of her right to study.
There has been a lot of controversy over Barbra Streisand's interpretation of the book. The book, Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, written in the 1960s, is supposed to be about the question of being a transgender. A man trapped in a woman's body, wearing a man's clothes to enable her to continue with her studies. Her rejection of her study-partner's marriage proposal is seen as proof of her being a transgender.
I wonder. I would lean towards Streisand's interpretation. A more feminist view of the whole thing. Yentl's sharp intellect and love of the written word, denied to women, would be reason enough for her to continue the status quo. For what guarantee could she have, once society knows her to be woman, to be able to continue to have her place in the scholarly world? In the movie, she rejects the marriage proposal, but embraces her womanhood, preferring instead, to leave the land of her birth, and go to America, the land of dreams and opportunities.
I was struck by her study-partner's reaction (in the movie) when she reveals her identity to him. He is just cannot get the idea, even calling her a demon in disguise. His refusal of the fact that she could have the capability to study what supposedly only men could- women considered good enough only for the house and kitchen. Then, the capitulation and his recognition of who she was- a woman who also had the brains.
Both the book and the movie are worth exploring.
*********************************************************
Rakshabandhan.
I wish it was more about just love between brothers-and-sisters rather than an expectation that a brother would always protect a sister. For, the flip side of this is that sisters grow up with a false sense of security and a belief in the white knight brother, rather than learning to fend for themselves. I am being disillusioned more and more by our 'traditions' every day, traditions that seem to exist to establish the skewed male-female hierarchy than anything else.
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