The Bell Jar
Here's what is scaring me about this book:
Sylvia Plath was a manic-depressive, suicidal to boot and schizophrenic (I think) And yet, I completely identify with this: her autobiographical novel.
That is actually scaring the shit out of me!
Full review will be up once I finish reading the book.
Wow. Christianity
I'm an agnostic turning into an atheist but I generally don't religion bash. It is politically incorrect.
However this story completely took me aback:
The lady who works in our house came and told us a story yesterday. She has around four to five children, all girls except the boy who is the youngest. Of the girls, three are married, one of them who recently worked in our house lost a baby due to SIDS ( a terribly tragic incident which completely shocked and frightened me.)
However, that is not the point here. Here's what happened at their house a couple of days back.
A Brother (one of those in training for priesthood) wandered into their house, caught hold of the son, sat down with him and said:
Come. I'll take you to the church right now and baptize you. I'll give you a new name and you can call yourself Christian.
The boy looked at him and said:
I'm sorry but I'm Hindu.
And he got up and left the house, without a second's hesitation.
Now here's why I'm glad I'm not a Christian. A religion which believes in such sort of conversion...well, there's something wrong about that. If a person wants to convert by themselves, well, they can go ahead and do it. But a religion which tries to gain power in this way...well, I'm sorry to say but please. Learn some respect!
Christian missionaries around the world are doing excellent work no doubt but not when their ulterior motive is to get more people to become Christian. Good work should be done for the sake of the work itself, not for power, or money, or whatever. What exactly are the brothers trying to do here? Slowly, but surely, eradicate other religions?
Tony Blair brought that up recently, when he said that he had his orders from God when he sent British troops to Iraq. Similarly, he and George Bush apparently prayed together for so-called enlightenment before mounting their attack on Iraq. Bush went as far as calling it a crusade. A crusade against what? The Muslims? The rest of the non-christian world?
And seriously, conversion really does nothing to improve most of the lives of such people. Arundathi Roy, in God of Small Things, explains that, using the example of Velutha, an untouchable who becomes a Christian, who is still treated as an untouchable (by even his Christian employers) but is denied the reservation and the rights for the untouchables because technically, he isn't one anymore.
I'm not saying that Hinduism is infallible. I can count millions of faults of Hinduism right now, off the top of my head. Archaism, ritualism blah blah. But atleast we are secure enough in our religious beliefs that we dont need to force people to become part of the religion!
I'm really not completely against Christianity. When Graham Steines was murdered, I joined the rest of the country in mourning his death. I have a large number of Christian friends who I really like. I dont think it is the fault of the religion itself, but of the people who interpret it wrongly, who take it upon themselves to play God with other people. And that is not only terrible but morally and socially depraved!
God save us all. Before we take it upon ourselves to do so.
Being a woman
Ever since I was a young child I wanted to be a boy. I would climb trees, play football, shout, yell and act like a boy. As I grew up, my body matured into that of a woman and I soon came to realize that not only was I not a boy, I would never, ever understand what it would be like to be one, never enjoy the priveleges, the respect which comes of being male, never see the undeniable fallacies of being male either.
And surprisingly enough, I am not upset about that. Anymore.
I wont deny that I was, once upon a time, plenty angry for being born a woman. For stewing in silence as I watched people around me fawn over boys, ignoring the girls. For angrily denouncing all women as pale, afraid little creatures unable to take control of their own lives. I believed that i would only be able to do what I wanted to do if I was a male.
But now I realize that it is this sort of self-defeating attitude which continues to spur the male-dominated society we live in. It is this belief, that only men are capable of building a society which has pushed women kind into the background. I've realized that you don't need to be a man to do anything! Anyone can do anything. All it requires is COURAGE!
Courage to break out of this self-imposed prison then women have inflicted on themselves. Courage to shake of societal restrictions and do what we want to do the way we think we should do it. Courage, to throw away the shackles restricting us from taking over the world and go ahead and bloody do it!
And for that, we first need to get comfortable with our identity. For we are women, born with women parts: breasts and vaginas and uteruses. But why should we let that stop us from reaching our full potential, whatever it might be? Why do we have to be male to do so?
Society may still believe that a woman should do as she is told, that she has no voice, that she is nothing but a brood mare. Things might be changing but it is still a fact that when children come into the picture, it is the woman's duty to take care of it. Women still have to juggle home and professional lives, a lot more than men will ever have to. But if women and men are equal, then why should women have to go through all the hassles of building a career when men don't?
I've realized that now, when I am finally comfortable with the fact of being a woman, comfortable with the fact that I am going to have to work much more than any man to gain the respect I deserve, comfortable with the fact that slowly, surely, I'm going to make my way to the top. Without being a man.
Look at me. Look at my face, my body, my hands, my legs. Here's what I am. A WOMAN! And I'm not ashamed of being so!
[x] posted at
Ilampoon
