Sanjai Velayudhan's Blog - Posts Tagged "women"

There is a lot of attention to the state of women in India. It is perhaps the proliferation of media and its easy availability through social media that is making all the difference.

The question I ask is has the state of women improved in India? Maybe improving chances of employment and slow yet firm creep of modernity has made a difference. Yet, the fundamental power structure that defines the relationship between the sexes has endured.

What took centuries to calcify would take at least decades to soften isn't it?

The many women characters in 'Dance of the Spirits' are depicted as strong ones yet like Maria, they ultimately fall victim to the 'system'. Till its women aren't treated equally, can India claim to be a free country? That's an open question indeed!Dance of the Spirits: A Novel

The number of goddesses in India perhaps outnumber male gods (there is no way of verifying this as there is no authentic database of gods/goddesses & other celestial beings). For every ailment, every type of difficulty, there is a dedicated goddess.

Aren't the rivers like Ganga & Yamuna revered as goddesses? Yet, look at their fate. the devotees show little respect for the goddesses. Sometimes I feel that they are polluted or dirtied with a vengeance.

Rivers, like women, hold the ability to give life yet, look how we treat them. Irony, isn't it?

Sometimes, I wonder 'are men inherently afraid of women?' Is that why they try to dominate them, hurt them or 'possess' them? Strange isn't it? He grows up learning much from his mother, sister, aunt and other female members of the household as much as he does from men.

Then why this contempt? men sometimes exhibit diametrically opposite behavior-treating real women badly but venerating and worshiping mother goddesses. Irony!