Maya's Blog

Rape and the Indian Male Nirbhaya,  Pondicherry  and all the others in between. Minors, teens, working women, tourists, Indians, foreigners- it doesn’t matter who. Or where. Or when. Post Nirbhaya, there has been a spate of rape cases reported rape in  India . A part of me thinks it is because women are now finding the courage to come up and report the violence done unto them. A part of me wonders if there just has been an increase in the number of women being raped in our country. The reality is probably a combination of both.

More battles against patriarchy-  On matters of siz e Very recently, we were chatting, my girlfriends and I and as it so often when a bunch of women are talking, the thoughts turned to size. Somebody felt she was ‘fat’. The rest of use rushed in to defend her ‘If you think you are, you should see me?’ “of course you are no’ “You look good.” All that validation and I got thinking.

Everyday Battles against Patriarchy, Culture and other irritants. Today I held back on going to the gym because I had to make coffee for my husband. And that got me thinking. If asked, we would automatically define household as modern, our relationship as one of equals etc. Yet much our roles are played out in the conventional mould. The reason, I concluded is the result of our upbringing. My husband, like all men of his generations, has been provided, by rearing and / by education with a skill set that is marketable, employable and can be exchanged for money. Me?

Why you should oppose 377 even if you are a heterosexual and no,  it is not what you think. There is very little left to be said about this issue. Yet, enough cannot be said about why this is so wrong for everybody, and it is not just because you could be arrested for having oral sex with your consenting adult partner in your bedroom.

When I moved to the North of India, Karva Chauth stopped being a trope in Hindi movies and became a real live thing- dinners were delayed and events were cancelled because of it; and there were all round me, on that day the oxymoron of simultaneous fasting and celebration. I was at that time a young mother, unsure writer and part time teacher, so I just allowed it all to drift past me without engagement 

I have just returned from one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended; our family has ever had. There were so many times, as the ceremony urfurled,I found myself thinking this. So as I flew back home I pondered over what was it about it that I found thus. It was not just the asethetics of it, though that was stunning. Take a look  and you'll get the idea why I call this The Beautiful Global Tam-bram Wedding.