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Dr.Gita Arjun’s Passport To A Healthy Pregnancy, deals with the various aspects of pregnancy in an Indian context.
Review by Rohini Haldea
When I was pregnant, there were no comprehensive and reliable Indian books available for me to refer to, not that I knew of anyway. So I turned to the time-tested international bestseller What To Expect When You Are Expecting. I wasn’t disappointed but being set in an alien context, the book fell short of addressing all my concerns, especially when it came to diet.
So when I received my copy of Passport To A Healthy Pregnancy by Dr. Gita Arjun, I thought it was just what the doctor ordered. The familiarity of seeing an Indian face on the cover augured a book that would address the specific needs and concerns of pregnant women in India.
In my opinion, one of the biggest gaps in such books by foreign authors is locally relevant diet advice. Dr. Arjun has attempted to fix this with a useful chapter on eating healthy, which helps slot Indian cuisine regulars like chapatis, rice and lentils into an ideal pregnancy diet. There is also diet advice peppered through the book suggesting, for example, familiar and easily available options like idlis and coconut water to help alleviate or minimise certain symptoms of pregnancy.
I especially liked the boxes that dealt with and debunked various pregnancy myths and old wives’ tales. Nothing brings on unsolicited advice like a woman with a bun in the oven and the conflicting advice from family and friends can be confusing. This book provides definite answers on questions like whether it is safe to eat papaya, or if eating saffron will beget a fair child. After some detailed sections on labour and delivery, Dr. Arjun does not stop short at delivery and a sizeable portion of the book is devoted to postpartum information and advice. She covers a breadth of topics, including a photographic how-to for bathing the baby and post-pregnancy birth control.
Overall, I think the book is pretty comprehensive. If anything, I think it is too detailed and technical in parts for the average layperson who might not be interested in knowing the thickness of the blastocyst wall, or even what a blastocyst is for that matter! A lighter, less dry tone of voice would have made this book much easier and more fun to read.
Another quibble involves the layout of the book. It can be pretty overwhelming to read a book covering all aspects on pregnancy at one go. A book that is organised by sections that progress as the pregnancy does is easy to swallow in smaller, more manageable bites. To this end, the information in the book is somewhat scattered. I would have preferred advice on diet, exercise, obstetrician visits and potential health issues, amongst other things, to be handily located in the relevant month or trimester of the pregnancy instead of separate chapters.
If this book has been available when I was pregnant, I would have definitely bought it. However, I would have bought it to supplement my trusty What to Expect, mostly because the latter is a better organised book and a more enjoyable read. If I had to choose just one, Dr. Arjun’s book just might have won out for its culturally relevant content.
Publisher: Westland Books
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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