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India’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ruled with an iron fist - thereby earning herself the epithet ‘Iron Lady of India’.
India’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ruled with an iron fist – thereby earning herself the epithet ‘Iron Lady of India’.
Serving as the Prime Minister of India for 3 consecutive terms, as well as a fourth term, Indira Gandhi evokes images of a strong and determined woman. Born into an affluent and powerful family, Indira Gandhi slowly learnt the ropes of politics from an early age.
Among several progressive schemes, Indira Gandhi is credited with supporting India’s nuclear weapons program which helped establish India as a formidable force. She is also known for boosting the Green Revolution, a program which enabled India to not only become self-sufficient to a large extent in terms of food supply, but also established India’s presence as a major food exporter.
With several hits and a few misses to her name, Operation Blue Star ordered by Indira Gandhi, unfortunately proved tragic for her. The attack on the Golden Temple by the Indian military outraged the Sikhs resulting in the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her own bodyguards, thus proving her prophetic statement, “”If I die a violent death as some fear and a few are plotting, I know the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassin, not in my dying……!”
Why we find her inspiring:
– For being the second longest serving female Prime Minister in the world
– For staying in power despite a culture which viewed women to be subservient to men
– Inspite of representing a relatively new-born democracy, she tackled the world’s super powers with her no-nonsense attitude
– For being an iconic symbol of courage till – and beyond – her death
*Photo courtesy: http://www.dpcc.co.in/dpcc.php
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The plight of Indian women's mental health often goes unnoticed. Co-founders Vivek Satya Mitram and Pooja Priyamvada conceived the idea of the Bharat Dialogues Women & Mental Health Summit to address this.
Trigger Warning: This contains descriptions of mental health trauma and suicide, and may be triggering for survivors.
Author’s note: The language and phraseology used are not the author’s words but the terms and narrative popularly used for people living with mental illnesses, and may feel non-inclusive. It is merely for putting our point across better.
I have seen how horrifying was the treatment given to those with mental illness.
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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