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Shashi Deshpande, who writes with great insight and nuance on the changing lives of Indian women and their families, is our muse of the month. Get inspired!
Each month, we ask our readers to get inspired by an iconic woman writer and funnel that into their own writing. The idea is to inspires you to read more of these writers, and also get your own writing hat on! The 5 best entries on the writing cue get published here on Women’s Web.
Step 1. Read the writing cue (mentioned down below) and get inspired.
Step 2. Write your own story/narrative/piece based on the cue. You could use it as the opening line, the closing sentence, or somewhere in between! You could even choose not to use it anywhere in your story – just write a story using the cue as a prompt. (And ‘story’ can be fictional – or not – as you wish).
Step 3. Send your work to us. Please email it to [email protected] with ‘Muse of the month – Dec’ in the subject line, and your story as a word/txt attachment. Do include the name we should use if we publish it, and a brief introduction to yourself (2-3 lines) in the mail.
Here are the 5 shortlisted entries, added as we publish them, one each day, starting December 27th.
Cycle of Change, by Vijayalakshmi N: Our lives are a cycle of change, and this poem chronicles it beautifully.
The phoenix, by Ujwala Shenoy Karmarkar: Constantly being asked to change your ways gets very tiring, very soon. Don’t succumb, rise like the phoenix, says this story.
A Reunion That Did Not Last, by Rajlakshmi Kurup: People and circumstances change, leaving relationships as only a shadow of what they once were. Here’s a story that captures this transition.
Merry Christmas, by Shaheen Ahmed: Relationships aren’t easy, especially when they end. Here’s a moment of moving on, captured beautifully.
Please send in your stories by December 26th 2014, Friday, 3 p.m IST. The 5 best stories will be published on Women’s Web the next day on, i.e. one each from December 27th to the 31st.
Keep it between 250 and 800 words. (Please keep this in mind; in past editions, we have had to disqualify some good entries purely due to word count issues).
Please avoid typing the story as inline text. Send it as an attachment only.
The 5 best entries will each win a Flipkart voucher worth Rs. 250.
Shashi Deshpande is an author whose work is set around people and situations that seem intimately familiar to most readers; she explores the world of close-knit Indian families, comfortable yet often claustrophobic and teeming with hidden dangers. Her characters face situations that could be the lot of everywoman, making them deeply identifiable for many readers.
Winner of the Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi awards, her oeuvre includes nine published novels, besides children’s books, essays and short stories.
“It’s astonishing how we comment on change, as if change is something remarkable. On the contrary, not to change is unnatural, against nature.” – from Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence. Make sure to get your entry in on or before December 26th 2014, Friday, 3 p.m IST
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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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