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“The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling... Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.”
“The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling… Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.”
Here is the third winner of our January 2017 Muse of the Month contest, Pooja Sharma Rao.
The cue for this month was from the movie Queen, in which Kangana’s reel granny tells her that instead staying back in the hotel and watching TV and feeling bad for herself, she should go out and meet people, go sight-seeing…who knows she might find someone interesting too!
The baggage is heavier than any airline carries free of extra cost from the curious handmade potli to the now trendy strollers all carry centuries of Patriarchal mind-sets stashed away in side pockets hidden like lingerie and sanitary supplies
Pushed so deep inside that they are only taken out in the secrecy of bedrooms and bathrooms Alone, to be cried over like dreams of first love and stashed back with guilt of being the bad woman who desires
The instructions, too many Do’s and don’ts so that the status quo Passes on unhurt from generation to generation Heavy like that elusive ‘honour’ that she carries in a hidden piece of flesh and like a permanent scar on her being
The journey begins with birth but her routes and maps pre-decided like a pre-paid loyalty to ideal Indian womanhood good girls have no souls and own no compasses their maps are set only to matrimony, motherhood
Good Indian girls do not utter prohibited words Fantasy, ecstasy is overwritten by celibacy and virginity The line that was drawn to keep Sita safe is still strong in its invisibility
“Would he accompany me? If I was the one exiled? ” Questioning is also a luxury denied to her by destiny
and then with a single step the threshold is smashed the extra-baggage thrown out their maps and their compasses Abandoned As she decides to follow The call of her wanderer soul and breathe without the manual for the good Indian woman
The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.
Pooja Sharma Rao wins a Rs 250 Amazon voucher, as well as a chance to be picked one among the top winners at the end of 2017. Congratulations!
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Image source: shutterstock
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
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What I loved was how there is so much in the movie of the SRK we have known, and also a totally new star. The gestures, the smile, the wit and the charisma are all too familiar, but you also witness a rawness, an edginess.
When a movie that got the entire nation in a twist – for the right and wrong reasons – hits the theatres, there is bound to be noise. From ‘I am going to watch it – first day first show’ to ‘Boycott the movie and make it a flop’, social media has been a furore of posts.
Let me get one thing straight here – I did not watch Pathaan to make a statement or to simply rebel as people would put it. I went to watch it for the sheer pleasure of witnessing my favourite superstar in all his glory being what he is best at being – his magnificent self. Because when it comes to screen presence, he burns it, melts it and then resurrects it as well like no other. Because when it comes to style and passion, he owns it like a boss. Because SRK is, in a way, my last connecting point to the girl that I once was. Though I have evolved into so many more things over the years, I don’t think I am ready to let go of that girl fully yet.
There is no elephant in the room really here because it’s a fact that Bollywood has a lot of cleaning up to do. Calling out on all the problematic aspects of the industry is important and in doing that, maintaining objectivity is also equally imperative. I went for Pathaan for entertainment and got more than I had hoped for. It is a clever, slick, witty, brilliantly packaged action movie that delivers what it promises to. Logic definitely goes flying out of the window at times and some scenes will make you go ‘kuch bhi’ , but the screenplay clearly reminds you that you knew all along what you were in for. The action sequences are lavish and someone like me who is not exactly a fan of this genre was also mind blown.
When Jaya Bachchan speaks her mind in public she is often accused of being brusque and even abrasive. Can we think of her prodigious talent and all the bitter pills she has had to swallow over the years?
A couple of days ago, a short clip of a 1998 interview of Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan resurfaced on social media. In this episode of the Simi Grewal chat show, at about the 23-minute mark, Jaya lists her husband’s priorities: one, parents, two kids, then wife. Then she corrects herself: his profession – and perhaps someone else – ranks above her as a wife.
Amitabh looks visibly uncomfortable at this unstated but unambiguous reference to his rather well-publicised affair with co-star Rekha back in the day.
Watching the classic film Abhimaan some years ago, one scene really stayed with me. It was something Brajeshwarlal (David’s character) says in troubled tones during the song tere mere milan ki yeh raina. He says something to the effect that Uma (Jaya Bhaduri’s character) is more talented than Subir (Amitabh Bachchan’s character) and that this was a problem since society teaches us that men are superior to women.
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