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What would my mother write if she had money and a room of her own she would have written about all of this, without worrying...
Here’s an Ode to Virginia Woolf on Mother’s Day…
If my mother had had a room of her own I imagine or fancy That she would write about:
drying her long black hair, lying down on her khatia in the aangan of her house. Soaking in the sun, feeling the warmth grow in her scalp, millimetre by millimetre.
She would write about her nose pin which catches the eye of all that pass by this scene, Just watching her – lying there, enjoying the afternoon.
I imagine she would write about being the youngest child, surrounded by pampering brothers.
I imagine she would even write science-fiction, About a parallel universe where she would be married off without her consent and sent off at 18 to a stranger’s house to be a slave.
Where she would live to cook and clean for 25-30 people everyday.
Where she would be – Taught to keep her mouth shut, beaten, abused, suar ki bachi. Bitten. She would even watch her daughters be sent to the same fate, and eventually die from a broken heart from being abandoned by her children in her old age. Forgotten and discarded.
This parallel universe mother of mine would write all this I imagine. If she had a room of her own.
Image source: a still from the film Secret Superstar
Stuti is a queer-affirmative psychotherapist based in Mumbai. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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