I am so excited today - The Hindu, published a travel piece I’d written, on a visit to the beautiful limestone caves of Baratang, in the Andaman Islands.
Do read it here! (Though the web version is not very good…)

Posted on June 30th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Travel (in India) | 3 Comments »

Some days ago, a young woman told me that my post on marriage symbols for women, helped her convey her feelings to her dad, since it was something she couldn’t articulate herself. This set me thinking on the gap that exists today as far as women’s roles and expectations are concerned, even with fairly liberal […]

Posted on June 29th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Feminism in my life, Women & Feminism in India | 11 Comments »

This week, there is a lot of interesting material I have!
The Khaleej Times has a piece on Size Zero and its introduction to India. At least officially, most designers seem to be against it, which is encouraging to hear.
Unlike Western feminist blogs, I don’t discuss abortion here in any detail, since Indian laws allow it […]

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Thursday Reads | No Comments »

We went to see a play staged at Chowdiah yesterday, ‘The Invisible River’. I knew that it was a play about the Ganga and I expected to see something revolving around the pollution of the river. In a sense, it did, but more than that, the play used the river as a motif to talk […]

Posted on June 24th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: The Literary life, Theatre Reviews | 1 Comment »

Is hiring out your housework a feminist thing to do? Over at ‘An Open Letter By a Feminist’ two interesting posts on this issue, 1 and 2 with a lot of useful discussion in the comments space.
I find the Western perspective on this quite different from our situation though. First of all, with a whole lot […]

Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Women & Feminism in India | 3 Comments »

I seem to spend a lot of time online, coming across all kinds of interesting reads. So I thought, why not share the goodies! Every Thursday, I am now going to share a few links that pop up on my radar.
Only Ash Knows The Experience of Burning - Dr. Jai Prakash Kardam, Dalit Writer and […]

Posted on June 19th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Thursday Reads | No Comments »

Religious leaders in India do their best to outdo one another - not in wisdom, compassion or charity, but in demanding concessions, sticking to outmoded ways of seeing and doing things, generally being intolerant of anything, etc. So, a few years ago, RSS Chief K.S.Sudarshan urged Hindus to have atleast 3 children. Now it is […]

Posted on June 17th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Other Social issues in India, Women & Feminism in India | No Comments »

More than 20 years ago, gas leaks at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal resulted in one of the biggest industrial disasters of the decade. Dow Chemicals, which later took over Union Carbide, disclaimed all responsibility on account of being a different legal entity - a very convenient way of brushing off the survivors’ demand […]

Posted on June 13th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Women & Feminism in India | No Comments »

Indian property laws (atleast so far as the Hindu Succession Act is concerned) have been amended a long time ago, to ensure that women get an equal share in property gained from parents, as well as in cases where the husband passes away. Much attention was not, however given to womens’ self-acquired property; probably because […]

Posted on June 13th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Women & Feminism in India | 3 Comments »

I recently watched ‘Horton hears a Who’, the new movie adapation of Dr. Seuss’ 1954 classic. The movie is delightful. Along with ‘Ratatouille’, this is one of the few animation movies I’ve seen recently, that focuses on the story and characters, without getting lost in fancy animation techniques.

(Pic courtesy www.smh.com.au)
It has a moral without being […]

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by apu
Filed under: Media-Movies-Ads | 7 Comments »