http://apusworld.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:05:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en While a dumb movie seems* to suggest that it's ok to pretend to be gay and get the girl you love based on false premises, reality isn't quite so entertaining. An article here on the tremendous challenges that lesbians in India face, including forced marriages, forced sex with men, and ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/being-lesbian-in-india/ Reading this piece by the Indian Homemaker on in-laws and expectations, I was led to thinking on some strange things associated with the phenomenon that is the Indian family. Now, I have really nice parents-in-law (and no, they don't read this blog, so I'm not saying this to be safe:)), so ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/in-laws-outlaws-and-expectations/ The 68th Carnival of Feminists is up at Fourth Wave Feminism. It seems to have a lot of great reads, but if you have time to only pick a few, don't miss this excellent post on women in writing, 'Women and Big Ideas', at This is what a Feminist blogs ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/carnival-time-2/ Last evening, I chanced upon Children of Heaven, playing on TV; vaguely remembering this movie as having won some accolades, I sat down to watch, and am I so glad I did! It has to be one of the sweetest and saddest movies I've ever seen. Children of Heaven is ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/children-of-heaven/ I finally got around to watching 'Fashion' yesterday, and the movie was not as bad as some reviews had led me to believe. I thought there were some good performances and some women with ambition, rarely seen in Hindi cinema. But. What's with showing every fashion designer as gay and every ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/success-goes-before-a-fall/ I'm halfway through reading 'The Girl Who Married A Lion', a collection of African folk tales - collected and narrated by Alexander McCall Smith, that delightful creator of detective Mma Ramotswe. I'm quite enjoying these stories too; they remind me a bit of the Jataka tales. Reading Itchy's post about ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/simply-delightfulalexander-mccall-smith/ You would be safe, if only you didn't wear such inappropriate clothes. They attract attention, you know. You go to unsafe areas, what else can you expect? You go out too late, without a man to accompany you, surely there will be trouble. You go to places that are too crowded, or ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/safe-at-home/ Just a tip, to an interesting post by Laksh, over at Poison Penn, where she asks, "I wonder whether my life would have been different if my mother had decided to work outside, if she had become disillusioned with the inequities that exist in the pay structure based on sex, if ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/women-and-work/ So, Barack Obama has won the race to the White house, and there is jubilation all around, with much talk about breaking of racial glass ceilings and so on. Whether or not Obama is a "typical" African-American (after all, his father was a recent, educated immigrant from Kenya, and his mother white), ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/they-have-obama-we-have-mayawati/ First, a break from Diwali, then a viral infection/cold/cough that is making me feel dull and too lazy to post anything. But. I did manage to put together some thoughts for a piece at Ultraviolet, on the subject of female foeticide, something that's been on my mind for some time ... http://apusworld.com/blog/2008/11/may-you-be-the-mother-of-a-hundred-sons/