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Monday, 21 June 2010
Monday, 14 June 2010
The elusive parking space…
Finding a match in your 30s is like looking for a parking space on a weekend. Good spots are all taken..! I was at lunch with this Arab American friend of mine. It was an unassuming Friday afternoon with a blazing sun outside and a growling appetite spread on the table.
She is in her 30’s and single. It’s been a few arabian summers since she last dated. Finding a date in this seemingly but not really conservative city has not been very lucky for her. She is not alone though. Her friends, all of them in the right and wrong side of 30 are single with no stable dates.
Torn between 2 cultures she feels that she is neither the quintessential western beauty nor a typical arab lass that would make bride material to a middle eastern groom. She silently joins the growing populace of single woman crossing the marriageable age trimming down the reproductive ambitions of this tiny state.
We finished our lunch and walked to the parking lot. She spotted her car. Getting a parking is all about timing. Being at the right spot at the right time. Sometimes it takes a bit too long. Eventually everybody looking for one gets a parking spot. Call it cosmic law.
She is in her 30’s and single. It’s been a few arabian summers since she last dated. Finding a date in this seemingly but not really conservative city has not been very lucky for her. She is not alone though. Her friends, all of them in the right and wrong side of 30 are single with no stable dates.
Torn between 2 cultures she feels that she is neither the quintessential western beauty nor a typical arab lass that would make bride material to a middle eastern groom. She silently joins the growing populace of single woman crossing the marriageable age trimming down the reproductive ambitions of this tiny state.
We finished our lunch and walked to the parking lot. She spotted her car. Getting a parking is all about timing. Being at the right spot at the right time. Sometimes it takes a bit too long. Eventually everybody looking for one gets a parking spot. Call it cosmic law.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Sex and the political class....
‘Rajneethi’ evoked a lot of political unrest within congress. Be it the female lead's (or her wardrobe) resemblance to the congress supremo or the plot itself. Censor board prescribed certain cuts on a love making scene that involves a politician. According to the director half of the scenes were chopped and he remarked on NDTV... ‘in India politicians are allowed only 50% of sex’.
Indian politicians are viewed in black or white. The black has only shades of corruption and inefficiency (sex not included). The media and public wish to believe that the largest democracy is run by sterile or sexually loyal representatives – any allegations of sexual misconduct is swiftly hushed. Clinton loves this collective consciousness and badly missed it in his country.
Kamala Das’s embrace of Islam was widely covered in the media. Most of them (media and the literary circle) knew the reasons for her conversion even though she did feign an attempt to explain that she felt protection in a ‘purdha’, liked the discipline of the religion and wanted a Master to guide her. For someone who had romanticised her love for Lord Krishna through numerous writings and a literary icon who embodifies Hindu cultural symbols, her sudden metamorphosis to a burqa clad ‘Suraiya’ was like the Pope swapping his costume with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
The truth was that she once again found love in her late years in a politician who was 20 years younger to her. She believed in total surrender in love (as true to her writings) and declared to the whole world her plans to convert. The politician who was madly in love with her chickened out in the last minute. He was worried about his career; may be his worry had more to do with the public perception of him making love to a 60 plus year old literary icon.
He withdrew and she never revealed his identity. She wrote about their love …at times describing it as a love that was secretly unveiled in moonlight. A few poems later she left the world.
Indian politicians are viewed in black or white. The black has only shades of corruption and inefficiency (sex not included). The media and public wish to believe that the largest democracy is run by sterile or sexually loyal representatives – any allegations of sexual misconduct is swiftly hushed. Clinton loves this collective consciousness and badly missed it in his country.
Kamala Das’s embrace of Islam was widely covered in the media. Most of them (media and the literary circle) knew the reasons for her conversion even though she did feign an attempt to explain that she felt protection in a ‘purdha’, liked the discipline of the religion and wanted a Master to guide her. For someone who had romanticised her love for Lord Krishna through numerous writings and a literary icon who embodifies Hindu cultural symbols, her sudden metamorphosis to a burqa clad ‘Suraiya’ was like the Pope swapping his costume with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
The truth was that she once again found love in her late years in a politician who was 20 years younger to her. She believed in total surrender in love (as true to her writings) and declared to the whole world her plans to convert. The politician who was madly in love with her chickened out in the last minute. He was worried about his career; may be his worry had more to do with the public perception of him making love to a 60 plus year old literary icon.
He withdrew and she never revealed his identity. She wrote about their love …at times describing it as a love that was secretly unveiled in moonlight. A few poems later she left the world.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Love, Union Aur Conversion
They started their romance with a promise that they would keep it as casual as a passing breeze. Belonging to conservative families – one Hindu and another Muslim, they simply didn’t see a future for their office romance.
Over time they realized that the time they spend busy punching away SMSs and in the late hours secretly whispering into the handset of the season gave them enough reasons to break the promise they made at the start. Finally they are getting married after a 5 year long courtship. Both the parents have agreed to the union. It must be a tremendous relief for the two as well as their parents.
But in all this she will undergo a transformation. A possible name change, start wearing a burqa, will no longer seek darshan before a ‘sreekovil’ to receive prasada which was so much part of her 20 plus years as a Hindu. Why confuse religion with love or relationships. Union of two souls doesn’t mean a union of religious beliefs. How does this conversion for love differ from the missionary conversions (allegedly lured with imported milk powder and bread) or other such conversions of the weaker population?
Hope ultimately the sanctity of love would triumph. It may one day help us to accept relationships above gothras, diktats of khaps (a new term into the vocabulary of the Indian urban populace) and religion among other boundaries we have collectively raised over the centuries…
Over time they realized that the time they spend busy punching away SMSs and in the late hours secretly whispering into the handset of the season gave them enough reasons to break the promise they made at the start. Finally they are getting married after a 5 year long courtship. Both the parents have agreed to the union. It must be a tremendous relief for the two as well as their parents.
But in all this she will undergo a transformation. A possible name change, start wearing a burqa, will no longer seek darshan before a ‘sreekovil’ to receive prasada which was so much part of her 20 plus years as a Hindu. Why confuse religion with love or relationships. Union of two souls doesn’t mean a union of religious beliefs. How does this conversion for love differ from the missionary conversions (allegedly lured with imported milk powder and bread) or other such conversions of the weaker population?
Hope ultimately the sanctity of love would triumph. It may one day help us to accept relationships above gothras, diktats of khaps (a new term into the vocabulary of the Indian urban populace) and religion among other boundaries we have collectively raised over the centuries…
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