There's been so much going on, and so many paralell thoughts traversing my mind right now that I wouldn't be able to sound coherent if I started rambling on all of them. Let's try the "slow and steady" or the "one at a time" strategy.
I read two books by Indian authors in as many days, in the last week. While the first one was decidedly amusing and "fresh", the second one didn't come right up there on my charts. The author's an MBA (and from IIM C, no less) so maybe that's why she put in such an elaborate plot that involved an MNC and professional ethics and competition and all of those things that basically sap the energy out of you at the end of a working day...so maybe that's why the novel didn't particularly appeal to my senses. I mean who would want to be reminded of the mundane stuff in her life when she is trying to find solace in something unique and out of the world? So yeah, please don't read "Piece of cake" unless you want to know how a product manager for a cake would promote her product (or launch it, or whatever it is that Minal Sharma was trying to do in the book).
Now the other book "Almost single"... it's another piece of cake altogether (pun intended). Read it and savour its deliciousness, that's all I would say :)
So that brings me to dwell upon that quintessential question that springs up when you read both books... what is it with Indians that blocks their mind to accepting 25+ year old single females as smart, good looking, moral, sensible and caring human beings? Why is it that if you are older than 25, you have to be married (and preferably have a kid perched on your hip), as proof of being a nice human being? (nice = someone who cared enough to "allow" her parents to get her married off at the "right age").
And no, I am not a feminist! It's just that I think that the Indian system sucks somewhere. Just take a rational look at it, where you probably place yourself in a frame of reference that's apart from the one where the parents and the kids are placed (think high school physics)... so you have parents that mollycoddle and spoon feed their kids all through the kids' childhood and then when the kids grow up, the former seem to forget to let go of the reins; so they proceed to decide when the "kid" should marry and when she should procreate, and where the "kid" should live, or what career she should pursue or if she should have one at all (and this is not true for female offspring alone, though they do seem to be more "susceptible" to such parental treatment) . And all our movies and serials and reality shows try to promote this as THE most important national value!
At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I must say, that that kind of interference sucks; and it's time we accept that the great Indian culture does have some gaping holes!
P.S: I haven't based all of what I have written, on two novels alone. Like most other "normal" human beings, I think too :)
1 comment:
Line of thinking presented in a different way - but it's a bit of generalizing, though a majority of middle class families are like that.
I always prefer to be my parents' kid - They have always taken our opinion when we were little kids (read schools, clothes, etc.), included us in the council (read TV, washing m/c, house, etc.), and in making our decisions (read career). But, they never forgot to guide.
It's all part of 'survival','rat race', blah blah.
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