June 18, 2004

feeling feministish ;-)

i just came across these lines from alexander mcCall smith’s the no.1 ladies’ detective agency…(its an old setwana poem, the book says)

we are the ones who ploughed the earth when modise (god) made it,
we were the ones who made the food
we are the ones who look after the men
when they are little boys,
when they are young men,
and when they are old and about to die.
we are always there.
but we are just women, and nobody sees us.

🙂

reminds me of my maasi‘s favourite couplet. and she always says it with a mysterious sighhh…

aurat teri yehi kahani,
aanchal mein dudh, aankhon mein paani

(woman, this is your story
with your milk, you feed,
your eyes, filled with tears)

its interesting to note how different communities have viewed the role of a woman along the same lines. i hate to admit it, but sometimes i do tend to agree… being a woman can be a thankless job, but not so much that i would ever want to belong to the other side!

while i’m on these lines, i’m also thinking of shubha mudgal’s man ke manjeere songs (which never fail to perk me up), one of which concludes proudly with the realisation: “mujhme hi rehti thi meri humjoli re…” (my best friend was always within me).

hmmm, no wonder i’m feeling a little feministish today 😉

i’m curious however. there *should* be more stories about womenfolk like the ones above… all over the world!

what does your hometown say?

4 Comments »





  • lazydad said:

    aurat teri yehi kahani,
    aanchal mein dudh, aankhon mein paani…

    lovely lines..



  • madhu said:

    Kind of nice….but feministish? Aren’t all women like that 🙂 Just kidding.



  • Steely Dan said:

    Great post RN ! … new one overdue on ALL blogs no ?.. 😉



  • jay menon said:

    hey am here for the first time, nice blogs and nice way to express things, am impressed, keep writing


RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.