CHOWKATH: A Bengali version of Sarojini Sahoo's Odia story

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My Story Series-9 // Conjugal Vignette

My mother didn’t want the maid servant working for us anymore. But we were not ready to get rid of her. In fact, we all had become so dependent on her we thought we could not manage without her. There was no pump in the well and the cooking was done by burning wood. The maid would cook and fill up about fifty buckets of water in the tanks in the bathroom, kitchen, and even for the dishwashing. She would wash the clothes and the dishes, fry rice, and even comb our hair. She would massage our bodies with mustard oil. She would stitch buttons and quilts. She would water the plants in the garden. She would sometimes cut wood into small pieces to be burnt for cooking. She was like a machine ready to work as soon as you switched it on.  Yet my mother didn’t see her in that light.

My mother knew the reason behind our desire not to throw her out. She knew her children would not agree with her. Sometimes, she would fight with our father and leave the house and go to her sister’s who lived in the other corner of the town. She would stay at her sister’s place for the whole morning or sometimes the whole afternoon and then her sister and her husband, my uncle and aunt, would console her and bring her back to our house. Once she locked herself in a room. My father was so angry that he punched the door hard enough for the nails to come out and half of the door was hanging out. I was not at home when that incident happened but my younger brother, who was in seventh grade during that time,who could not ride a bicycle properly, pedaled it to my college that day. He waited for a full forty minutes until my class finished. I was scared to see him because my mother was always threatening she would take poison. My younger brother told me about my mother’s brooding and my father breaking the door. I immediately took a rickshaw and came home. When I came home, my mother was eating her wet rice in a corner and my father was reading the newspaper on his bed.

After that, many unpleasant incidents took place. Once I was awoken by the sound of glass bangles. At three in the morning my mother was filling up the tanks in the bathroom and the tank for dishwashing with the water from the well.

“What are you doing?” I had asked her.  “Why are you filling up the tanks at three in the morning? Are you mad? Who wants you to do this?” I took away the bucket and the jug from her hand. She would not give them to me. She did not lose her temper; neither did she cry. On the other hand, she told me, “None of you really listens to me because you have to fill up the tanks, wash the dishes, and mop the house.”There was a strange wetness in her voice; more than the tears in her eyes. I sat down with my hands on my head. I could not understand what had to be done.

My mother would talk about her misery to all our neighbours just like Mrs.Chowdhury did. She could never understand she should not be talking about her private life in public. She could not understand everyone was laughing at her.

Once, she was shouting at my father at the top of her voice. I could not tolerate anymore and tried to put my hand in front of her mouth and stop her. She pushed my hand from her mouth and saidto my father, “Go ahead. You can hit me.” My father’s image was slowly and steadily getting tarnished and we could not do anything about it.

One day, I realized why should there be so much fuss over a maid. Someone else can be employed in her place. I called the maid and told her to go back to her village. We would pay you all that we owed her and on top of that, we would give hera hundred rupees more.

“Aunty is just creating a mountain out of a mole hill,” she said and started crying out loud.

“No one wants you to worry about that,” I said.

It was my final year before I graduated from graduate school. My younger sister was doing her undergraduate workand my younger brother was doing his secondary school finals.I asked myself then, why do such strange incidents take place? Why does a smooth simple life suddenly become complicated? Why does it all get changed in a span of a few seconds? Why does trust, built over years, suddenly dissolve? Why does a person who was so dear suddenly becomes a stranger? These questions came back tohaunt me when I thought of my mother and saw Mrs.Chowdhury in front of me.

I freed my hands from Mrs.Chowdhury’s grip and said, “I am connecting you to the General Manager. You tell him everything. He is your husband’s superior so he can drive some sense into your husband.”

( Read full story from http://scentofownink.blogspot.in/2013/04/my-story-series-9_30.html

CALL FOR PAPERS

ESTEEMED FRIENDS,

KINDLY GO THROUGH THE CALL FOR PAPERS POSTED BELOW.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Name of Book

Dr. Sarojini Sahoo: Trendsetter of Feminism

Edited by

K. V. Dominic

Published by

Authorspress, New Delhi

Original scholarly and unpublished critical articles on the works of Dr. Sarojini Sahoo are invited for the book Dr. Sarojini Sahoo: A Trendsetter of Feminism which will be edited by me and published by Authorspress, New Delhi by the end of this year. The submissions shall not be less than 2000 words and more than 6000 words. The anthology welcomes the submission of papers that meet the general criteria of significance and theoretical excellence. Authors are requested to emphasise on theoretical paradigm and feminine issues raised by Dr. Sahoo against the backdrop of proper objectification of suitable primary materials and documents. The papers should not be published in parts or whole or accepted for publication elsewhere. The documentation style to be used in the articles is strictly MLA style 7^th Edition. The paper shall be accompanied by a declaration stating that the article is original, unpublished and no part of it is plagiarized. The submissions shall be sent by email to the editor. Email Address:prof.kvdominic@gmail.com

Last Date for Submission: 31 July 2013.

The contributors will receive a copy each free from the publisher.

A Note on Dr. Sarojini Sahoo

Well known for her frankness, Dr. Sarojini Sahoo is a prime figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Oriya literature. For her, feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony. She accepts feminism as a total entity of female hood, which is completely separate from the man's world. She has an avant-garde idea in feminism. Kindle magazine from Kolkata, has enlisted her name among 25 exceptional women of India in its March 2010 Issue. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27460652/Kindle-Small-Book-56-Pages-240210)

She writes with a greater consciousness of women’s bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity. Her fictions always project a feminine sensibility from puberty to menopause. The feminine feelings like restrictions in adolescence, pregnancy, fear factors like being raped or being condemned by society and the concept of a bad girl etc. always have thematic exposure in her novels and short stories.

She writes her critical appraisals in English and her creative stuff in Odia. Sensible Sensuality (ISBN: 978-81-7273-541-8) is her famous collection of essays published by Authorspress, New Delhi. Her other works including novels and short stories in English are as follows:

The Dark Abode (2008) (ISBN 978-81-906956-2-6), English translation of her Odia novel Gambhiri Ghara has gained a reputation for its feminist outlook and sexual frankness. The novel has also been published from Bangladesh in Bengali as Mithya Gerosthali (2007) (ISBN 984 404 287-9). Prameela K. P. has translated this novel into Malayalam and has been published as Irunda Koodaram by Chintha Publishers, Thiruvanthapuram. Rajpal & Sons, Delhi has published its Hindi version as Band Kamra (ISBN 978-81-7028-954-8).

Besides her two short stories collections in English, such as: Sarojini Sahoo Stories (2006) (ISBN 81-89040-26-X) and Waiting for Manna (2008) (ISBN 978-81-906956-0-2), she has published a bunch of short stories at her blogScent of Own Ink at: http://scentofownink.blogspot.in/

If a contributor needs Dr. Sarojini Sahoo’s novel and short story collections for primary source material, kindly write to me. I will request Dr. Sahoo to make the material available to him/her.

With Love, Regards, and Wishing you a very Happy Day,
Your Loving Friend,

Prof. Dr.  K. V. Dominic
(English poet, critic, short story writer, editor)
Secretary, Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC)
Editor and Publisher, International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) (ISSN 2231 - 6248)

Editor-in-Chief, Writers Editors Critics (WEC) (ISSN 2231 - 198X)
Publisher, New Fiction Journal (NFJ) (ISSN 0976 - 6863)
Address: Kannappilly House, Thodupuzha East P.O., Idukki Dist.,
Kerala, India, Pin: 685 585. Phone:  91+9947949159
Email: prof.kvdominic@gmail.com 

Web Site: www.profkvdominic.com
Blog: www.profkvdominic.blogspot.in

Silence and Voice of Indian woman

She, one of my readers, has  raised a very authentic question. How can a woman who's so suppressed... or at least ... so reserved suddenly go into something so bold and how can she allow any man to talk to her in such explicit manner...in my novel ‘The Dark Abode’.

Prameel KP tries to answer this on her essay ‘Silence and Voice of Indian woman in The Dark Abode’ published in Changing Face of Women in English Literature: The Flaming Spirit a collection of essays, edited by Professor K.V. Dominic and published by Gnosis, New Delhi in 2012.

 

Silence and Voice of Indian woman in The Dark Abode

Prameela K P

       

 (Dr. Prameela K.P, the Malayalam critics, writer, poet and translator has been awarded with Devi Shankar Awasthi Samman for her Hindi book ‘Kavita ke Stri Paksha’ on 5. 04. 2010. She is the first person from South India to receive this award meant for Hindi writing.)

The Dark Abode is a realistic novel by Sarojini Sahoo with latest encumbrances and discussions of this time in which we live in. Its popularity and bombardment with Translations in different languages are proving the timely intervention of the novel. It is a story of an unseen but profound relationship between an Indian, specifically Oriyan housewife Kuki and her Pakistani counterpart, painter Safiq. They are connected through the net, physically very far but emotionally very near. They exchange their hopes, hugs, day-to-day affairs, likes and dislikes, preferences and quarrels, philosophy and humanity in full spirit. There was nothing to hide between them, as the relationship was purely personal. It was spontaneous, going beyond all barriers stipulated by the system.

       Kuki was wedded to an engineer and has two kids. She is the same middle class Indian trophy wife, with daily chores and stipulated schedules. Being educated, she is little bit upset over her transformation as a normal housewife. She loves her husband and he does everything to her. When she finds a friend, in her lonely days time, she is happy to talk. Slowly his enquiries and indicted remarks make them in love. He persuaded her to join with him for a free life for which she was preparing. But the man is a Pakistani, Muslim and someone who does his work with a free mind. He was indicated and caught by the military regime for his connections and got punished. Same time, Kuki’s husband, Aniket is also sent to a foreign company by his employers. She is alone and perplexed. In the moments of crisis, Kuki realizes that her love and solace of life are falling apart in two countries, sexes, religions and systems. Being in the middle, She can only maintain silence with a sigh. The story speaks loud and send it message around through a seemingly silent protagonist.

       The Novels is centred in Kuki, her middleclass ideas, perceptions of life and living style. Like, any other Indian woman, she possesses the family, children, husband and their small world. The whole family is equal to nothing but Kuki. When she drives herself into a new love, the family shakes a lot. But it is essential for her since she has caught in between patriarchal settings and lover turned husband. Whenever misogynous characteristics pulled her back, instinct for freedom drives her towards the computer through which she enjoyed the multitudinous of love. All her outer-layered conflicts and difficulties are driven by the ambitious nature of any middleclass housewife. When she finds a parallel and safer inner world, she drives alone into it with utmost care. Indeed, the Novelist outstandingly co-relates a number of socio-political and international issues in the fabric of its main story-line, like terrorism, anarchism of the military regimes, freedom of expression in art, problems of polygamy in Islam, plurality of gods in Hindu culture, communalism, huge divide between rich and poor, rural and urban, Hindu and Muslim, hostility between neighboring countries, distressing work-pressure on youth in the present corporate culture etc to enrich the dimensions of the literary piece. These accessories make the story profoundly convincing and thought provoking. Most appealing factor is that the whole problems are knitted in a well-narrated love story of an ordinary woman.

         Indian village women are traditional. They are slowly getting urbanized, semi educated, partly westernized. They believe in freedom, but not on the price of home and its given protection. Duality between thoughts and practices is the main thing they face everyday. Neither she objects to the older systems nor accepts the newer ones totally, even though both have partial goodness and bogus in them. She rightly needs freedom and self-reliance with in the family, which she feels, not possible in the patriarchal set up.  Kuki is the real representative of Indian, Hindu woman, who values her relationships, but aspire for a democratic approach in it a villager turned semi-urban, a lover turned wife and mother, an educated turned unemployed house wife, who always dreams for free movements and economic self reliance. She is not at all boisterous in explaining herself- “ When you see me and touch me, you will realize that I am an ordinary human being with my own sorrows and grief, doubts and dissatisfactions, I am no goddess; I possess no divine powers. I hunger, I thirst, I crave for sex; I have my own aspirations and ambitions. I also pretend; I also lie; I also betray Aniket and live my life behind a mask…” (Sahoo: 54) Author here  puts  forward the followings incentive thoughts for the reader, through the portrayal of Kuki in The Dark Abode.

1.She tries to explain sexuality in her own view.“ Sex is just a game for him. I am yet to discover what orgasm is. You will be astonished to know that I have not been kissed for last fourteen yeas. I know it probably seems very unnatural.” (Sahoo: 57)

       Women are bodily beings. Imperial, Feudal values imposed on Indian woman, specifically Hindu woman always projected them as objects. The caricatures in art and protagonists in the earlier texts depict them in men’s view. During the age of Woman writers, she has started to talk about their body, slowly accepted her body and sexuality. Here Kuki opens up her mind.  Sahoo could fill the psychic space of Kuki through each word and sentence of the novel. Writing Emails and using ultra modern techniques to communicate makes it more effective. Sahoo uses the possibilities of cyber world, widely accused for its misuse and negative communication to create inter connective surroundings for Kuki.

2.Women are fetching not only physical outfits but also emotional solace at home and she has a right to ask for it.

       Rothblum Esther, Professor of Psychology, University of Vermont viewed that “Heterosexual couples fall into more traditional roles once they marry”(Quoted in Carlin Flora’s column in psychology today, September-October 2004, p.27). On larger view, household responsibilities are not very easy, but always unpaid, unnoticed, under-valued to which house-wives got acquainted during the long years of marriage. Couples get practiced to accommodate each other, but always men in dominant position. Men rarely try to note that what are the individual wishes of his wife. The custom prevailing in our country always says that wife is happy with the husband. She has no separate individual wishes. Thus, He also believes that the food, clothes, shelter and children are her happiness. Aniket often breaks this perception while Kuki rightly finds it contradictory to her choices and interests- “ After marriage, I discovered that Aniket was not very sensitive or open to understanding female psychology.”(Sahoo: 57). Bhabha and Spivak (Bar Moore-Gilbert 2000: 454) have deliberated this state of Indian woman: ‘Indigenous patriarchal tradition is a burden on Indian Hindu women and this manipulate voice of Indian women accordingly”. Here, the Women writer conveys Kuki’s mindset through her body language. But her partner, Aniket is not capable enough to understand his better half’s mind-blowing changes! Gender sensitivity is an essential matter in some occasions in anyone’s life, but always considering woman as ‘the other’ or ‘inferior’ is drastic which will ruin the mutual respect needed for a long life.

Here the Author breaks age old believes imposed on Indian womanhood, derives their place and space inside family. She questions the whole concept of patriarchal family headed by men and asks for new initiatives to maintain a more democratic, emotionally attached and gender free union of its members concerned, as claimed by Susan Moller Okin (Devine, Philip E and Celia Wolf-Devine: 244)  “ I claim that the genderless family is more just. It is more just to women; It is more conductive to equal opportunity both for women and for children of both sexes; and it creates a more favorable environment for the rearing of citizens of a just society.”

3. Human relationship is at par and beyond gender, sex, caste and creed. Women are trying to assert unconditional love from men.

Open and wide relationship is indeed a dream for both men and women. An Indian traditional husband cannot apologize before his wife, only because he is a man! He cannot show any respect towards his wife openly. He is supposed to behave like a Master and the wife as his unconditional slave. But when it comes to the lover, equal deliberations and comments are possible. For the society, lovers have no authentication. In our set up, only arranged or legally marriage has got approval. Any other type of union of opposite or same sex cannot be said or defined as a ‘family’. Safiq can easily ask sorry to Kuki and touch her feet, express his respect in any number of words where husband Aniket cannot. If he does so, it will be against the practice of his so-called manliness, practiced in Indian Household. The difference between lover and lover turned husband is horrible and heartbreaking for any woman. So Kuki keeps quiet, accept silently, when safiq says: “ My love for you is purer, more intense and eternal than Aniket’s. (Sahoo: 50). At the same time, She believes in their husband-wife relationships, tries to fulfill her traditional roles, but never feels herself enjoying the same. She always feels like a missing soul in her routines, like Dr, Madan G R forwarded (Madan: 365) it more sensitive and appropriate like this, “The wife today faces the major confusion in status and role, not because of any temperamental weakness or genic incapacity, but because her behavior has changed more drastically that of man.” The whole conversation between the lovers breaks the age-old hypothesis of man-woman relationship and exposes what is missing inside the Indian homes. Self-doubt and helplessness are the main characteristics of Indian girls inside home. Here Kuki is not an exception!

For a secular mind, there is no caste or creed in life. Her/his mind would not like to see a person in terms with his religious identity. Attraction towards the opposite sex is merely going beyond all barriers set by the tradition. Irony is that in the age of international marriages accepted all over the world, our regional newspapers fill up their columns with the news of honor Killing happening in Indian villages! Again, it is easy to believe the newspaper reports, which says that more than 50 % of love-marriages broke soon after marriages. According to statistics aired in the regional channels, an average number of 50 divorce-cases are registered daily in the family courts in Kerala state only.

4.Women would do anything like men if a scope for doing it. 

    

 Women enjoy secret love, but like men, hypocritical in accepting it. More specifically, out society never accepts love relations! This is accepted and said by Kuki many times on computer! Inadvertently, she experiences that something is lacking inside her relationship inside the family. She has no way to communicate this to anyone. She helps herself by communicating and sharing her sorrows to someone very far. Again and again she remembers the lines rendered by her lover: “You are my beautiful widow and I am the skeleton of your husband” (Sahoo: 135). This line echoes inside the human souls without any hindrances and barriers. This proves that lovemaking is essential, eternal and integral in human life. It is an interactive activity, which can be happened anywhere, anytime in life.

       But for a wife, it is essential to love her husband even though he is a bastard. Men have not bounded to follow these stipulations. It is women who should be responsible to maintain the ‘morals’ of the family and the society. Housewives are known as ‘devis’. There is no such big name given to any man! So women are supposed to keep quiet even when she has been put on fire with her dead husband. Time changed a lot. But, even in the age of free sex in the parks and roads, there is no scope for fair and free conversation between husband and wife. Aniket is supposed to behave like husband and Kuki should follow his words in all affairs. Slowly she gets practiced to be silent when he shouts at her- “Am I a watchman, employed to watch over you twenty-four hours a day?”(Sahoo: 149)

       Lacking emotional attachment inside the home, Kuki wander in the possible world of Internet. Slowly Kuki find herself enjoying, changing, wonderful, writing poetry, singing songs, feeling occasionally someone is calling her and getting energetic while thinking so. She is slightly doubtful about her free-conversation with a stranger. So she never books Aniket’s wrong deeds in front of that ‘stranger’. Being a ‘bharatheeya nari’ she tries to swallow the burden of family values. Practically, she has no better option! When Safiq questions her for her perverted long life, she dares to thunder back, “ I am fine with my perverted life; you can carry on living in your world. Who are you to insult me repeatedly like this? Who gave you the right to dictate my life?” (Sahoo: 61) Here she proves herself a reliant being with self-respect.  But the agony is that she cannot argue this one to her husband in the same tone with this open mind.

5.Kuki is a representative of this world/gender discrimination is a worldwide phenomenon.

       Sahoo always loads with the regional form of feministic scholarship in her writings. She never blindly accepts what western feminists argue. Radical forms of actions and practices never appeal her. Asking for equality does not mean to women to become like men in anyway. She posits her desire of emancipation as a right, to have equal living condition for all, in which women will be living with her biological peculiarities and priorities. Opportunities and attitudes will be there to handle any form of domination. Gender discrimination and isolation of women is a universal fact, prevalent inside and outside family. She adjudicates Virginia Wolf’s words through Kuki- “ As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” (Sahoo: 12)

6.Problems of middleclass mindset in men/need for feminism

       As in the case of any other middleclass family man, Aniket is ambitious, always compares himself with other colleagues. Instead of his higher education and established set up, his possessive mentality often turns into the privatization of womanhood/wifehood. Aniket believes that Kids love Kuki more and express frustration on it. He needs to be the ‘ Master’ of the family, never go for any companionship inside. He controls his love towards children! This master nature in Indian men often gives way to wife battering for small reasons. Thus the sole bred-winner of the family becomes emotionally alienated in the family. More over they shed their ego problems and official pressure on wife and children. Here in this novel, Sahoo indicts this conventional psychology through Aniket- Aniket had a notion that women lose their softness and simplicity if they worked (Sahoo: 64).

       Preparing men to accept the fact that women-empowerment, liberation and human freedom is essential for the well being the family and society is very important. Indeed redefining woman means re-defining men along with the changing time and space. Without it, our struggle for freedom will be reduced mere a political game. Ms Sahoo essentially conveys this social message. She has elaborated the feminist social responsibility to re-define men, as explained by Nancy Duncan (1996:20) that “ Feminism also began to argue that what needed to be done was not simply to study women, but to study men in a new way, such that gender roles and sexual relation would be problematized, in order t explore new gender systems are constructed and to question the naturalness of gender itself as a binary position”

7.Questions dual standards stipulated for men and women.

              Women are always been men’s property. Properties cannot speak. They have no sexuality. Their bodies are ser for the enjoyments of men. So they cannot show any interests in their body. This state of slave was called as a process of cultural mummification of the individual thinking by Franz fanon (1970:44). Gayathri Chakravaorthy Spivak rightly explained this situation in her well-known essay ‘Can sabaltern speak?’(reprinted with abridgements in Colonial Discourse and Post Colonial Theory ed. Williams and Chrisman 1993: 66-111) In this row, Deborah Cameron (1998:3) has also explained that ‘Speech and silence have been powerful metaphors in feminist discourse.’ After some years, when literary items depicting subaltern realities have been came out and made their presence in the social arena, Spivak had to accept that ‘If the subaltern speak, then thank god, the subaltern is not a subaltern anymore’. (Sarah Harasym: 158). Through Kuki, the Feminist Author has proved that middle class Indian woman is no more a subaltern. She is not fully free in her life, owing social and familial customs and practices, but she is able to understand her situations in her own view. This helps her to proceed ahead and live a hopeful life with in the parameters of the land in which she lives in. Ms Sahoo proved herself as a represented Indian Womanist writer over here, narrated by Layli Phillips (2006:xxxvi), the editor of The Womanist Reader - “ To be a womanist, one must identify one’s cultural roots and experience oneself as a cultural or ethnic being rather than a racial being, but one must also be able to see oneself and one’s people as part of a larger global body defined by common humanness.” She never tries to mimic or copy the life of a western woman in the depiction of Kuki. Here we find the changing psychic facets of Indian woman, who finds herself transformed through these times.

       Many women writers tried to portray the battle between woman and the familial system in which they live in. The system is becoming more powerful and destructive with ultramodern equipments. Each time, being in the second position and less equipped, woman got injuries, but they cannot give up their struggle for their human rights. She likes to maintain all kinds of relationships with men. She has started to demand love, life and equal status in life. In the story line, the novel ends in a tragic mood, but the hopes and dreams of a Womanist writer cannot end like that. She has to protect women’s sense and sensitivity with utmost care. So she concludes the story: “ She would wait for the voice that once charmed her ears and echoed with a subtle resonance in her soul, a voice she had never told anyone about, then or ever since.”(Sahoo: 174). Kuki must be waiting for that positive voice which will resonate with her voice.

       Without any doubt, we can say this novel and the protagonist Kuki is one of the recent literary interventions of the third world women, by an Indian woman, for all women of all times. Since there is no man’s world, without women, all men in all times have been inexplicably interwoven with in this female world. This fact is underlined in the novel. The aesthetics of opposite love another positive contribution of this novel, which demands a separate look.

       The novel easily conveys the issues and struggles of middleclass Indian Housewife to be like a human being, with all her distinctive human emotions. As Saroj Iyyer (1999:84) precisely said it, ‘what does a women do for a family, instead we have to ask, “what does the family do for a woman?” is the symbolic act extended by this novel. The whole essence of the novel can be termed as a ‘freeing the spirit’ experience for all readers, especially women, who believes in human freedom. There is no artificiality in the portrayal of characters. Kuki speaks inside her soul, slowly and carefully nourishes her aspirations, not jump into any speedy conclusions! So the readers can very well keep pace with her and endeavor a dialogic relationship with Kuki. She inspires them to keep their soul alive and act accordingly.

References:

- Bhabha Homi K & Spivak G C in Bar Moore-Gilbert, Henry Schwarz & Sangeetha Ray (Ed) 2000 A companion to Post Colonial Studies, Routledge, London

-Duncan, Nancy 1996 Body Space, Routledge, London

-Cameron, Deborah (Ed) 1998 The Feminist Critique of Language – A Reader, Routledge, London

-Fanon, Frantz 1970 Racism and culture-Forward the African revolution, Pelican, London

-Harasym, Sarah (Ed) 2002 The Post Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, Routledge, London

-Iyyer, Saroj 1999 The Sruggle to be Human, Book for change, Bangalore

-Madan G R 1993 Indian Social Problems Volume 1 5th Edition, Allied Publications Limited, New Delhi.

-      -Okin, Susan Moller, Justice, Gender and the Family in Devine, Philip E & Celia Wolf-Devine, 2003 Sex and Gender: A Spectrum of Views, Wadsworth, Thomspon Leaning, Canada

-Phillips Laylli(Ed)2006 The Womanist Reader, Routledge, Newyork

-Sahoo, Sarojini 2008 The Dark abode Tr.Mahendra Kumar Dash Indian Age communication, Vadodara

-Williams & Chrisman 1993 (Ed) Colonial Discourse and Post Colonial Theory Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Prameela K P, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady 683 574

Ph.0484 2466162  E mail: prameelakp@bsnl.in

( Published in Changing Face of Women in English Literature: The Flaming Spirit a collection of essays, edited by Professor K.V. Dominic and published by Gnosis, New Delhi in 2012)

'HIDE & SEEK': A short story by Sarojini Sahoo

< The idea, the protagonist and antagonist, the situation, and a bit about the story HIDE & SEEK  published in my blog SCENT OF OWN INK>

It’s a story about a hypothetical relationship developed between a mother and her young son. Mother is a careerist and her son is an introverted alien soul. Son has a sense of being a right soul in a wrong body, but he can’t open his feelings to mother.

The total story is based on an online chat between mother and her son. Their relationship, the lack of warmth in feelings, and their confinement to their own world, all appear through their conversation. They always feel they were moving on two parallel linear paths and it was not possible to traverse each other. Still, whenever they felt their hearts heavy with any saddened moment, they used to call each other.

They used to extend their hands to touch each other.

And now, the son was in need of three lakh rupees for his operation to satisfy his soul and to feel his soul was in a right body, but he couldn't illustrate the reason why he needed such a huge amount of money to his mother, the one from whom he sought the money. “This is to help one of my friends,” he told his mother.

For the whole night, his mother was thinking of that person for whom her son cared so much. Was his son in love with anyone? Did he have a lover? Would she demand more for his money than for his heart? Was it a he or she? Was her son being taken advantage of? The questions kept screaming out and she had no clear answers. The thought also entered her mind her son might be involved in an antisocial faction. Ultimately, she refused to give him money and her son never pursued the request further.

Once during chatting, mother forwarded an audio file to her son, which she liked very much and whose lyrics touched her heart. But did he get impressed with that music and words? To know her son’s response, mother asked him, “You didn't tell me about the audio file I have sent. Did you listen to it?” Instead of replying to her eagerness, he wrote back, “Listen to this song from this link.”

It was a link of YouTube. When she clicked the link, a favourite Bollywood movie song appeared entitled “Luka chhipi bahut hui”... “we had so much of hide and seek games.” It was a song for a youth in that Hindi movie, who sang it for his mother.

Mother’s eyes filled with tears. So pathetic the tone of that song was. A mother searched for her son in that movie. She searched in lanes, by-lanes, parks, and roadsides. She called out, “Where are you, my son? Your mother is searching for you.” She imagined her son was in a coffin. There was a pyre. There was smoke. She could hear her son’s voice, “How can I say where I am, maa? How can I?”

But it was not a climax. Did the boy express his feelings to his mother? Did she accept them? What happened to the boy’s feelings of a right soul in a wrong body?

I’m thankful to my friend Paul McKenna who has encouraged me to write and has edited the story despite of his busy schedule.

It will be great to read your comments and feedback at my blog site at http://scentofownink.blogspot.in/2013/04/my-story-series-8_306.html

The Naked Female Warriors

 After Aliaa , now another 19 year old Muslim girl Amina from Tunisia has posted a topless photo of herself bearing the slogan “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour” . She has been threatened with death by fundamentalist clerics.

Here I want to quote few passages of one of my articles, I wrote with respect to clarify my ideas on Aliaa Magda Elmahdy.

< An Excerpt from my essay ‘The Aliaa Effect’>

“Besides the question of women’s rights over their own body and the freedom of self-expression, Aliaa raises two major points in her posts and interviews. One is about the use of the veil and another on the virginity test. On the veil, she comments many women wear it just to escape the harassment and be able to walk the streets in peace.

Sexual harassment is a serious problem in Egypt. According to a 2008 survey conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, 83 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed (Source: Johnston, “Two-thirds of Egyptian men harass women?”; see also Magdi Abdelhadi, “Egypt’s sexual harassment ‘cancer,’” BBC News, July 18, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7514567.stm.) However, it cannot be assumed that all women in Egypt are wearing the veil for this one reason. By connecting sexual harassment and the veil, Aliaa gives the impression that the veil is strongly associated with oppression.

Maybe not, though. In some countries, veils are used as a protest. In Europe, where wearing the Islamic veil (hijab/niqab) is banned, women protest wearing it. In Libya, under former ruler Muammar Qaddafi, the Niqab was banned. According to a report from The Economist, women across Libya are now celebrating over the restoration of their right to wear it. In contrast to Aliaa undressing herself in search of freedom of expression, some Libyan women want to dress and wear such clothing to feel themselves in real freedom and real expression in what they believe. What would Aliaa and her boyfriend say? What could they say? Is this not freedom of expression too?

And about virginity test in Egypt, the Human Rights Commission is still probing the cases continuously performing the Military-style brutal test to insert two fingers into vaginas of women to test their virginity in and after Mubarak’s reign. During an interview with CNN, in May, a SCAF general, talking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the army had conducted "virginity tests." "We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," he said. "The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine. These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and [drugs].” ( Source: http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/246877/20111110/egypt-virginity-tests-used-military-humiliate-women.htm). It is true to believe that the military authority who believes in virginity test has no right to raise a question on the grounds of morality?

Aliaa’s Actions: a Help or Hindrance

But do Aliaa’s actions support or hinder a healthy debate on the sexual rights of women?

Sexual rights are often misunderstood and wrongly defined either by feminists or by activists. What do you want to mean by woman’s right on own body? Is ‘body’ an alternate term for ‘sex’ or ‘sexual object?’

Is a ‘woman’s body’ inherently sexual, and can it be used to define any object subjected for passionate feelings only? Is there no need of correlating hunger, sufferings, pain, and shame with that object? Women's bodies are always the issue - too unclean for Hindus, dangerous enough to be covered up for Muslims, and obscured for Christians. We should be more cautious about differentiating these terms carefully. Otherwise there may be every possibility for women to become and remain tools of oppression.

Patriarchal practices shape and perpetuate gender inequality and strip women of any form of control over their sexuality. It is double standard of patriarchy that when it needs to, it allows a woman to disrobe and we can see how the grammar of fine arts are created with the patriarchy accepted social standards of aesthetics and modesty/morality. We see how mythologies played a significant role in focusing a philosophical attitude toward sex. Even the patriarchal effect has been prominent when we find Shakti, the female god is painted with her nudity. When Aliaa disrobes herself, it is patriarchy which shouts with a hefty voice raising the question of morality. But what about other events like fashion shows, beauty contests, or bar girl dances in restaurants and clubs? Morality, in the case of female sexuality, has often been misused or used intentionally to oppress feminine rights and always used by patriarchy as a tool to oppress women.

British feminist and goddess activist Asphodel P. Long (1921-2005) often considered the grandmother of the Goddess Movement in Great Britain once wrote something which can apply to Aliaa’s recent activities. She wrote, “Freud is said to have asked: "What do women want?" Women know what they want. Their difficulty, which is mine, is to find words to describe, and to produce ideas acceptably. Not because we are "silly" but because words and ideas have grown over the last 5,000 years in a patriarchal setting, and describe what men want. Every word, sentence and set of ideas is painful to write, is open to misinterpretation, certainly by men.” (source: http://www.asphodel-long.com/html/politics_of_sexuality.html).

It is explainable why Aliaa did what she did. What she couldn’t do with words, she did with her actions. She boldly spoke volumes using the power of an image -- something to which everyone can relate and understand no matter where they live or what they do or in what they believe.”

Readers  can read the full article from http://feminine-fragrance.blogspot.in/2011/11/aliaa-effect-try-models-who-posed-naked.html

In continuation with my last status update posting on Amina’s nude protest, I drag the attention of my readers to few less discussed news of India.

<Nude protest is not new news for India.>

A dozen “women” went “naked” on the streets of Imphal on July 15, 2004 intending to protest against the brutal killing of Manorama at the gate of 17 Assam Rifles (Kangla Gate) in the capital town - Manorama was killed by the personnel of 17 AR personnel of Indian Army.

Stung by the continuing abduction of children by separatists in Manipur, a group of school students stripped and marched on the streets in Imphal on July 28, 2008, Monday to protest the rebels’ drive to forcibly induct child soldiers.

On March 7, 2013, a few women staged a semi-nude protest against land acquisition for Posco’s proposed steel plant in Odisha, and were arrested, after which the land acquisition was halted.

It’s an amazing fact to mark that patriarchy appreciates the women as celebrities who are appearing nude on the covers of the magazines and disapproves those who are using this nudity as an action to show their anguish to irritate the system. A woman’s naked body has always been the instrument of the patriarchy.

And also this is a magnum point to be considered: Are the protestors’ breasts not obscuring the message they intend to convey as their such shows are meant for press and online media only and most of the users of U Tube visit those sites to access porno videos?

DHARMA & RELIGION

‘Dharma’ in Hinduism is different from the Western concept of religion. It is a code related to moral nature. There is a very negligible difference between this ‘dharma’ and ‘spiritualism’ whereas in the Western concept, ‘religion’ and ‘spiritualism’ are two different concepts. So society or religion always plays a role to suppress the sexuality and as the patriarchal dominance is more on these fields, questions about the morality and the politics of sex are usually considered in isolation from issues about gender and erotic sex.

But in spiritualism, it is related to an individual’s understanding for salvation and freedom. For Hindu spiritualism sexuality is represented as ‘kama’. It is one of the four necessities, four aims of life: Dharma, Artha (material goods), Kama and Moksha (liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth)

Kama is defined as the enjoyment of appropriate objects by the five senses of hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling, assisted by the mind together with the soul. The ingredient in this is a peculiar contact between the organ of sense and its object, and the consciousness of pleasure which arises from that contact. This is called Kama.

In Hindu spiritualism, Kama is not at all a ‘prohibited’ subject or we don’t find any ‘male dominance’ there. Taking the lovers’ longing for reunion as a metaphor for the soul's longing for union with the divine makes sexuality more acceptable in ‘Sufism.’ And in a later period, ‘Hindu Bhaktism’ by Sri Chaitanya also adopted this idea easily.

But in Western philosophy, the natural and the universal are sharply divided -- like heaven and earth. The division of tasks between heaven and earth, suffering on earth and happiness beyond, is part and parcel of Western culture and its philosophy, religion and mythology. Westerners tend to see the sensuous world around us as false or illusory and the world 'beyond' as real. But in Hindu spiritualism, when you are in your sexual desire, you might sense complete presence in your sensuous world, a perfect moment which is spiritual, natural and carnal all at once.

(Excerpted from my essay ‘CREATIVITY & SEXUALITY’,anthologized in my book ‘SENSIBLE SENSUALITY’)

Sensible Sensuality

Language: English

Genre: Essays

Author: Dr. Sarojini Sahoo

ISBN: 81-7273-541-8

ISBN-13: 978-81-7273-541-8

Binding: Hard Cover

Publishing Date: 2010

Publisher: Authors Press, E-35/103, Jawahar Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi- 110 092, email; authorspress@hotmail.com

Number of Pages: 184

Price: 475 INR or 10 US $

All About 'Sensible Sensuality'

Sangeeta Singh: How does your feminism differ from feminism in the West? Since you also talk about writing the body isn’t it the same as ecriture feminism of the French feminists?

Sarojini Sahoo: For me, feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony so it is quite different from that of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler. I accept feminism as a total entity of female-hood, which is completely separate from the man’s world.

To me, femininity (rather than feminism) has a wonderful power. In our de-gendered times, a really feminine woman is a joy to behold and you can love and unleash your own unique yet universal femininity. We are here for gender sensitivity to proclaim the differences between men and woman with a kind of pretence that we are all the same. Too many women have been de-feminized by society. To be feminine is to know how to pay attention to detail and people; to have people skills; and to know how to connect to and work well with others. There will be particular times and situations within which you'll want to be more in touch and in tune with your femininity than others. Being able to choose is a great privilege and skill.

I think ‘femininity’ is the proper word to replace ‘feminism,’ because the latter has lost its significance and identity due to its extensive involvement with radical politics. Femininity comes from the original Latin word ‘femina’ which means ‘female’ or ‘women’ and certainly the word creates debatable identical characteristics. It separates the female mass from a masculine world with reference to gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, nurturance, deference, self-abasement, and succorance. And patriarchy also sets the group alien from them in their traditional milieu.

There are many more differences in theories among scientists, anthropologists, and psychologist regarding the nature and behavior of the female mass. Biologists believe the role of our hormones, particularly sex hormones, and the structure of our chromosomes are responsible for such a dichotomy in gender, though some queer theorists and other postmodernists, however, have rejected the sex (biology) / gender (culture) dichotomy as a “dangerous simplification.” Psychology, often influenced by patriarchy, categorizes women as different from the masculine world in certain behavioral, emotional and logical areas. Social anthropologists deny the concept of biology or psychology which keeps women aside from the masculine world. Simone De Beauvoir’s saying “one is not born a woman, but becomes one” impressed social anthropologists so much that they create a different theory of feminine socialization.

In my essays, I have constantly tried to analyze the ‘truth,’ as related by biologists and anthropologists. What I think true to my sense and sensibility, I have expressed without any hesitation.

Sangeeta : Don’t you think ecriture feminism limits the writing style of women writers? Doesn’t’ it become prescriptive?

Sarojini.: I don’t consider myself as a conformist because I consider myself more a writer and as a writer, I think I am always a genderless entity. In my opinion, a writer should not have any gender. But still, patriarchal society has prevailed; is there any possibility to have a genderless society?

Sangeeta : What would you like to say about doubly marginalized women like the tribal women, widows in ashrams, or women from lower castes and poor women who have to deal with the daily grind of survival and humiliation? They are deprived of the basic human rights. Do they have time to think about sexual liberation when other issues of survival are more important to them?

Sarojini: A Dalit or tribal woman not only struggles for her lower economic status, but she has to live with a high risk of gender-based violence. At the household level, incest, rape and domestic violence continue to hinder women’s development across India. Forty percent of all sexual abuse cases in India are incest, and 94% of the incest cases had a known member of the household as the perpetrator. Dowry related deaths, domestic violence, gang rape of lower caste women by upper caste men, and physical violence by the police towards tribal women all contribute to women’s insecurity in India. The class and caste structure inadvertently put poor women from lower class and tribal communities at the most risk of violence. Class and caste divisions also create grave challenges to poor, lower caste, and tribal women in accessing justice and retribution as victims and survivors of violence. So, sexual factors have a significant role in women’s life as their economic condition and so I argue for two types of liberation for women. One is economical and other is sexual.

Sangeeta : How does a woman’s sexuality play a major role in the understanding of feminism in India?

Sarojini: In marital life in India and many other countries around the world, a woman has no sexual rights. She cannot express her desires and even she is not supposed to enjoy sex as it is told in the Hindu code that a wife is needed only for giving birth to a ‘male child.’ Expressing her own desire for sex or talking freely about orgasm to even one’s own husband may also be termed as a chasteless and debasing activity for a woman.

Though the Women and Child Development Ministry (WCD) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have advised the government to amend the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the 1872 Indian Evidence Act to recognize new categories of sexual assault by redefining rape to include sexual assault (including domestic sexual assault) of any form in its definition, still, most married woman are facing such marital rapes in their daily lives.

But talk about these ‘dicey’ topics by a woman is considered vulgar. Also, nobody thinks it proper to ask a woman before subjecting her to the killing of her fetus yet now, in some parts of India, ‘honor killings’ are granted if a woman steps out of bounds — by choosing her own husband, by flirting in public, or by seeking divorce from an abusive partner — she has brought dishonor to her family. Yet all these matters are related to a woman’s body and still, that woman has no right to make any of her own decisions.

In total, we can see the term ‘sex’ and ‘female sexuality’ has been totally misinterpreted in the discourse of Western feminism. Sexuality is not only a bodily matter and it does not limit itself to only sexual behavior and sexual activities, though they are a major factor. And most of the real meaning of female sexuality relatively termed with her body as well mind.

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