The Rebelle blog

This is what I intend to do on the leap year day, today. Start reading one of these many fine books. There is magic and religion and physics and quantum mechanics, not to forget sociology, feminist studies and the cosmos too. Now where is the conundrum? It is precisely in choosing ONE among these books. I am so crazy that I bought a big, beautiful edition of the collected works of Charlotte and Emily Bronte as a wedding gift for a dear friend. I hope Heathcliff and Catherine don't spook her but instead provide lessons in love and misery of the married life. (The last one is not what I wish for.) Currently, I am totally torn between reading for academic exams which have public administration and sociology among many subjects to study but also reviewing a history primer on Mumbai written in 1883. Isn't it nice? I am giving my grey cells extra running by dabbling in different languages. Just to up the enthusiasm, having my hands full of some good lip-smacking reading pie...

I am inspired to write this post after reading a fellow blogger and someone I look up to. Thank you, Mandy. Yesterday, I was talking to a friend since it was his birthday. We got chatting about the current new things in our lives. When I mentioned that I am taking some academic courses apart from my Civil Services studies, he discouraged me saying I should focus on some goal. An only goal where I would be the best. I tried reasoning and telling him how these courses are shaping my understanding as a person, someone who is into Sociology and the likes but I failed miserably. I had to listen to a lot of negative and discouraging conversation. Dejected but also in a way feeling that not many people understand the importance of studying various fields, I hung up. And today, I read  Mandy's blogpost  about using goals as tools. She is such an inspiration to me. I always feel that having too many goals can be a distraction but I also strongly believe that these too many go...

This broke my heart. Is there more to say or anything at all after hearing this little girl's cry for peace and the lost childhood for the kids caught in civil wars? My tears won't stop but tears can't knock sense into the heads that possess power, who have inflicted these wars and hatred all over our world.

Two things I've come upon after reading books like 'The Beauty Myth' and 'The Unfinished Revolution' is that the cultural and sexual terrorization of women happens all over the world including the richest nations. The other being that this oppression needs more voicing out and a collective united mass movement across the globe. It can't just be conscious in developed countries but equal ferocity needs to be seen in developing and under-developed nations. As I was reading about the plight of the Roma women in Albania and Serbia, the statistics left me shaken. We deny human rights to children, women and the differently- able with a scary intensity. Imagine differentiating between women from South East Asia/Africa/Latin America/Middle East because their cultural and societal norms prevent women from using and asserting their rights to living independent lives. More or less, our language unites us in documenting their tormented stories because they are same ev...

एखादया सुंदर संध्याकाळी आपल्या जिवलग मैत्रिणीला भेटावं आणि सांगीतिक मैफिलीत रममाण होऊन निघावं आणि त्या आठवणींना सुंदर दुजोरा देत परत एकत्र घरी जाणं, यात अवर्णनीय आनंद आहे. मी तो कालच अनुभवला. मोकळ्या आकाशाखाली गारवा असलेल्या भव्य मैदानावर स्टेज समोर बसून शास्त्रीय नृत्याची मेजवानी आणि तितकंच उस्फुर्त असं वातावरण फारच छान अनुभूती देऊन गेला. सुरुवात शाळकरी मुलींच्या अतिशय लयबद्ध लेझीम नृत्याने झाली. आम्हा दोघींच्या आनंदाला पारावार उरला नाही. त्यातच ओळखीचे असे वाटणारे बरेच चेहरे डोळ्यासमोरून तरळून गेले. अवतीभवती असणारा लोकांचा सळसळता उत्साह आमच्यात देखील परावर्तित होत होता. ते तीन तास खूप आनंददायी क्षण देऊन गेले. मैत्रिणीला बऱ्याच दिवसात भेटले नव्हते. ती भेट झाली आणि पुस्तकांवर मनसोक्त चर्चा केली. रोजच्या धावपळीच्या आयुष्यात कितीतरी गोष्टी राहून जातात. आम्ही एकमेकींना कितीही व्यस्त असलो तरी आठवणीने आवडलेलं शेअर करतो. कधीतरी बोलणं होत नाही, पण ती नाळ घट्ट जोडलेली असल्यामुळे विशेष असा काही आमच्या वागण्या- बोलण्यात फरक पडत नाहीच. हीच तर जीवच्च - कंठच्च मैत्रीची खूण. अशा कित्येक ओळखींना...

(Artwork by Jonathan Kwegyir Aggrey) रविवारी वर्तमानपत्रात 'इस्तंबुलचा सुगंध' म्हणून एक लेख वाचला. त्यातली छायाचित्रं पाहून मला ओरहान पामुक यांच्या 'इस्तंबूल' या पुस्तकाची प्रकर्षाने आठवण झाली. आणि वाचता वाचता माझा कुठल्यातरी गोष्टीवरून बहिणीशी खटका उडाला, हे लिहिताना माझा हात किती कापरा झालाय. सर्वांची दृष्टी निराळी हे मान्य पण एखाद्या गोष्टीवर एवढी टोकाची भूमिका का असावी? आपल्याला न पटणाऱ्या गोष्टी ऐकून घेण्यात काय वाईट आहे? किंबहुना हा समजूतदारपणा दाखविण्याचा थोडा प्रयत्न तरी आपण करू नये का? बघता बघता नवीन वर्षाचा पहिला महिना संपला सुद्धा. वाचायला तर खूप काही घेतलय, लिहायला देखील, ते कागदावर मांडायला हवं तेवढं वेळेवर. बऱ्याचदा गोष्टी मनातच राहून जातात, त्या सांगितल्या जात नाहीत, मग त्यांची घुसमट होते, त्या तिथेच दबल्या जातात. एखाद्या नॉस्टाल्जिक संध्याकाळी मग त्या आपल्याला आठवतात. त्यावर आपण मनातल्या मनात तेव्हाही उहापोह करतो पण त्या व्यक्त होतच नाही. ही आठवण मग कितीतरी वर्ष आपल्याला सतवत राहते. आणि कधीतरी मग अशी कागदावर उतरते. सांगायचच झालं तर पामु...