Resistance and Hope

 

Neera Handa Dr

Jan 11

1 min read

Sign up for PW News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pale Blue Dot

  Walking along the banks of a lost river, that I remember, used to be. Forlorn, feeling empty, finding it hard to focus, tired, teary, and in an urgent need for some water, I came upon a bottle of some kind. Transparent like glass, but made of some unbreakable substance. But no opening that I could see at a glance, neither a cork nor a twist top, what kind of bottle it was? Foggy inside, a piece of paper of some kind with some strange letters, and, unknown symbols in different colours, floating in it. A bottle with no mouth, but it spoke to me! When I shook it the letters on the paper inside it started to melt in the fog. Their rainbow colours dissolving and resolving themselves, and a sound started to emanate from it Ouummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm which started to turn into a song in a language, I didn’t understand. But the music swayed me, and I shut my eyes, dancing to the tune, forgetting everything else in its lore, Karagre Vasate Lakshmi, Karmadhye Saraswati, Karmule tu Govind...
Read more

The concept of time, time to wake up!

Yes, the concept of time, for example to know when it is time to wake up or to go to work and time to knock off. We live by the rules and regulations of time, the movements of the two hands of our clock, or the shiny blinking digits!  These movements rule us, our life, from birth, when to be born, to even when to take our last breath!   This morning, I was listening to a program while on my regular morning walk, about how the concept of time came into being. How people knew, before and who or what told them that it was time to wake up!  The speaker was an academic of medieval studies and was talking about his research on the history of alarm clocks! How religious singing played a part in announcing every morning that it was time to pray. He was talking of monasteries, and churches, but I was thinking about, the singing sounds from a church, or a mosque, a temple, or a gurudwara, waking up the community! The parbhat pheri , a customary ritual in villages in Punjab, a ...
Read more

Being a woman

  Well, being a woman is mostly about, resistance, persistence, and existence.   This idea of being a woman, where did I get it from?   Could this be the legacy of those strong women in my life who were a bit arrogant, but generous, capable, and interesting women!   They showed me that   There is always a price for being meek, being subdued and being taken care of, as you are taken lightly, and sort of despised!   Then there is a price that you pay for being strong and independent, and yes, for  being bold and persistent, as you are taken seriously, and sort of respected!  They taught me  that  to love someone, you do not need to stop respecting yourself I learnt from them that  In this life, you make your own place, and choose your own role, and  you make the choice to take the easy or the hard way! As there will certainly be alternatives,  but no matter what you decide, there is no guarantee you will no...
Read more