Reflections in Personal Growth

As a woman and on behalf of all women, I am enraged. Yes we have several reasons to feel shortchanged, what's the immediate cause, you ask? Settle in, we have ground to cover.  I recently read a book on what we know so far about how the human bodies have evolved and how women's lives have contributed to specific organs being the way they are, as well as the evolutionary differences between the sexes. (The book is titled Eve by Cat Bohannon, very well written. Highly recommend.) There are a few takeways from the book, I will mention three. One is that sexual orientation is natural, one is born with it, and shades of queerness have existed through the history of millennia in human existence.  The other is that much of how we evolved, what inherently constitutes humanness, specifically distinguished from our closest genetic cousins, is largely attributable to women. The earliest tools were a product of necessity of the female of our species. Language, that is the most distinguish...

 Mangoes are the one upside of summer in India. The various shades of yellow, the pervasive aroma of the fruit, the dramatic differences in texture and taste of the different varieties, mangoes are a truly treat to the senses. The improvement in the supply chain technology has led to an explosion of varieties available in the country. But it was not always like this. Appa would bring a box of Alphonso or Hapus (we called it Aapoos, I had to look it up now to find the spelling :p) when he traveled to Bombay, it was a genuine treat. We would get Neelam, Salem, Malgova varieties locally. A recently available variety that is delectable is the Imam Pasand. Badami is another one that is Alphonso, but can't be called that (it is grown in the contiguous stretch of land as the Alphonso, but called differently because of GI). Banganapalli receives a bad rap only because of it ubiquity in Bangalore,  The saga of mangoes would begin long before the ripe fruits entered the scene. Before th...

On the recommendation of a friend, I watched Laapata Ladies. I had a five hour flight to take, and I downloaded the movie last minute, and had had very little prior context of the story line, or even the genre. I watched about half the movie on the flight, and just concluded the full movie about two days later.  The movie is very nicely done - powerful ideas presented simply and without drama, with a certain yathartham (Side quest - Didn't know the direct English equivalent of the Tamil word, used google translate. Apparently it is the same word in Hindi as well (who knew!) and roughly translates to realism. Realism doesn't completely capture the essence, maybe realism with elegance is better). Directed by Kiran Rao, characters played by not so mainstream but highly talented actors, taut story line, and a dose of everyday humor, the movie is a treat to watch and leaves you thinking. As I watched the movie, the character Manju Maai reminded me of Geetha didi. She worked at my ho...