Lopsided.
I received a call from the association of the blind to grace the Louis Braille cum Bharathiar function celebrated by the Association in the Charitable trusts premises .
When I reached the hall at 4 pm, it was overflowing with visually impaired and the dais was equally crowded with donors .
The chief guest , a litterateur was by far the best speaker . He correctly gauged that handicapped people were not to be pitied but needed to be empowered and to be infused with confidence to stand on their own legs.
Whilst snow white polyester dhotis and sparkling white shirts are the uniform of politicians , much washed yellowing hand spun dhoti and crumpled kurtas and greying beard are the uniforms of the intellectuals viz litterateurs,poets ,musicians etc . The chief guest was in the stereotyped dress code of the latter .
In this context I remember a middle class lady in her late 20's, probably a lecturer ,her hair combed into a tight bun ,wearing a hand loom sari and kumkum pasted on her forehead in the size of a one rupee coin , puffing meditatively at a cigarette whilst waiting for a bus at a bus stop in Delhi .I was on my way to my college.I found it absurd as I normally associated smoking cigarette with westernised women or those wearing western clothes,their hair cut short and with painted lips.
Probably she was making a statement . To inhale and exhale smoke is not the sole privilege of men or of women belonging to upper echelons of the society !I have seen poor tribal women squatting on railway platforms in Andra Pradesh smoking cigars without much ado and swirling calmly in its intoxication . But this woman was truly unconventional by middle class standards!
Now back to the meeting .The litterateur said that he was moved by the handsome countenance of a blind man , an excellent flautist ,whom he had come across in his life .He was full of praises for a well educated normal girl, who married that blind man on her own accord.
Unfortunately I was a mere spectator in the audience . There was a beautiful, light skinned girl sitting in the front row,as delicate and fragile as porcelain and was possessed of voice that reminded one of the tinkling sound of breaking glass and had fudgy light blue,[ vision less ] eyes. A 28 year old woman drawing a handsome salary . Yet not a single educated man or even an uneducated man has come forward to marry her.
The blind lady ,who was on the stage compering the show skillfully is a well employed pretty woman in her 30's but hasn't found and cannot hope to find a normal suitor .
The odds are heavily loaded on the side of men in India .He may be blind or handicapped but can find a normal bride .To A visually handicapped woman on the other hand it is a Herculean task to find a life partner even from her own ken!
When I reached the hall at 4 pm, it was overflowing with visually impaired and the dais was equally crowded with donors .
The chief guest , a litterateur was by far the best speaker . He correctly gauged that handicapped people were not to be pitied but needed to be empowered and to be infused with confidence to stand on their own legs.
Whilst snow white polyester dhotis and sparkling white shirts are the uniform of politicians , much washed yellowing hand spun dhoti and crumpled kurtas and greying beard are the uniforms of the intellectuals viz litterateurs,poets ,musicians etc . The chief guest was in the stereotyped dress code of the latter .
In this context I remember a middle class lady in her late 20's, probably a lecturer ,her hair combed into a tight bun ,wearing a hand loom sari and kumkum pasted on her forehead in the size of a one rupee coin , puffing meditatively at a cigarette whilst waiting for a bus at a bus stop in Delhi .I was on my way to my college.I found it absurd as I normally associated smoking cigarette with westernised women or those wearing western clothes,their hair cut short and with painted lips.
Probably she was making a statement . To inhale and exhale smoke is not the sole privilege of men or of women belonging to upper echelons of the society !I have seen poor tribal women squatting on railway platforms in Andra Pradesh smoking cigars without much ado and swirling calmly in its intoxication . But this woman was truly unconventional by middle class standards!
Now back to the meeting .The litterateur said that he was moved by the handsome countenance of a blind man , an excellent flautist ,whom he had come across in his life .He was full of praises for a well educated normal girl, who married that blind man on her own accord.
Unfortunately I was a mere spectator in the audience . There was a beautiful, light skinned girl sitting in the front row,as delicate and fragile as porcelain and was possessed of voice that reminded one of the tinkling sound of breaking glass and had fudgy light blue,[ vision less ] eyes. A 28 year old woman drawing a handsome salary . Yet not a single educated man or even an uneducated man has come forward to marry her.
The blind lady ,who was on the stage compering the show skillfully is a well employed pretty woman in her 30's but hasn't found and cannot hope to find a normal suitor .
The odds are heavily loaded on the side of men in India .He may be blind or handicapped but can find a normal bride .To A visually handicapped woman on the other hand it is a Herculean task to find a life partner even from her own ken!
posted by K.C. Sujata at
9:31 PM
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