B'Personal

 
The Ashimas of Today......
Yes, you got it right- I am referring to Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Ashima”, that Ashima who left her parents, her familiar surroundings and her “muri-chanachur” to settle in a country the terrain, people, ways, and food of which were indeed “foreign”! When I read the book ( "The Namesake")  for the first time, I was in India. I lived 10 minutes away from my parents. The book was awesome, but I began to relate to it only after I landed in Toronto five years ago. Unknowingly Ashima entered my senses and has continued to nestle somewhere in my heart 24/7.....

 These are female chromosomes, their genius lies in the fact that their entire life they will spend explaining that their sexuality is incidental and yet they will be borne on the cross and be judged in and every step in life.

 A friend on my Face Book friend list had written this caption on a picture, “Just because it looks pretty does not make it any less correct!” – Ruma Chakravarti
My mind wandered, taking me back to many years ago, a day back in college. It was my final year of University and we were having a debate on a passage from Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ in the canteen over umpteen cups of tea.

Watching the Nigella Lawson cooking show on TV is an act of sheer decadence for me.   A strikingly beautiful woman, spilling out of her dress, she makes gluttony look like a form of art.  I sigh as I watch her pour cartons of double cream, slabs of dark chocolate and a generous dash of rum – forbidden pleasures for most of us.  And as she gleefully adds a slab of butter, your eyes pop out in horror.