Sudakshina Bhattacharjee's Blog, page 4
February 13, 2013
Sudakshina’s Valentine Thoughts!
Hello Blogworms,
On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, here’s wishing you all a very happy one, whether you’re with a Valentine or you’re your own Valentine. 
Yes, so, as you can see, I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and shoot my first video blog!
I do hope you like it, but more importantly, I do hope you agree with me when I say that mutual respect for one another is the key to a positive celebration of society,making it a happier one and (eventually) a safer one.
Much Love,
Sudakshina (Kina) xx
Filed under: Expression, Psychology, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: Caring, gender issues, Happiness, Mutual Respect, safety, Sharing, Valentine's Day
January 1, 2013
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
Filed under: Sudakshina's Opinions
December 30, 2012
Double Standards!
Season’s Greetings to you, my blogworms!
We come to the end of 2012 with all the usual highs and lows that happen along with a couple of things that happen to strike a chord within our mass consciousness, nationwide, worldwide.
Yes, as everyone is talking about the dreadfully awful crime that happened to one twenty-something Indian girl, I might as well put my two-pence in too.
India has, by all means, come a long way since its Independence from the British Raj back in 1947.
However, but, nevertheless, India still has immense expansive territory to cover before it can truly be worthy of being titled as a ‘developed nation’.
Real development isn’t just about finance and economy, nor is just about science and technology; it’s also about society and it’s inhabitants us, people, humans, Homo sapiens.
When we are all biologically, physiologically, scientifically, classified as one species, does gender really matter? The differences which Nature has endowed to us are purely for survival purposes, the rest is what we have made up to make our own lives difficult.
I frankly don’t see why different genders have to be socially valued differently; it’s just not the same as having financial classes, or performance rankings on a web page/classroom/company. These things can be measured with numbers, statistics and cogent matter, but societal values are essentially subjective and cannot be measured,so where do ranks come in? How do men come ‘first’ even though we say ‘ladies first’ but don’t actually mean it?!
Yes, women are probably not well-placed to lift heavy boxes, when she is pregnant, but otherwise, why shouldn’t she be?
Yes, women are more emotional than men, in that women express their emotions more than men, but then why should men be questioned if they are brave enough to shed some tears or emotion? Why should they be judged for showing emotion even?
Life on this planet can never be totally homogeneous and uniform, because there are differences abound, which make things exciting and worth celebrating about. But all we’re asking for is some balanced perspective here.
Why should it be risky for women to venture out of their homes? Is what the world is asking at the moment?
My question to you is, why the double standards? Especially the ones women set on women themselves?!
Why should a women still be assumed to take care of things in the kitchen even though she has had a particularly tiring day at work? Is it just men who get tired after work? Don’t women too? Can’t women too, even? Is it really sinful if a husband makes/serves dinner once in a while?
Don’t get me wrong, this issue isn’t just in India and the South-East, it’s everywhere! Believe me, I’ve asked around.
The flaws are ingrained in the prejudicial thinking which our ancestors have laid down for us and it is up to us to not only identify these flaws, but to rectify them.
While our elders ‘and betters’ are set in their ways and have little room to change, I can only appeal to my contemporary generation and the ones following us, if there is one thing you can learn out of all the books/websites you encounter, it’s this: there is no such thing as a ‘good’ gender or a ‘bad’ gender we’re all good and bad a complex mishmash of good and bad values, traits, attitudes, which make us imperfect souls.
Men aren’t above women as women aren’t above men either we have been designed to perform different functions but that doesn’t mean we supersede each other we cannot because we are simply not perfect.
So, the next time you think of dismissing a women or a man on the basis of their gender, dismiss the thought and you’ll be better off for it.
Hey, we’ve gotta start from somewhere!
Wishing you a wonderful 2013!
Sudakshina Bhattacharjee.
Filed under: Expression, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: gender issues, gender-based crime, human nature, Men, Nirbhaya, prejudices, society, values, Women
November 22, 2012
Glimmer Glamour!
Hello Blogworms!
How goes it with you all? I trust you are all well and making the most of all the festivities that the end of the year brings.
I thought I would post a poem this month that takes us away from the light and sparkles, the pomp and circumstance and take a look at this with a little introspection:-
So, here goes:-
Glimmer Glamour
Glimmer Glamour
Glamour Glimmer,
Crummy Clamour
Not sweet but Sour!
Slimmer Slammer
Slammer Slimmer,
Skinny Rules-
Thinner and Thinner!
If clothes protect our bodies
Why do models pose near-nude?
Whoever these fashionistas are-
Boy, they can be rude!
Girls love to dress up,
To make-up, to shimmy-up.
And boys love to adore
Our curves and contours.
So, why do we itch to label and to ditch-
The ones who don’t go Slimmer with Glamour?
Why indulge in this Crummy Clamour?
It is unhealthy to be obese
And to scorn them with tease,
For we all have our flaws,
Some have paws and some have claws,
While some have jaws and some do gnaw!
“So what?” you say,
“Why should we care?”
Then why do we pay for the personal and rare?
Does it matter?
But it charms.
Does it flatter?
But it harms!
You may have heard this saying old
“All that glitters is not gold”-
But you must know or have been told
All this Glimmer and Glamour
Just covers the mould.
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: airbrushing before and after, celebrity, fashion, glamour, limelight, modelling, spotlight, stereotypes, vain
October 18, 2012
Jai Brand Durga?!
Season’s Greetings, dear Blogworms,
Yes, it is that time of the year again (albeit a tad later than usual) when Kolkata/Calcutta let’s it’s hair down, dons new clothes, make their homes spick and span, freak out on food and sweets and fast, worship and welcome the (Hindu) Mother Goddess:-
Maa Durga.
Kolkata is a city of paradoxes which can be subtle to those who choose to ignore them and audacious to those who to choose to spot them, like me!
It has been 11 years since I was last in Kolkata to celebrate this vivacious festival- called Durga Puja-i.e. the last five days and nights of the nationwide Navaratri (‘Nine Nights’- and boy, have things changed!
Yes, the traditional practices are there, but these are followed by the elders and betters of our society more, rather than the young urbane lot- whose interests veer into hanging out with their mates, showing off their new clothes, visiting various Puja sites across the city, gorging on food and doing nothing else in particular.
I’m not saying this is wrong or anything, but would a little adherence to the Puja activities themselves really go astray?
Does this boil down to parenting then? Hmmm…
Also, there is the one thing which really sticks out like a sore finger- the commercialization!
I honestly don’t know what’s worse- the whole Christmas ‘festive spirit’ in the UK starting as long as back as October, with the countless adverts, discounts, offers, promos, pre-Christmas and Boxing Day sales- or, the countless ‘special’ adverts, discounts, offers and promos for Durga Puja?!
Whether it’s fashion or furniture, restaurants or relaxation spas, concrete or cement, sporting gear or supermarket grocery shopping, it seems that nearly any and every business in West Bengal is banking on the same marketing strategy-advertise your products and services as normal, but just stick the Maa Durga logo on the top-left/top-right/centre (see example below)of the advert and that’s that!
Adverts, like these, are literally everywhere, on billboards, hoardings, transit ads, newspaper ads, in-store teasers, you name it and it’s just there!
I guess this tactic must be working, why else would it be so in-your-face, right?
Jokes apart, have these shenanigans made our beloved Goddess acquire something rather mere and materialistic- a brand status?
Filed under: Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: branding, commercialization, Durga Puja, festivals, Maa Durga
September 21, 2012
Anastasia – Steele versus Krupnik
You’ve heard of Anastasia Steele, but who’s Anastasia Krupnik, you ask, querulous dear Blogworms?
Well, they both belong to works of fiction, of which both are the female leads/protagonists.
They both have an intelligence about them which has a smidgeon of innocence that can sometimes be sweetly disarming, but also sometimes sourly disappointing.
They both are sticklers for English Literature and both go into serial-monologue modes in their respective narratives.
Both characters come from middle-income backgrounds and get baffled by the ostentatious show of all things expensive and ‘classy’.
Both have the same first name (obviously) and both have been in the news (well, under the ‘Books’ section, at least) for (seemingly) provocative reasons.
This is where the similarities end and the differences begin… 
Anastasia Steele is a fictional character from E.L James’ ‘Mummy Porn’ trilogy by the name of Fifty Shades (Vintage, 2012).
Anastasia Krupnik, however, is a fictional character from a series of short novels (first ed. Lions, 1979) for teenage girls, by Lois Lowry.
So, guess which of these two books has been banned? I’ll give you a couple of moments to ponder…
1
2
3
Okay, it stands to reason, doesn’t it?
If the Fifty Shades trilogy is currently topping the best-selling book charts worldwide, it can’t have been banned- which means the novel for teens has been banned then.
So, what? I hear you ask.
Well, as someone who’s grown up reading the Krupnik series, as that same someone who lost the books to dust, mites and yellowed-ness, and wanted to update her bookshelf with nice, new copies (not the hand-me-downs available on Amazon, thankyouverymuch!), only to find that the book is banned and not even on sale online; it is quite upsetting.
I mean, even Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie is available to buy in countries which allow the book to be sold!
Now, I’m not one for baseless allegations, or similar time-wasting activities; all I’m trying to drive at are these following points/questions:-
1. Has E.L James read the Krupnik series and felt inspired to create her own version of Anastasia, you know, similar sort of personality, but with the sexual wildness added on? Or are the similarities just similarities?
2. The Krupnik series was banned because some of its content was accused of provoking young girls to think of things they ‘shouldn’t be’ thinking of, e.g. puberty, growing pains, teenage crushes on teachers. The content outraged some over-protective parents enough to get the whole series banned! ( See this link for additional insight: http://forbookssake.net/2010/09/28/banned-books-anastasia-by-lois-lowry/)
3. If ‘Mummy Porn’ can make mega bucks, if several teenage vampire series of books (which has more adult and sexual content that any sensible parent would so desire) can be sold everywhere, why can’t Anastasia Krupnik and her comparatively innocent story takes it’s righteous place on the shelves of bookshops again? If the counter-argument to this is there’s not much of a market, does that mean child-like innocence is ‘not cool’ or worse, ‘not-for-sale’ any more????
If this is the case, the what kind of hell, I mean, world, do we live in, I ask you!
Filed under: Expression, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: Anastasia Krupnik, Anastasia Steele, banned books, E L James, Lois Lowry, teenage novels
August 10, 2012
Conundrums!
Hello, Blogworms!
Wheww! July just came and went for me. What with juggling teaching, household chores, goings-out, etc, but I don’t wanna bore you with that!
I have some more quibbling issues playing on my mind at the moment, which have come across through various communications whilst doing the aforementioned in the past month.
I will call this my current List of Conundrums-which will grow, shrink and appear from time to time on my blogroll as and when I deem it fit to update you and not bore you so much that my ranting puts you off.
So here goes:-
Sudakshina’s List of Conundrums- August 2012.
1. How long will it really take for God-Knows-How-Old certain stereotypes to go away, for good? I am, of course, referring to the perennial assumption and assignment of us womenfolk having to get educated, earn a ‘decent/good’ living, cook/clean/sew (in a continuous loop, as mess made by men and others will hardly ever be cleaned up by the messers themselves!), have kids, raise kids, worry for kids, cope with family (both in-tended and extended) and their competitive pressures, maintain friendships, do the grocery shopping, stack the kitchen, attend to guests, etc. (if I have missed anything out, please let me know)?Yes, I know, women have had it much worse than what we are having to cope with in today’s day and age and I appreciate that very much indeed, don’t get me wrong. But how better off are we then our ancestors, really, especially in the grand scheme of things?
2. I can strongly sense the deep-seated belief that because women usually have a natural ability to nurture, raise and sustain a family, that they take a back-seat from the ticket to all-rounded progress that men have. I am not blaming men, nay am I being resentful (as women, we tend to make life difficult for our female comrades and this is a well-known secret amidst much of society worldwide). Those women who have made it big have had to give up having a ‘normal’ domestic, family life which most of us are just about manage to have, with our feet teetering on the verge of “Oh if I could just crash on my bed for a few hours, I’ll be fine” breaks, every so often! My question is: why do we as women face this struggle? Do men face it too? If not, what is it that they are doing- or not doing- which we are or are not?
3. How long will we go on mere appearances, when we all know not to judge a book by its cover and all that’s gold does not glitter? Does it really matter if I’ve come to a place by a bus, or a taxi, or a swanky car? Surely the fact that I am there should count for something too, right? If I am wearing expensive clothing, it’s because I choose to and if I’m wearing my favourite old nightie, again it’s because I choose to. Not all of us wear clothes that stand out to make a (positive or negative) point- sometimes it’s because we just can’t decide what to wear!
4.Why are we so damned lazy? I’m not blaming social media- their very purpose is to help us keep in touch with all the people we know. But how many of these people do we really, you know, Know?! Probably a handful, at best. Our lives have become so busy that the only way we can stay in touch with everyone is via the internet. But do we really need to be in touch with everyone? If we care for a handful, why don’t we spend more time and effort on having memorable experiences with them, instead of trying to spread ourselves so thin, that we are barely there?!
5.The final one for this (what is turning out to be heady) list, I promise. If we are all going to be so fiercely competitive, when will we learn to be accountable for our own responsibilities? How long will the passing-on-the-blame-game go on? Whatever the task is, someone has to do it, right?
So, who will it be? :)
Filed under: Expression, Psychology, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions 
August 2, 2012
Conundrums!
Hello, Blogworms!
Wheww! July just came and went for me. What with juggling teaching, household chores, goings-out, etc, but I don’t wanna bore you with that!
I have some more quibbling issues playing on my mind at the moment, which have come across through various communications whilst doing the aforementioned in the past month.
I will call this my current List of Conundrums-which will grow, shrink and appear from time to time on my blogroll as and when I deem it fit to update you and not bore you so much that my ranting puts you off.
So here goes:-
Sudakshina’s List of Conundrums- August 2012.
How long will it really take for God-Knows-How-Old certain stereotypes to go away, for good? I am, of course, referring to the perennial assumption and assignment of us womenfolk having to get educated, earn a ‘decent/good’ living, cook/clean/sew (in a continuous loop, as mess made by men and others will hardly ever be cleaned up by the messers themselves!), have kids, raise kids, worry for kids, cope with family (both in-tended and extended) and their competitive pressures, maintain friendships, do the grocery shopping, stack the kitchen, attend to guests, etc. (if I have missed anything out, please let me know)?Yes, I know, women have had it much worse than what we are having to cope with in today’s day and age and I appreciate that very much indeed, don’t get me wrong. But how better off are we then our ancestors, really, especially in the grand scheme of things?
I can strongly sense the deep-seated belief that because women usually have a natural ability to nurture, raise and sustain a family, that they take a back-seat from the ticket to all-rounded progress that men have. I am not blaming men, nay am I being resentful (as women, we tend to make life difficult for our female comrades and this is a well-known secret amidst much of society worldwide). Those women who have made it big have had to give up having a ‘normal’ domestic, family life which most of us are just about manage to have, with our feet teetering on the verge of “Oh if I could just crash on my bed for a few hours, I’ll be fine” breaks, every so often! My question is: why do we as women face this struggle? Do men face it too? If not, what is it that they are doing- or not doing- which we are or are not?
How long will we go on mere appearances, when we all know not to judge a book by its cover and all that’s gold does not glitter? Does it really matter if I’ve come to a place by a bus, or a taxi, or a swanky car? Surely the fact that I am there should count for something too, right? If I am wearing expensive clothing, it’s because I choose to and if I’m wearing my favourite old nightie, again it’s because I choose to. Not all of us wear clothes that stand out to make a (positive or negative) point- sometimes it’s because we just can’t decide what to wear!
Why are we so damned lazy? I’m not blaming social media- their very purpose is to help us keep in touch with all the people we know. But how many of these people do we really, you know, Know?! Probably a handful, at best. Our lives have become so busy that the only way we can stay in touch with everyone is via the internet. But do we really need to be in touch with everyone? If we care for a handful, why don’t we spend more time and effort on having memorable experiences with them, instead of trying to spread ourselves so thin, that we are barely there?!
The final one for this (what is turning out to be heady) list, I promise. If we are all going to be so fiercely competitive, when will we learn to be accountable for our own responsibilities? How long will the passing-on-the-blame-game go on? Whatever the task is, someone has to do it, right?
So, who will it be?
Filed under: Expression, Psychology, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions
June 29, 2012
An Ode to the Confused!
Hi Blogworms,
How goes it from wherever you’re reading this post? I do hope all is well and ship-shape!
I love the format WordPress has introduced for us bloggers to write our posts in. Its clarity and ease in navigation is quite timely, considering what the theme of my next poem is all about- i.e. the dire state we all stumble upon frequently-Confusion!
So, from one confused soul to another, here goes :-
An Ode to the Confused!
Confusion, Diffusion, Infusion, Profusion;
‘Who cares’, ‘Whatever’, ‘Don’t take the tension’!
Thinking, Drinking, Sinking Away
We go, we’re slow and we’re blown astray.
Oh why, oh why are we so frustrated?
So, battered, so tattered, so devastated?
Oh how, oh how are we so deflected?
So subjected, objected, so misdirected?
Knowing, Flowing, Glowing alas!
To Believe, to Relieve, to Belong to a class-
Of Confidence, of Assertion,
Of Love and Emotion.
Not Delusion and Indifference,
Not Neglect and Ignorance!
They say “Knowledge is Power”-
So why do we glower-
At those In The Know
And at those Who Are Not?
For we can doom the Gloom
As the flowers Bloom
And the birds sing
Melting our Hearts’ strings.
Oh Dear Confused,
You have nothing to Fear;
Just ask your Self
What You need to Hear!
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Soul & Spiritual Philosophy
May 26, 2012
Soul, Where Are You?
Hola Senors and Señoritas!
Summer has been sizzling and sweltering big time out here in India!
I hope it’s not been too harsh where you are.
Whether it has been punishing or playful, here’s a poem (or should I say rhetorical riddle) to cool your senses and get you pondering inwardly- hopefully!
It’s called “Soul, Where Are You?” and goes like this:-
Soul, Where Are You?
We have:
Egos
Expression
Education and
Empathy
But Soul, where are you?
We have:
Values
Virtues
Views and
Vices
Yet Soul, where are you?
We have:
Culture
Community
Clubs and
Conformity
However, Soul, where are you?
We have:
Money
Materialism
Modernity and
Minds
But Soul, where on earth are you?
If you exist:
Why is love so blurred?
Why is balancing so absurd?
Why are we so stirred?
Why is spirituality so slurred?
Soul, where are you?
Where are you, Soul?
Awaken within me-
Awaken within all.
Pray, do you think we have a ‘soul’? If yes, what do you think it does? If no, why do you think there isn’t? Hmmm…
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Soul & Spiritual Philosophy
