An excellent author (Desirable Daughters, Jasmine, Holder of the World, The Tree Bride, Wife,-- all part of my extensive book collection) who has taken steps to break the "traditional role" for Indian women from her generation. I wish that more South Asian women would realize that they do indeed have power and that they can utilize it whenever they desire.
I think the most valuable piece of advice that I have ever been given was from my cousin Naela. She told me several years ago that "people will only have as much power over you as you give them".. that was truly an epiphany for me...
AHA! MOMENTA Declaration of Independence
She'd lived her entire childhood by the rules. Then, one day, Bharati Mukherjee slid into the driver's seat.
As a bookish child in Calcutta, I used to thrill to the adventures of bad girls whose pursuit of happiness swept them outside the bounds of social decency. Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina lived large in my imagination. The naughty girls of Hollywood films flirted and knew how to drive. These reckless women felt more real to me than the unselfish relatives I was expected to emulate. Growing up in an old-fashioned Bengali Hindu family and going to a convent school run by stern Irish nuns, I was brought up to revere rules. Without rules, there was only anarchy.
My mother's rules had to do with feminine deportment, so I never played hard enough to break a toy or muddy my dress. My father's rules had to do with never shaming the family by even a hint of scandal, and not providing business rivals with an opportunity to kidnap me or throw acid in my face. (There are real consequences to disobedience.) Good behavior meant not falling in love until my father found the right bridegroom and never protesting his decrees. Kidnap-proofing meant never traveling to and from school in a car without a driver, two armed guards and my watchful mother.
Not, not, not. Never, never, never.
One day, as I was being driven home from the university, our driver asked me—I'll never know why—if I wanted to learn to drive. To be a young woman in India in the 1950s and to drive a car was to be Anna and Emma—even Doris Day. I slipped behind the Rover's steering wheel. Within seconds, we were edging toward a ring of squatters. The car kept drifting; I screamed; the chauffeur shouted and pulled the brake. I didn't hit anyone, but for the first time I found myself in a situation that my entire upbringing had aimed to prevent. In India, there are real consequences to inattention; drivers who jeopardize pedestrians can be lynched on the spot. I scrambled for the backseat. The chauffeur bundled one wailing squatter into the car and sped home. My father took charge. Presumably, a few—maybe many—rupees changed hands. The driver was reprimanded and shortly thereafter sent back to Calcutta. I never admitted my misdeed.
In the events of that day lies the germ of a destiny far less certain than my father had intended. Acting on instinct, I had challenged my upbringing. I'd seen the last demonstration of his protective power. I might have failed my first unchaperoned probing of the adult world, but within a year, my sisters and I would be living on our own in America, a place he'd never seen. We would all make love matches, defying his choice of suitable grooms. The transgression was small, unconfessed and unforgiven. My long-suppressed inner bad girl had spoken. "Drive," she said. "Take a risk, be cunning, lie." She might even have said: "Write." Bharati Mukherjee's sixth novel, Desirable Daughters, was published in the spring by Hyperion.
Currently reading "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks. I read some good reviews about it and decided to buy it off of amazon (for $0.01).. can't go wrong with that price. Shipping cost more than the book itself. God knows how many books I've purchased from amazon... not to mention dvds and cds.. they should have a customer rewards program or something..
And that's just one of the book shelves!.. I don't think Z knew what he was getting into when he married me... soon our house will be taken over by books and he won't know what hit him.. I saved the BEST for LAST!!!.. Yeay for Oprah!!
Winfrey, ABC working on 2 reality shows
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey is expanding her media reach into reality television. Her production company is working on two prime-time series for ABC, tentatively titled Oprah Winfrey's The Big Give and Your Money or Your Life, ABC and Harpo Productions announced Friday.
The deal, which marks Winfrey's entrance into series TV, comes about three months after Harpo formed a new television development group for alternative shows, Tim Bennett, the company's president, said in a statement.
The Big Give provides money and other resources to 10 people and challenges them to help others in a way that tests the players' ingenuity and passion, according to the companies. The winner gets to realize their "wildest" dream.
Your Money or Your Life, which is in development, features families who are confronted by a crisis and must change or risk being "consumed by disaster," according to the joint ABC-Harpo release.
Winfrey's move into series TV is "monumental," ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson said in the release. The show's focus on "wish fulfillment and making lives better," he said.
Besides daytime TV's The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo produces TV projects and operates the website oprah.com. Harpo Print LLC co-publishes O, Winfrey's monthly magazine, while Harpo Films produces feature films and TV movies.
