na svatantryamarhati

 

पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने।
रक्षन्ति स्थाविरे पुत्राः न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति ।।
(मनु स्मृति.9.3)

 Which translates to   Father protects her in childhood, Husband protects in youth. In old age, children protect her. A woman does not deserve freedom

 That is my translation, and I may be wrong. And that is the beauty of ancient languages - you can interpret them according to you - and your needs. 

So, obviously our grand old religion of thousands years wasn't a fan of feminism - liberty of women. 

But if I do not accept that things have improved immensely, at least for middle class and upper class women, I will be lying. Yes, 30 years ago, my parents let me pursue Engineering education in a different city. And now, you see girls doing almost everything, without fear and timidity. 

But let us talk of some one who was a fan of feminism- Simone De Beauvoir. 

Simone was a 20th century existential philosopher and writer who can be called as mother of Feminism. Her book "The second sex" is like bible for women's liberation. 

So I thought I will read that book. When I take pains to read philosophy (or at least make half hearted efforts in that direction), I can as well read a philosophy relevant to me. 

But I failed - instead I started reading her fiction book "The woman destroyed" - which is a short story collection. And am liking it immensely.

The narrator is an old woman in her sixties living with her husband. Both are intellectuals - he , a scientist and she a writer. Both are left wing. Andre - her husband feels all his good works are behind him, and he can't accomplish much in this age. And he is sullen and pessimistic. But our narrator, her age does not worry her. 

But what worries her is her son Philippe. He is moving away from his parents, more so since his marriage to Irene. And now he has even decided to join a government office in Ministry of culture. This shocks our narrator - the left wing writer. She was hoping he will complete his thesis in the university and become an academic like her. 

She thinks that he is becoming  materialistic and blames Irene for her influence. She stops talking to her son and returns even his letters. 

And now she feels even Andre is being distant with her. Her latest book is published and the reviews are bad. They say she is just repeating the same thing. Even her mentee  feels the book is not very original. 

She sits and re-reads the book and realizes they are all correct. The book is not good at all. She feels she will never be able to write anything original and becomes completely depressed.

I liked this story. If not anything else, it talks about a woman of my age - it is age appropriate :)

By the way, I am also reading Dubliners. That is the beauty of online reading - keep as many tabs open as you need. And read one sentence at a time from each book if you so wish. 

The stories in Dubliners - why do I feel that they are ending abruptly. Or am I unable to grasp what the writer is not telling?