Charu Nivedita

Feb 14, 2012

Paris musings

Few days ago I was invited to deliver a lecture by the French department of the Madras University, the topic was “Paris Musings”. Educational institutions give me the jitters since I’m a college dropout. So I addressed the group with whatever came to my mind instead of what I had written down — I never did once glance at my notes though I had taken them along. The following points are the ones I missed and would like to share them with you.

Love, in pixels

The Indian society, which refuses to understand that men and women are equals, has a long way to go in comprehending and experiencing real love. Look at the typical Indian expression of love. A boy fancied a girl but she didn’t like him, in fact, was scared of him because he used to tease her in public. Thanks to our films, right from his childhood the boy had seen eve-teasing as an expression of love. (In a Tamil movie, heroine gets attracted to the hero because he calls her “di”. Now “di” is a suffix you add when talking to girls you are intimate with.