A Kannada novel-My thoughts about it!
I finished reading a Kannada novel called "sOtu geddavaLu".
When I finished reading this book, I could not stop shaking with anger of the nuisance of Indian society then (who knows if it is the same now!!), the injustice on women.
Plot:
A beautiful girl gets engaged to a boy and his parents wanted him to get married before he goes to UK for a business trip so that he might not fall for foreign woman.
Initially he was not interested, but when he saw this girl and her breathtaking beauty and he gave in. They got married and the couple had a good time.
Then this groom's "uncle"- his mother's very young brother (who's just 6-7 years older to this groom) visits them to greet their wedding and he falls badly for the beauty of this girl- the bride.
When this groom later goes on his business trip, his uncle visits his place as in for a "vacation" and starts to seduce the girl and the most successful thing he could get from her is getting herself kissed by him.
This unfortunately would be seen by her mother-in-law. And guess what?? no she does not blame her brother equally, but calls her Daughter-in-law a whore and of doing prostitution.
The newly wed bride's father would be mailed and when he arrives and listens to the story "in deep regret" he disowns his daughter (such wonderful father!!).
She still wants to stay at her husband's home just to "get her husband's forgiveness" for her offence of kissing his uncle. She stops eating food and locks herself in the room and she's treated as dirt by her mother-in-law.
The day of her husband's return arrives and he is back from UK. But he was shocked to see the cold-icy situation of the house and especially to see his "beautiful wife" looking like a skeleton. Then he asks his mother and his mother tells him the story of her daughter-in-law's infidelity. She wants him to marry again.
After he had listened to his mother, he goes to the room and faces his wife. When he sees her suffering, he remembers his days in UK where he had sex with an English woman and many times (and guess what? never he had felt guilty of cheating his wife! haha). The story ended by he forgiving her and she accepting his proposal again and they starting their life together as a new leaf. When he tells his mother of his decision and his mistake he had made in UK, she says "but you are a man".
Basically, in India, it is an offence for a girl to "kiss" a man and "SHOULD" feel miserable and man can do anything and still he does not need to feel guilty. No matter how this story ended, Indian society treats its sons as assets and girls as always liabilities.
Shame to say that this is mere reflection of Indian society and its way of living after "Indian Independence". Boys always feel they are superior to girls, the reason might well be because parents considers them so!
SHAME! I despise this society even though I am from it, the paradox of it!
When I finished reading this book, I could not stop shaking with anger of the nuisance of Indian society then (who knows if it is the same now!!), the injustice on women.
Plot:
A beautiful girl gets engaged to a boy and his parents wanted him to get married before he goes to UK for a business trip so that he might not fall for foreign woman.
Initially he was not interested, but when he saw this girl and her breathtaking beauty and he gave in. They got married and the couple had a good time.
Then this groom's "uncle"- his mother's very young brother (who's just 6-7 years older to this groom) visits them to greet their wedding and he falls badly for the beauty of this girl- the bride.
When this groom later goes on his business trip, his uncle visits his place as in for a "vacation" and starts to seduce the girl and the most successful thing he could get from her is getting herself kissed by him.
This unfortunately would be seen by her mother-in-law. And guess what?? no she does not blame her brother equally, but calls her Daughter-in-law a whore and of doing prostitution.
The newly wed bride's father would be mailed and when he arrives and listens to the story "in deep regret" he disowns his daughter (such wonderful father!!).
She still wants to stay at her husband's home just to "get her husband's forgiveness" for her offence of kissing his uncle. She stops eating food and locks herself in the room and she's treated as dirt by her mother-in-law.
The day of her husband's return arrives and he is back from UK. But he was shocked to see the cold-icy situation of the house and especially to see his "beautiful wife" looking like a skeleton. Then he asks his mother and his mother tells him the story of her daughter-in-law's infidelity. She wants him to marry again.
After he had listened to his mother, he goes to the room and faces his wife. When he sees her suffering, he remembers his days in UK where he had sex with an English woman and many times (and guess what? never he had felt guilty of cheating his wife! haha). The story ended by he forgiving her and she accepting his proposal again and they starting their life together as a new leaf. When he tells his mother of his decision and his mistake he had made in UK, she says "but you are a man".
Basically, in India, it is an offence for a girl to "kiss" a man and "SHOULD" feel miserable and man can do anything and still he does not need to feel guilty. No matter how this story ended, Indian society treats its sons as assets and girls as always liabilities.
Shame to say that this is mere reflection of Indian society and its way of living after "Indian Independence". Boys always feel they are superior to girls, the reason might well be because parents considers them so!
SHAME! I despise this society even though I am from it, the paradox of it!
Hmmm I don't think things have changed a lot in this respect even now. Also, this double standard is present in the so called "developed" western cultures as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the reasons I don't watch Kannada movies very often. Not that I don't love my language but I can't take the biased stories. I start watching and get pissed off in between and just switch off the TV/Laptop.
hmm, western cultures are very different actually and yes there are bias among women and we can see for ex. how many women have reached the top position even in western world.
DeleteBut the life is million times better than the paradox in India. I am saying this because I am seeing it.
Well, Kannada film land has given some wonderful feminist stories in70's.
Even Bollywood has not given something like that. Look at DDLJ for example. Why should Simran marry somebody her father wants?
This is something I do not like about Indian culture as a whole and I can say south Indians are better than north as a whole. You might have seen north Indian city people like in Delhi. You should see how north Indian villages treats their women. In south Indian villages, women are stronger.
This is not about Kannada, :-) I will ask you to watch Puttanna kanagals movies in particular. His movies puts out questions to the existing system.
Even bollywood movies in 70's had not given such excellent movies like this. they only considered their heroines as "dolls" (see Evening in Paris and Kashmir ki kali) and they had nothing much to do in films. Yes, there are exceptions like Khubsurat, but still bollywood is no better than our kannada film industry. :-)
Watch Movie "Phaniyamma", such wonderful movies are not seen much in bollywood.
who's the author?
ReplyDeleteTriveni
Delete