THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL

READ MY ARTICLE ON SAFETY OF WOMEN FOR THE
             PETTICOAT JOURNAL HERE

ABOUT THE PETTICOAT JOURNAL-

We beg not to be confused for a soft, polite and submissive platform just like you want your women to be. We are not even suggesting rouges and mascaras for women. We are here with the after-story. The story after the woman is decked up and all set for life. Does the world stand by her? Does she have the courage to go it alone? Does she get derided on the way?

You say, "Huh! What world are you talking about? You may be living in a time warp. We've come far from those days when all these questions were relevant." Well, we would love to believe you. But even as we were gathering the mindset to believe you, we came across official reports about professional, educated women being subjected to atrocities, verbal and physical, by men in their families. Men would not necessarily be husbands. They happen to be fathers-in-law, brothers-in-law, brothers, fathers. As we turned the pages of the reports, we realised that after all the grassroots work by various well-meaning organisations, women in villages consider rape and violence a part of life which they have to tolerate no matter how painful.

A lot has changed over the years. Thanks to activists and social workers and the handful of men and women who believed in change. But there are a majority who consider such change disastrous...to their hegemony, to their egos and to their personalities. It's here that the change is stuck. It's this filter that suspends change.

It's no wonder then that we deep in our hearts we keep the lowest of low opinions about women and nurture lowest of low feelings about their characters. It's so fragile that we start doubting a woman's character without instigation. No? Consider this.

How does the world react to a decked up woman waiting for her family in the middle of a market place on their way to a family function? We know what's the very first thing that hits people's minds!What does the world think about the woman walking late evening along a lonely footpath on her way back home from office? SUVs and sedans slow down to ask her what she'll charge for a night. A submissive woman may just be pulled into the car without even the courtesy asking her charges. Then, the next morning, we read about her raped, bleeding, abandoned body found in a jungle.

What does the world think of a woman who mixes with men in offices or gyms or other places where she is a regular like any other man out there? That she is a nymphomaniac...that she's interested in men.
What does the world think of a woman who is the female version of a Casanova? Err there's no female version of Casanova!! We only know of sluts!
The world is changing. but the thinking isn't. Women are moving out and striving to make a mark and break free. But men and some other women are going regressive. They want to pull the charging women back. The Petticoat Journal is for them as much as the women who have begun the fight to raise their status from a doormat to a human being.
We bring you the Doormat Revolution! Join us!

JAIPUR LIT FEST'13—more to it than glamour

By N. Madhavan

Columnist/Associate Editor

Hindustan Times

Jaipur is just the place and the last week of January is just the right time to hold a literary festival. For one, there is a colourful air about the Rajasthani capital, with its exotic past and camels that go with history and the magic of the printed word. On the other hand, not far from Delhi, it is great for both those wanting to get away from the metro rush and international travelers at the end of a cold period to catch some sun.

The festival has acquired its own unique colour. 

credits- Shweta Maheshwari 

For a festival that calls itself the “greatest literary show on earth” it is not just about staid writers and sombre sessions. The Diggi Palace lawns, where the festival is held, has the air of an Indian mela, and has also acquired what some might call “Page 3” glamour with fashionable ladies and somewhat loud partying people making up the ambience. It also helps that the festival organizes musical evenings (this year shifted to the Amer area in the suburbs).

The festival this year was less controversial than last year, when writer Salman Rushdie was prevented from coming by Muslim group protests. This year,  protests erupted towards the end of the festival when sociologist Ashis Nandy mouthed a comment about corruption and backward/scheduled caste leaders. 

The furore underscored the fact that the festival has become a political event of sorts.

Alongside politics, the festival also sees a Bollywood touch. Lyricists Prasoon Joshi and Javed Akhtar and actress Sharmila Tagore were among the attendees this year, as was cricketer Rahul Dravid.  

So, is literature about such glamorous figures? Clearly not. While these lent fodder for the news media, there is undeniably some depth in the festival from less fashionable sessions held in the large tents and halls outside of the front lawns and the “Char Bagh” front grounds where the bigger sessions occur.

I particularly enjoyed a session on books about music, featuring Vikram Sampath, author of “My Name is Gauhar Jaan” -- about a British colonial era courtesan. There was another serious session on books about India’s Maoist heartland and the Northeast. Yet another one discussed the life of the mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan.

These sessions more than made up for criticism that the festival is shallow.

My high point as a Tamil speaker was listening to a US scholar, David Shulman, who is fluent in Indian languages and about the history of India’s temple towns and holy places. Such scholars are ones who notice only when a festival showcases offbeat topics and writers. For this, one must thank the organizers of JLF!

SHE IS STRONG

"My Maariamma bays for blood.My Kali kills. My Draupadi strips. My Sita climbs on to a stranger’s lap. All my women militate. They brave bombs, they belittle kings…. Call me names if it comforts you. I no longer care. "


Writes Meena Kandasamy, celebrating the loud, slutty sensibility and the new discovered power in women.
She lashes out at a Toronto police officer’s remark – “Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised” – to York University  students during a campus-safety briefing.
Men need to understand- that a short dress is NOT a yes! But unfortunately, its nearly next to impossible to expect this from half of the male population in India. 

Kandasamy further quotes:  
It is flawed logic to expect Indian men to not indulge in leching, leering, groping, harassing, molesting and raping women on the streets when they are seasoned wife-beaters at home. According to UN statistics, more than two-thirds of married Indian women have experienced domestic violence; when our homes are unsafe, it is impossible to imagine our streets will turn safe unless we address the fundamental assumption that men have a right to control women’s bodies.

"Nazar teri buri, burkha main pehnu ?"- were the headlines in Delhi Times as hundreds of women took to streets to protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring any aspect of a woman's appearance.   

If a house is robbed because the window was open, who is to be held responsible for it? Obviously the robber and not the robbed. But alas, here many will accuse the robbed for keeping the window open as an 'invitation' to him. Same is the case with the women.

Eve teasing froze the nation. In the day-light, with hundred cowards as spectators, women are pushed into their graves of shame. Many watch with anguish in their eyes, while others with the desire to call for help, yet no one steps forward to save the innocent soul.
 

I am a dead woman,

 A victim who became a show for many

Yearning for a Krishna to save this Draupadi

now my heart stops me to step out

' you might become a prey again' it shouts out loud.

Life was squeezed out from many women souls returning form work at three in the morning. Yet hundreds of women work at call centers, BECAUSE SHE IS STRONG.

Drunk men harass girls at bars. Yet many women work there and serve them without any fear, BECAUSE SHE IS STRONG

Short dresses are a 'come and molest me' for millions. Yet women have the courage to dress the way they want to, BECAUSE SHE IS STRONG

Domestic violence and demand for dowry still surface. Yet every women wishes to marry and live peacefully. BECAUSE SHE IS STRONG

There  is light at the end of the tunnel and she will feel it one day

she will rise up, beyond harassment, worthlessness and slay

She has the right to live the way she wants, and she will

call her a slut or whore, her lips will stay still

If a man can go to bars and discos, so can she

time is changing , today she is equal to he

Let our tongues unite, not to call her names

but to give her respect and uncover her from shame

She has arrived to prove every man wrong

that She is not weak, she is STRONG!