Gender, Caste and Violence: Dalit Woman

I.                 Introduction:

“Dalit Women face a triple burden of caste, class and gender”

--Ruth Manorama, Member, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights

These words sum up the position of Dalit Women in present day society as being a class of individuals who cannot be classified independently and separately as Dalits or Women. The composite whole of Dalit Woman faces more oppression than separately as a Dalit or a Woman. The position of Dalit Women at the bottom of the caste, class and gender hierarchies exposes them to severe discrimination and violence as the result of heinously imbalanced social, economic and power equations. Despite the presence of Constitutional guarantees to safeguard their rights, the Dalit Women burn, regularly, in the flame of oppression from upper caste males. The complete understanding of the plight of these unfortunate women necessitates the understanding of the dynamics of caste and gender along with the study of the cultural and material dimensions of the intersection of caste-gender discrimination and violence. Many instances of this discrimination or violence never reach the media; the ones that do are horrifying enough to reveal aculture of violence, silence and impunity. This further exacerbates the denial of their rights to security of life and basic human dignity.

Book Review - Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North

 The Book at Hand:

One cannot judge a book by its cover, but one sure can get fascinated enough to buy it from the stores. That's how I came across Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North. The royal battle-axe with intricate design on a dark bloody crimson cover was just the kind of thing I was looking for. A quick skim through the first chapter at the store was enough to promise a good reading experience, tempting me to put the softcover edition into my cart. To be completely frank, I had started to expect something from the book that my school textbooks did not provide; the book did not disappoint. The first in the quintet, this book did leave me with a craving for the rest of the series.

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Although my brother feels that the movie was a yawn-a-rooney, I will differ significantly, naming Toy Story 3 one of the best pieces of animation to come out of Pixar Studios. A suiting third part to a great series, Toy Story 3 does not disappoint the viewer, as has been the case with other movie series, wherein the third part loses the charm that the previous two movies have built. This movie which was dubbed Pixar's great gamble, has paid off big time in the Box Office, beating the last record holder, Shrek 3, with a total income of $41,148,961 on its opening day at the box office from 4,028 theaters. So, what makes this movie such a success?

The Story behind the Coke

Most food we relish today is result of accidents and without exception they are real strokes of genius. Frank Epperson leaves a drink outside in the cold overnight and the world gets its first Popsicle, while ice-cream cones get invented in the 1904 World’s Fair at St. Louis and the classic story of the Potato Chip still amuses the world. Cook George Crum invented them to silence a particular fastidious customer of his, who kept returning the French Fries on account that they were ‘soggy’. Still, the best story so far is none other than the Coke’s.

Me and Anime

“I will never give up. Believe it.” When Naruto Uzumaki, lead character in the Anime series Naruto, utters these words with a really inspiring music playing in the background, something similar to a current of confidence runs down my spine, my eyes light up, the hair on the back of my neck stand up in excitement and my heart beats against my chest in full vigour. And this feeling of confidence lingers within me even after the half hour episode gets over. Such is the influence anime has on me. Whenever I feel down and out, I seek shelter, direction even, from these fictitious characters with pointed noses and spiked hair. What power they hold over me I cannot express, mostly because I, myself, have not been able to understand it fully. May be you can help me out. Let me guide you through a journey down my memory lane so that you can tell me when and how I fell in love with cartoons and anime.