Thursday, March 3, 2016

I have a face.

I am at a workshop these days, with some old friends and some people I've just met but find fascinating.

Today morning one of them walked up to me with a pendrive in his hand. 'Here is my pendrive' he said. 'That's nice', replied I. 'What do you want me to do about it?' 'Oh' he said 'not you. The other woman'.

The other fat woman he meant.

Not bothering to learn my colleague's name or look at her face, he had just looked at her body and walked up to the nearest person with the same body type.

And later in the day, I spoke about my work on the Ramganga. During the tea break after, I was surrounded by a small group of people who wanted to know more and let me know they appreciated what I said. I was gratefully basking in the nice comments when one person said, 'you speak like Vandana Shiva'.

 'eh?' I was confused- while I appreciate what Ms. Shiva has done for the visibility of India's agrobiodiversity, we don't share an area of work and certainly not a speaking style. What he said next made his thoughts clear. 'You also look like her. Actually, you also look like Usha Uthup. And Shubha Mugdul.' 'Ah.I see.'

Look, I know it might be confusing, this proliferation of large and loud women. But here's a tip. We have different faces.And we do different jobs. Focus on those two things.

2 comments:

Shirish219@gmail said...

Yes indeed

nadi said...

Usha Uthup, and Shubha Mudgal and Vandana Shiva do not look like each other , but you look like all of them. That is VERY interesting.
They do have two things in common. All three of them are good at their work and they are comfortable in their bodies.
One more thing actually-
I find all three extremely attractive.
Therefore, would like to meet that 'other woman' your colleague - :)

:) Humour is the only thing that can help us. What can one say?
I find Mr. Pendrive a little dumb.
As for the audience in the village-
Maybe they were too overwhelmed by the way you spoke. Maybe they were expressing their feelings which is so difficult to do.

In Notting Hill, the shop assistant says to the actress character - "So glad to meet you. A great fan. I loved Ghosts."
"thanks, I'll tell Demi(Moore)" she says.

You speak with the villagers as an equal , but from their side there is a slight hierarchy, therefore distance.
An activist-journalist who writes in English etc .
However much we wish them away, it is best they exist- these distances- I do not want someone to tell my sister- We were overwhelmed not just by your speech , but also your personality.
You are different from their relatives. Where to place you? Usha and Shubha are images from TV, Vandana - maybe they heard a speech.
Am just playing devil's advocate here, and just wait for the day when they go Shubha Mudgal
and say "your song is like Chicu's speech."
She , much older and more experienced than you will know the silliness/love in that comment, not give a minute to it and fold her hands in her usual namaste, and walk away.

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