NOVEL~*Hiding behind a Stranger*~ THREAD 2 - CHAPTERS 3 & 4 - Page 120

Originally posted by: Ash67

Dear Sarswathi aunty,

I hope you have received and seen my PM to you?

Best Regards

Ashwinee

Originally posted by: Ash67

Dear Lashy, Shyamala Aunty, Sandhya and Shagun

Sorry to butt in but cannot help myself. (Aunty always has that ability to make me write on IF😉)

I agree with Aunty and Shagun that it was the most heart-wrenching part to read, and though as you, Sandhya and Lashy, say that it was all too common in those days - as Gandhari asked Krishna at the end of the war -you could have avoided this if you wanted to, right Lashy?

No matter how common it was and no matter the reality that any girl can meet this fate - I would have preferred Durga's end to befit her being and her spirit. It would have been better to have her die an honourable death - not because of the reinforced patriarchal imposition of the belief that what happened to her was worse than death but because she deserved better. I would like to think that the jauhar was just such a feminist response in defiance of the male power - no matter how strong you are we have the power to take our own lives and preserve our dignity and we choose that.

After I managed like Shagun to allow myself to move on along with the story -

In terms of the craft, what I loved was the economy of the description - Lashy take a bow! In three sentences you create an impact that is more powerful than the rest of the scene. Show not tell is what good writers do, but you show here that a truly good writer does not even need to show in detail. Like a minimalist Japanese artist you just leave 3 brushstrokes -minimal and powerful. Amazing!

Best

Ashwinee

Originally posted by: lashy

Originally posted by: sashashyam

What? " it seems like you liked the rest"?? Liked??? After all that I wrote in praise of you and your Heera and your illustration to boot?

You had better sit up and take notice, kid! Modesty is a highly overrated virtue, as the immortal Holmes was wont to comment😉

Shyamala Periyamma

Originally posted by: hemakeerti

Shyamala aunty,

There were many gang rxxe cases before Nirbhya one but why did the nation stand up only against it. Why're we dormant till then? Because its the brutality of the incident that hit our hearts hard and made us raise our voice.

In similar lines, for the Parnagarihs, Heera, or Mahendar to get the vigor to stand against the atrocity of Khalil/Shehzade/Mughals, the preceding incident should be as barbarous and hard hitting as possible. Had it been any normal death, I doubt the Parnagarihs would stand longer with their rage and eventually they'd persuade Heera to tone down

My thoughts 😊

Originally posted by: hemakeerti

Shyamala aunty,

There were many gang rxxe cases before Nirbhya one but why did the nation stand up only against it. Why're we dormant till then? Because its the brutality of the incident that hit our hearts hard and made us raise our voice.

In similar lines, for the Parnagarihs, Heera, or Mahendar to get the vigor to stand against the atrocity of Khalil/Shehzade/Mughals, the preceding incident should be as barbarous and hard hitting as possible. Had it been any normal death, I doubt the Parnagarihs would stand longer with their rage and eventually they'd persuade Heera to tone down

My thoughts 😊

My dear Hema,

It is good to hear from you.

Your take is undoubtedly a plausible one, and Lashy would be pleased with it, for this is exactly what she says herself in a more roundabout manner. But I do not agree with it. Once the idea of revenge has taken root, I do not believe that this one aspect would be the deciding factor as to whether the family and friends choose to forget the crime or keep up their quest for vengeance.

So I do not buy this rationalisation for what happened to Durga. There are any number of historical revenge stories by great writers that do not depend on the prop of something like this happening to one of the hero's female relatives.

Besides, I cannot stand this kind of thing in a novel, least of all something written here for pleasant reading. If I wanted to read such stuff, I would rather turn to Sadaat Hasan Manto writing on the partition. And all that really happened. But I have never read Manto. I could not even watch Tamas by Govind Nihalani.

As for your assessment of the Nirbhaya case, my dear it was such a cause celebre not just because of the horrendous violence. The Jessica Lall case was a "clean" murder, and it attracted just as much attention and led to just as many protests.

Besides, the Nirbhaya outrage was hardly the only such case that was so violent. Very few hear of similar cases that take place in the remote areas simply because they do not have visibility. They only surface as small paras in the papers and are forgotten by everyone but the family and the police.

The Nirbhaya case attracted so much attention because it happened in Delhi, to an educated middle class girl - just like the Jessica Lall case - and began right in the heart of the city at around 10 pm. So the media got on to it, and the full glare of publicity as well. Which is turn attracted so many protestors. Have you ever heard of similar protests about some similar case in Bastar, for example, or in Jhumritalayya?

There is also such a thing as the shock value wearing off. This is already visible with the recent, equally horrible case in Kerala.

And this is not just in India. Serial killings are invariably ghastly, and these days they hardly raise a ripple in the Western media. How many cases of very ugly child abuse, often involving the parents, and even the making of 'snuff' movies of real killings on video, have attracted mass public attention and protests in the West, as happened here with the Nirbhaya case? Very few.

It is the same with cases of such attacks, perpetrated by gangs of male students mostly on drugged fellow girl students, often complete with videos of the crime - the latest being that by a champion footballer - in any number of American university campuses nowadays.They are so commonplace that they do not even make the front pages of the national, or at times even the local papers, and the college authorities often orchestrate massive cover ups and/or blame the girls, saying that it was all consensual. There is no outrage to speak of.

Till recently, the girl victims suffered in silence and tried to get on with their lives. Nowadays they are coming forward and often suing the college authorities for laxity, indifference and cover ups. It is not often that they succeed. And even when they get to court and secure a conviction, the punishments are often very minimal, like the very recent case of a Stanford swimming champion who just 6 months for this offence!

Well, I have had enough of this topic by now, and in any case my point of view on l'affaire Durga is more than clear!

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: hemakeerti

Shyamala aunty,

There were many gang rxxe cases before Nirbhya one but why did the nation stand up only against it. Why're we dormant till then? Because its the brutality of the incident that hit our hearts hard and made us raise our voice.

In similar lines, for the Parnagarihs, Heera, or Mahendar to get the vigor to stand against the atrocity of Khalil/Shehzade/Mughals, the preceding incident should be as barbarous and hard hitting as possible. Had it been any normal death, I doubt the Parnagarihs would stand longer with their rage and eventually they'd persuade Heera to tone down

My thoughts 😊