My review of Bride and Prejudice

I met Jan at the Printer's Row Book Fair and she asked me if I had seen Bride and Prejudice. When I said yes, she inquired what I had thought about the movie. I told her that I had love it and had had fun watching it. She asked me then if I would write a review to coincide with the release of the DVD of B&P for her website. Jan and her husband Rich have Films42 which is a site that gives guidance on films for busy couple. It's a great place to go if one wants to avoid doing all the research in search of a good movie watching experience. There are reviews and suggestions on an array of mainstream and alternate films on the site including Jan's interview with prominant film makers such as Mira Nair and Gurindha Chadha.

This is my first publication in a very long time - electronic or print apart from this blog, ofcourse!

So Enjoy!

http://www.films42.com/chats/gurinder_chadha.asp#2

Ellen Swallow, who?

When I was growing up in Jaffna in the 70s a lot of young women studied home science. Most of Jaffna being conservative still, home science was probably an acceptable skill to acquire while the girls waited after grade 10 or 12 to get married. It does sound pretty strange when I put it like that. But unlike middle class Indians in Chennai, middle class families in Jaffna probably educated their girls only half of the time beyond the mandatory classes of grade 10 or SSC as they called it at that time. The exception to this almost always were the children of teachers. Most teachers wanted their children to atleast have a bachelors degree, even if it required sending girls to India, across the waters. My grand parents were such people, whose ambition was upward mobility for their children through education. Sounds a bit like the American Dream, heh?

Anyway, it was common in the 70s and early 80s to find young women waiting for marriage attending home science classes. I was appalled to find the same scenario in one of the homes I visited in my recent trip to Colombo last June. There were two young women in their late 20s, in this particular household, waiting for marriage. Home science has been replaced lately by accounting classes. The women sat around, keeping house, sometimes going for classes without any goal or ambition for themselves except to get married to someone. Even that someone would be chosen by their parents. So in my mind home science, like they called it then, was inextricably linked with waiting, waiting, waiting for marriage.

So it was a surprise to chance upon the the name of Ellen Swallow in last Sunday's New York Times, crediting here with inventing home economics aka home science. The piece itself was not about Ellen Swallow (1841-1911) but it peaked my interest. Was she also one of those who was waiting, waiting........What I learned was that she was the first female chemist of the 19th century. She was born into a poor New England family who thought education was important. She saved enough money by teaching and cleaning houses to get in to Vasser and graduated after two years. After unsuccessful attempts to secure a job as a chemist she was admitted to MIT, the first female student in America to be accepted to a scientific school, to study chemistry.

She earned a second bachelors as well as a masters from Vasser for her thesis on the chemical analysis of an iron ore. She was also the first to complete a doctoral program at MIT, but the school rescinded the prize as MIT did not want such an honor to go to a woman first. She married Robert Hallowell Richards, chairman of the mining engineering department at MIT and supported women's scientific education in MIT. Through her efforts the Women's Laboratory was established, where she taught as an instructor without pay. When the laboratory for sanitary Chemistry was opened at MIT, she worked their as an instructor. The work she did on Massachusetts water bodies was instrumental in bringing about the national water quality standards and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant.

The chemheritage,org website says this of her contribution to home economics "From her days at the Women's Laboratory, Richards was very concerned to apply scientific principles to domestic topics—good nutrition, pure foods, proper clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient practices that would allow women more time for pursuits other than cooking and cleaning. In 1882 she published The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning: A Manual for House-keepers. By setting up model kitchens open to the public, establishing programs of study, and organizing conferences, Richards campaigned tirelessly for the new discipline of home economics. Growing out of several summer conferences held at Lake Placid, New York, the American Home Economics Association was formed in 1908 with Richards as its first president". She also believed that the environment was a major factor in the quality of life and also used the term ecology widely.

Sigh.....So much for waiting..............

http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/richards.html

http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/hnec/esr.html

Single in Japan, will be happy

A newspaper in Japan reports that seven out of ten unmarried Japanese women believe they can be happy being single. This figure has risen 10% from the last poll in 2003. Even though the percentage that believes they could be happy by themselves drops from 73% for those in their 20s to 66% for those in their 30s to 58% to those in their 40s, it is still a significant portion of the population. Even more amazing is that 67% of single men believe that women could be happy being single.

As a single woman in my 30s I am always encountering women of all ages who are attached or married. Those who are single carry it like a burden. Even those who have a pretty good life and are independent economically yearn to be attached. The society we live in places such importance on being married that often times being single is akin to being an outcast. Social events are structured for the couple. One young woman who worked for me told me that she cannot eat out be herself. Having been by myself for almost ten years, that startled me. Societal conditioning plays a big role in how we behave. When we are brought up in families and societies that elevates marriage to a more desirable state of being, we tend to place a lot of our self worth in being able to get married to someone.

Being single by choice is still a novel concept. I find it hard to explain it to many of my acquaintances and friends. As I move steadily towards middle age, some people have given up. After all, in their mind marriage only happens to young, virginal girls, not to brusque independent women. Oh, the stereo types we confront in life! That's what makes it interesting to live, sometimes.

Back After Two Weeks

My absence from the site for the past two weeks had nothing to do with being busy as most people would assume. Rather my life is filled with time, time and more time. I would put it rather as a time of introspection and rejuvenation. The past few months have been a hiatus for me. A time to reflect and chart my course for the next few years. This sort of reflection often leaves one quite anti social. I have not been speaking or have been in touch with a lot of my relatives and friends. Some understand, some don't. In the daily chatter that is life, some poeple don't appreciate, let alone know of what it is to be solitary, to enjoy solitude, one's own company. For those who don't understand, I say, stop bugging me and get a life!

Are you a traitor if you don't fly the flag - Conclusion

A year after, on the day of the attack, the company shut down machines in all the plants for ten minutes starting at the time when the first plane hit the North Tower. In memory of the event stickers of Old glory were passed around to every employee. I was sitting in an office with my friend Jeff at that time. “Aren’t you going to wear the flag on your ID badge?” Jeff asked me as he peeled the backing off his sticker. “No” I said. Jeff being a reasonable person wanted to know why. “I don’t like such display of patriotism, I believe in action instead.” I said. “Would you go tonight to a town hall meeting on preventing terrorism and become actively involved in a committee that works on securing our communities or would you be too busy with your life to be involved?” I asked Jeff. Jeff agreed that he probably would not give of his time for something like that, but would pin a flag on to his badge because it didn’t require him to do much, didn’t require him to sacrifice much and would not alter his lifestyle in any significant way. I nodded, fully understanding what he meant. Apart from the military families, I did not see much of an altering of the way of life in Middle America due to the calamity endured by the nation. Prejudices came to the forefront but it also gave a chance for those who liked to patronize to spring into action. One of the General Managers confided in me that she had made sure that everyone who worked with foreign employees like me were informed to be mindful of their actions towards us or else face disciplinary action.

But what I observed was, that for most of the blue collar employees who were mostly gun carrying right wingers I had known over the previous five years, the event didn’t change their perspective of me. I had earned their trust and respect and that was that. The questions and snide comments came from the least unexpected quarters like Sue, who had known me personally for three years, from the members of the so-called educated middle class. These incidents both affirmed my faith in humanity as well as made me question it, a funny feeling which was not strange in those surreal days of the Fall of 2001. The media called it the “the new normal” and we all had to adapt to it whether we liked it or not.