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#and the way they are because of bengali culture
akajustmerry · 23 days
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What's your opinion on Wes Anderson's movies and how he uses orientialism?
there are people far more more knowledgeable on this topic than me (here and here are articles on this written by Asian critics) so take anything i say about it with a grain of salt! I do love Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr Fox and the Life Aquatic because they inspired me loads as a writer growing up. I think that Wes Anderson has somewhat acknowledged the influence of South Asian cinema on his work, like when he dedicated Darjeeling Limited to Bengali director Satyajit Ray, BUT it doesn't really excuse his orientalism, racism and appropriation of various Asian aesthetics in films like Isle of Dogs, grand Budapest hotel, and The Life of Henry Sugar. It's clear he views non white cultures as merely another ingredient he can add to his films to make them more quirky. I haven't seen all his films, but I was uncomfortable at the way he framed characters of colour in gbh and the french dispatch. There's rarely, if ever, any real thought to the roles he casts people of colour in and they're mostly treated as accessories to white characters. That being said, I still admire his craft and think his films are strongest when he remembers how his stylising enhances story, rather than aestheticising for its own sake. I've even written an article about how much I hate people bastardising his style on TikTok because it's such a vain treatment of his work. But ultimately I do take issue with the racism and orientalism in his filmography, and think he serves as a reminder that being influenced by filmmakers of colour isn't a get out of racism free card and I think his films are strongest when they're just about sad sily white people.
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nicolos · 8 months
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rocky aur rani thoughts
it wasn't at all what i expected actually? like I'm not sure what I expected but it wasn't that
rani chatterjee let me raid your wardrobe
they really just promoted tum kya mile and jhumka because there were like no other really memorable songs--
I sound a bit mean but I had a blast, I laughed a lot, did tear up at least once, and didn't want to pull up 2048 at any time during the film
(spoilers under the cut)
the film had some real 2011 style feminism moments mixed in with more genuine things? the interview at the start made me want to die but there were some almost - ALMOST - coherent points in there
bollywood is not the place to make statements about fat shaming etc etc but there was almost smth valid in seeing any jokes about what whatshername ate clearly coming from ...people were not supposed to like?
rocky and rani were actually quite sweet, despite the ...extraness
i think the film kind of rolled over this as rocky was supposed to be wealthy, but there's a great deal of elitism in the sort of attitude Rani and her family have towards Rocky. It makes me wonder what this film would be if he didn't ... colour coordinate his cars to his clothes and live in a replica whitehouse. like on one hand it's arguably his wealth that makes him able to be the way he is, but on the other hand, the traditional/modern divide that they were showing is typically also a class divide. there's no reason for rockys english to not be good as he is now - and nothing apart from personal taste and "traditionalism" for them to critique, even though rocky isn't actually that traditional in comparison to his family, and even if he was, they - esp at the start - didn't know that
on the other hand I don't know a lot of Bengali people or a lot of Punjabi people so it may just be like a culture shock thing they're going for. idk. i understand it, i just think it's a little bit of a miss for a genuine criticism on their laughing at him
the grandparents element was funny lmao. like what's going on THERE. but it was almost kind of sweet, too, the way they just ...liked spending time together I guess
keh diya na... bas keh diya
^ half the cinema actually echoed this line with her. icons only
the film did pretty often pit men against men and women against women. this worked! when alia or her mom were yelling at men... this worked a little bit less? idk. i think sometimes it ends up feeling a bit mouthpiecey, and some of it was weirdly phrased and ...strongly delivered, to say the least. i understand that they're both from an environment in which they feel safe voicing their opinion, but I was nonetheless going - would someone actually say that? so openly? so maybe that's on me
everything about the alias dad storyline was just chefs kiss
i do think rockys relationship w his mom and sister needed a bit of work for the big fight scene to work. it sounds weird to say since so much of the film was abt the randhawas but ranveers mom's dynamics w everyone were a bit underdone
the guy playing young granddad was so hot. hotter than the real actor actually was back then tbh
all I could think during the ranveer dance routine was how much time did it take him to learn that dbdndndjdjf but that was excellent
idk. i think in some senses the scale of the movie interfered with its effectiveness, but I don't want it to be any smaller in the ayushmann khurana sense, if that...makes sense? idk. it did feel very kjo production, and I like that about it
tum kya mileeeee,,,, tum kya mileeeee,,,, hum na rahe hummmmm,,,, tum kya mileeeeee
ranis "i am speaking" was hot though the whole of that non-confrontation made me want to yell, though maybe because it was happening in public
SPEAKING OF when she crashes her car into his in the middle of a four lane road and then they just fucking stand there and talk and kiss for 10 minutes and all the other cars just go around....lmaoooooooo
still think the more obvious solution was for them both to move out of their family homes but ok
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littlestpersimmon · 2 years
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Anyway. When ur a poc and you study history, you need like, a stronger gut to certain things in order to be taken seriously by both white peers and people in general, like you can't be upset about things that happen hundreds of years ago because it happened hundreds of years ago;
Like you read things about how missionaries will refer to your old folk as "unpolished people" and "savages" and "heathens" and treat those things as factual while indigenous history is simply fantastical stories, you have to consume things through a western lens to be seen as credible.
You'll read things like. Bengal is home to the poorest areas in India and you know at the back of your mind that Bengali ppl were taken from their homes to be slaves at tea plantations in Assam.
You'll read stuff about how poor regions like Ghana is, how its drowning in plastic, when West Africa is home to robusta, from which 40% of the entire world's coffee is derived from. I don't need to tell you guys what Nestlé did to get its hands on West African Coffee.
You'll go online and see Capitalism talked about completely divorced from colonialism, which is its heart and main driving force.
You have to leave your books and turn around and have to be patient and kind and try to live in the modern world without looking back at the already toppled lines of dominoes that are still continuing to fall and you can't really say anything because then you'll be "out of touch"... but then it's kinda silly to view capitalism as divorced from colonialism when you're historically informed. From the titans like oil and gas, to things like mangoes, bananas. It's still colonialism. You'll see large salt flats tended to by farmers in India in Indian soil and none of it is owned by the families tending to it for generations and generations. You make jokes about how everything is "made in China" before realizing 150 million people account for sweatshops in China. You'll see filipinos and Hawaiians joke about how "spam is hawaiian/filipino culture" without knowing that filipinos loved spam because for a while, it was the only rations that the US soldiers were giving to filipino people during the American occupation.
These are all necessary evils that you have to interact with in order to be a part of society, but also I wonder if we are to ever escape the murder machine and it's billions of cogs if we just continue to accept that the only way to be a part of human society is to just, continue to the cycle with our eyes closed.
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notetaeker · 5 months
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I saw someone being like ‘Bangladesh doesn’t have any of its own culture since it only existed starting 1971… it’s all just indian culture’ I don’t know if ppl understand this but ‘countries’ the way we see them now are a recent modern thing.
Like not sure if you know but there was a time before nation-states. Just because someone’s independence is declared on a specific year doesn’t millions of people just suddenly spawn there 💀Bengali is an ethnic group of ppl who live on the subcontinent literally look it up. like we have a complete different language too
Like in your mind, do only white people get to have different cultures despite each country being small and 5 ft away from each other in Europe. India is made up of many ethnic groups that would prob not even BE a giant country together if it wasn’t for the way things turned out because of the British.
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peonycats · 5 months
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(might become a block of text as i write sorry) do you have any thoughts on how bengal's personification(s)...work ? i am bengali but it's always confused me how to go about it. was there only one bengal before the partition ? would west bengal and bangladesh have a personification only after it ? i feel weird making bengal (if there was one before what we have currently, which... there's gotta be right ??) "into" west bengal or bangladesh cuz then i feel as though there's a very weird and at least somewhat offensive connotation on which one's "more/truly bengali" to put it lightly, ya know ?? but i can't see either of them really being born in the contemporary era cuz bengal's history is so ancient and vast ?? it confuses me sm i know i should probably just ask other bengalis but the ones ik irl don't really have strong views on this and i don't know any bangladeshis i can realistically ask this to 😭😭😭 im sorry if this has become an incoherent block of text
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HEAVY DISCLAIMER THAT I AM NOT BENGALI OR SOUTH ASIAN!!
Tbh, don't worry about sending in a big block of text, I think this is an scenario/question worth considering. Basically, there are a number of ways you can go about personifying Bengal/Bengali nations, and each of them have their own issue, each of which have their own pros and cons, if my understanding is correct-
There was one original Bengal personification that was Hindu, but around the time that Islam reached Bengal and Bengalis began to convert, another Bengal personification arose to specifically represent Muslim Bengalis.
There was one original Bengal personification that began as Hindu and eventually converted to Islam, going on to become the personification of Bangladesh. No other separate personification arose to represent West Bengal/Bengali Hindus because this original personification still represents them.
There was one original Bengal personification that began as Hindu and eventually converted to Islam, going on to become the personification of Bangladesh. Meanwhile, another Bengal personification later arose to represent West Bengal/Bengali Hindus around the time of British imperialism and/or the Partition.
APPROACH 1
Pros + Reflects the current cultural division between Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis
Cons - Lowkey justifies the Partition of the subcontinent by implying there were already personifications split on religious lines predating British colonialism
APPROACH 2
Pros + Reaffirms the artificiality of the Partition by there only being one Bengal personification representing all Bengalis regardless of religion
Cons - Does not accurately reflect the irl cultural divide between Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis and the difference in how they view themselves
APPROACH 3
Pros + Reaffirms the artificiality of the Partition by there only being one original Bengal personification representing all Bengalis regardless of religion
Cons - By making the personification of West Bengal so comparatively young, this both inaccurately reflects the age of the Hindu Bengali community vs the Muslim Bengali community, as well as have subtle implications about which community is more "authentic and legitimate" based on this difference in age
Now, choosing one of these approaches will definitely depend a lot on what exactly you're personifying and the historical-geopolitical context at hand, as well as what messages you're not afraid to convey. For example, I personify Afghanistan as representing both Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan from talking to actual Pashtuns and how they view the border between them, as well as communicating the artificiality of the border. I think it's useful to recognize that the entire process of personifying a nation is basically mapping things like, a nation's ethnogenesis, rise to power, golden age, and eventual decline and destruction to human life events, is always imperfect and sometimes, the allegory falls apart; the Partition is probably one of the best examples of this.
As for how I would go about personifying Bengal? I would probably for a variation of Approach 1, where instead of there being multiple Bengali personifications split on the basis of religion, there would be multiple Bengali personifications split on the basis of regional and cultural differences. (Correct me if I'm wrong, as I am an outsider to this, but there are sub-groups and regional differences in language and culture even within Bengal, right?) Because of there being multiple Bengali personifications, some of them would be Muslim, some of them would be Hindu, and by the time of Partition, the personifications representing the lands of modern day Bangladesh and/or Muslim Bengali communities would move to join/represent the nation of Bangladesh while those representing Hindu Bengali communities would join India. This approach still has its issues, and may still validate/justify the Partition in the eyes of some people, but I go for it because it fulfill my most important conditions-
Doesn't make any of the Bengal personifications outrageously young
The Bengal personifications are personified based on regional and cultural divides that predate colonialism and imperialism
Them having to consciously choose sides post-independence and having to separate from one another accurately reflects the artificiality of the Partition and how it split up communities.
That's just my take, ofc, as a non Bengali and as someone who hasn't done as much research into the region as I'd like to, feel free to disagree and choose whatever approach feels most accurate according to you and your research!!
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mirambles · 7 months
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Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani - An honest review
I watched Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahaani because everyone I know on social media and few close folks in my real life said it was very entertaining - funny, progressive, feminist , and it showed gender equality.
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So I was taken aback, because the general sentiment for KJo movies should be ‘It’s so shit, but I love it’ - that is a sentiment I can live with because we all have our guilty pleasures.
KJo has his audience who love the shit he pulls off every time he ‘directs’ a film with toxic masculinity, regressive female leads , justifying infidelity (always the answer to unhappy marriages) , glorifying Indian culture, where he adds 30 mins of melodrama and lectures to make the characters redeem themselves. Kjo’s movies are as lame as they can be, but people love them. I get it - ‘this shit is so bad, it’s so good’ category of films. Guilty pleasures are exactly this!
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So sell me his new offering in exactly this manner - but all reviews and social media comments were glowing words of praise of how he has addressed today’s issues and it’s a progressive film. Are people suffering from amnesia or have they not watched better Bollywood films? Because I have a whole list of films you should watch that actually deal with ‘progressive’ mindsets - way before Kjo’s time!
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Rani is a feminist. A FL as feisty news anchor who gives a 5 min lecture on men’s gaze, objectification of women and rape culture, but does an absolute U-turn 5 mins later by objectifying a handsome man in front of her. This is gender equality. Tit for Tat.
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Wearing open back blouses to work is sign of new age feminism (Will I get trolled for sounding old school - has KJo ever stepped inside a corporate workspace - who dresses like Rani does?) What’s next? Women CEOs wearing bikinis? And why not get all men to dress like Rocky Randhawa - that would be peak gender equality in dress code at workplace.
Infidelity is the answer to all unhappy marriages. Remember KANK? Yes, let’s repeat that here, but let’s twist it into unrequited love between the senior citizens. Then add memory loss and illness excuse to get the 80yr old grandpa smooch his 75yr old ex-lover in front of his wife and entire family. The issue is not old age love, age is never a restriction to fall in love, the issue here is infidelity. But if this isn’t cringe enough, let’s completely destroy the most beautiful romantic number in Bollywood by playing it in the background to immortalise infidelity and later lust under the garb of love.
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Let’s get back to our feminism torch bearer Rani, who has now jumped from knowing the guy for two meetings to lusting over him. She is honest with herself (not with Rocky mind you, because at no point have they had any conversation about themselves) that she is in it purely for the physical attraction, it’s just a fling for her. She is an elitist , feminist, Colombian grad, Bengali Girl (who has a terrible Bengali accent) and the crude, can’t speak English well, Gucci/Fendi wearing, Ferrari driving, protein shake drinking, loud Punjabi boy doesn’t match up to her standards. Kjo’s new level of feminism - make women pull the exact shit on men that men have put women through for decades. Tit for Tat! Gender Equality.
Btw at this point I still don’t know why Rocky loves Rani - love at first sight is always about the looks and physical attraction, so convince me why he loves her - because isn’t he this walking-talking green flag just by being understanding of his grandpa’s feelings and calling out Rani checking him out. A walking green flag who gets his grandpa’s ex-lover and his grandpa together to help his grandpa get better - because love is the cure for all illnesses. All doctors and medical researchers have been wasting their time on getting degrees and super specialisations - please enter Kjo’s school of love.
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So now Rani realises she is in love - when and why and what changed her feelings from lust to love - I do not know. She drives on a 4-lane highway in the opposite direction - woman should have died there for her reckless driving, but she lives to propose to Rocky on a f&*king Highway! Bollywood I love you for pulling off this shit.
This is supposed to be the pivotal point in their relationship where she professes her love to him, going down on one knee (because hey you see role reversal - she is the feminist, the alpha female) and telling Rocky everything that HE IS NOT , listing her resume and her exes’. Therefore implying he doesn’t deserve her, but she is taking the high road and still falling for him. All the reasons she lists that she loves about him are actually about his physical aspects = Lust. She doesn’t list one meaningful quality that she actually ‘loves’ about him.
It is at this point that I gave up on the film, because after this RRKPK became a collation of scenes dedicated to social media trending topics:
1. Women burdened with household work
2. Women not liberated enough to pursue their dreams
3. Women being fat shamed
4. Cancel culture
5. Men being shamed for pursuing classical dancing (KJo research FFS - 50% of India’s top kathak dancers are males right from 1940s! )
Each topic got 1-2 scenes, tweets converted to preachy dialogues uttered by our ‘feminist’ queen and zero closures or character growth.
The only thing that works in this movie - is Ranveer , not his character, but him! He is effortless in this role, his comic timing is superb, needs some work on emotions.
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Alia is a shadow of her awesome self on screen post her marriage to Ranbir. It hurts to say this, cause I have loved her in all her movies except SOTY.
Can people age gracefully, I couldn’t bear to look at Shabana Azmi and Jaya B - former was gorgeous as hell in her younger days, now is swollen with all the Botox fillers! Jaya has forgotten to act completely. Dharmendra should not even be acting anymore.
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What was the point of rest of the cast? Only Alia’s dad was a decent act.
The one thing I absolutely love in KJo movies is the music and songs! These were crap too. What Jhumka? Because ruining all the songs from ‘The Golden’ decade of Bollywood was not enough, so they made a terrible mashup of Badtameez Dil & Jhumka Gira Re and killed both the songs in one go! Takes some skill doing this - well done!
Why this long rant if I disliked the movie so much, that too KJo movies? I wouldn’t have written one, if the reviews and comments were honest about the movie being average, typical entertainment; but the moment people praised it to nth level of being socially relevant with feminist heroine and gender equality - they deserved to be called out for their shallow thought process thinking that KJo actually cares about any of this stuff.
Worst people think this is ‘quintessential’ Bollywood. Please watch better films - like Amitabh’s roaring 70s, the romance films of 90s, the fun comedies, the glorious slice of life films from Hrishida, the Yash Chopra multistarrers - that’s quintessential, genuine, charm of Bollywood.
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Lastly before I wrap this up - RRKPK when literally translated is Love Story of Rocky and Rani. I spent 2.5 hours on this shit show and I still don’t know the answer to why and how they fell in love! They didn’t have one decent conversation about themselves! The latter half is about them wooing their families. The film should have been aptly titled ‘Randhawa and Chatterjee Ki Prem Kahaani’ - It’s all about loving your family - K3G Part 2!
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cult-of-the-eye · 6 months
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Bengali Jonathan Sims Head canons:
Asks for black tea at work to keep up appearances but in reality would KILL for some good chai
(Martin is FLOORED at the first time he drinks Jon's chai. He's like I've literally been making the black tea for you all this time and you could do this???? And Jon's like ...well I still like your tea...Martin sulks...)
Owns a lungi. Has never worn it. Will never wear it (cut to season 5 Jon who is far too tired to dress up and one day he wears the lungi and then he finds a long skirt and he's like ...hmmm.)
Was made to learn how to sing rabindra sangeet and play harmonium but has long since forgotten. He has a smooth, deep voice and occasionally listens to some Bengali classical music to calm himself down but he doesn't usually sing (Martin finds this out one evening when he hears Jon humming to himself while cooking)
HE MAKES THE BEST BIRYANI. This is a rare Jon occurrence and would probably only happen if he wasn't this Stressed. In this timeline, when he remembers to cook, he'll batch cook plain kitchdi or like make daal sandwiches and hope it works for the week. But in a different timeline - cue archival dinner parties where everyone brings something and he comes with WAY TOO MUCH FOOD because a Bengali party means cooking for 200 people
AU where Jon brings Martin to a cultural event just to spite everyone's homophobic asses and maybe spark wonder in some children. He takes extra joy in the fact that Martin is half-Indian so he introduces the idea of an Indian partner before smacking across the face with the fact that he's Not A Girl.
Speaks Bangla atrociously. He would love to flex his knowledge of another language because it's academic and suggests that he can bitch about you behind your back but does not in fear of being asked to speak it and then being laughed out. Sometimes he will say a few words to himself just to test that old muscle and is fairly pleased at what he can remember. Eye!Jon can speak Bangla perfectly. He refuses to speak it.
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imab00kwh0r3 · 1 year
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babel, and why i love it (SPOILERS!!!!)
ok im terribly late to reading it, for its not sold in many places where i live, so i found the pdf luckily.
babel is a book about colonialism and racism and oppression, it is about revolution and battling your inner conscience (in my opinion at least, i'll elaborate later). it tells the story of robin swift coming to the prestigious royal institute of translation or better known as babel, where during his yrs there he discovers that the glamourous oxford university isnt such a righteous place. his loyalty is tested, blood is shed and tears fall which leads up to a revolution to stop an incoming war.
there are many reviews regarding how its racist to white ppl (which is astounding to even think about) and that its not accurate as women werent allowed to go to university in the 1830s but im not going to talk about that, that much. i wanted to speak on the actual translation/language aspect of it.
throughout the book, translation and language r some of the main themes (obviously) but the impact it has on the people, both in the book and irl is smth i havent seen anyone mention. language isnt just a form of communication but it is part of our culture, it is part of our identity, and during colonial times many languages suffered, they were being erased as they were "barbaric" or "strange" they were banned and anyone who spoke them was punished like in victoires chapter. robin, ramy and victoire all can barely speak their native languages, robin has almost fogotten cantonese, ramy has very basic knowledge of bengali and victoire is never given a chance or is permitted to speak in haitian creole. they lost one of the main things that connects them to their motherland, they only have their appearance left. they will never be able to talk to their ppl properly.
victoire was frustrated that haitian creole isnt recognised as a proper language like how in their exams, her match-pair wouldnt be counted properly as haitian creole wouldnt be used much hence its "useless" in the eyes of prof. leblanc. she was beaten when she would speak haitian croele in her house in france. when she first came to babel she was correcting herself from "kreyol" to "haitian creole" and was unsure if she could even study it.
robin realised that prof.lovell actually knew more than him about his own language, his mother tongue. he could barely stand being back in canton and he felt isolated in a way as everything changed and was new and so was the language even though he was born hearing and speaking it.
not much is talked about this with ramy except that he barely knows bengali, even though hes fluent in english, latin, greek, arabic, persian and urdu. he knows 6 languages and in his chapter he is sed to "absorb languages like a sponge" and that he recited poems or writing in other languages he didnt know perfectly, even down to tone, only after having it read to him once but he barely knows his mother tongue.
this relates to modern times as many languages of previously colonised countries rely on english words like in india u will barely hear the word pathshala, instead u will hear school. in mauritian creole when people speak they will slip in english words, like "netwai whiteboard la" which means clean the whiteboard.
we dont know our language fully because of the erasure of them.
theres also 1st gen immigrant children where their mother tongue is smth they barely hear or they forgot after a while, they feel so incredibly disconnected once they realise. this is how robin is and this is how i am too, i was born in europe, then at 7 i moved to england and now im somewhere entirely different, i dont remember my mother tongue, i dont dream in it. which ultimately makes u lose ur voice in a metaphorical way.
u cant speak because u dont know how.
another important thing is the purposeful mistranslations and burning of books, thats not fully discussed in the book although it would have been a nice touch. colonisers purposefully mistranslated things to control the masses because when they burnt our books, they burnt our language, knowledge and people. and the exploitation of our languages like the statue at univ of william jones sitting at desk and 3 hindu sages on the floor infront of him exists, and how missionaries were taught our languages to help in conversion.
now onto the 1830s inaccuracies and racism:
its the fucking 1830s do u think white ppl were nice to poc at this time, like slavery just ended in the eyes of the law for britain but still continued in other places like america. reverse racism doesnt exist, white ppl can be prejudiced against but u lot r not oppressed and never will be, u lot wont be killed for being white, so stop crying. and about the women wouldnt be at university in the 1830s thing its fiction, r.f. kuang took some liberties.
and that is all i have to say, dont start an argument, anyways babel is great, go read it!!
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heaven4lostgirls · 1 year
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could you please write one with James or Remus or sirius and Indian specifically Bengali reader. Fluff or angst. Friends to lovers????
love saves all
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james potter x indian!fem!reader
summary: james has been in love with you forever, he can’t stand to see you with someone else
warnings: fluff, minor mentions of injuries
a/n: hi lover! thank you for the request, i’m not bengali and i didn’t want to write something that could possibly offend the bengali community however i did try and incorporate indian culture because i’m tamil (telegu) so i hope you enjoy this! if you don’t let me know 💗
the sun shone down on your brown skin as you made your way through the forbidden forest after one of remus’ transformations. you could feel the fatigue hitting you now and you knew that you needed a nap before even attempting to go to any of your classes.
you knew you would be excused considering minnie and dumbledore both knew of remus’ transformations and that you guys would help, however they were unaware of you all becoming illegal animagi.
as you watched sirius and james make their way to the hospital wing where they laid moony on one of the free beds you took a damp washcloth and softly ran it over remus’ new scars over his face.
he softly winced and for each wince you muttered a small apology.
“if i knew i’d have y/n/n doting on me when i got hurt maybe i’d get hurt more often” sirius teased and you couldn’t help but smile before flicking his forehead.
“if you got hurt, i’d let you bleed out padfoot” you smiled sweetly at him and you could hear james snort to the left of you.
once madam pomfrey had come to help remus you all made your way to the boys dorms where you decided to lay down for a bit.
“y/n, do you want to come lay down with me?” you heard sirius ask before a loud oomph was heard as he fell of his bed or more correctly speaking he was pushed by a certain raven haired boy with glasses.
“i’ll come lay down in a minute, i’m going back to my dorm to do some prayers for rem” you state, getting up before making your way to the door.
you hear hurried footsteps behind you and you turn around to face a sheepish looking james.
“can i come with you?” he mutters before rubbing the back of his neck.
“of course you can jamie”
you both walk hand in hand to your dorm where you take off your shoes outside and kneel in front of your shiva statue.
you light your lamp and relight some agarbatti that had finished through the night.
you feel james kneel next to you and you look at him with a smile. he looks confused in a sort of cute puppy way.
you show him the correct motions and pray with him before putting ash on his forehead.
you sit in silence for a few moments before you peek open an eye to look at him.
he looks so serene, happy and at peace in front you of you that you can’t help but smile.
he cracks open one of his eyes to shoot you a smile before motioning his head forward telling you to pay attention
you muffle a laugh before you finish off your prayer and make your way back to the dorm before cleaning up.
as you both lay down in james’ bed after sirius had gotten bored of teasing you two, you draw circles on his chest and you can feel him smile down at you.
“hey y/n/n? what do you thinks gonna happen to us in the future?” he asks albeit curious to what your answer would be.
“my parents are looking for potential suitors i guess, it’s odd for me to be of age and not be
betrothed to someone already, i guess hogwarts could only buy me so much time”
“betrothed? you mean engaged?”
you hum and you can feel him tense under you, you weren’t particularly happy about the circumstances either but there was only little you could do against your parents.
“w-what if we got married?” james fleamont potter never stuttered. especially when talking to girls.
“james you know that can’t happen, what about lily? you’ve been chasing her for years..”
you feel him shift so he’s sitting up and he lifts your face to face his.
“lily was always a distraction for me y/n, i never thought you would like me - i still don’t think you do- but i won’t be able to live with myself if i let you get married to someone else without knowing how i feel about you”
your eyes well with tears and you can feel your heart thudding against your rib cage.
“you like me?”
he smiles almost amused by your lack of composure before his eyes fill with love and affection.
“like? i’ve been in love with you since the day we met y/n”
you can’t contain yourself for some reason and as tears escape your eyes you slowly lift your hand to james’ face and place your lips on his.
“i have been waiting for you to say that since 5th year james.”
“oh-“ he flushes in embarrassment.
“okay okay we get it, you two love each other BUT FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN PLEASE GO TO SLEEP ITS 6AM”
you and james snicker to yourselves as you go back to cuddling as sirius’ sleepy snored fill the room once again.
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Part 4: A Symbol of Love
Pairing: Tysess x Ophelia (OFC) Fandom: Star Trek Prodigy Words: 5.3K Summary: Ophelia has to learn something more about the culture of her significant other as well... A/N: Huge credit for this Part goes to @indignantlemur who is the creator of the "ruuphviik neek" ( andorian courtship rings) that are featured in their magnificant fanfiction "Emigre" ( which you all should totally read, because they put a lot of work into creating not only the story and the characters but also a whole culture with traditions for Andorians). Thank you again for allowing me to use this, I really hope that this part does not dissapoint your expectations.
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Hectically, Ophelia threw on her beige coat, tucked the phone under her ear, and glancing at the clock, uttered a Klingon curse taught to her by a Klingon on a space station, which instantly earned her a scolding from her mother, who was on the other end of the line. "Ophelia Celeste Zubira. Don't put words like that in your mouth. Your father and I raised you better than that." Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Mum, you don't even know what I said. You speak English and Spanish. Not Klingon." All at once she noticed that the bags, which she wanted to take with her, were no longer beside the door. Panicked, she snapped her eyes open.
"I speak Bengalis too." Sheyla Zuberi sounded offended, however Ophelia didn't have time to worry about that right now as her evening, if she didn't find the bags, would be ruined. "Don't take offence, Mum, but your Bengalis isn't what it used to be either." Ophelia was too busy searching behind the giant potted plant Noum had once given her as a joke and loved to pay much attention to her mother's snapping. "Listen, Mum, I love you, but my boyfriend and I were going to cook together today and I think I've lost the ingredients and I have to be there in fifteen minutes.
Silence reigned for a moment and Ophelia paused in her search. Her mother was never quiet. Never. "Mum? Are you still there?" "You have a boyfriend? Un novio?" Rolling her eyes she continued her search. Of course that was the only part that mattered. "Yes, Mum, as unbelievable as it is I have a boyfriend."
This statement was enough to bombard her with questions, however Ophelia stopped her half way, inwardly wincing at the disrespect shown to her mother. " His name is Tysess, he is the first officer of the ship I serve on, he is sweet, lovable, confident and yes he loves me, I know that. We have been together for almost five months and I am really late. I'll call you when I arrive in Barranquilla, love you." Without letting her get a word in edgewise, knowing full well that she would regret it when she returned home, she hung up and threw the phone on the sofa before hurrying to the kitchen.
A load fell from her mind and she breathed a sigh of relief when she found the two bags on the small kitchen counter of her borrowed quarters. Hastily, she hurried over and took one last look inside to make sure everything was there before dashing for the door and making her way away from the Starfleet compound, making it to the Andorian neighbourhood.
Over the years, many large cities had formed small neighbourhoods that were home to more non-humans than humans, and San Francisco, with Starfleet's headquarters at its heart, had the most neighbourhoods in all of America, especially in terms of Founder species.
Which did not mean that members of that species lived there exclusively, no. It was merely the case that mostly the inhabitants of other worlds, especially at the beginning, had come in batches and in groups and had accordingly settled together in one neighbourhood. Thus, over the centuries, several generations of non-humans had been born on Earth, who had rarely if ever seen their "home planet". In fact, Ophelia was good friends with a Denobulan family who had been living on Earth for almost two hundred years and that consisted of six generations now.
Tysess had settled in the Andorian district. He had explained to her that it was not because he wanted to live only among his own, but simply because there were shops and places there that had typical Andorian things like food that were otherwise hard to get and he just liked having everything close by. Moreover, the Andorian district was the closest to Starfleet headquarters, which allowed him to be there quickly in case of an emergency.
Ophelia personally did not live in San Francisco. She herself associated this city too much with work and study to live here in peace. Instead, she had bought a small flat in Seattle, which was her pride and joy.
However, since she had been newly promoted and was now partly responsible for the repairs of the USS Dauntless, she had expected so much work that it would have been too much trouble to always drive from Seattle to San Francisco, so she accepted Starfleet's offer of small quarters where she only ate and slept.
Tysess had offered her to stay with him, but he had seemed hesitant, which she could understand. They had only been together for five months and moving in together and living together was a step they had agreed on that was still too big. But that wouldn't stop them from having a date night.
When they had decided to give this relationship a try, they had promised each other that they would do their best to understand each other's culture and Tysess had done this, like everything else in his career and life, with excellence. While they had not had much time together due to the Protostar and its chaos, they had done their best.
Then, a few days ago, Tysess had gently taken her aside and asked her to spend an evening together. Ophelia would leave tomorrow and return to Colombia to visit her family. She had filled out the necessary forms regarding the Dauntless and now the repairs were in the hands of Starfleet engineers, so she wanted to give herself a few weeks rest. Tysess had to stay longer to work, otherwise she would have asked him to come along to introduce him to her family, so they had agreed to devote tonight to just each other.
In addition, Tysess had asked her to teach her something about her culture. Ophelia had been sceptical at first. Her parents were each from two different cultures, making her and her siblings children of four cultures, but in the end she had agreed to teach him about the culture that had been most prominent in her life: Colombia. Ophelia had sat down to pick out simple, yet typically Colombian, dishes from her childhood, which she now wanted to make and share with Tysess.
But as she flipped through her abuela's cookbooks, she had suddenly realised how little she actually knew about Andorian culture. However, she had to admit immediately afterwards that she had never really asked.
Many species felt that sharing their cultures was something very private. Tysess himself could be quite withdrawn and introverted from time to time. Which was not to say that he didn't trust her, no. In fact, Tysess had already confided so many private things to Ophelia that she probably knew more about him than anyone else.
And as much as she wanted to know more about Andorian culture, she would not press Tysess. She would be patient and wait until he was ready to talk to her about it. And until then, the only thing she could do was to introduce him to her cultures and customs and make him feel trusted and loved.
Five minutes later than agreed, she rang the doorbell, a little out of breath. The downstairs front door had already been open and Ophelia, already late, had seized the opportunity and slipped into the building, where she now stood in front of his flat door. Her gaze slid to her reflection, which was reflected in the window.
The black and loose blouse fit reasonably acceptably and the light-coloured trousers didn't look particularly dirty either. Ophelia had tied her loose hair back with a blue scarf. Tomorrow morning, before returning back home, she had an appointment with her hairdresser, who would braid her hair. Today she still had to cope with open hair, even though it didn't really bother her. Braids were just usually the easiest to work with.
The door opened and Ophelia's gaze was instantly focused on Tysess. He was wearing a grey jumper with wide puff sleeves and collar and some kind of black yoga pants, which he had explained to her were a typical piece of clothing on Andoria. He smiled slightly and stepped aside to let her in. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming."
Ophelia shook her head in amusement and pressed a kiss to his cheek as she passed before setting the bags down on the floor. "Forgive me, mi amor. My mother had called and I didn't want to cut her off right away. But come on, it was only five minutes. I've been much later before." Tysess stepped behind her and took her coat from her, hanging it on the coat rack. "Besides, I might have misplaced the bags of ingredients for today for a moment and panicked."
Tysess chuckled softly and lifted the bags easily, handing her a pair of slipper-like shoes. "Here, so you don't get cold feet." Ophelia had to smile in the face of his thoughtfulness and hurriedly exchanged the boots for the slippers before following him into the kitchen. His flat was pretty. It was kept simple and mostly painted in neutral tones, yet he had somehow managed to demand a touch of personality to it with little. However, Ophelia would not judge his style of decorating. She already considered it an honour that Tysess felt so comfortable around her that he let her invade her privacy so far. Admittedly, she had already been in his quarters on the Dauntless, but it had not felt so intimate.
In the kitchen, Tysess was already unpacking the bags and accordingly stood with his back to her and for a moment she simply allowed herself to look at him from behind. After all, she was his girlfriend, so she was allowed to do that. Besides, it was absolutely not her fault if Tysess' jumper had to stretch so impossibly over his shoulders, was it?
"I assume your family is fine," Tysess asked over his shoulder, and Ophelia reluctantly disengaged her gaze from his shoulder blades. "Everything's fine at home. My siblings are there too, though Julio had to leave his boyfriend, I still don't know his name, at home. Apparently he caught the Klingon flu. Don't ask me how though, I have no idea."
She heard Tysess laugh softly and a warm feeling spread through her. Of course, Ophelia didn't mind that Tysess was a little more controlled in things like showing emotion, and heavens she would never complain about him being in "first officer mode" (her term for when Tysess was in command and giving orders, looking very handsome), but those moments when he allowed himself to really laugh and relax made her heart swell. Metaphorically speaking.
"Don't laugh at me," she protested, playfully offended, crossing her arms in front of her chest. He turned, shook his head in amusement and stepped towards her to place his fingers under her chin and lift it slightly. "Would never do that, beloved."
Ophelia's knees went weak at the use of the nickname and then when he pressed his forehead against hers, it was over and she felt the blood rush to her face. "Stop being so damn charming," she grumbled, but wrapped her arms around him. "Stupid Andorian." " Adorable human." With that, Tysess let go of her and went back to the bags, where he immediately brought an opaque cake bell to light and turned to her with a questioning look on his face. "That's our dessert." Ophelia stepped towards him, took the cake bell from him and, at an approving nod from Tysess, placed it in the latter's fridge.
Said Andorian leaned back against the kitchen counter. "I thought we were going to cook together today." His expression looked serious, but she could hear the teasing in his voice, so she grinned cheekily at him. " That's quite all right, though the starter and main course will take up enough time as it is. Besides, I didn't want to bring several glasses of fruit soaked in rum and wine for the Torta Negra Colombiana as well." She patted his arm. "Don't worry, Tysess. You'll get to cooking." A smile spread across her face and she reached into the bag and pulled out two aprons. One yellow for herself and one purple for Tysess, who raised an eyebrow at the sight of it.
"Don't look like that," Ophelia scolded gently and put the apron on him, careful not to touch his antennae. " That's what it's for, to make sure you don't get dirty. Besides, purple suits you." With that, she grabbed the, now empty, bags and, promising to put them away later, hauled them to the floor before putting her hands on her hips and smiling happily at him. "So, are you ready to learn some of the Colombian cuisine?" He saluted in jest. "Yes, ma'am."
Tysess stood next to her and looked at the ingredients as if trying to figure out what they would make. "So," Ophelia brushed a strand of hair behind her ears. "I thought it would be good if we started with relatively simple things for now. I don't know how good a cook you are, or how often you've made human food, so I wanted to start with the most classic dishes of my childhood."
She looked up at him. Tysess didn't seem offended that she was suggesting he might not be able to cook, but actually looked curious. His antennae were pointing forward and swaying back and forth a little, which Ophelia believed was a good sign.
"For starters we have pandebonos. These are sort of little Colombian cheese buns. We're going to mix this cheese," she pointed to the mozzarella and feta cheese," into the dough so that the dough becomes very fluffy and you can pull it apart like cheese strings. We do the classic version. Sometimes people fill it up with other things, but that's how I've always eaten it at home. We'll make a simple salad to go with it. It might not be typically Colombian, but it tastes really good." When no questions came from Tysess, she continued.
"For the main course, I chose my favourite childhood dish, which I had every year for my birthday and which my mother always made when I was unwell. Arroz con Pollo." Tysess tilted his head and Ophelia knew his translator was working. "Rice with chicken?" She nodded with a smile. "Exactly. It's actually pretty simple too. You cook chicken with vegetables and lots of spices and serve it together with rice. Quite basic actually, and maybe not completely typical Colombian, but incredibly tasty."
A little unsure if he agreed, she looked over at him, but he just smiled gently down at her and she smiled back in relief. "That does sound like a plan." Tysess rolled up his sleeves and looked at her expectantly. "What do we start with?"
~**~
Over the next two hours, the two of them worked around in Tysess' kitchen. Ophelia didn't even want to think about the quantities of vegetables and meat they had cut. Well, much more Tysess. After she had shown him how to properly cut each vegetable, Tysess had taken it upon himself to process the mountain of vegetables and meat. Ophelia suspected he didn't want her near knives for fear she might hurt herself. Under other circumstances, this would have hurt Ophelia. After all, she was an adult and skilled enough to cut simple food, otherwise she would never have made it this far in engineering, however, she cut him some slack.
The events concerning the living construct and, yes you could call it that, Starfleet's massacre, all weighed heavily on them. Ophelia had woken up screaming and crying several times in the past weeks as well, Maira's corpse more than visible in her mind's eye.
However, next to the Admiral, it seemed to weigh most heavily on Tysess. He had thrown himself into his work over the last few weeks, as if it would give it some value of unnecessary redemption, which he didn't have to do. Because she knew, even though she had told him it wasn't his fault, that he still blamed himself and would probably continue to do just that for a long time to come.
Most of all, she knew, he was afraid of losing her and even the smallest possibility of hurting herself, for example with a kitchen knife, made him feel uneasy. Ophelia knew it couldn't go on forever, but she wanted to indulge him once more tonight. Besides, she really wasn't complaining, as she had made sure that everything was well seasoned, perfectly put together and it had been her job to taste it all.
Now they were sitting together at Tysess' dining table, which he had set with devotion. He had fetched a bouquet of flowers for her, which was in a beautiful vase of Andorian craftsmanship, as he had told her. Since it was dark, he had lit candles which gave it a slightly romantic ambience and he had actually taken the trouble to fold the napkins.
When Ophelia had first seen the table, she had fallen around his neck and covered his face with dozens of kisses, thanking him and telling him that he was just sweet. Tysess had acknowledged this with a roll of the eyes, but his antennae had betrayed him, swaying gently back and forth in love.
Ophelia watched Tysess gulp down his last pandebono. "And?" He nodded in agreement and smiled gently. "They were excellent, Ophelia. Thank you." He looked thoughtfully at his plate. "They probably would have even pleased my sister, who is usually quite a fussy eater." Ophelia almost dropped her glass of wine at the casual mention.
(Tysess had provided it, as it was the best alcoholic drink, next to the classic Andorian ale, on Andoria, according to him. The wine was made from the tuber of a plant whose name Ophelia couldn't remember, but which meant something along the lines of "frost poison". At first the name had put her off a bit, but she had dared to try a sip after Tysess had explained that the poison part only referred to the rest of the plant and only if it was raw and unprocessed. And indeed, this wine was one of the best she had ever drunk).
Tysess had never spoken of his family before and that comment had, admittedly, thrown her off. "You have a sister?" Tysess looked up in confusion before his expression turned a little sheepish. "I guess I didn't talk much about my family, did I?" And before Ophelia could answer him, he launched into a narrative about his family, interrupted only when they dished up the main course.
He told about his parents, both his "birth parents" and his "additional parents", Ophelia had almost forgotten that Andorians usually married in fours, which he hadn't seen in a long time. He told about his younger sister, who was a biologist, and his younger brother, who had graduated top of his grade at the Andorian Academy of Arts and Crafts. In fact, the vase on the table in front of them was his.
Ophelia listened to him spellbound, rarely interrupting him for questions and otherwise simply enjoying the sound of his calm, deep voice, which wrapped her up like a blanket but did not make her sleepy. She was learning more about Tysess than she had hoped to for the evening, so how could she think of sleeping.
Ophelia, however, did not realise he had finished until he stared silently at his, now empty, plate. "Forgive me, I've talked a lot. I didn't mean to bore you." Ophelia's chest tightened at the sight of him, antennae drooping, gaze down and avoiding her, and gently, yet lovingly at the same time, she placed her hand on his.
"Tysess. Don't apologise for talking to me. I love listening to you, especially when it comes to such things as family." She smiled gently. "I know Andorians don't like to open up to people they're not close with, which is why it's nothing but an honour for me when you confide in me about such topics. Please don't apologise for such a thing."
Tysess looked up a little embarrassed, but turned his hand so that her palm was in his and squeezed it gently. "I really haven't told you much about myself, let alone my culture, have I?" Her mind raced, searching for an answer that would make him not feel bad, before she paused. She had learnt early on that Andorians valued truth above all else and couldn't stand hypocritical posturing.
Ophelia sighed resignedly. "No, you haven't. And I confess that it has made some situations a little more complicated to understand, but I respect your boundaries and I'm not complaining. I know you'll tell me more as time goes on, once you feel comfortable enough, and I'm more than fine with that. And no-" she interrupted him as he started to speak, "-I will not accept criticism. You respect my boundaries, you always have, which is why I will respect and accept yours. Because that is the only way a relationship works, with respect and acceptance.
She stood up and picked up her plate and his. "I'll get the dessert and please, mi armor, don't worry too much about it." Lightly she leaned down and pressed her forehead against his. "I love you."
Ophelia initially feared that the mood would now be heavy on them and Tysess would retreat back into himself, but it seemed as if he was as confident as she knew him to be and they made light conversation over the course of the meal, in which Tysess praised the cake more than once, causing a swell of pride in her. After the meal they cleared up together and since Tysess, for whatever reason, didn't seem to own a dishwasher, they decided to wash it by hand. However, he turned out to be something of a child, as he more than enjoyed occasionally splashing Ophelia with drops of water or depositing little clouds of foam on the tip of her nose, until she finally threw him out of the kitchen and told him to go ahead and wipe the table.
As it was still quite early in the evening, they decided to end the evening with a glass of Frost Poison wine in his living room ( she didn't know if she would ever get used to that name). Ophelia had put her legs up and pressed her back against his front, telling him about the events of the last few days. Tysess was silent, occasionally humming his agreement, only to lapse back into silence. Ophelia let him remain silent, after all he had been talking a lot too, and only stopped when he quietly interrupted her with the whisper of her name. She turned her head slightly to look at him over her shoulder. "Yes?" She heard him swallow and felt him slowly sit up, which also caused her to sit up and put her feet on the floor.
"There is something I would like to talk to you about." He looked nervous to her, kneading his hands in his lap while his antennae twitched in different directions. "I ... have been thinking about mentioning the subject to you for some time now, however, the appropriate situation has never presented itself. After our conversation today regarding borders and Andorian culture, however, it seems fitting."
Ophelia put her hand on his and she looked at him seriously but lovingly at the same time. "It would be my pleasure. But only if you are comfortable with it, Tysess. I just don't want to force or pressure you into anything." Tysess shook her head and looked at her. "You don't, beloved. You don't."
He took another breath, Ophelia slowly beginning to worry, before he sat up straight and turned to her, looking deep into her eyes, brown meeting purple-grey. "There is a tradition on Andoria when courting. It's called the ruuphviik neek." Ophelia frowned. "I think the UT has a bit of trouble with the term, unless it's called... dating circles?" Despite his visible nervousness, Tysess chuckled softly. "Not quite. A suitable translation would be..." he hesitated briefly. " -Courting rings."
He gave Ophelia a brief moment to get the meaning of it. Even if it wasn't necessarily what she had expected, it did make sense. She had heard of many cultures wearing a sign of a relationship. Even on Earth, similar symbols were used in many cultures, though if more for engagements and marriages. Ophelia nodded slightly, inviting him to continue. Tysess exhaled audibly. "I don't know about your culture, but on Andoria, Andorians wear a ring at the base of their antennae to show they are in a relationship. Usually one ring is worn for each partner."
Ophelia hummed softly and nodded. "There are similar traditions in my culture, however these are engagement and wedding rings and meant for much later in the relationship." Tysess frowned. "Engagement?" "Oh." Ophelia had assumed he was already familiar with the term. "When a human couple decides to get married, one proposes to the other with an engagement ring. If the latter accepts, the two are engaged, wear the engagement rings and are in a state of engagement until the wedding, when they exchange wedding rings." She considered for a moment. "Otherwise, I don't really know of any such symbols to show that one is in a relationship."
Her eyes fell on Tysess, who looked a little embarrassed, at least judging from his dark cheeks. "These courting rings are not so ... binding. They merely signal that one is currently in a relationship. Neither marriage nor ... engagement, are part of it." His antennae swung back and forth a little. "Of course, these rings, are replaced upon marriage, however, the ruuphvik neek are not nearly as binding." Ophelia gave him an encouraging nod as his gaze fluttered briefly to his lap.
"They are a sign that a couple is ready to take a step from the still fresh, sometimes uncertain, stage of the relationship, the beginning stage you could well say, into a more solid relationship." Ophelia's heart pounded in her ears and all of a sudden the flat, which was otherwise very cool, seemed surprisingly warm. Tysess gently brushed a strand behind her ear and smiled that calf-eyed smile that melted her heart. "I don't know about you, Ophelia, but I'd be willing to take that step." Ophelia didn't know exactly what to say, which is why she let her impulsive thoughts control her, fell around his neck and kissed him.
It wasn't the response Tysess had probably imagined, however Ophelia was pretty sure it got her answer across sufficiently. For a moment he seemed surprised, but she could feel the tension fall from him as she felt his shoulder relax under her hands. Gently he placed his hands, on her hips and when they separated, he rested his forehead against hers. "I guess that was a yes." Ophelia laughed softly. "Otherwise it would have been a very strange 'no', don't you think?" Tysess pulled back looking amused and regarded her. "Thank you." "Not for that. I'm afraid I can't wear it around my antennae, though."
Tysess just smiled. "I think we could find another solution for you." Ophelia nodded and leaned forward to kiss him again as her hair fell forward. An idea occurred to her. "How about my hair?" His antennae curled in confusion and she hurried to explain. "I was going to the hairdresser tomorrow anyway to have new braids braided. I could have the ring braided into my braid then, couldn't I? It's not unheard of to have such things braided into your braids and would be a lot more practical than a ring or bracelet that would interfere with work. If that could be done?"
Tysess considered for a moment and gently ran his hand over a strand of her hair before smiling. "As long as it doesn't bother you?" She shook her head. "Of course not, I'd probably barely notice it is there. I've always wanted to do something like this and now it even has a wonderful meaning." Ophelia leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his again. "Now explain to me where we're going to get these rings."
In the end it was a lot easier than she had thought, Ophelia had expected that they would have to get the jewellery in some special Andorian shops, but she had forgotten that there were such things as replicators in their time. About half an hour later, which they had spent flicking through or scrolling through magazines, there were two rings in the palm of her hand, one larger than the other. They were made of an Andorian metal that appeared greyish-silver but gave off a slight blue-violet glow when held up to the light.
Gingerly she took the larger of the two rings, Tysess's ring, and held it up. "May I?" Tysess hesitated for a moment, understandable since the antennae was one of the most sensitive parts of the Andorians, but then nodded in agreement and sat down so Ophelia could even reach his head. "Which side?"
"Doesn't matter." Ophelia nodded and decided on the right. Very carefully, one hand as steady as if she had to disarm a torpedo, she pulled the ring over the tip of the antennae, along the shaft until she reached the base. Slowly she pulled her hand away and looked at her handiwork with illogical pride. "You look wonderful." She pressed a kiss to his forehead.
Tysess rose slowly, wiggling his antennae to get used to the feeling, then went into the hall to look at himself in the mirror. Ophelia followed him and wrapped her arms around him from behind. "The colour compliments your eyes." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "You were actually right about the colour choice." As he turned, she pressed her ring into his hand. "Keep it for me, will you? Though I'm afraid you won't be able to braid it yourself, you can come if you like. But be warned, it may take a very long time."
~**~
Ophelia was right. The whole process took a little over seven hours, but Tysess had not left her side for a moment, which had even impressed her hairdresser, a Klingon, a little, even if she did not want to admit it. The end product, however, was something to behold. Ophelia had had the ring on the right side woven into the braid that framed her face, about ten centimetres from the parting. In addition, she had chosen fifteen small cylindrical golden metal beads, which were woven into her hair at irregular intervals. Thus, the ring did not look lonely, but it stood out as special.
Tysess and Ophelia stood at the shuttle landing site and said goodbye. He carefully stroked the ring in her braid before pushing it behind her ear. “You look beautiful. ” Ophelia blushed a little, but grinned broadly and quite in love. “You don’t look bad either. ” A sound made them look up and realize that the shuttle was landing. Hurriedly she pressed one last kiss on his lips.
“Don’t overwork yourself. And wish me luck, mi amor. I slipped out on the phone that I have a boyfriend and my mother probably won’t leave me alone. ” “I hope you’re not going to say anything bad. ” Ophelia grinned and released her hand from his. “Only the truth. ”
The boarding didn't take long, she had secured a window seat, and before she knew it, they were in the air, flying towards Colombia. Ophelia glanced back at Tysess, but the only thing she could see from him was a blue patch of color in the distance and a bright sparkle in the sunlight above it.
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@bigblissandlove1 @akamitrani @indignantlemur
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So I saw a lot of criticism by the Sanghis that Hindu mythology is not something one should write fanfiction about or that it's a religion, and therefore people shouldn't interpret and create stories of their own. But let me tell you something: the culture of fanfiction and re-interpretation of Hindu mythology is not at all new; it has been going on for decades.
So, as I said before in the blog, I am a Bengali, so most of the examples I will give are from Bengali literature. So Krishna is a huge part of these fandoms, and a lot of people write and draw things related to him. But this is definitely not a new thing; it has been going on since the time of Joydev's Geeta Govinda and Vidyapati's Vaishnav Padabali. There is a famous poem by Rabindranath Tagore:
শুধু বৈকুণ্ঠের তরে বৈষ্ণবের গান!
পূর্বরাগ, অনুরাগ, মান অভিমান,
অভিসার, প্রেমলীলা, বিরহ মিলন,
বৃন্দাবন-গাথা,—এই প্রণয়-স্বপন
শ্রাবণের শর্ব্বরীতে কালিন্দীর কূলে,
চারি চক্ষে চেয়ে দেখা কদম্বের মূলে
সরমে সম্ভ্রমে, —এ কি শুধু দেবতার!
Which translates to
"Are the songs of Vaishnav for Baikuntha alone?
Courting, attachment, sulkiness, sensitiveness,
Tryst, dalliances, parting and union, theme of,
The songs of Brindaban – this dream of love,
In the Shraban night on the bank of the Kalindi
The meeting of the four eyes under the Kadambatree
In blushing adoration - are these all for the Lord?
Most of the Vaishnav Padaboli and Radha Krishna Leela poets were very much influenced by their personal lives, which makes sense because they never really saw Radha Krishna with their own eyes, so obviously they need some kind of reference and muse for their works. For example, it is said that Vidyapati drew inspiration from the real relationship between a man and woman in that contemporary period for Radha and Krishna. He created the character of Radha from the very image of an adolescent, joyous young girl of that time period. His radha has a lot of human qualities. Then Chandidas, another important poet, apparently based Radha on his own lover, Rami. Rami was a lower-caste woman with whom Chandidas had an affair, but he couldn't marry her because it was not socially acceptable. Chandidas's Radha is portrayed as a sad woman, mourning for her lover from the very beginning, even before she meets Krishna, and it didn't change even when she was united with Krishna, as she was based on Rami, a woman who could never be with the man she loved due to society. Apart from them, the poets who composed Radha Krishna hymns during and after the rise of Sri Chaitanya in Bengal started including Chaitanya in their poetry. They wrote hymns dedicated to Chaitanya alongside Krishna; some of them even started crafting similar descriptions and personalities for both Radha and Chaitanya. It's from their narrative that Radha's love for Krishna symbolises devotees love for god; it was literally Krishna x Chaitanya. CHAITANYA FANFIC!!)
Apart from Vaishnav Padabali, we can also find examples of such works in Sakhta Padabali. For example, the whole concept of Durga pujo in Bengali is inspired by married women visiting their paternal family once a year with their children. The poets basically localised the mighty goddess Durga as a young girl married to Shiva, who is old and penniless. Several poets, like Ramprasad Sen and Kamalakanto (I don't remember his title), wrote hymns from the point of view of Menaka (Parvathi's mother) as she begged Giriraj (Parvati's father) to bring her daughter back. She chides Giriraj for marrying her young daughter to Shiva, who is old and penniless and roams in the crematorium with his ghost acquaintances. She worries about her young daughter suffering all alone in the Himalaya with no one to take care of. Isn't this also a kind of fanfiction? Where goddesses are made into normal women?
Also, if we talk about Mahabharat and the Ramayana, they also had fanfiction even before the rise of Wattpad and Tumblr. All the translations (except a few) adopted these epics in such a way that they could fit into their culture and contemporary society. It's a known fact that Tulsidas's Ramayan deviates a lot from the original one (Maya Sita, vegetarianism, etc.).
So in a way, it can be a retelling of some sort. So if we are shitting upon the culture of retelling and fanfiction, we should also talk about these examples, not only the modern ones. The truth is that retellings and fanfictions are necessary for these types of stories to survive. It makes sense that one modifies these age-old stories so they can fit into contemporary society. Every piece of ancient literature, be it the Greek epics, the Bible, or Hindu mythology, has its own share of retelling and fanfiction. These are not owned by a certain group of people; they don't have the right to gatekeep. People can and should explore these stories from their own point of view. They have the right to rewrite and retell the stories from a modern perspective. So before you chide a blog on Tumblr for writing Mahabharata-inspired fanfiction or incorrect quotes or bully them for writing a canonically incorrect ship,or critices them for writing self insert fic with Krishna stop and think for a second.
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lavenoor · 8 months
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BOOK RECOMMENDATION
It's called the henna wars and both main characters are women of color and it's a f/f enemies to lovers!!!!!!
thank you so much for the recommendation!! like, wlw?? woc?? deshi???? you better bet I read this book as soon as I got the chance. I recently finished it, so now im going to post my brutally honest opinions here lol
in summary: i absolutely loved the concept so much. too often, wlw stories will have just white women, so the representation of both WOC and WLW in the story had me bouncing in excitement the entire time. but I'm going to be honest--the story itself fell flat for me. I like some aspects of the writing, but overall, I was a bit disappointed. i'll explain below.
there will be spoilers btw, and I also discussed more of my writing tips. and remember, these are just my opinions!
the GOOD
love the bengali rep with the mc and her family; all the snippets of culture felt so comforting to me
the reason why Nishat (the MC) comes out to her parents when she does makes so much sense and it's realistic. and as someone who is also in a south asian muslim household, the way her parents first react to the news is done pretty accurately in my opinion.
the idea of the business contest and nishat's passion for mehendi/henna was so creative and hooked me in.
I love a good enemies to lovers arc. it started out in a very interesting, completely unexpected way, which i loved
my favorite scene is when nishat is about to get "revenge" on flavia (the LI). i was expecting things to go super south for nishat. but then flavia reacted in an unexpected way, and that made her very likable in that moment.
this is small, but I also really like how they're irish? there's something about stories that take place in the UK that feels so eccentric yet familiar. despite all the british slander i partake in, brits/irish ppl are so interesting, like i love all your lingo <3 im gonna start calling the bathroom "the loo" and calling an eraser a "rubber"
there's definitely more i left out, but this is all i could think of at the moment
the not-so-good
my biggest issue with the story is the characters. they felt pretty one-dimensional, and I was constantly waiting for them to gain some more nuance. the most nuanced character might be Flavia (the love interest). but the execution was so off that flavia's nuance is also what makes me dislike her a lot. ill explain soon
nishat is constantly done SO dirty by the other characters--her friends, her love interest, even her sister. maybe it's because my little sister is such an incredible person, but nishat's sister was just SO unlikable. im sorry, i cant stand any of the characters apart from nishat. i don't understand how she forgives them so easily.
but when I say i would die for nishat, it's not really because I like her personality. it's only because I feel so bad for her. in the end, nishat didn't really stand out to me a whole lot either. the summary of the book contains her entire personality. she's lesbian, she's bengali, she does henna, and that's it. that's a great starting point, but come on, i need more!
reading the author's bio & other info, nishat feels like a self-insert for the author--this is not an inherently bad thing btw! it's just that when authors make the MC their self insert, the mc almost always ends up falling flat as a character. for some reason, treating a character as truly their own person is the first step to making them super distinct and interesting.
the execution of the enemies to lovers arc was just... not it.
E-to-L issue #1: nishat already has a passionate crush on flavia from the beginning. when i saw that, i was like NOOOOO PLS NO. some people like this, but i cannot STAND it when an enemies to lovers arc already starts off with one of them crushing on the other. it's one of the reasons I don't like advertising sen/mc's relationship as E-to-L, even tho the iaptbap mc's crush was on female san, and she's only initially starstruck by sen. (but I do 100% advertise mc/alistair as E-to-L because things are completely platonic between them in the beginning.) the beautiful thing about E-to-L is we get to see that shift into romance, but that wasn't really the case here.
E-to-L issue #2: when I first read the book's summary, I assumed nishat and her love interest would both be south asian or west asian, as both those cultures have henna. when when flavia (the LI) was culturally appropriating, i was surprised, curious, and a bit nervous to see how things would play out. im glad the story talks about how serious of an issue CA is, but the execution felt so unsatisfying to me. while flavia gaslights the shit out of nishat throughout most of the story, they still have these romantic moments interspersed. that's not how E-to-L works. if your enemy is calling you sensitive for a genuine issue rooted in deshi exploitation, how the fuck are you going to have tension and chemistry with them in the next scene? the whole time, i was thinking nishat could do so much better--that's the one thing ill agree with her annoying ass sister on.
EXAMPLE: let's say two characters are academic rivals, and one of them brags about their better grades to the other person. in the next scene, they have intense chemistry. that makes more sense because at the end of the day, bragging about your grades or having petty banter isn't that serious. but with this book, it really was serious. and this is the main reason i cant stand flavia.
E-to-L issue #3: when two characters are going to fall for each other, I need to have a grasp of why they like each other. and after finishing the whole book, I understand why flavia likes nishat, but I have NO idea why nishat was such a simp for flavia the whole time.
and this is kind of a flaw I see in a lot of WLW romances. like, the way authors will write wlw feels like this enchanting fantasy where everything is perfect just because it's two women in love. look, i love queer women, but to not put the same development and nuance into writing their relationships is pretty reductive. wlw can also be toxic. they can also cheat. they can be petty and human.
I read this book a long time ago, where the MCs were these two friends: a gay guy and a lesbian girl. they each have their own romances in the book. the gay guy has this really fascinating and multi-dimensional romance arc with his best friend, where they get into fights and reconcile and love each other's flaws and strengths. but the lesbian girl's romance arc was SO shallow. her love interest wasn't really a great person, but her flaws were never addressed and they just ended up together with no development arcs on either end. there's a difference between "I love her because she's perfect" and "I love her for all her flaws and traits"
E-to-L issue #4: the hardest part about writing an enemies to lovers story is the pacing and the progression. WHY are they enemies? then, HOW do those factors change? HOW do they learn to get along? okay, now that they're on better terms, HOW does this further develop into romance? there's a lot of careful execution that needs to take place, where you can see the characters gradually warming up to one another. but a lot of it was glossed over in this story. We know WHY they're enemies, but we never get to see that progression--their arc feels more like a switch flipping on-and-off. nishat and flavia completely forget they're enemies half the time. and then when they are enemies, it's serious and uncomfortable.
a lot of the dialogue just felt off. in a way, it didn't sound natural, like actual people were talking to each other. especially in the conversations between nishat and her sister. those scenes just felt like an only-child millennial woman was trying to capture the silly banter between two sisters but couldn't quite nail it. i think there were only two instances where their dialogue made me crack a smile
although the story realistically portrays how nishat's family initially reacts to her being lesbian, the ending of the story was kind of unrealistic. but maybe that's just because of my own experiences and pessimism. i kind of liked that unrealistic aspect tbh, since i'd rather have things be unrealistic in a positive way. i was happy for nishat.
the biggest litmus test for whether or not a romance is good to me is this: how satisfied am i when the couple gets together? do I squeal in joy or do I just stare at the book with a blank expression?in the case of the famous BookTok novel, The Love Hypothesis, I did not give two shits when the MCs ended up together. for the movie Elemental, everyone and their mom was raving about how good the romance is--and although they had SO much potential I also did not feel anything when amber and wade got together. in this story, I actually felt really happy for nishat since she had gone through so much and deserved a break. but was I truly satisfied? unfortunately, no -- and the issue for me lies with flavia. i was still too mad at her to ship them.
i don't usually care too much for how eloquent and beautiful the writing style of a book is. my writing is pretty barebones itself. but after reading the book bunny by mona awad, my standards for prose have kind of gone up, and this book's writing felt a bit lifeless as a result ;;
CONCLUSION
if you enjoyed the book, im sorry if this sounded harsh --once again, i am a bit of a harsh critic ! honestly, if the story gave nishat more distinct speaking patterns or mannerisms, made her sister an actual supportive sister, fleshed out the "admitted they were wrong" arcs for all the characters, and streamlined the E-to-L arc, this book would probably be one of my top favorites. however, i still enjoyed reading it, and I'm still really glad I was recommended this book! i might just be unreasonably picky ever since writing my own stories (which are FAR from perfect btw). thanks again for the rec!
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fanfictiongreenirises · 2 months
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re: ur tags in that $10 food poll, why does the ethnicity of someone factor in to if you'll ask for reimbursement...???
this got really long lmao but in my defence the tl;dr version of it is literally "different cultures have different norms of how paying for food works regardless of amount" but if you're asking why ethnicity is a factor then i'd rather give more detail than leave it there
mmkay so first thing you need to know about me is im bengali, and culturally, there are many things that go into who pays when you're buying food and how reimbursement works. (second thing i'd like for you to know as a disclaimer is i'm 1.5 gen immigrant so my norms with paying might not necessarily reflect the current norms in bangladesh)
so if i'm out with another bengali or south asian person and they're younger than me, i'm paying for the food regardless of cost and absolutely not asking for reimbursement. if they're my age and we're friends and we're not paying for our own food for whatever reason, then we're going to fight about it and whoever loses will fight harder the next time we go out or reimburse in another way (e.g. buying other food, paying for smth else if we're shopping together - rly depends on the relationship, but it doesn't have to be a 1:1 reimbursement), but even if there is no next time and you both know it, there'll still be no "here have the exact amount back via cash/bank transfer" reimbursement over it bc you just wouldn't ask for the money back. if they're older than me, it'll take a pretty unique situation for me to be the one paying but depending on how much older, they'll likely repay me by buying something else, or paying next time. best example of this is my gujarati colleague who's about double my age - the first time we went to grab coffee together at work, it was spontaneous and she didn't have her wallet on her so i paid and refused to give her my bank details, and the next time we went for coffee she paid and specifically was like 'you paid last time' so i'd fight her less on it; every time after that we paid for our own even though she still tried to pay for mine (but fought significantly less, because the initial social dance was over).
however!! the norms in white australian culture (that i've experienced) are different!! if i pay and insist a little too strongly that they don't need to pay me back, then white australians get weird about it - because i'm not following the norms. (they'll either go to Lengths to pay me back, or they'll be like 'cool thx' and move on lmao there's no in between.) so i'll be like 'no you don't need to pay me back it's just $10' once (if at all) and then give in and accept monetary reimbursement. i don't believe anyone when they say i don't need to pay them back, unless i've known them for a v long time, so i'll still find a way to slip them money (or if i have friends who go to Lengths to pay me back, then i'll do the same for them, because that'll be their norm/expectation) (i've seen bengalis try to do this to other bengalis and the reaction ranges from being super offended to really confused/surprised lmaoo)
obviously, this is a super broad explanation and generalisation, and doesn't really take into consideration things like how my personal relationship with people also impacts this, or how different circles will have different norms within those circles that'd override other social and cultural cues that might exist, or how specific people will have preferences for paying you back that you'll respect and often mirror. and obligatory disclaimer: cultures aren't homogeneous and other people will have had different experiences with the ones i've mentioned that won't align with mine; and none of these norms are good/bad or right/wrong, they're just different norms and expectations and ways of doing things
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desi-lgbt-fest · 9 months
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Queering Bengali Cinema: Rituparno Ghosh's Retelling of Cultural Texts
Themes of loneliness drive my films"
~Rituparno Ghosh
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Antarmahal (2005)
Shubho Mahurat (2003)
Chokher Bali (2003)
Abohomaan (2009)
Dosar (2006) Utsab
(2000) Dahan (1997) Unishe April (1994) Shob Charitro Kalponik (2009) Asukh (1999)
Rituparno Ghosh was a gender nonconforming, sexually dissident filmmaker who made and acted in films revolving around openly homosexual, bisexual and transgender characters. For his work, he won accolades including national awards in India and recognition at film festivals around the world. In 2013, 50-year-old Ghosh met with an untimely death due to heart attack; however, he lives on as India’s most visible queer icon, whose mere presence shook the heteropatriarchal foundations of Bengal’s as well as India's cultural milieu.
In two decades of his filmmaking career, Ghosh consistently engaged with topics considered taboo in the Bengali bhadralok society. Even though, it was much later that he started working with explicit queer content in his films, in the early phase of his career, in films such as Unishey April (1994), Dahan (1997), Bariwali (1999), Utsab (2000), Shubho Maharat (2003), Ghosh dealt with trauma and repressed desire of women in a patriarchal society, seen by scholars as a reflection of the agony of a queer individual in the proverbial closet in a heteronormative society.[1]
Ghosh’s cinema was relatable for the Bengali bhadralok because it was heavily influenced by the film aesthetic of revered filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray. While this visual language made him a favourite of the English-educated, urban Bengali, his exploration of the ‘unusual themes’ placed him at the receiving end of scathing criticism. Ghosh, however, was quick to find a middle ground. He succeeded in evoking the nostalgia of the rich heritage of Calcutta by employing Hindustani classical music or Rabindra Sangeet as background score, and by setting the film narrative in the decorated interiors of old mansions of colonial or pre-colonial Calcutta. Under the garb of such nostalgic elements, he lured the bhadralok audience to the cinema theatre and presented his queer film aesthetic in a way that would suit their sensibility. This subterfuge of relatability helped Ghosh naturalise the themes of same-sex desires and the experiences of queer people of his later films. 
In a similar vein, in queer-centric films that Ghosh made, influenced or took part in, such as Arekti Prem er Golpo (2010), Memories in March (2010) and Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish (2012), he freely accessed indigenous cultural resources to validate their contents. He delved into Bengal’s religious myths and cultural artefacts to perform alternative readings that not only helped historicise homosexual and other queer desires, but also helped normalise their struggles in the eyes of the cinemagoers. 
Arekti Prem er Golpo: Androgyny and the Figure of Chaitanya Arekti Prem er Golpo (Just Another Love Story) is a film that Ghosh heavily influenced, although he did not direct it. The director, Koushik Ganguly, later confessed that Ghosh was rather stubborn about playing the role of the queer protagonist after his own image, instead of indulging the director’s idea. The film narrates the story of Abhiroop (played by Ghosh), an effeminate, homosexual filmmaker who is in the process of making a documentary film about Chapal Bhaduri, a Bengali jatra (popular folk theatre form of Bengal) actor who performed the roles of women on stage for 40 years. In the 1960s, Chapal Rani, as Bhaduri was known, was allegedly the highest paid ‘actress’ of Bengali jatra. The reference to the figure of Chapal Bhaduri in Arekti Prem er Golpo and his experiences as a performance artist, who constantly straddled male and female roles, supports the idea that gender is performative rather than biological. Abhiroop’s character is a modern-day parallel of Chapal’s. He loves a man but loses him when his lover’s wife becomes pregnant; the possibility of a child born out of a socially accepted heterosexual relationship, thus, obstructs the queer characters’ path to fulfilment. Abhiroop’s fate mirrors Chapal Bhaduri’s career as a female impersonator on stage, which came to an end when biologically female actors finally shattered the shackles of patriarchal restrictions and found their rightful place on stage. It restored the heteronormative standards where only a biologically female actor could play the part of a woman, and a biologically male actor could assume the role of a man. Bhaduri was no longer required to switch between gender binaries; while women emerged in the public space of the stage, the gender-queer actor was made to fade away. 
The marginalisation that the gender nonconforming identities have to suffer echoes through the film, but there is also an assertion of the legitimacy of the ‘other’ gender beyond the male/female binary. The following conversation between Chapal and Abhiroop reflects this in the most effective way: 
Abhiroop: Do you really see yourself as a woman, Chapal-da?
Chapal: Oh my! If I thought I was a man, there would not be any problem.
Abhiroop: I think women are one category, men are another, and we are a third category.
The reference to Sri Chaitanya, founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sect, also brings to the fore the celebration of androgynous identities and queer desires. Abhiroop, at one point, shaves his head to acquire a sort of ‘genderless’ look and narrates the story of Sri Chaitanya, whom he considers to be an icon of native cultural androgyny; Sri Chaitanya embodied both Radha and Krishna and preached Radha bhava (emotion)where the worshipper is in passionate love with Krishna. Ghosh’s films are also noted for their recurrent use of Vaishnava padavali (a lyric poetry tradition of verses narrating the erotic love play of Radha and Krishna). 
Memories in March: Same-sex Desire and Brajabuli Lyrics  Memories in March, written by Ghosh himself, and directed by Sanjay Nag, has a song written in Brajabuli language (an artificial language created by the fourteenth-century poet Vidyapati to write about the love of Radha and Krishna) by Ghosh which captures the eternal longing of the virahini (estranged lover) to be one with her love. The song, bahumanaratha saju abhisarey pahenu suneel bes (In the hope of meeting my lover, I put on a blue dress), speaks of Radha’s hope and anxiety about the possibility of meeting Krishna after a long separation.[2] The song plays in the background of scenes focussing on the sudden demise of Sidhharth, the lover of Ornab (played by Ghosh), in a car accident. 
The use of this Brajabuli song in describing the love, longing and tragic end of a homosexual relationship accentuates the idea that same-sex desires transcend superficial physical attraction and have emotional and spiritual vitality like any romantic relationship. Ornab’s agony at the passing away of Siddharth is naturalised in the bhadralok eye by equating it with Radha’s agony at her separation from Krishna. Even in the film Raincoat (2004), there are Brajabuli songs narrating an illicit affair between a married woman and her childhood lover. These songs substantiate the queer aesthetic of Ghosh who bridges the gap between the legends of the illicit love affair of Radha-Krishna with the modern love affairs that function outside societal norms. 
The language of the songs that establish the mood of Ghosh’s films is significant as well. According to Professor Bakshi, the use of songs written in Brajabuli language itself is symbolic[3] because Brajabuli is a language that does not have any geographical or cultural boundary; it is a language that borrows vocabulary from several other Indian languages. No language is, therefore, more suitable to carry the emotional gravity of the lived reality of people who do not fall under gender binaries. 
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Chitrangada: Gender Fluidity and Indigenous Myth  Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish is a film that Ghosh wrote, directed and acted in. It draws inspiration from the legend of Princess Chitrangada whose father raised her as a boy but who wished to become a woman after falling in love with Arjuna. The film revolves around Rudra who meets Partho while rehearsing for a dance drama based on Tagore’s play Chitrangada (1892), falls in love with him and goes through a sex reassignment surgery to be able to bear a child. The story has conspicuous similarities with the Chitrangada myth. It validates the existence of deviant desires and identities from time immemorial, and invalidates the idea that these are the by-products of Western influence and modernity. 
Ghosh’s engagement with the alternative readings of native resources not only queered the language of Indian cinema but also helped the Indian queer demography in locating itself in the indigenous culture of the land. His films and his presence in media as an openly queer individual gave the LGBTQ+ community of Bengal, and India at large, a voice. However, he has faced some criticism from the LGBTQ+ community for the glaring absence of the queer subculture, such as the drag culture and kotha-hijra(transgender communities)tradition of India in his cinema.[4] All the queer characters of his films are English educated, from urban spaces and financially affluent. This helped him naturalise queer identities in the bhadralok eye but weakened his films in terms of queer visibility, the politics of representing and bringing to the fore a heterogeneous cluster of queer figures in popular media.
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metamatar · 1 year
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February Reading Round Up! In reverse chronological order of finishing
Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India by Gail Omvedt
Been meaning to read for a long long time, was serendiptiously a reading groups' choice and on my tumblr dash. Very good, detailed tour of movements that have complicated "class first" - caste, gender, peasant, tribal and their evolution theoretically and historically. Enjoyed how obviously socialist and critical Omvedt is of regressive trends and fair to the demands of popular organising that trouble us. I made so many notes, and intend to revist her perspective later when I've studied more. Where I was familiar with secondary literature like, caste I think she did an excellent job illustrating the limitations and need for Ambedakrite movements.
The Final Question by Chattopadhyay, Sarat Chandra
Bengali literature written in dialogue with the anti colonial movement's understanding of the new role of the Indian woman, this book is angry in the best way. Something very Dostoyevsky like in the arguments between the characters, but, instead of a religious worldview you have a deeply modern, materialist worldview being sharply advocated for against revanchist cultural trends in the novel's heroine Kamal. It holds up really well for a book in 1936, and its tenderness in handling every character's hopes and despair is deeply touching.
The Play Of Dolls Stories by Narain, Kunwar
Tumblr Mutual Book Club pick! Short Story collection by Hindi experimental poet and writer. Very evocative stories that have the best onion like layers of thematic interests. Oft satirical but never bleak, with the exception of the last story which felt like an odd addition to the set.
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Machado, Carmen Maria
Short Story collection as well, feminist and queer themes. I'd already read the Husband Stitch and was interested in what else the author could do, unfortunately not a lot more thematically. The stories are tightly written and gripping, only that they don't reveal much to me.
Dumb Luck by Vũ, Trọng Phụng
Tumblr Mutual Book Club pick as well. Relentlessly, satirically bleak, also colonial writing. This one is set in Vietnam when it was in French Indochina. Tetra said that every character is an antagonist and FR. Vicious, and a little too bleak for my taste, this is a more traditionalist critique of Vietnamese elite aping the French. The gender politics are absolutely bonkers, the translation I read does a pretty decent job of transferring the text's humor to modern idiom.
Vita & Virginia: A Double Life by Gristwood, Sarah
Biography of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackwille-West, picked up on a whim because of my interest in Woolf's 'madness' and her romantic letters. Really enjoyed reading the complicated polyamorous love lives these literati had. Virginia's struggles with her illness are quite movingly portrayed. Illustrated with pictures of the beautiful homes and gardens the subjects spent their time in so fun for me! Enjoyed how conversant the author was with their literary output and its critical reception and impact. Made me want to finish reading my Woolf books.
The Stranger by Camus, Albert
I thought I'd like this more. The distanced narrator is very poorly executed, so the protagonist's redemption? revelations? towards the end of the novel kind of fell flat. Style over substance problem I think.
The Horizon (Sumer, #2) by Gautam Bhatia
Conclusion to The Wall, also one of those I wish I'd liked a lot more than I did. Very fast paced in its third act, well plotted but weakened by its repeated revelation of this character is ACTUALLY on this SIDE. Like, its done with every family member of the protagonist. Worldbuilding remains memorable if a bit predictable. Would make a better movie.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Personally I love an old man vs a fish, even if it does not have the gay content Moby Dick promised. Excellent use of the novel for investigating the interiority of a man. It's been a short story kind of month I suppose.
Lady Chatterley's Lover by Lawrence, D.H.
I have already complained about how fascist this book is. Why does modern commentary elide on its very violent racism and sexism and homophobia? I don't think its erotic worldview offers much to not fascist post sex liberation readers lol.
The Idiot by Batuman, Elif
Sorry. Girl at Harvard was not compelling as expected, but I did get a lot from the third act where the protagonist confronts her love interest for real - honest writing that doesn't shy away from difficult conversations.
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, Mikhail
Stalin era Soviet satire (its a month for it!) Very conversant with Faust, which I had not read so that I think diminished my understanding of the book. Absurd, very Christian and very funny about the comedic aspects of Soviet life. Loved the ending, almost Tolkein like in its hope for pretty broken characters.
The World in a Grain of Sand: Postcolonial Literature and Radical Universalism by Majumdar, Nivedita
Postcolonial Lit: The Takedown. Incisive, excellent, gave me a lot of books I want to try that the author points to as bucking the trend of compliance to particularist, oft parochial and usually defeatist understandings that dominate the genre.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
also Bookclub pick. Devastating. Very effective use of the limited POV to illustrate the way shame damns love. Every few pages wrecked me. Tight and sparing with characterisation + description, but delirious with how emotionally close you ride with the protagonist. Best book I have read in a while.
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max1461 · 8 months
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Forgot to add the question bit to the last ask but basically how plausible do you think something like that is to be a significant thing? Either in the sapir whorfy way of language means people conceptualise failure differently, or the reverse where because that culture conceptualises failure differently for other reasons that's why the language doesn't have a word for it?
In reference to this.
I don't really know, because the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has basically not been tested (strong Sapir-Whorf is probably unfalsifiable, but weak Sapir-Whorf might be something you could investigate empirically), but my intuition is "there's no effect". I really doubt that what loanwords a language borrows is determined with anything like this semantic granularity.
So, ok, Bengali speakers have borrowed the English word "fail" to describe failing a test. I strongly suspect this is related to like, the education system, or media or something—basically exposure to the English word in that context. And English is a prestige language, so people want to borrow English words for all kinds of shit. In Japanese, the native word for test is shiken, but you can also use the English loanword tesuto. Why? I don't think any particular reason, really. It just caught on somehow. Why did English borrow the word amateur from French? Because French culture has more hobbyists? I somewhat doubt it.
Moreover, I doubt that Bengali speakers generally know English well enough to pick up on the subtleties in the semantics of English "fail", and judge that those semantic subtleties are better suited to "failing a test" than whatever the native Bengali word it. That seems... unlikely to me.
Like, OK, I want to clarify: I'm not saying your sister's research is bunk. For any given loanword (or really, even linguistic feature), if you're lucky, you might have enough data to track its spread like a virus. You know, "when did it enter the language, with which groups did it first get popular, etc. etc.". And I'm sure there are interesting sociological observations to be made here, on the micro level. Like this is a bunch of humans interacting, so of course the spread is going to be affected by human social processes, if you're looking at it with that much granularity. I don't doubt that at all. The thing that I doubt is that usage of loanwords can tell you something deep and abiding about how people from different cultures think about things, rather than just being related to a bunch of basically incidental and contingent facts of history.
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