Tag Archives: Essay

The Suffering Mother | A Space Where We BOTH Have Our Say

Exploring Patriarchy Chapter 8 – Growing old doesn’t have to mean losing oneself. MM’s mother would realize this, and rebuild her life differently from her elders. And teach MM about self-reliance and independence in the only way that really works when parents want to teach something to their children. By being an example.

The Knight | Change the Woman to Change the Man

Exploring Patriarchy Chapter 2 – Microwave Madam, an avid reader of old romance novels, had found her knight. A knight-in-shining-armor who had never really had any practise because he’d been rescued all his life.

Poem: Change the Woman to Change the Man

I visit my friend and she’s at the table
feeding her son who is perfectly able
to eat on his own. He’s almost a teen!
I wonder why it is that she just can’t see.

Gender Roles | The Bottom of the Barrel

Fire Fighting Mode Chapter 2 – She’s like the bottom of the pot where the spoon scrapes when there’s not enough inside to put on our plates. Like the bottom of the barrel that bears the pressure when it’s filled to the brim. With no ease or leisure.

Juggling Roles

Becoming Microwave Madam Chapter 5 – It would take her years to learn to be efficient at cooking, cleaning and organization, because doing this meant discarding old ideas and traditions. Fixations on they way things had to be done that come down from generation to generation in Indian families and are so much a part of customs and traditions that one needs to really be pushed against a wall to question them.

Gender Roles and Marriage

Becoming Microwave Madam Chapter 3 – Marriage for many starts with the premise that the income of the husband is permanent and therefore more important, and that of the wife an option and not a real need. That’s the way she thought, and the way he did too. It’s the way it was for their parents, and a system familiar and therefore easy to adopt.