A Confectionery

Alice Walker’s story 'The Colour Purple" strolls through paths of love, violence, and struggle of her personal life as her central character Celie walks down a similar road. This essay is structured to look at the striking resemblance of Alice's experiences to that of Celie’s. The book is set in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century, and Walker allows us to experience through Celie all that she observed and experienced as a black woman in those times. Born into a poor family, farming was the main activity in Walker’s town and slavery and oppression made their presence well felt. All around her, she heard the black vernacular, which later became Celie’s language of communication with the readers. Celie’s story is also set in a very similar setting, where the lives of her people are plagued by slavery and oppression. A spirited kid in her childhood, Alice lost much of her enthusiasm after the fateful incident where her brother accidentally shot her in the eye. De...

You tell people you’re not too comfortable about hanging out with them. You tell them you’re not okay with open public spaces. You tell them you’d rather stay at home than go out to a carnival/fair. And they think that you think you’re too cool to hang out with them, or that you’re so full of yourself, and even worse, they start disliking you because you avoid their company. But I wish I could make people understand what really goes on in my mind in such times. Are you terrified of certain situations too, or of a lot of things in general? Do unfamiliar situations scare the hell out of you? Well then, hi-5. And that feeling has a name, by the way, anxiety. I wonder how such a random word could define so much about so many of us. So many people think that anxiety is just that little unpleasant feeling you get sometimes. But in reality, that’s just 2% of the actual thing. I’ll tell you what anxiety is really like. Its like being trapped in a box where you can’t breathe, or lik...

The incantation of the monosyllable Om reverberated through the room, as my Godfather sat in the far end, meditating peacefully. It was a bright Sunday. He was a Yoga teacher, so Sundays meant more Yoga classes. I tiptoed to the corner of the room, only to be stopped by one of his ‘guards’. “He has warned us against any disturbance. You can’t go in, child.” He said, in a pitiful tone. “Oh, fine.” I sighed, even though this was what I expected. Nevertheless, I decided to wait for him in the lounge. After an hour, which seemed more like hours, he entered the room, a grin plastered on his face. “Good morning!” he said, enthusiastically. “Morning.” “Why so grim? Breakup or something?” he said, with a boyish mirth to his voice. Tall, dark, and handsome; It looked as though this was said keeping him in mind. Nobody, even in their dreams, could predict his age. He had the physique of a 21-year-old, and the intellect of a 65-year-old. Though, his age was nowhere near to that. He ...

The election season has ‘almost’ begun, and as though a compulsion, ‘publicity stunts’ are also gaining momentum. Let us talk about a comment that a (so-called) politician made recently. He said that the Kargil War was won not because of the joint efforts of the army, but because of the Muslim soldiers, and that the Hindu soldiers have played no role in the massive win. Is this the least that our politicians can stoop to? Have our standards become so low? Segregating our army on the basis of religion is probably the worst possible form of polarism. The Indian Army was until now the only part of our ill-minded society which was kept away from religion-based differences. All that our Army does for us is collective effort. They do it out of love for the nation, irrespective of their religion. Our country is currently facing the kind of situation which it hasn’t faced in years! It is now our responsibility to alert ourselves, and to elect leaders who are worthy of the positi...