Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi.

The book is about the plights of the protagonist in the Muslim conservative regime in Iran. She speaks how the religiously blinded authority made the life of women (and men too) highly difficult. Now when you look at it, isn’t it the same in India too? Women are highly oppressed here! Now there is another dimension to it - add religion, now you have got everything!

To quote an idea from the book, If God wanted women to hide their hair, he/she would have made them bald! I had a friend in college, who had to wear a veil since her family forced her to. The first year of the college, she used to wear it; but slowly she ended up wearing the veil only when she is going back home. 

I am some one who does not believe in God. The religion, in my arrogant opinion, should only be a solace, for the one's in need. When it becomes a weapon for oppression, it should be uprooted. There is no evil larger than the one which is spawned in the false name of God. There is nothing barbaric than forcing ladies to wear a veil, to consider them lesser souls.

India as a country is growing economically. But as a society we are going back. In my state Kerala, I see more women covered from top to bottom, than 5 years back. And if one is foolish enough to believe that they are not doing that out of compulsion, then one is a hippocratic bastard with crow shit for brains. 

Wanderlust.

Gypsy girl longed for a settled life. She had enough of the wanderings. She wanted a warm bed and a nice roof over her head. She started a liking towards dark clothes.

She found herself a house; she bought a bed; started setting it all up. And it was only the third day evening that she got it all settled. Tired, she went to sleep. She slept for ages. She woke up and took her bag and walked out. After a while, she remembered she had decided to settle down in a house. But she was already two or three towns away from her house.

Amnesia.

Nothing is forgotten. No one can ask me to forget something, can they? Even if they can ask, why would they think that I am gonna forget it? Even if I say Yes and meant it, would it be possible to forget something like that? Even if it is possible, wouldn’t it be going in circles since wouldn’t I have forgotten that I would have forgotten everything? Or would I have forgotten how to make things forgotten?

The Kite.

“The higher you fly, the more you see. The more you see, the more you wanna travel; it’s the same for men as well as kites - Keep that in mind. Also, know that you loose only the best kites, because it takes a very good kite to soar so high that it’s ambition wins over our strength.

The boy bought the new kite and started walking back home. The kite-seller’s advice though was supposed to make him feel better about loosing his favourite kite, he was still sullen. He cherished his kites. He loved flying kites and thought of them as his friends. When the kite is flying high, he feels connected to it, he is exhilarated. It is like the kite is his eye and the string is the nerve connecting him to it .It is not just the kite that is soaring high, it’s himself.

That day he went to the terrace early and took out his new kite. Since it was new he didn’t know its name. He loosened the string and let the kite out. It took to wind amazingly fast. It soared higher and higher. The kid flew it for hours and hours. He finally understood what the kite-maker said. But this time he didn’t wait for the string to break - he let it go.