Indian Writing

I sometimes dream of situations that can’t possibly come true. I audaciously imagine, for example, that I get a chance to chat with the Ecclesiastes, the author of that moving lament on the vanity of all human endeavors. I would bow very deeply before him, because he is, after all, one of the greatest poets, for me at least. That done, I would grab his hand. “‘There’s nothing new under the sun’: that’s what you wrote, Ecclesiastes. But you yourself were born new under the sun. And the poem you created is also new under the sun, since no one wrote it down before you. And all your readers are also new under the sun, since those who lived before you couldn’t read your poem. And that cypress that you’re sitting under hasn’t been growing since the dawn of time. It came into being by way of another cypress similar to yours, but not exactly the same. And Ecclesiastes, I’d also like to ask you what new thing under the sun you’re planning to work on now? A further supplement to the thoughts you’ve already expressed? Or maybe you’re tempted to contradict some of them now? In your earlier work you mentioned joy - so what if it’s fleeting? So maybe your new-under-the-sun poem will be about joy? Have you taken notes yet, do you have drafts? I doubt you’ll say, ‘I’ve written everything down, I’ve got nothing left to add.’ There’s no poet in the world who can say this, least of all a great poet like yourself.”

From Wislawa Szymborska’s 1996 Nobel Lecture.

Self-immolation by Afghan women trapped in oppressive circumstances seems to be on the rise.

Fourteen pages of the commission’s report are dedicated to brief descriptions by family members of reasons these women committed suicide. Most are because of rape, beatings and accusations against their honor.

Despite arguments that, among other things, “female judges might become pregnant while serving on the bench and that would affect the judiciary’s prestige”, Egypt has, for the first time, appointed 31 women judges.

In the UK, a new report reveals that Black and Asian women find it harder than white women to get jobs.

EOC chair Jenny Watson said: “Young Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black Caribbean women are ambitious and equipped for work, but they are still suffering even greater penalties at work than white women. Time after time women told us about the ‘unwritten rules’ in their workplace, hidden barriers that prevent them from realising these ambitions. Without tackling these unwritten rules, change will never come.

In Iran, anti-stoning activists are being detained.

In England, a debate about women’s prisons.

And in St. Louis, renovations at Busch Stadium will ensure that women will have as many restrooms as men.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday that those changes will put the new stadium in compliance with a state law the stadium’s architects didn’t know existed last year. Enacted in 1995, the law requires that sports stadiums and other large public venues have as many toilets for women as it has toilets and urinals for men.