Born Confused

There aren't a great many of Asian consciousness fiction novels. I wasn't expecting Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier to be excellent, but it surprised me in being quite good. Granted, parts of the book were somewhat shallow although considering that this is about teenage girls, (not that all of them are shallow it wasn't overly surprising.

Dimple seems to be rather fortunate in her parental lottery not necessarily just because she has a whole family as is pointed out in the book, but because of her parents' openness and a certain amount of flexibility in their thinking.

I do think that the novel runs a bit longer than it needed to. It will probably not reach the heights of the joy luck club and is certainly not as serious, but it's a book that weaves the clash and confusion of two different cultures for a more modern feel. Modern day clash seems to be less dire although it still exists and this novel achieves that tone well.

India Reserving Seats for Women

Interesting bit of news. The upper house of the Indian Parliament passed a bill today with only 1 dissenting vote, which reserves a third of all seats in the parliament for woman. The bill will then be sent through the lower house where it has much support as well. This reminds me of affirmative action (while it was still popular) in the US. I hope it will serve its purpose of increasing the status of women in India, and then when the equality is better, this law can be repealed.

Part of what I hope this bill will accomplish is to reduce the sex ratio disparity in India. The disparity is thought to be caused by infanticide of female infants since they are not worth as much to the family, and the birth of a female is sometimes considered a drain on resources. With higher perceived worth on a national level, female infanticide may become less common as part of the trickle-down effect. Whether this occurs or not, I believe it is at least a step in the right direction.