Contents: The Other Mothers: Imagining Motherhood Differently (Issue 69)
Contents: The Other Mothers: Imagining Motherhood Differently (Issue 69)
Dec 7
Issue Editorial: In Quest of a definition of Motherhood
By Paromita Sengupta
When millions of children world over are in need of families, what sense is there in creating designer laboratory babies? Is it so urgent and important to reproduce and replicate the genotype, at any cost?
Glimmerings of Parenthood
By Kamla Bhasin
We had known each other for over six years but had never even talked about having a child. Neither of us had strong parental instincts. Sometimes when I saw parents with children, I did feel it would be nice to have a child but the feeling was never strong enough. Our work kept us busy and fulfilled.
Musings on the ‘Other’ Mothers
By Anuradha Mazumder
Aditya’s inspiring story, covered by the national media, especially by NDTV, underscores the necessity of ungendering ‘mother’ while also shifting the weight of emphasis from ‘mother’ as noun to ‘mother’ as verb.
The Adoption-Abduction Dilemma in Disney’s ‘Tangled’
By Barsha Mondal
The potential of any loving mother-daughter relationship between Gothel and Rapunzel, had already been destroyed. Hence it does not come as a surprise when Rapunzel questions whether she should even call her “Mother.” Once this recognition happens, Gothel degenerates both in appearance and function.
Unpacking the Complexities of Contemporary Motherhood in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Zikora’
By Sreya Mukherjee
While women have achieved remarkable successes in all walks of life, they still continue to grapple with the contentious issue of motherhood. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie poignantly captures the complications and complexities of 21st century motherhood in her short story, titled “Zikora: A Short Story,” which was published in 2020.
The Anatomy of Motherhood
By Prithvijeet Sinha
Motherhood can be an unholy trap. As I mature through my thirties and look at the world open up its cobwebs to reveal cavernous truths, the indices of female mortality rates during childbirth, women's roles halting at the junction of child-rearing and a lack of control over their own bodies present a bleak societal landscape.
Negotiating with Conventional Mother-Daughter Relationships Using Jungian Archetypes
By Chandrakala Ghosh
Grief is the continuation of a mother, any mother. When the foetus is expelled from the body, perhaps the grief latches on to it as a way of the mother saying: this is how it feels to me; does it feel the same to you? Sometimes, the child answers back, although a lot of years would pass between the mother posing the question and the child understanding it enough to respond to it.
Motherhood Re-Considered: A Survey of World Literature
By Ketaki Datta
Strangely enough, when the Battle of Kurukshetra was around the corner, mother Kunti had gone to seek a favour from her valiant child, who she had abandoned aeons ago. As she learnt of his coming of age and his mastery in acts of heroism like archery, she had gone to meet that once-abandoned son, staking a claim to her motherhood.
Delving into the Clenched Cords of Motherhood and Mental Illness
By Harshita Khatri and Liya Ann Mary
The bodily and psychological trauma of pregnancy is often veiled under the outer garb of seemingly bright-hued terms: ‘miracle of birth’ and ‘the beautiful phase of womanhood.’ The fact that motherhood is the most stressful and mentally taxing role for a woman is brushed under the carpet.
Deconstructing the Gendered Parenting Manual through the Medium of Cinema
By Ramsha Aveen
Motherhood is always identified with women with vagina and simultaneously the traits and attributes like warmth and nurture, expressiveness, emotion, sensitiveness, generosity, being of altruistic nature, soothing when dealing with pain and hurt feelings are reserved for the motherhood manual. The fatherhood manual falls at the opposite side of the motherhood scripts.
The Changing Roles of a Mother in Bollywood Movies
By Amarinder Gill
In 'Tamanna' (1997), Paresh Rawal, a transgender, raises a girl child who has been dumped in a trash bin because of son preference which seems to be the social order of a male dominated society.
Posthumous Pages
By Antara Mukherjee
My convent education and my progressive worldview, cultivated by my father, ran torrid current under my skin during my adulthood. I was more interested in crafting my own niche – questioning, doubting, and protesting – rather than stepping into mother’s unquestionable ritualistic shoes.
Café Dissensus 