Erin Brockovich – SKR Web

March 3, 2022March 3, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

‘…Books are lovely dark or deep,

we readers have promises to keep

As we have millions more to read!’

I may have distorted these immortal words of Robert Frost, but I guess he and his fans would forgive me because my intention is right! I love the original lines so much because they end up being the real motivation behind me picking up my pieces every time I fall. So, I feel like it is my right as a writer and reader to pick these lines and give them a new color and flavor regarding this beautiful realization about the lack of our inclinations to read. The technology is riding its high, especially during these covid/post covid times. Because of its abundance, we end up reading from devices and apps like Kindle and audible have become our friends of convenience. But there are times when most of us readers crave to hold that rough or smooth page scraping our fingers. We feel satisfied when we inhale the nostalgia left by the smell of paper and its printing ink when we happen to flip through the physical pages of the novels before our eyes. There are these books and then there are books that we don’t pick up despite them being our housemates for quite a while.

Have you ever had books that have been lying on the bookshelf right in front of you, yet are ignored by you all the time? I know I have quite a few that I have bought to read but never end up going past their cover page. Sometimes the cover no longer lures me, at other times I left it after the first chapter because it was not up to my self-developed standard as a reader! In my whole honesty, there may be around 10 books in my vicinity that have maintained their virgin identity since the 3 years of their stay with me. On this world book day, initially, I was thinking about writing perhaps a book review or an article about an author. But then when I was browsing through my book corner, I realized there have been so many books orphaned deliberately by me. So, I feel today is the perfect day to talk about them. Maybe it will motivate me to give them the importance they deserve. We all need to give them their due respect because when we think about the effort that went behind bringing them to life, these books deserve to be picked up and read through and through.

As my son became his inspired version favorite book character today, I realized how soon in our lives do we start choosing our favorites. This morning as I painted him as a cyborg with all my creativity flowing through my brush, I felt it was my moral duty to make him aware of this unconscious responsibility he is carrying over his tiny shoulders. While getting him ready I playfully asked him why he chose this character. His answer was simple “I find the book very interesting because of Eric the robot. I also sometimes wonder what it would be if a robot can feel like a human!” I smiled and replied to him, “then it would be a human again darling.” He stared past me through his whole routine as if absorbing what I said. But I continued with my rant, “but you must remember that if you love one book then that does not mean you will treat others any less!” he looked at me and answered back very softy, “just like humans and relations, Mumma! Because the writer of those unread books might feel bad because I did not appreciate their efforts.” I nodded in approval. That was big, even for me! I realized we as readers are many times doing just that. When we choose one over the other, we are in a way undermining the talent hidden inside other reads just because we might like the look of one more. What if we treat our books as our friends in reality? Shouldn’t it be difficult for us to choose one friend to be our best among so many good ones? The books might not have emotions but the writers when they pour their heart out in their writings, have! We never know how much of them they have put in while bringing their thought and words to life in the form of a book that is left ignored in that dark corner of our room.

Well, there is no better time to make things right than now! As I am writing my thoughts for you all to read, I am proud to see this book sitting next to my laptop that I have chosen to pick up as my next read right after I finish my writing. It is one of those 10 unread books that have been my silent companion for some time. I understand I had to focus my mind and will my feelings to understand that I need to have the same enthusiasm as when I bought them. How about we all try this occasionally. Pick those that are lying unattended in our bookshelves more often and have a deliberate read through them. Like any healthy relationship, they will eventually grow on us. When we give them the importance they deserve, we can turn it into a habit in our lives to move away from our step-relations in all forms as we develop our habit of acceptance by choice. There should be no compulsion in the choices we made but a simple conscious effort when we make our everyday choice. So today on World Book Day, let us get up and stroll through our furniture, move towards that dusty corner of our bookshelves, corners, boxes and pick the one that we have never chosen. How about we dream this day through those words that perhaps have stopped attracting us. Let us choose that unchosen one and perhaps we can find that treasure of knowledge that has been kept away from our mind by none other than us! Read on for I wish you all Happy reading…

Films

Are we really Accepting Feminism?

October 29, 2021October 29, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

While watching Erin Brockovich on my “night alone”, I heard her telling her boss Ed upon his judgement of her physical appearance, “I Think I Look Nice. And As Long As I Have One Ass Instead Of Two, I’ll Wear What I Like, If That’s Alright With You….Maybe You Should Re-Think Those Ties.” That dialogue just clicked wirth my sleeply self and I immediately picked up my laptop to write about the perceptions. Then I further realised why are we even thinking about men like Ed? Do they really matter that much? why don’t we think about women like us, amongst us, who I feel end up becoming their own worst enemies while judging so many of us! It is a such a serious topic to write, think and discuss among ourselves. Breeding our prejudices as women and criticising our own just so that we can be accepted at a particular, so-called desirable level in society; are we not digging our grave and constantly falling in the never-ending pit? I just wonder is it wrong to need self-affirmations and yet remain a feminist at heart? Am I creating a confusion or pushing towards chaos when I proclaim my love to look beautiful and I like when people appreciate that beauty? But just to calm the waters a little, I live when other see the beauty in me that I see in myself and what if they don’t. For that is the point where I want all of us to focus that what matters is we how we see ourselves. Others are just others in random! When I see the mirror covering a large part of my bedroom wall, I feel it is me. I feel beautiful however I am. I feel I might rough up some collars when I find my feminine power to have beauty, grace creativity, nurturing the warmth that is me being female. But that is just how I look at myself. Others may feel just the opposite. And that is okey too. There are many who are truthfully right in saying that women are still discriminated and disproportionally represented in our society at large, however my point here is not to negate them in any way or lessen their importance, for what they are saying is so true. My point is when they are suffering so many of such problems all around, then do we really need them and their likes to face another set of irrelevant and unimportant problems of self-negation and non-acceptance from their own sex? It may seem a trivial topic to discuss by many but if we are unable to discuss so-called smaller issues then how will we address and resolve the existing bigger ones? It is all about freedom to self-exist and co-exist and be able to do or not do what we want. Many of us may find great power in selective silence and just existing, but that need to be and I quote, ’self-selective’ and not obligatory. If we do not need the confirmations of beauty from others then we also do not need Backlash for not being the career driven, outgoing fighter. Why not let us explore our own individual corner and find strength in that. Won’t that be included in our individual fight of feminism? Just accepting who we are and accepting who other like us are as individuals is a big step taken in our journey towards understanding the focal points of feminism.

Feminism is no more just about beating the baton about difference and discrimination of men and women. It is more about our inner fight now. It is how we fight with ourselves, our insecurities, our views about our own gender. How we treat our own and ourselves as well. We need not be identified just for our traits for we are way above and beyond these pointers! We need to realise that it is as okey to be able to dress femininely and celebrate visual beauty, as it is fine to be all masculine in approach identifying more with emotional stability. With time these feminine and masculine words need to have an interchangeable acceptability for these were mere one of the traits used to demarcate not only between men and women but even among women. This myth that women dress beautifully to confirm to male standards, and dress masculine to barge in and compete with them needs to die sudden death. We need to realise that feminism does not need men in any way to proclaim its strength. They are no more in the racefor there is no need. They are welcome to have their own theories, debates, and research papers to discuss their own plight and conditions as well! We won’t and don’t to mix that with our point of focus. They are there to enlarge the world’s horizon physically and emotionally and have their own individuality but that it where their interference and presence should end. They are a separate entity, but we need to realise and accept in totality that so are we as indivisuals and as whole!

The only concepts we need to stay away from is pressure, force, and obligations. These are the words that involuntarily demarcate our own sex. We tend to demean each other keeping in focus our own prejudices about the other side. It’s a basic logic of harming our own with result being feminism to be typecast as a cliché terminology! While criticising each other for perhaps being too feminine, masculine, too career-oriented, too domestic, too dependent, too independent, and so much more, we are weakening our own and in return ourselves only. When we trash each other, we are benefitting only those who stand outside our circle ready to pounce and demean our efforts to rise above all. When Joe Freeman in 1976 wrote, “it is not done to expose disagreements or resolve differences. It is done to disparage and destroy.” This is well applicable in my idea of feminism as well. Instead of blaming our own and name calling within our own beliefs, what we need is to just come together, break down our own barriers and boundaries and accept! We need to fill our own gaps and level the bumps among our existence. How about we take the exclusivity from feminism and make it a common part of our being. The more inclusive we make, the more strength the concept of feminism will become! How about we really accept feminism and be there for women like us no matter how different they may be…

Tag: <span>Erin Brockovich</span>

Those Books in that dusty corner!

Are we really Accepting Feminism?