You’re 40? Oh my god! Such an aunty you will become now.”
“You’re 35 and no kids! What happened?” “At 37, you decided to do something with your life. Were you bored? Wasn’t raising kids enough?”
Age. We say it’s nothing but a number. Yet it is. More so when you are a woman in India. It is as though everything is predetermined and revolves around a number. Get married by a certain number. Do the right thing and produce children by a certain number. Take care of the family — for this one there isn’t a specific age; it’s meant to be an almost lifelong ‘job’. But, yes, things are changing. Slowly but surely. I am then compelled to compare what happens to a cishet man in this country, though you probably already know the answer. Men get naughty at 40. Men have no constraints when it comes to age. For them, it is, indeed, nothing but a number.
I love reading, a fact that has been established by now. I devour books, and most of the writing I love happens to be by ‘older’ women. These days, more by design and choice than anything else. As I read these books, I never did ask myself how they came to be. What was the process? When were they written? At what age were the authors published? Why did it take them the amount of time it did to get published? Was it deliberate? Did they simply start writing late, or was there more to it?
この記事は Verve の October - November 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Verve の October - November 2019 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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