CHANGE WE MUST, CHANGE WE CAN

Hello Friends,

How are you doing? Trust all's fine with you by the grace of God.Last month's blog I spoke about women's emancipation and liberation and explained that the day a woman can stand up to her convictions and refuse to accept her identity by the stereotypical roles defined for her, from that day on everyday would be Women's Day.

Here's some good news from the west and some not-so-good news from India on this front.Okay, here it is....in the history of Oscars,Kathryn Bigelow,ex-wife of James Cameron (whose film Avatar was tipped to sweep the Oscars...yeah as I was told!) became the first woman to win the Oscar for the Best Director and the Best Film for her film The Hurt Locker...and it swept away some major wins in the other categories as well. No doubt about that,it was definitely Bigelow's biggest evenings of her life! Though one had the gut feeling that she'd win the Oscar when she won at the BAFTA's and I had an inkling that her win was imminent....but then Avatar was a favorite too after all Cameron toppled his own film Titanic with the highest grossing film worldwide with the collections of a record $2,685,140,003 ...so this fact could not be ignored either. Another factor if I analyze things correctly was at the BAFTAs in 2008, when Danny Boyle swept the BAFTA's for his film Slum-dog Millionaire and that gave him the edge at the Oscars...so definitely Bigelow had earned her brownies before the big night and took home the coveted prize (right under the nose from her ex-husband)! 


And what more....we had many firsts too....Sandra Bullock and Mo'Nique won their first Oscars on their maiden nominations for the Best Actress and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for their outstanding performance in The Blind Side and Precious:Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire respectively.

(Buzz: Call it the Oscar curse, Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes have gone their separate ways and this comes less than a year after she won the Oscar for her film,The Reader. And now reportedly the latest news comes that Sandra Bullock's marriage is on the rocks after she discovered her husband Jesse James had been cheating on her!)

Coming to India,it was not a good news. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had been waiting to give the women of India a surprise on International Women's Day when she managed to get the Bill for Women representation in Parliament passed in the Upper House but the celebrations were spoilt when little did she expect the backlash and the volatile reactions by politicians from different quarters....now after the hue and cry let's wait to see whether the Lower House decides to give women her due by passing the bill (only after the bill is passed in the Lower House will it become an Act) with an overwhelming majority or put it on the backburner for further discussion and debates!! Time will give us an insight into the psyche of the people at power and what they think of women.

Some more good news in store....finally Barack Obama's Herculean efforts have paid off,his endeavor to provide affordable health care insurance to all Americans through the Health care Bill irrespective of their medical history and any pre-existing conditions has seen the light of the day and 32 million people are likely to benefit from this health care legislation. The long and short of it is -No American can be refused a Healthcare insurance from now on... Good going Obama, you done it! This was not easy...considering that the win was by a narrow margin of 7-8 votes and 34 democrats choosing to vote against the Health care bill. I wish India could draw some inspiration from the west and have such a health-care legislation too that could benefit the people at large where change in lifestyle has resulted in many occupation-related diseases as well.

Alright the next good news again coming from India,Kapil Sibal has finally made yet another major reform in the education sector. Of course he's been working hard at abolishing the exam system and bring in the grading system as is done in the west and he has suceeded in doing so amidst stiff opposition as always. But the plume on his hat is the Right to Education act - where no one can be deprived of education. So, India is definitely marching forward in the right direction and surely the Right to Education will definitely make a world of difference....may be from now on people can choose their words correctly when they refer to India as a land of snake charmers! So,all in all in the last two months there have been some really interesting developments which have a far-reaching effect on our future as well.

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Take care and ciao until next month!

Love, 
Sonyaa