Monday, May 09, 2005
Had to share this...
Marriages Are Made
My cousin Elena
is to be married
The formalities
have been completed:
her family history examined
for T.B. and madness
her father declared solvent
her eyes examined for squints
her teeth for cavities
her stools for the possible
non-Brahmin worm.
She's not quite tall enough
and not quite full enough
(children will take care of that)
Her complexion it was decided
would compensate, being just about
the right shade
of rightness
to do justice to
Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu
good son of Mother Church.
-- Eunice deSouza
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11 comments:
Difficult to appreciate this.Though a deepseated stray streak of unkindness is revealed in these lines.
You have set a benchmark on your Quick tale 16. You can matchup to it..without contriving to go for a `twist in the tale'.
Who is Eunice D'Souza any relation to Derek D'Souza
me in tune with tangent...
ispired by u...i have some thing my in my blog...
I like it. Matter-of-fact but still a sharp comment on things as they stand today. I like it very much indeed.
sounds like something YOU would write. btw, put some of my friends on to your quick tales and now, they can't have enough! :)
cheers!
ramya
WOW, so much anger in the poem.Too much of prejudice perhaps? But, then prejudice never needs much reason. Just my 2 cents worth of opinion.
i jus got to ur site while browsing....
Oh boy..... i have seen a lot of people gone through and goin through this kind of crap!!! but is anyone fighting it??....
Thanks for dropping by. Wouldn't have found your blog otherwise. Fantastic posts!! Have gone through your archives too.
Like Eunice. Like her writings. To answer guevara, Eunice DeSouza is a writer and retired HOD of the literature dept of Bombay Univ. Great woman!
Hi ammani, i would definitely not call it a poem and i know it is not...i don't know whether i am supposed to laugh or cry at the fate you have assigned to your cousin! but one thing once again stands out..your concern with women on the brink of marriage.
For Vandhiya-Thevan:
Have you read God of small things? Doesn't matter if you haven't here - I just wanted to use that ringing phrase: "caste Hindus and Caste christians".
When you convert into Christianity/ Islam in India you are hoping to enter a free, casteless world but that is not the reality in the subcontinent. Everyone knows who your ancestors were.
The Brahmins still consider themselves superior and they will only marry other 'Brahmins' though they became Christians from the time of Vasco Da Gama i.e atleast 5 centuries ago. Don't ask me where the knowledge of the family-tree comes in an otherwise undocumented family history in India!!!
That is why there are still Lobo-Prbahus or suchlike .......or the name mentioned in the last line of this poem.
Got it? I thought the poem was excellent but definitely you need context to understand it. Try asking your Goan/Manglorean friends.
Stop blogging right now!
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