1. A Thousand Splendid Sons
by Khaled
Hosseini – The life of Mariam in the book is so tragic that I can never
ever forget the ordeal she went through. Yet she fights all the evil forces
personified in her husband and in the society around and finally sacrifices her
life for her husband’s second wife, who is another victim in the entire
scenario. There are millions of women who face a life such as this or even
worse and it constantly troubles me, especially when we in the academic circles
are so much into theorizing and evolving models that are supposed to solve
problems for people. Being an economist
and a feminist I am often in a state of angst as the philosophy of the two tend to vie with each other to a large extent.
The sociological and the economic underpinnings of the economic agent are
crucial in any setting and this is exactly what Economics tends to ignore
(especially the classical and the neo classical schools of economic thought). However
all is not so bleak, for there are meeting grounds for the two disciplines that
looks at the reality of the millions of Mariams around. The meeting ground has
to be recognized and evolved by researchers and thinkers. The process in on but
needs to be developed and applied in policies much more.
2.
The above takes me to the next book that
has truly impressed me and it is a book that I keep reading off and on viz.
Beyond the Economic Man edited by Marianne A. Ferber and Julie A Nelson.
This is a collection of papers written by various authors on Feminist Theory
and Economics. In fact it is an investigation into what really is wrong with my
discipline Viz. Economics. Many of the papers in the book look at the
interweaving of gender into the epistemology of economics or a critique of the
lack thereof. It examines the androcentricism within the discipline and the
invisibility of women in economic theories. In fact what I honestly must state
is that all the variables we tend to hold constant or are apt to ignore in
economic models, do have an extremely significant role to play in reality. The
book helps in highlighting the ‘sound of silence’.
3.
Another book that has
always been my favorite is To Kill a
Mocking Bird by Harper lee. This
is a book I read when I was a child and it made a deep impression on me. It
taught me various little things that have fallen in place as I faced life. In
fact the concept of don’t shoot the mocking bird taught to the children in the
book has impressed me so much for it was at that time that I learned the song “When
the sun in the morning peeps over the hill, and kisses the roses round my
window sill, then my heart fills with gladness when I hear the trill, of the
birds in the treetops on Mockin’ Bird Hill” From my mother. The mocking bird never harms plants or fruits, all
it does is sing and make music! It also signifies the vulnerable in society who
are often victimized by a rude callous world. The characters Boo Radley – the
recluse, Jem Finch an innocent child who is forced to face the tough reality
with injustice around, and Tom Robinson the black man accused of raping a white
girl all represent the vulnerable mocking bird. Tom Robinson is denied justice
and is convicted of raping Mayella Ewell by an all white jury!! In this world justice is rarely obtained – a hard lesson I have
learned from this text.
~~ By Crystal David John
This was published in the Indian Express (EDEX) on 19/11/2012
