Editors Speak

Little Man loves pink. He holds on to the pink balloon and expresses his preference for pink with an emphatic stress. When he hears me talk about brownness, he stops by to say that all colours are beautiful, but he loves pink the most. I listen to him. History of assigning of colours to particular genders shows how fickle the reason for such assignment is. 1 While market played a big role in decimating free choice of colours for babies’ clothing, it is interesting to note that at one point in time, pink was considered a stronger colour than blue and was thought to be more suitable for boys. The cementing of a particular colour as a choice for a particular gender is after all a method of creating a stereotype. It is a way of saying what is socially acceptable, without probing much into the dynamics that is limited by such ideas. It also creates a limiting choice of genders. The blue or pink market not only leaves little to the imagination but also ‘others’ genders other than male and

 ***October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child***  In India and across the world, the Bengali community tries to get together every autumn to celebrate the festival of the Mother goddess Durga and what is believed to be her family. For five continuous days (Shashti, Saptami, Ashtami, Nabami and Dashami) their worship engages the community. Outside India, the celebration is often limited to a weekend.  Many autumns ago, on Ashtami mornings I used to sit with my sister at the foot of the stairs. We wore our mothers' sarees, tugged deep into our bodies. On those mornings, the air used to be heavy with the scent of ghee smouldered burnt cotton balls. It was like Saptami and Nabami, with the exception of this particular ritual.  Our grandmother would sit on the floor in spite of her rheumatism. She would take the cloth wrapped stick , dip it in some red   liquid (called  alta ) and comment on how thin the consistency has become, in comparison to last year's  alta  . The