’Hinduphobia’ is literally not a thing in India, you just want to be oppressed because your entire life you’ve been conditioned to be patriotic and nationalist and that almost always means Hindu nationalism and you’ve been conditioned to such a degree that you cannot hear marginalised groups criticise mainstream Hinduism without spontaneously combusting. In this essay I will

also the way those kinds of ppl immediately go to ur profile to find ANYTHING to use against u like ur sexuality, gender, etc and degrade u for it just cus of a differing opinion on smth completely unrelated. they immediately label ur identities as the fault in thinking differently than them and try to make u feel inferior cus of it. its pathetic but it gives u a good laugh sometimes

Identifying as trans in online spaces is crazyyyyy. I am afab and haven't been on hormones or gotten any surgery, neither do I wish to. But I changed my pronouns on Instagram after coming out to friends, and IMMEDIATELY got called very specific slurs about my physical appearance, implying I'll never be a real woman because of my features, which was frankly hilarious because, to repeat,

a) I was assigned female at birth and present as conventionally feminine b) I'm not in fact a "real" woman nor do I wish to be if the ideal of real womanhood is soft delicate hairless coquettecore waifu (this includes sapphic womanhood too) and c) this entire online transphobic outburst of rage was because I said Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan is a poorly written female character and AOT stans got defensive about her. Defensive about Mikasa, famously called "Mankasa" by the same fandom because she got short hair in s4 and her body was made muscular and less petite than before.

It's just. so funny how cis people think they have had a true gotcha moment, when their idea of gender is so painfully limited and hideously outdated that they don't even realise their insults inadvertently end up as praise.

guess who's back bitches

babel, and why i love it (SPOILERS!!!!)

ok im terribly late to reading it, for its not sold in many places where i live, so i found the pdf luckily.

babel is a book about colonialism and racism and oppression, it is about revolution and battling your inner conscience (in my opinion at least, i'll elaborate later). it tells the story of robin swift coming to the prestigious royal institute of translation or better known as babel, where during his yrs there he discovers that the glamourous oxford university isnt such a righteous place. his loyalty is tested, blood is shed and tears fall which leads up to a revolution to stop an incoming war.

there are many reviews regarding how its racist to white ppl (which is astounding to even think about) and that its not accurate as women werent allowed to go to university in the 1830s but im not going to talk about that, that much. i wanted to speak on the actual translation/language aspect of it.

throughout the book, translation and language r some of the main themes (obviously) but the impact it has on the people, both in the book and irl is smth i havent seen anyone mention. language isnt just a form of communication but it is part of our culture, it is part of our identity, and during colonial times many languages suffered, they were being erased as they were "barbaric" or "strange" they were banned and anyone who spoke them was punished like in victoires chapter. robin, ramy and victoire all can barely speak their native languages, robin has almost fogotten cantonese, ramy has very basic knowledge of bengali and victoire is never given a chance or is permitted to speak in haitian creole. they lost one of the main things that connects them to their motherland, they only have their appearance left. they will never be able to talk to their ppl properly.

victoire was frustrated that haitian creole isnt recognised as a proper language like how in their exams, her match-pair wouldnt be counted properly as haitian creole wouldnt be used much hence its "useless" in the eyes of prof. leblanc. she was beaten when she would speak haitian croele in her house in france. when she first came to babel she was correcting herself from "kreyol" to "haitian creole" and was unsure if she could even study it.

robin realised that prof.lovell actually knew more than him about his own language, his mother tongue. he could barely stand being back in canton and he felt isolated in a way as everything changed and was new and so was the language even though he was born hearing and speaking it.

not much is talked about this with ramy except that he barely knows bengali, even though hes fluent in english, latin, greek, arabic, persian and urdu. he knows 6 languages and in his chapter he is sed to "absorb languages like a sponge" and that he recited poems or writing in other languages he didnt know perfectly, even down to tone, only after having it read to him once but he barely knows his mother tongue.

this relates to modern times as many languages of previously colonised countries rely on english words like in india u will barely hear the word pathshala, instead u will hear school. in mauritian creole when people speak they will slip in english words, like "netwai whiteboard la" which means clean the whiteboard.

we dont know our language fully because of the erasure of them.

theres also 1st gen immigrant children where their mother tongue is smth they barely hear or they forgot after a while, they feel so incredibly disconnected once they realise. this is how robin is and this is how i am too, i was born in europe, then at 7 i moved to england and now im somewhere entirely different, i dont remember my mother tongue, i dont dream in it. which ultimately makes u lose ur voice in a metaphorical way.

u cant speak because u dont know how.

another important thing is the purposeful mistranslations and burning of books, thats not fully discussed in the book although it would have been a nice touch. colonisers purposefully mistranslated things to control the masses because when they burnt our books, they burnt our language, knowledge and people. and the exploitation of our languages like the statue at univ of william jones sitting at desk and 3 hindu sages on the floor infront of him exists, and how missionaries were taught our languages to help in conversion.

now onto the 1830s inaccuracies and racism:

its the fucking 1830s do u think white ppl were nice to poc at this time, like slavery just ended in the eyes of the law for britain but still continued in other places like america. reverse racism doesnt exist, white ppl can be prejudiced against but u lot r not oppressed and never will be, u lot wont be killed for being white, so stop crying. and about the women wouldnt be at university in the 1830s thing its fiction, r.f. kuang took some liberties.

and that is all i have to say, dont start an argument, anyways babel is great, go read it!!

i haven't been here for so long but life update

1. i got into an academy which is one of the best skls in my country so ive been busy revising and stuff

2. i got a new saree and its GORGEOUS

3. this is smth that pissed me off but it doesn't affect me directly but, there's a guy in my class who's interested in philosophy and politics like me so i thought i could be friends with him. then in english we were doing oral class and it was about games, he goes on about chess (a game we both like) so i was like "i should talk to this guy he's interesting," THEN he says and i quote "...women have more opportunities than men..." because the queen piece can move the most and the king the least. HOW TF COULD HE SAY THAT

like women still face discrimination at work, in society, in their personal affairs like afghani women and girls can't get an education anymore cus of the taliban, women (and everyone but u get my point) in iran have had their freedom of choice and speech taken away, they are being murdered for simply speaking out. women get told they can't do jobs cus they're a woman, they have to live with people questioning their every point just cus they're a woman.

this guy also is part of the national youth parliament and spoke in parliament, i don't trust this guy.

how does a fucking chess piece relate to societal issues like that

4. ive been trying not to relapse which is getting to be a struggle

so yeh IM BACKKK

When the revolution ends, may unbreakable and neverending karma comes to the monsters swiftly.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFqwjLDR/

SAY HER NAME!!

hoping the day they see freedom isn't far, women, life, freedom

i have risen from the dead, i was partially deaf in my ears and a bunch of personal stuff happened but im back hopefully for a while

So... America has started some new Trend. Exactly at the same time when things have started gaining Momentum in Iran.

Maybe the Idiot (Khamenei) of Iran begged America for help, so that he can MASSACRE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE CURRENTLY IMPRISONED FROM THE STREETS DURING THEIR REVOLT AGAINST THE REGIME.

Execution orders are being passed.

Pandemic Amnesty and whatever other Bullshit can be dealt with later on also.

Issue in Iran needs OUR IMMEDIATE AND URGENT ATTENTION. IT IS URGENT AND IMPORTANT.

Pandemic is with us. It may be with us even after the Iranian Revolution has succeeded in getting rid of the Islamic Regime.

PLEASE KEEP SPREADING NEWS ABOUT IRAN AND THE REVOLUTION.

Amnesty and other Bullshit can be dealt with later on.

Please.

I BEG OF YOU!!!!

@browsing-my-favourite-fandoms i hope ur ok, and ur @ is back!!

this is in the works btw

@kaurava-apologist (idk why but tumblr unfollowed u on my account, and can't find ur main @)

im thinking of starting a series of like two girls, one is a princess and the other is her lady in waiting and they secretly spar and practice archery together in the woods. they're in love but they can't be together due to the princess being engaged to some random prince. then on the wedding night, idk what happens thats how far i got to. btw this is either set in rajasthan or west bengal

sobbing my eyes out at 2 am is a hobby atp

may she rest in peace and may iran gain it's freedom.

women. life. freedom.

40th day since Ghazaleh Chelabi was murdered in the protests against dictatorship and misogyny. Women are burning their hijab at her graveside.

i have a little maa saraswati murti, which i was pestering my dad to buy, and i talk to her almost daily about everything; my problems, my achievements, my doubts, etc. but shes there listening and i feel heard and seen, the connection i feel to her is just comforting. shes always been a part of my life and me, she was there when i was little and she's here now. idk, im so happy shes here!! she looks out for me and helps me whenever i need it and im forever grateful. so thank u for listening to my rant about how dear maa saraswati is to me <333 i could do this about maa durga but i want a small murti of her in my room first but ughh they're amazing <333

the desi urge to run in the sugarcane fields with ur friends, wear thick kohl and have all the old grandmas stare, eat laddus and barfi in the middle of the night, dance to bollywood songs instead of studying, learn tamil, telegu or sanskrit and fail miserably, stare at dias on diwali at midnight, use a different dupatta for a suit because it's longer, have aloo ke pharate the second u feel hungry, wear ur ethnic jewellery for no reason, be rebellious and get away with it after two days, celebrate every festival like there's no tomorrow, beg ur mum to let u have a nose piercing, drawing bindis with eyeshadow and eyeliner when u run out of the coloured stick-ons, have a patiala-styled suit stitched, keep a murti/holy book on ur bedside table and speak to them daily, race around town to get pani puris with a girl without ur parents knowing, visit mandirs regularly just because, stare in awe at dancers performing cultural dances, procrastinate in spite of exams, be yourself unapologetically even though ur mum will murder u, light fire crackers on diwali