SAN ANTONIO (TX) – South Asian women came
into focus here last month when India-Asia Association held its Fifth Women Conference on
“Empowering Women” with the objectives of creating self-confidence in them and
making them self-dependent.
Bapsi Sidhwa, the author of Cracking
India, a New York Times Noteable Book of the Year and a 1991 Quality Paper-Back Book Club
Selection, gave the keynote speech at the conference held at the India-Asia Association’s
own community center.
A Parsian from Pakistan and now
settled in Houston, Sidhwa kept her speech pretty much in line with the day’s theme,
“Empowering Women’’ and traced her own life of reawakening and empowerment
through literature.
While a little girl, Sidhwa was in
poor health. So, she mostly stayed home. She was home-tutored and could not learn some of
the intricacies of mathematics. Due to lack of interaction with other children, she lacked
social skills and faced some obstacles in her personal life.
Gifted with an extraordinary art of
sensitive observation and ability of written expression, she experienced life very
closely. Each of her books is a vivid reflection of her encounters with numerous events
and situations that featured her own life.
The author also read excerpts from
her books including the one titled “The Crow Eaters” which is based upon Parsi
culture and lifestyle.
The
film “Earth” based on Sidhwa’s book, directed by well-known filmmaker Deepa
Mehta, and starred
by Aamir Khan and Nandita Das, was also screened at the conference |
