Chandrika, I love your blog not only because you write beautifully, but also because I learn a lot about other lifestyles and cultures.
For example, about sex appeal. Your experience is not so different from mine. I was a teenager in Germany in the 1970s. It was the time of the so-called "sexual revolution". Everyone could see which shapes of women's bodies were considered beautiful (or sexy) not only in magazines, but even on billboards. But like you, I couldn't do much with it.
I didn't fit the that time Western ideal of beauty anyway. I wasn't blonde, I didn't have straight hair, and I wasn't super thin. No need for magazines to make me feel ugly. Noticing boys were suddenly more interested in my "beautiful" classmates than in me did the job.
Yes, I was unhappy during those years.
Today I am grateful for that. Instead of constantly worrying about “beautifying” myself, I started reading days and nights. And much later, when men started to reach out to me, I was able to deal with that much better.
I think you cannot predict or even influence much how children will react to all of the world's adversities and their irritations about those. You can only try to support them when they are confronted with them. But I believe they will find their way. Perhaps (and hopefully) in many ways easier than you might expect.
I wonder how many parents suffer over this dilemma--how much to protect children, how much to explain. Meanwhile, I guess there's chayote squash. If I make this one, it'll be my first chayote!
Do make it! You'll love it. And remember the morekozhambu you made with cauliflower instead of okra? Well you can make one heck of a morekozhambu with chayote! :)
Chandrika, I love your blog not only because you write beautifully, but also because I learn a lot about other lifestyles and cultures.
For example, about sex appeal. Your experience is not so different from mine. I was a teenager in Germany in the 1970s. It was the time of the so-called "sexual revolution". Everyone could see which shapes of women's bodies were considered beautiful (or sexy) not only in magazines, but even on billboards. But like you, I couldn't do much with it.
I didn't fit the that time Western ideal of beauty anyway. I wasn't blonde, I didn't have straight hair, and I wasn't super thin. No need for magazines to make me feel ugly. Noticing boys were suddenly more interested in my "beautiful" classmates than in me did the job.
Yes, I was unhappy during those years.
Today I am grateful for that. Instead of constantly worrying about “beautifying” myself, I started reading days and nights. And much later, when men started to reach out to me, I was able to deal with that much better.
I think you cannot predict or even influence much how children will react to all of the world's adversities and their irritations about those. You can only try to support them when they are confronted with them. But I believe they will find their way. Perhaps (and hopefully) in many ways easier than you might expect.
I wonder how many parents suffer over this dilemma--how much to protect children, how much to explain. Meanwhile, I guess there's chayote squash. If I make this one, it'll be my first chayote!
Do make it! You'll love it. And remember the morekozhambu you made with cauliflower instead of okra? Well you can make one heck of a morekozhambu with chayote! :)