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Snow

Ka as he likes to be called, is visiting his home town Kars - a small town of Turkey, after a long time. He is a poet and journalist staying in Germany. He is curious and also disturbed about a lot of girls and women committing suicide in the town. And people believe that he has come to write a report on that.

One of his friends suggests that these women were sad and upset, which caused them to kill themselves. But then another person reasons, if all sad women commit suicide, half the women in Kars would be dead by now. (Half is under estimation , and not only in Kars).



There was a girl who wanted to wear head scarf to her college. An intelligent and hard working girl. But the secular government has banned head scarves in public places. She protests and continues to go to college wrapping the head scarf. She is removed from the college and the same day she kills herself.

This is how the story of "Snow " by Orhan Pamuk - a Nobel winning author , starts. The book is interesting (as opposite to profound !!) unlike the previous books I was trying to read.

Now we have all heard of the women in European countries who face problems when they want to cover their heads with head scarves. You may say that it is very orthodox nature of muslim women. But what about millions of north Indian women who will cover their faces in ghunghat.

The question is why would a woman, in this case an educated college girl want to wear head scarf on her own free will? We would like to assume that free thinking or thinking women can understand how this patriarchal society wants to keep the women in shadows and ignorant and always a shadow of a man. But we are wrong, it looks like.

That reminds me, one of my relatives, a smart if not highly educated woman was supporting the cruel and inhuman custom of shaving the heads of brahmin widows, reasoning that it will stop the men from getting attracted to them. Grrrrr.... OK. Now that custom is almost gone, in Karnataka at least. 

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