FilmIndia (1945)

November, 1945 FILMINDI A ance which rushes into the eyes, hypnotising all other balancing senses. This one-way journey from the eye to the heart is rather a rush job in comparison with the slow and gradual travel between the blind man's ear and his heart In the latter case quality has to sink into the heart gradually and gently. The blind man's beloved is a safer bet. MISS USHA RANI SRIVASTAVA (Allahabad) Isn't it our privilege under present environments to select our life-partners ourselves? Why a new privilege? It is an universally accepted ancient custom. Seeta, Savitri, Draupadi, Rukmini and many others chose their own husbands and lived as goddesses in the memory of men. In the West, parents rarely interfere with their daughters' matrimonial affairs. Only in India, the over-wise parents think what is good for their daughters and always wrongly. Many a wilful and old-fashioned mother has ruined her daughter's life claiming her stupid right to do so by virtue of the biological necessity of the child having been accommodated in her womb for nine months. Human life has to be born that way and I often wonder what particular favour a mother confers on the child if she carries the babe for nine months ? The burden is a liability of her own sex indulgence and nature jettisons it in its own time. How is the litt'e one in any way indebted to the mother? Millions of mothers do the same thing every minute all over the h is rather a warm situation between Madhuri and Trilok Kapoor in "Gvalan" a social story of Amar Pictures. It is a safe angle of Maya Bannerjee which Surendra Desai caught in "Ratnavali" an Amar picture. world and where is the special favour in any individual case ? And yet this common phenomenon is often quoted as a great act of martyrdom by wily, self-willed mothers when their selfish, orthodox notions conflict with the present-day rational thoughts of their daughters — particularly on the vexed problem of marriage. It is a mean, heinous crime to impose on a daughter orthodox, selfish notions which contribute only to the ruin of the girl's future. It is an unholy blackmail under the camouflage of natural affection. Mere motherhood does not necessarily make every woman a good person. Many a mean, dirty woman also becomes a mother and a mean, dirty mother at that. Motherhood does not change the original woman in a person. The newspapers report of many mothers who throw their babes into the dustbins. Where then is the privilege or the love of the nine-months' accommodation? At best it is a selfish argument of a cunning, wily woman who is trying to compel her child to do something irrational and unwilling. Such mothers are the scourge of society. They are child murderesses and not loving mothers. Real motherhood begins after the child is born— during those years of care and nursing when the child needs an affectionate pal from step to step. Napoleon blessed his mother not because she merely gave him birth, but because she proved an understanding friend in his many moments of crisis. That is real motherhood— affectionate sympathy and not self-willed tyranny. And to be a true 25