Cafe Dissensus

By Ketaki Datta Mother/Matr/Mater – all these words refer to that graceful and kind figure that gives birth to a ball of life on earth. A mother is she who unconditionally loves the child she has given birth to. The new-born believes in the protection and support its mother proffers.

By Kamla Bhasin March, 1979 When the doctor told me that the result of the pregnancy test was positive, I did not know whether to be sad or rejoice at the news. After all, my partner and I had not made a decision to become pregnant. We were 39 (he) and 32 (me). Not very young anymore. In fact, getting to be a little old to have our first child. We had known each other for over six years but had never even talked about having a child. Neither of us had strong parental instincts.

By Chandrakala Ghosh This paper has a Tumblr post as its central premise. Maintaining anonymity behind a vague username, the creator of the post (@honeytuesday) writes: “Mothers and daughters exist as wretched mirror images of one another: I am all you could have been and you are all I might be.” The relationship between a mother and her (girl) child has been a significant topic of discourse, which has often transcended temporal boundaries.

By Sreya Mukherjee Motherhood, for a long time, has remained a contentious issue within feminist discourses. While on one hand, motherhood is perceived as a biological constraint for women, pinning them down within the confinement of the domestic sphere, motherhood is also recognized as an empowering experience. The ambivalence associated with motherhood might be one of the reasons behind mainstream feminism’s disassociation with motherhood as critical discourse and lived experience.

By Barsha Mondal The battle between “malevolent stepmothers and darling step-daughters” has always been a staple ingredient of Disney films. Cinderella, Snow white, Happily N’Ever After and others serve as classic examples of this cliched trope.

By Prithvijit Sinha Motherhood can be an unholy trap. As I mature through my thirties and look at the world open up its cobwebs to reveal cavernous truths, the indices of female mortality rates during childbirth, women’s roles halting at the junction of child-rearing and a lack of control over their own bodies present a bleak societal landscape.

Paromita Sengupta (Issue Editor), PhD, English is an academic, author, translator with a keen interest in independent filmmaking. Her book publications include an edition of The Persecuted, (the first drama to be written in the English language by an Indian, Revd. K. M. Banerjea), Bimukta (published by Eka, Westland Amazon in March 2020), a Bengali translation of The Liberation of Sita, a Sahitya Akademi Award winning collection of short stories by Volga.

By Paulami Sengupta Limits My womb rides a taxi in a new city Filled with an unwholesome penchant for strangers. Cobwebs knit themselves into promising patterns of baby lives. Look! Lovers on a bike without helmets. When will I reach, brother? One who drives the car knows my limits. Where there was blood once, there is flesh. Where there were rosters, there are dancers. Where there is dryness, there is someone to say ‘hydration is a priority’. If brokers call, can water supply be far behind?

By Anuradha Mazumder “Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation” – Robert A. Heinlein The question literally begs itself: Do I, an unmarried Indian woman of forty-seven, who has neither birthed a child nor adopted one, qualify as a suitable candidate to write on motherhood?

By Paromita Sengupta The trappings of motherhood are so powerful that even in today’s hi-tech neoteric world many women across the globe believe that biological motherhood is the ultimate goal of their life. They acquiesce to drain their time, energy and money and put themselves at huge health risks from repeated hormonal treatments and surgery to become pregnant and to be able to give birth.