- An Indian woman author, Suman Chopra, in an article titled "WOSSIP ( WOMEN GOSSIP )", quoting an ancient African proverb says : "If a woman speaks two words, take one and leave the other". Suman further says "Notwithstanding who indulges in gossip, for some reason, it is an established fact that 90% of the women gossip with women, and the men with men. The invention of telephone greatly enlarged the area of operation and shifted the sphere of gossip's influence from the sun-bathed rooftop to far off by-lanes of the city and even beyond. The saying goes that if men must walk a mile, the women must talk an hour - it is their exercise" [ http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit10162000/index.asp ]. However, the ‘fears of life’, as experienced in a women’s salon, and then expressed by the author, Laura, in her comedy article have almost corroborated the wordings of the poetry, “Hymn to Death”, composed by the 19th century English poet Laureate, Alfred Austin, who had written : I LOVE THE DOUBT, THE DARK, THE FEAR---THAT STILL SURROUNDETH ALL THINGS HERE. The 20th century American poetess, Sophie Letitia Tunnell, had similarly written : FEAR IS A SLINKING CAT I FIND---BENEATH THE LILACS OF MY MIND. Women of different kinds think, talk, walk, and take bath differently. When Julius Caesar saw some wealthy foreign women in Rome carrying dogs, and monkeys in their arms, he had retorted : “Do the women in their country never bear children ?” The 20th century English poetess, Mrs. Frances Macdonald Cornford, after seeing a fat lady from a train, had said : O FAT WHITE WOMAN WHOM NO BODY LOVES---WHY DO YOU WALK THROUGH THE FIELDS IN GLOVES ? The 19th century English classical scholar and poet, Alfred Edward Housman, after seeing a similar fat woman, many-many years earlier, had said : O FAT WHITE WOMAN WHOM NO BODY SHOOTS---WHY DO YOU WALK THROUGH THE FIELDS IN BOOTS ? But as far as the author of this article, Laura, is concerned, I wish to reproduce the wordings of the 17th century English poet, Sir John Suckling ( who had died at the prime age of 33 ) : “SHE IS PRETTY TO WALK WITH, AND WITTY TO TALK WITH, AND PLEASANT TOO, TO THINK ON”.
(Posted on August 13, 2007, 11:27 am G. S. JOHAR)
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