March 03, 2021
Sharanya Manivannan, a writer and poet based in Chennai, often sports a bindi. No longer ubiquitous in India, the red dot on a woman’s forehead has been appropriated by celebrities overseas.
Catriona Mitchell
The bindi is worn by everyone from Indian village women to Bollywood stars and international celebrities. It is both a fashion statement and a religious, cultural, and political symbol.
Placed in the middle of the forehead, it can be anything from a demure red dot to a jewelled ornament, and conveys a wealth of information about its wearer.
The word bindi comes from the Sanskrit word bindu or drop, and it denotes a woman’s mystic third eye. According to yoga experts, this mid-forehead point is the ajna chakra, the sixth and most powerful chakra in the body. Pressing on this point is said to conserve energy and increase concentration.
CHENNAI: Tetsushi Sakamoto is Japan’s first Minister of Loneliness. This new cabinet post is an acknowledgment that loneliness, exacerbated by pandemic-related isolation and stress, is a serious issue. In October 2020 alone, Japan recorded 2,153 deaths due to suicide; by contrast, the total number of people who had died from coronavirus in the country up till then was 1,765.
When announcing the new Ministry, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga commented that women were at higher risk. This is interesting since the “gender paradox in suicide” is a known occurrence, wherein men’s attempts are likelier to be completed even though women may have more ideation or a higher number of attempts. Three years ago, when the UK announced its Ministry for Loneliness, I wrote in this column about how loneliness is interlinked with structural oppressions, even though people across positionalities experience it.
Fate dealt Shay a very nice hand, in the form of material privilege, but there’s something so down-to-earth about her, and that’s what’s positively dazzling.
The summer slipped away in illness and sorrow, and even by the season’s tail when just enough flowers remained like a whispered rumour something else kept me away.