Kakali Das’s Symphony of Thoughts Untold
Sanjeev Kumar Nath

Kakali Das’s Symphony of Thoughts Untold : Reviewing Life Through a Critical Lens is a collection of 42 articles on a variety of subjects, depicting the eclectic nature of the author’s interests.
It is published by Powershift, Guwahati (in September, 2023).Glancing through the titles of the articles, one may feel that women’s issues and gender politics are on the top the author’s interests, but she also has quite a few articles concerning Indian politics, culture, science and technology, spirituality, psychology, media, social media, and so on.
I think it is the mark of a good writer and thinker to be able to engage with so many topics, while also perhaps retaining a field of “special interests”.
“Secularism in India : Is India Truly Secular?” is titled with a question, but the write-up is an emphatically positive assertion of India’s secular character. The writer provides a host of examples from various fields such as sports, entertainment, science and the freedom struggle to show how Indians across religions have contributed to the country’s glory.
If the writer is all praises for Indians who have made their country proud, in another article she talks about the reckless spending in too expensive weddings by Indians—a habit that they need to change.
In an article on marital rape, the author shows how human societies have been blind to the autonomy of the woman in regard to her own body, and how even our lawmakers have not been able to show understanding and empathy by formulating a law against marital rape although in some 50 countries in the world now, sexual intercourse by a husband without his wife’s consent is considered rape, a punishable offence.
In a brief article on divorce the writer argues that it is time our society got over the sense of stigma associated with divorce, so that unhappy marriages could be broken for a possibly happier future.
In an article on the perception that women misuse Indian laws to prey on men, the writer rightly points out that while there may be a very small number of cases where women have misused the laws to punish men, the fact remains that mostly that is not the case, and women definitely need legal protection in our patriarchal society so full of bias against them.

In an article on artificial intelligence, the author brings to the table quite a lot of recent information regarding AI, discusses the pros and cons of AI, and, finally shows her belief in the triumph of human intelligence—provided we are prepared to move ahead with the fast progress of AI research and use.
In an article on how social media may be polarizing society, the writer exposes how social media companies can look the other way when discord and abuse spread through social media platforms, benefitting the companies financially, but harming society.
She is also aware of the many possible positive use of social media, and calls for more awareness on how people behave in these platforms and how the social media companies need to show more responsibility towards society.
Her understating of traditional masculinity, as evidenced from an article on the subject, is quite nuanced, and she exposes the stupidities of the “men will be men” attitude so endemic in our society. In an article on gender disparity in the workplace, she exposes the prejudices that women have to face at work, an issue that is also connected with the economic disparity between the sexes.
In an article on the trivialization of domestic violence in India, she explains how prevalent domestic violence on women is in India, and discusses the issue of legal protection for women. She rightly stresses the need to change the mindset of people in a society where 42 per cent men and 52 per cent women (!) seem to believe that it is alright for a husband to beat his wife.

In “Indian Society and Its ‘Fair Skin’ Bias” she writes about the bizarre idea that fair skin is somehow more desirable than dark skin and of the huge market of fairness products in India despite the fact that no amount of creams and ointments can actually change the pigment melanin responsible for skin colour. What needs to change is not skin colour, but stupid ideas about beauty and desirability.
In her article on whether companies should have menstrual leave policy for women, she describes the range of health issues a menstruating woman can face, and argues for the need of employers’ granting leave to women and transwomen suffering from PCOS, but says that organizations and companies should formulate policies regarding such leave after consultation with their women employees, and that the days of these leave should not be merged with the days of sick leave that an employee, male, or female, usually gets.
Quite a few of her articles on women’s issue—and also on other issues—have titles that are questions (like “Why is drinking for a woman injurious to her character?”, “Why do people believe women aren’t funny?”, “Why doesn’t society want women to be single?”, “Aren’t women good at maths?”, etc.), demonstrating her questioning of gender stereotypes.
In her article on why drinking is considered injurious to woman’s character, for example, she shows how people are willing to understand some behavioural problems with boys or men, but expect a fixed, “Bhartiya Nari” character from women, untarnished by “bad” habits like drinking. It is not that she does not see the evils of alcoholism, but she is unhappy with the one-sided judgement that society passes.
In an article on whether there should be salaries for homemakers, she brings to the fore the issue of not adequately recognising the work that homemakers do, and the problems that can arise out of considering the homemaker’s work as the work of an unskilled labourer. The article shows her ability to bring to the table all necessary details concerning this very important, but often overlooked issue concerning such a large chunk of the population.
In an article on why Indian women are underrepresented in politics, she says that Indian women have been decisively present in politics in the past, but are not represented adequately now in our Parliament or the state legislatures. She argues for a change in the hyper-masculine attitudes that pervade the Indian political climate, and calls for a more visible and significant participation by women in politics.
In articles like “India’s obsession with matchmaking” and “The damsel in distress narrative in Indian cinema”, she exposes the conservative thinking of Indian society, and also argues for a change in attitudes.
In her article on people’s obsession with anti-aging, she not only writes about the silliness of trying to look younger with the help of products the cosmetic industry throws at us, but also questions the silliness of considering getting old as a problem at all. In an article on feminism she briefly considers what feminism is and how it has evolved, and finally asserts that anyone who believes in equality is bound to be a true feminist.
In an article on queer activism and the lesbianism depicted in the film Fire, the author takes to task the hypocrisy of Hindu fundamentalists who claim that alternate sexualities are anti-Indian or not in our culture.
In another article, she talks about the need for the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the corporate sector in India. She says that the decriminalisation of homosexuality by the Supreme Court was a major step towards ensuring LGBTQ+ rights, but we are yet to evolve proper mechanisms to encourage queer people from finding work and to make our workplaces queer friendly.
In an article on “item numbers” in Indian cinema, she traces the history and evolution of such songs in Bollywood films, and shows how they have been perceived both as commodifying woman, and also as providing a certain space to woman. She also hopes that perhaps these songs will also change and evolve to be able to shed off the negative criticism and be truly celebratory of woman’s sexuality.
In another article on inter-caste and inter-religion marriages in India, she says that despite our Constitution guaranteeing protection for couples who choose to marry across castes or religions, very few Indians show willingness to marry outside their caste or religion, and that surprisingly, most educated Indians prefer to marry within their caste and religion.

She quotes Dr Ambedkar who had said that “the remedy for breaking caste is inter-marriage.” Organizations that support such marriages exist, but Hindu fundamentalist groups are also actively engaged in protecting caste hierarchies and in working for a Hindu Rashtra.
In an article on mental illness, the writer shows how Bollywood and the Indian media have depicted mental illness in very wrong ways and also writes about social prejudice against the mentally ill. She rightly asserts that Indian society needs to take mental illness seriously and ensure an environment in which the mentally ill can be given proper medical care.
In an article on people’s obsession with scandals, she talks about how a section of the media blow scandalous news out of proportion, and how sometimes they even invent scandals, and how there is always an audience for such stuff. She says that for some people feeding on scandals and criticizing others may be a way of mentally writing off their own misdeeds.
In an article entitled “It’s Time We Be Strong Mentally”, the author describes how one could have entirely wrong notions about others and about oneself, and stresses the need to shed negative ways of thinking and to develop healthy mental habits. The advice she offers gains a special dimension when she says that she has herself practised such things as positive thinking and meditation.
In her article on rote learning she traces Indians’ obsession with rote learning to the imposition of English education during the colonial rule mainly to create a class of Indians who could help the administration in office work. There is no doubt that without developing analytical thinking and comprehension, mere rote learning cannot be truly useful. However, proper use of the faculty of memory can be extremely helpful in education.
In an article on Indian spirituality and why the west is so fond of it, she gives a brief historical sketch of the export of Indian spirituality to the west, lists some of the famous gurus that made it big in the west, and also points out some of the contradictions involved in marketing spirituality like some kind of exotic product from the east.
Perhaps the writer is somewhat on unsure ground when she comments on certain issues of religion and spirituality.
In her essay on atheism, for example, along with a lot of sensible, wise comments, there seem to be some instances of sweeping generalizations and an occasional tendency to resist from thinking through. That spirituality is possible without any obsession with God or an almighty being or that the violent, cruel and stupid elements in institutionalized religions do not represent the best in the field of religion and spirituality, for example, may have been somewhat ignored because of the writer’s passion for rationality and justifiable anger against hypocrisy, stupidity and cruelty in the name of religion.
“Media through the ages in the Northeast” is the last and the longest article in the book, providing a wealth of information on the history and evolution of both print and electronic media in the states of the Northeast of India. The author acknowledges her sincere sense of gratitude to Sri Anjan Sarma, editor of mahabahu.com for his encouragement and support.
All of the articles in Symphony of Thoughts Untold : Reviewing Life Through a Critical Lens were originally published in mahabahu.com. The author further says that this book is her child, her first born, and she wishers that her readers would love this “child”.
I am sure discerning readers will appreciate the wide range of interest the author shows in her first book, and also her passion for important issues, some of which have not received adequate attention so far. Readers will also note the keenness of the author’s mind.
I am sure discerning readers will appreciate Kakali Das’s articles because they demonstrate the author’s clear thinking, rational approach to the subjects, proper organization of the arguments, and felicity of language.
However, the book is not entirely free of errors of language, some of them possibly due to not revising the writing or doing a rush job at times. Inadvertent errors—like categorising Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Hamlet as novels (in the article on rote learning)—can certainly be corrected if a newer edition of the book is brought out.
The book is available to order on Amazon https://amzn.eu/d/3VYACt8, mahabahu.com and in Bandhav Book Store, Panbazar, Guwahati.
(Sanjeev Kumar Nath, English Department, Gauhati University, sanjeevnath21@gmail.com)
Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking. You can send your articles to editor@mahabahu.com / editor@mahabahoo.com ( For Assamese article, Unicode font is necessary)