Where are the Djinn ?

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

By Deepak Anappara 

The story opens up with the introduction of a spirit named Mento, who even after he is dead still looks after the poor slum boys who worked underneath him building railway lines in India. Mento does not play that big a role in the story.

The story does not showcase the djinn as much as it showcases what life is like loving in a poor Bhasti or slum. The houses are one room which houses four to five people. People go outside to use the facility. There is dirt everywhere and people do not have enough to really make ends meat.

The story showcases another facet of life in India, that of the missing children. About 180 children go missing in India daily often times never to be hear of again. What happens to them no one really knows. Are they used in an organ racket, labor exploitation or something even worse.

In the bhasti near the Boot Bazaar children are starting to go missing. First is Bahador then Omvir and soon the list goes on. People begin to worry w out the missing children. They try to get the police to take action but their efforts are in effective . Due to the futility of the search Jaya and his friend Pari become detectives and try to find their missing friends.

The Bhasti is filled with characters like drunken Lalu, quarter Faisal. Lalu is the drunken father of Bahador. He beats the child and the child runs away. A similar story is behind all the missing children. Trouble at home. Some people think the kids ran away. A smog like haze lingers over the Bhasti. As the children run away they are greeted by strange people who appear to come out of the smog.

The case of the missing children vexes the community so greatly that there are riots against Muslims as there is a fear that it is Muslims who are kidnapping Hindu children. Eventually innocent Muslims get arrested . They do find a culprit which leads to showing how the rich get treated better than the others. Unfortunately no djinn are involved. The worst monsters are always human beings.

Flight of the Divine Feminine

 

Women Who Fly

By Serenity Young

 

Flying about throughout the world in the skies overlooking the ground, someone in the air can see everything from the Americas all the way to the far east. This book does precisely that albeit from a valid feminist perspective. With the coming of religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, early Pagan religions, Taoism and Buddhism have all reduced the once prominent role of women to the sidelines. Ousted from power they were subjugated, dominated and used as accessories for men. A travel through the mythologies one finds that certain women were able to escape the prison of patriarchy.

Women like the European swan maiden are shapeshifter par excellent and take the form of whatever they want. These women chose to be swans. Most of the stories go that a man abducts a swan maiden and forces her to marry him. In some tales she finds her swan suit and manages to escape leaving behind her children and husband. Sometimes it is a willing marriage but the man must honor certain conditions like never hit the wife, yell at her etc. in these tales the man usually breaks the prohibition. These tales represent the feminine being subjugated by male power.

In the Western World during modern times, we have Emelia Earhart, Wonder Woman and Hannah Reiche. Their stories are indicative of the patriarchy attitude for women. During the war years when there was a shortage of pilots women were allowed flying jobs for the time being. They were not allowed to fly when menstruating. If there were problems during a flight, if the pilot was a man it was blamed on mechanical failures. If the pilot was a woman it was blamed on her incompetence. Once the war was done the women were dismissed an never allowed to fly again. That is until the 1970’s and a limited but growing basis.

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the world, in fact the first person. Her plane went down and she was never found. She did not live a conventional life. She was seldom with her husband and did not have children.  Hannah Reach was a German who loved Germany during World War 2 . She was a fighter pilot and learned how to use gliders when the Germans were not allowed to have an air force. She later became part of the Luftwaft. Wonder Woman flew an invisible jet.

Other Flying women in Europe were more fairy like and magical. The Valkyries of the Norse arrived after a battle to escort dead warriors to the realm of Valhalla. Sometimes they are mates to loyal warriors. Women used to be powerful warriors and leaders. Now they are reduced to being rewards for brave male warriors. The women who stood outside the fold are often most degraded by the patriarchy. Women who were independent, mate freely with who they want or who have ability beyond man were shunned and persecuted. One group of the women was the Witches. Know one really know if there were even any of these do called witches. They were said to fly to sabbat by putting on an ointment and riding a broom to the sabbath where in they would cavort with the devil . Later it was learned that they would make an ointment and fall asleep inn their beds and astral travel. Further on it was realized that they were hallucinating. The gist behind this was to target old, widowed and disagreeable women.

There are further myths of flying women that run throughout the far east and India. If women can ever equal men it is not because they are mortal women but they have to be supernatural. Many time  they do not meet with good . The Patriachy hates strong women.