Word: madhu
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...contributions here are lively and accessible. Madhu Kishwar, the legendary Indian feminist, rejects as "naive" the idea that bride-burning can be linked to Sita's popularity. In the story, Sita eventually leaves Rama and raises her children alone in an ashram, believing that a husband who does not treat her well is dispensable. Sita may be the model for the long-suffering women of Indian TV and film, but novelist Ranga Rao argues that she also influences the strong-minded females in the beloved stories of R.K. Narayan...
...years, Madhu, some 185 miles (300 km) from the capital of Colombo, remained well within the battlegrounds of the civil war between the predominantly Sinhalese government and the separatist Tamil Tigers. It was not until April 2008 that the military gained full control of the shrine; the Tigers, who demanded a separate state for ethnic Tamils on the island nation, were finally crushed in May 2009. (See pictures from inside Sri Lanka's rebel-held territory...
There was, however, no escaping the after-effects of the war on the road to Madhu. There were armed personnel on either side of the road, bunkers with dugouts manned by soldiers, occasionally a bomb-damaged building. The railroad that ran parallel to the trunk road had been reduced to a long mound of earth, as if it were the trail left by some giant worm. The iron tracks had long been removed to construct the many bunkers...
...last year of the civil war was particularly perilous for the shrine. The military had begun a multipronged advance into the Tiger-controlled area in late 2007, and Madhu was about six miles (10 km) north of the line. Earlier that year, 10,000 people were still taking refuge in the church compound, believing the Virgin would protect them. But by February 2008, recalls the Rev. S. Emilianuspillai, then caretaker of the shrine, it was clear that the shrine itself was in danger - and part of the war. On April 3, 2008, fighting had isolated 17 people at the shrine...
...believed in our Mother to bring us hope and peace. Now we can hope for a better country," says Singarayan Celestine, 70, a Tamil who brought his extended family to Madhu. His life had been devastated by the war: two of his sons were killed in cross fire, another went missing while crossing the front lines during the last hours of the fighting. "I am old," he says. "I can't look after my family for much longer. I have lost children to the war." Holding one of his grandchildren while the others played, he says, "We need a better...