full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition
Unscramble the Blue Letters
I was born and raised here in iinda, and I learned from an early age to be dpeely suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of oturage about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant woamn, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her fraoheed. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the cdinfneot woman she once knew as her mother. Late that nhigt, I heard my mhteor begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my fheatr, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is tiaidortn." That's the night I learned the rleus about what it means to be female in this wlord. Women don't make those rules, but they dinfee us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.
Open Cloze
I was born and raised here in _____, and I learned from an early age to be ______ suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of _______ about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant _____, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her ________. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the _________ woman she once knew as her mother. Late that _____, I heard my ______ begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my ______, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is _________." That's the night I learned the _____ about what it means to be female in this _____. Women don't make those rules, but they ______ us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.
Solution
- father
- outrage
- tradition
- world
- woman
- mother
- define
- deeply
- night
- india
- forehead
- rules
- confident
Original Text
I was born and raised here in India, and I learned from an early age to be deeply suspicious of the aunties and uncles who would bend down, pat us on the head and then say to my parents with no problem at all, "Poor things. You only have three daughters. But you're young, you could still try again." My sense of outrage about women's rights was brought to a boil when I was about 11. My aunt, an incredibly articulate and brilliant woman, was widowed early. A flock of relatives descended on her. They took off her colorful sari. They made her wear a white one. They wiped her bindi off her forehead. They broke her bangles. Her daughter, Rani, a few years older than me, sat in her lap bewildered, not knowing what had happened to the confident woman she once knew as her mother. Late that night, I heard my mother begging my father, "Please do something Ramu. Can't you intervene?" And my father, in a low voice, muttering, "I'm just the youngest brother, there's nothing I can do. This is tradition." That's the night I learned the rules about what it means to be female in this world. Women don't make those rules, but they define us, and they define our opportunities and our chances. And men are affected by those rules too. My father, who had fought in three wars, could not save his own sister from this suffering.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
peace talks |
3 |
traditional music |
2 |
writes songs |
2 |
small group |
2 |
peace accord |
2 |
Important Words
- affected
- age
- articulate
- aunt
- aunties
- bangles
- begging
- bend
- bewildered
- bindi
- boil
- born
- brilliant
- broke
- brother
- brought
- chances
- colorful
- confident
- daughter
- daughters
- deeply
- define
- descended
- early
- father
- female
- flock
- forehead
- fought
- happened
- head
- heard
- incredibly
- india
- intervene
- knew
- knowing
- lap
- late
- learned
- means
- men
- mother
- muttering
- night
- older
- opportunities
- outrage
- parents
- pat
- problem
- raised
- ramu
- rani
- relatives
- rights
- rules
- sari
- sat
- save
- sense
- sister
- suffering
- suspicious
- tradition
- uncles
- voice
- wars
- wear
- white
- widowed
- wiped
- woman
- women
- world
- years
- young
- youngest