Babyji
''Babyji'' is a novel by Abha Dawesar first published in 2005. Set in 1980s Delhi, India, it recounts the coming of age and the sexual adventures and fantasies of a 16-year-old bespectacled schoolgirl, the only child of a Brahmin family. The three simultaneous "affairs" she has in the course of the novel are all secret, and all with members of her own gender: two with older women and one with a classmate. The title of the book points to the old custom of venerating an elder by referring to them with the suffix ''-ji'' added to their name (cf. "Gandhiji"). In the novel it is the family servant who, though she is older than the daughter of the house, out of deference toward the latter's higher caste addresses her as "Babyji". ("Was I a baby or a '' Didi''? ''Babyji'' was such a contradiction in terms, conveying too much respect that the age of a child doesn't warrant.") ''Babyji'' is the winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and of the 2006 Stonew ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abha Dawesar
Abha Dawesar (born 1 January 1974) is an Indian-born novelist writing in English. Her novels include '' Babyji'', ''Family Values'', ''That Summer in Paris'', and ''Miniplanner''. Her 2005 novel '' Babyji'' won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the Stonewall Book Award. Biography Abha Dawesar was born in New Delhi. She moved to the United States to attend Harvard University, where she graduated in 1995. Before publishing her award-winning second novel, ''Babyji'' (2005), Dawesar was working at a global financial services firm in Manhattan. She quit her job to devote her time to writing. Dawesar has been exhibiting photography, visual, and video art since she was a student at Harvard. Her work has been exhibited at various galleries and museums in the United States and abroad. In 2010, she wrote part of the screenplay for the film ''Love and the Cities'', directed by Rodrigo Bernardo. Since 2013, Dawesar has been speaking on issues around digital technology ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2005 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005. Events *January 16 – This is the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' publication of the first part of ''Don Quixote'' in Spain. *February 25 – Canada Reads selects ''Rockbound'' by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation. *March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer. * April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30. *June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales. *August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time. New books Fiction *Tariq Ali – ''A Sultan in Palermo'' *Rajaa Alsanea – ''Girls of Riyadh'' (بنات الرياض, ''Banat al-Riyadh'') * ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stonewall Book Award
The Stonewall Book Award is a set of three literary awards that annually recognize "exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience" in English-language books published in the U.S. They are sponsored by the Rainbow Round Table (RRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) and have been part of the American Library Association awards program, now termed ALA Book, Print & Media Awards, since 1986 as the single Gay Book Award. The three award categories are fiction and nonfiction in books for adults, distinguished in 1990, and books for children or young adults, from 2010. The awards are named for Barbara Gittings, Israel Fishman, and (jointly) Mike Morgan and Larry Romans. In full they are the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award, the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award, and the Stonewall Book Awards – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children's & Young Adult Literature Award. Finalists have been designated from 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lesbian Literature
Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. Fiction that falls into this category may be of any genre, such as historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance. Overview Lesbian literature includes works by lesbian authors, as well as lesbian-themed works by heterosexual authors. Even works by lesbian writers that do not deal with lesbian themes are still often considered lesbian literature. Works by heterosexual writers which treat lesbian themes only in passing, on the other hand, are not often regarded as lesbian literature. The fundamental work of lesbian literature is the poetry of Sappho of Lesbos. From various ancient writings, historians have gathered that a group of young women were left in Sappho's charge for their instruction or cultural edification. Not much of Sappho's poetry remains, but that which doe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Coming Of Age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual or spiritual event, as practiced by many societies. In the past, and in some societies today, such a change is associated with the age of sexual maturity (puberty), especially menarche and spermarche. In others, it is associated with an age of religious responsibility. Particularly in western societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in around the end of adolescence and the beginning of early adulthood (most commonly 18, with the range being 16-21) when adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the full rights and responsibilities of an adult) are the focus of the transition. In either case, many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, and coming-of-age storie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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College
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering vocational education, or a secondary school. In most of the world, a college may be a high school or secondary school, a college of further education, a training institution that awards trade qualifications, a higher-education provider that does not have university status (often without its own degree-awarding powers), or a constituent part of a university. In the United States, a college may offer undergraduate programs – either as an independent institution or as the undergraduate program of a university – or it may be a residential college of a university or a community college, referring to (primarily public) higher education institutions that aim to provide affordable and accessible education, usually limited to two-year as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Social Stigma
Social stigma is the disapproval of, or discrimination against, an individual or group based on perceived characteristics that serve to distinguish them from other members of a society. Social stigmas are commonly related to culture, gender, race, socioeconomic class, age, sexual orientation, body image, physical disability, intelligence or lack thereof, and health. Some stigma may be obvious, while others are known as concealable stigmas that must be revealed through disclosure. Stigma can also be against oneself, stemming from negatively viewed personal attributes in a way that can result in a "spoiled identity" (i.e., self-stigma). Description Stigma (plural stigmas or ''stigmata'') is a Greek word that in its origins referred to a type of marking or the tattoo that was cut or burned into the skin of people with criminal records, slaves, or those seen as traitors in order to visibly identify them as supposedly blemished or morally polluted persons. These individuals were to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been described as a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language, which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and neighbouring areas of North India. Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with English. It is an official language in nine states and three union territories and an additional official language in three other states. Hindi is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. Hindi is the '' lingua franca'' of the Hindi Belt. It is also spoken, to a lesser extent, in other parts of India (usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). Outside India, several ot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of it. Romantic affair A romantic affair, also called an affair of the heart, may refer to a sexual liaison or more emotional relationship between two people who may have sex without expecting a more formal romantic relationship, an affair is by its nature romantic. The term ''affair'' may also describe part of an agreement within an open marriage or open relationship, such as swinging, dating, or polyamory, in which some forms of sex with one's non-primary partner(s) are permitted and other forms are not. Participants in open relationships, including unmarried couples and polyamorous families, may consider sanctioned affairs the norm, but when a non-sanctioned affair occurs, it is described as infidelity and maybe experienced as adulter ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spliff
A joint (), also commonly referred to as a "doobie" or "doob", is a rolled cannabis cigarette. Unlike commercial tobacco cigarettes, the user ordinarily hand-rolls joints with rolling papers, though in some cases they are machine-rolled. Rolling papers are the most common rolling medium in industrialized countries; however, brown paper, cigarettes or beedies with the tobacco removed, receipts and paper napkin can also be used, particularly in developing countries. Modern papers are manufactured in a range of sizes from a wide variety of materials including rice, hemp, and flax, and are also available in liquorice and other flavoured varieties. Joint size can vary, typically containing between net weight of cannabis. Tobacco is sometimes used in the rolling process. Variations and terminology Although joints by definition contain cannabis, regional differences exist. In Europe, in certain Commonwealth nations, and more recently in North America, joints, or spliffs, typ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kasauli
Kasauli is a town and cantonment, located in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The cantonment was established by the British Raj in 1842 as a Colonial hill station,Sharma, Ambika"Architecture of Kasauli churches" ''The Tribune'', Online edition, 2 March 2001. Retrieved 7 July 2012. from Solan, from Shimla, from Chandigarh, and from Ambala Cantt (Haryana), an important railway junction of North India. Demographics Kasauli is a Cantonment Board city in district of Solan, Himachal Pradesh. The Kasauli city is divided into 6 wards for which elections are held every 5 years. The Kasauli Cantonment Board has population of 3,885 of which 2,183 are males while 1,702 are females as per report released by Census India 2011. Population of Children with age of 0-6 is 406 which is 10.45% of total population of Kasauli (CB). In Kasauli Cantonment Board, Female Sex Ratio is of 780 against state average of 972. Moreover, Child Sex Ratio in Kasauli is around 888 compared ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |