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narratives of three generations of urban middle-class - eTheses ...

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Photo-6: Illustrates the homosocial playfulness <strong>of</strong> Shnidur Khela<br />

[Source: Chandrika Podder’s personal album]<br />

Third generation Sunanda, is a teacher <strong>of</strong> the social sciences in a school and also part<br />

<strong>of</strong> a women activist NGO group in which her mother has long been a prominent<br />

member. Sunanda chooses to describe her family and her upbringing by her mother as<br />

“educated”, “cultured”, “progressive” and “feminist”. She claims that these attributes<br />

differentiate her and her family from the “shadharon moddhobittyo” or ordinary <strong>middle</strong><strong>class</strong><br />

who are ordinary because they live life in a taken-for- granted non-reflexive way.<br />

She claims,<br />

“‘As modern and educated women <strong>of</strong> today, we should not unreflexively and<br />

passively remian victims <strong>of</strong> male domination and its taken-for-granted rituals.<br />

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