U.R. Ananthamurthy (portrait) might be a literary genius (his Samskara is one of my favorite books), and an a Jnanapeeth awardee, but he sure sounded shallow when he said the other day "...American girls make fine secretaries, but Indian women make fine engineers, writers, and intellectuals". (see: Report at ThatsKannada.com)
First, Ananthamurthy somehow thinks a secretary's job is an inferior one to that of an engineer's.
Second, Ananthamurthy thinks that in America, everybody has secretaries. By any count, there are more secretaries in India than in America.
Third, he is very sexist. He might not know that there are many male secretaries, even in India (my mother had one).
Fourth, he is generalizing the progress made by a small percentage of Indian women as the progress made by all Indian women.
See Related Links:
• Kannada Writers &Poets
• Women of India -- Frequently Asked Questions
