— The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter 1
About this quote
हिन्दी में
मुझे उम्मीद है वह नादान निकलेगी — इस दुनिया में एक लड़की के लिए इससे बेहतर कुछ नहीं, एक ख़ूबसूरत-सी नादान।
What it means
Two phrases carry the whole sentence. In this world makes it a report on a market rather than a claim about what girls are — she is describing what gets rewarded where she lives, and the qualifier admits that somewhere else the answer might differ. And the best thing a girl can be is a ranking, which means she has run through the other options and put this one at the top of a short, closed list.
The other detail readers slide past is the verb: she hopes. She is not congratulating her daughter on a safe future, she is wishing for one, because even the protected position is not guaranteed — a girl has to be beautiful as well as foolish for the arrangement to hold. The addition of beautiful is not decoration. It is the second condition, and nobody gets to choose it.
What it teaches you
Learn to separate two things that sound identical when spoken to a daughter, a student, or a junior: this is what I want for you and this is what will not get you punished here. The second is a description of an institution and should be argued with as one. When advice comes with a phrase like in this world attached, that phrase is the claim being made, and it is the part that can be checked and contested.
अर्थ और सीख
इस वाक्य का भार दो हिस्सों पर है — ‘इस दुनिया में’, यानी यह लड़कियों के स्वभाव की बात नहीं, इस समाज के हिसाब-किताब की बात है; और ‘सबसे अच्छा’, यानी डेज़ी ने बाकी विकल्प तौलकर यही ऊपर रखा है। ध्यान दीजिए कि वह ‘उम्मीद’ कर रही है, क्योंकि यह सुरक्षित जगह भी पक्की नहीं — साथ में ‘ख़ूबसूरत’ होना भी शर्त है, जो किसी के चुनने से नहीं होता। सीख यह कि ‘तुम्हारे लिए मैं यही चाहती हूँ’ और ‘यहाँ इसी में कम चोट लगेगी’ — ये दो अलग बातें हैं, और दूसरी बात दरअसल समाज पर आरोप है।
Where it comes from
Daisy Buchanan, describing what she said when her daughter was born. It is the cruellest line in the book and the most easily misread as charm.
She is not being whimsical. She has worked out what the world rewards in a woman of her class and is stating it flatly, about her own child, with the resignation of someone who has already tested the alternative.
