Saturday, March 7, 2020

SAY NO TO WOMEN'S DAY



This Women's Day, let us start a trend - "Not to celebrate Women's Day".
Not Convincing? Let me make it convincing for you.

What does celebrating 'Women's Day' actually mean to you?

Option 1- MAKES YOU FEEL EMPOWERED. Well if you are already empowered, do you really need a day to reinforce that to yourself? If you know your powers, you probably are celebrating and cherishing it everyday.

Option 2 - THIS DAY IS TO TALK ABOUT ISSUES RELATED TO GENDER INEQUALITY . Do you really think that a few debates over a few cases of domestic violence, unequal wages, crime against women, on a single day can bring the massive change required?

Option 3 - IT TALKS ABOUT NEED  FOR RESERVATION FOR WOMEN. Do you really think that while demanding equality, it is fair to seek reservation benefits based on the same principals of inequality? With entitlement of reservation, a sense of inequality come for free.

Right from the days of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, several social activists have tried to help women get a better share in the society. But do we really have to wait for some activists to come and raise a voice in our defence.

My addressal  is especially to all the educated women who still face gender inequality and its consequences each day. Your right to equality is your personal quest. You have to seek it each day. On the days when an office colleague wishes you on Women's Day and then forwards a misogynist joke on WhatsApp just because its trending. On the days when your boss justifies disparity in wages for same amount of work. On the days when your own mother teaches you to keep your brother, husband and son above you and your priorities. These are your daily fight and struggles. If you win them each day, you wont need a "Women's Day" to remind you of your strength.






Ms Nandita Prakash
Educationist






Sunday, February 2, 2020

To Live with a Forgotten Dream



Everyone has a dream. What would they be when they grow up, what would they do, buy, own. I too had a dream. In teenage years when one decides on profession or show inclination towards a vocation, I wanted to be a housewife. I had sorted it all in my head. Opposite to the general perception, I wasn't trying to run away from responsibilities but rather preparing to take on the job of managing a household/a family in all its seriousness.

I had prepared myself a five year project plan and a job list. I had resolved to set up a comfortable house in the first year and had planned to have four kids. I wanted to  dedicate my life to cook warm food for them, stitch them beautiful clothes, keep them warm in winters, tell them stories, home school them and even write books for them. It was all that I wanted and cared.

When I look back fifteen years, I envy my dedication and clarity of thought. I wish I had the same power on my fate as I thought I had back then. Now, fifteen years since then, I still crave to feel a life grow inside my womb, to see its little fists boxing from inside, to see this little one open its eyes in my arms and cry for the milk supplies. To see the tiny fellow look like me, may be the same curls or even the smile.

Motherhood is not a thing to define womanhood. It is not even needed for a women to feel complete. But then what do I do with this only dream that I ever had. I don't know if my mother or any of my friends would have felt as fulfilling as I would have with a child hanging around my neck.

Motherhood is a feeling and childlessness is a condition. And none of this can define existence of a woman. The question was never that whether the society will accept me as a childless woman. The question is that will I be able to live with a forgotten dream

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Ah! I Hope Its True


All he had were a list of simple words. Quite contrary to the range of stories he had. As versatile as human emotions. complicated but penned in simple words. He made the whole effort of writing appear so effortless and natural. It was in his very nature perhaps , to simplify complex emotions and let them float on the surface of a calm water under a bright shining sun.

How was it even possible for this one person alone, to bring order in this universe or at least the universe around him that mattered. Very close to being unbelievable but
also quite close to the visible reality. " They don't make such men anymore" my heart cried. Or may be all this while, I was blind to such a possibility.

So should we go ahead and see how this story unfolds. Or rather just stay here keeping oneself busy in imagining all the nice things before the cruel reality takes over and ruins it. And what if all this is real and there are no curtains this time. What if this white light that I see, is the light of love, light of life.

My heart has so much love that if it could manifest itself, it would possibly be this man. Yet the old wounds will not stop bleeding. It will never let him heal them. But this man is no less in sorcery, as his words have already reached my wounds. It is only a matter of time and before I would know, my wounds will be gone.
Ah! I hope its true.