Poem: Epitome of feminism

Hello Reader,

This is great irony that the one who we praise the most is also disrespected in equal measures. Yes, I am talking about the women in our country. We call it a free country and yet, always fail to prove that. Somewhere or the other, everyday, in some form or the other, women are suffering. People want their sons to get the best education, but not their daughters because the fee can be rather used to pay the dowry. Most of them won't say but they'll be happier if a boy is born in their family only because he carries the family surname forward. They won't send her out of their hometown or for higher studies because she has to learn how to carry the household errands. Also, because they think that going outside won't really be safe for her. Oh wait! not her, they are worried about their family's impression.  "Society waale kya bolenge?"
Even if she is allowed, there are a few requisites like wearing a particular kind of apparel. 
And once the girl is married, the in-laws become of the new Nazis. They start testing her talents instead of making her feel at home. They make her realize that her place is the kitchen and she must stay there even if she is more educated than her husband. For improper proportions of sugar in the morning tea or salt in the curry, she has to listen to the curses. Then sometimes she goes through a number of abortions, risking her health, to please her in-laws with a beautiful boy. She might even face a divorce if she fails to do so, who knows? 

But, they fail to learn that even if they tie a bird's feet, it has wings to fly away.

I request all my readers to help them fly away from this discrimination and inequality. They do not deserve this at all. We must take an oath for a good change...


Take a pledge,
to assure her, while she listens,
from the walls of her mother’s womb,
that she will be warmly greeted
and won’t be buried in a clandestine tomb.
She will be allowed to play outdoor and,
no one will dare to snatch her paper and pencils.
She’ll be given education equal to her brother, rather
being lessoned on ‘how to shine your in-law’s utensils’.
To let her decide her wardrobe and her mate
and compose her own empowered verses
because neither our verdict, writes her fate
nor does the society’s curses.
To protect her from the evil eyes
so that the humanity doesn’t get disrobed,
even if there is no one to pay the price,
she must be the last one to be probed.

Ring the bell,
bow before the goddess,
for portrayal of weak as belle,
ask for forgiveness
and for blessing,
to a new uprising.

Make a promise,
to open the cage that entangles her,
to set her free and let her fly,
as for her awaits an infinite open sky. 

Ashish

This post is written for "Ring the bell for IndiChange" 
Bell Bajao! Loud and clear.

India v/s Bharat

Hello Reader,

As a child, I always loved the fact that my country has so many names: India, Bharat and Hindustan. But, see what has this lead us to. Recently, we witnessed a variety of comments from a lot of our 'dignitaries' after the 'black dot' day. Here is a small recap of those fallacious comments:

"Don't live in India - Migrate to Bharat instead." - RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

"Don't eat chowmein." - Khap Panchayat

"Don't go out with boys in the night."  - Abu Azmi of Samajwadi Party
"Don't wear jeans. Fashion is strictly prohibited." - too may people to mention

"Get married when you are 16 years old." - Another Khap Panchayat

"Don't use mobile." - Some Panchayat in UP and Rajasthan

"Don't cross Maryada." - MP Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya

"Say NO to anything remotely connected to western culture." - RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

"Perform pooja to put 'stars' in correct 'position'." -Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nanki Ram Kanwar

and the most infamous "Call the criminal 'bhaiya' ." - Asaram Bapu 
This is not the first time that such a comment has been turned into a controversy. Even after so many paradigms been set in the past, these people are either dumb or too naive to understand that saying such things are not acceptable to the public. There might be a small group of people who still might second their third-class thoughts.

There is one common statement that we can abstract out of these hilarious ideas of safeguarding women and that is 'westernization of Indian culture'. Whenever they'll feel that they are losing an argument or have nothing else to say to protect themselves against allegations, 'culture' is the only wild card they use. Indian culture becomes greater than the law. If they say Bharat is a better place to live than i'India' (the westernized name), then I would very loudly and clearly like to ask about honor killings, dowry, child marriage, and killing a girl child. Is that what 'Bharat' offers?

Now, girls can't use cell-phones in some areas of UP and Rajasthan just because the Panchayat thinks it is infecting them with western culture. 51,000 /- fine for those who are caught marrying a person from other community. Get the girl married at 16 or even before that.

This is not acceptable. It is not the way 'Bharat' treats its people, its not even how 'India' treats its people. That is more a taliban-way of doing things. And why are these people allowed  to enforce such laws in their communities is still a question. 

The thoughts of these upper-hand people is too senile. They are still living in the same old era. This is one big reason for the Indian villagers being uneducated. When their head himself holds such egregious views for the society, no wonder how he would be misleading his followers and showcasing them a wrong picture of the world outside. And their minds will always see western culture as evil and Indian culture as the hero. They'll never ever learn that every culture has its own meanings and it has noting to do with being legal or illegal. A person wanting to marry outside his community is not what his/her culture supports but it is legal. Using cell-phone or wearing a jeans is not a crime. Crimes that take place have nothing to do with culture. If back then, India was Bharat and everybody so pure that they never crossed limits or committed any sin is noway true.

It was Bharat, where Draupadi was disrobed, Sita crossed the Lakshman Rekha and Kunti had pre-marital relation. These are incidents from Ramayana and Mahabharata which are enough to prove them wrong.
We still live in the same old Bharat with a new name. Its about the mind set. With time, comes new trends and one cannot expect other to be living in a generation that is gone. Nobody is disrespecting the Indian culture expect the ones are are preaching it in a wrong way and using it for their own good.  And they deserve to be punished for dichotomy this country.

Ashish

No Justice for Martyrdom

Hello Reader,

Every time when this country is awakened, a heavy price is paid. An innocent lamb is sacrificed.
Or is it some kind of tradition which started ages ago? Why do we need such a deadly alarm to wake a sleeping country every time? It happened again, one matchstick burnt a million candles and silently quenched. 

Recently, two of the most gruesome sacrifices were one of that of the girl who got brutally raped in Delhi and second was that of the two Indian army soldiers beheaded by Pakistani army.
Though these alarms were loud enough to go unheard by the disabled common people, who can do nothing but protest around the India gate, it is still unheard at the administrative level. The ones with all the power in their hands are acting paraplegic.

The criminals are not yet punished. It has been about 20 days and they are still looking out for more evidence. The sad thing is that the victim succumbed to her wounds and the criminals are still alive.
Why could the victim, before dying, not able to read a headline saying, ‘Criminals hung till death’?
That would have been a tribute to her sacrifice. On her death, people asked her to rest in peace. But, how could she? After enduring such a painful end, nobody would rest in peace until and unless it is worth it.

Is there no head count of the soldiers who die for our country? No, they are just sent in troops and at the end of the political wars, these men of honor get killed. Then the list of men who die is recorded and they remain in a pile of lost statistics. The brave hearts fight for their country because they respect the land which gave them birth and they respect the former sacrifices made for this country. And now, after their death, the country is mourning. And yet again, our government has no answer for that. The soldiers are used; their sentiments are used in the midst of the political wars.

Just suppose, a minister dies and the next day you read the newspaper, you find a whole page dedicated to him with complete detail of his personal and professional life. They’ll write only about how he served the country and how we have lost a diamond. Of course, he was a diamond. Diamonds demand a lot of money to buy them and that is exactly how he was.
What happens when one or two soldiers or policemen die?
A headline saying, “Two men died in crossfire.” That’s it.
Do not expect to find much detail in that article, you won’t find any. This article will be lying somewhere, in some corner of a page, overshadowed by other more interesting news items.

Media really plays an important role in making news viral. Would we have ever even thought about that girl if they didn't want us to? Millions of people stuck in front of their televisions acted accordingly. Now there is this new rage about the two soldiers and thanks to the media, people are at least thinking about it and respecting their priceless sacrifices. People are the puppets and media is their master.  It can be any media, television or internet, when a trend begins, people just go with crowd. On Independence Day or republic day, people suddenly get patriotic. They start remembering our great leaders of the past and those who sacrificed for the independence because in school they were taught that we remember them on the 15^th of august and on the other national days. So they took it too seriously and started following the rules as they thought that these honorable men are to be remembered only on those particular days. You see the problem? There is no value of their lives.

One should not show their concern or respect when they don’t really mean it. Sitting in your home and saying words like ‘rest in peace’, ‘jai hind’ is very simple. A real tribute to them will be when people fight for them and for anything bad that is about to happen, before the next crime actually takes place. Why should we wait for the next ‘trendy’ crime to occur?
It is the intention behind every action that matters. Only then, the thousand sacrifices will have their meaning. Only then, we can ask them to ‘rest in peace’.

Ashish