Fiction-55: Twinkle

“Twinkle, Twinkle.”

“Yes, Uncle?”

“Missing Papa?”
“Yes, uncle.”

“Don’t fear; now, I’m here”

“Thank you, uncle.”

“Want to go out?”

“Ok, Uncle.”

“You must be tired. Want to sleep?”

“Yes, uncle”

“Come closer; I will tell you a bedtime story.”
“Ok, uncle.”

“Now, let me kiss you a sweet goodnight”

“NO, uncle...

Please, uncle…

STOP!”

***

Posted under 'The Nine Flavors'

Flavor: Disgust (Bhibatsa) 

Your entries are welcomed:

-Ashish

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.

Haiku: Use Me

Hello Reader,

Hope you like my first Haiku.

Men, for a change, Use Me

and let feminism be virgin,

cries an empty dustbin. 

-Ashish

Being Human?

Hello reader
While reading newspaper this morning, I found an article, on how unsafe our country has become for women. It made me feel sick and very angry of the people responsible for it. Only after reading the bitter reality, I have no doubt stating that India is nowhere towards any better. Nothing except population, petrol prices and molestation rates are increasing. 800% rise in molestation cases. Pretty good, isn’t it? What a raise, dude!
I may sound really negative. But I think it’s important to be negative towards negative stuff like these. Really feel sorry for the victims, the girls who go through such a thing and then nobody support them, not even their own families. And why is that? It’s because, they are a considered as a disgrace to the society. They bring home a bad name. People make them feel as they are the guilty-ones rather than victims. People stare at them as if they committed the crime.
The innocent ones are once again blamed and the criminals fly back freely to plan their next crime, their next hunt.
Who is responsible for this bloody pothole?
I have a list of people to blame. First are those who think that the females should be tied back inside the cage. These people who don’t want their own women to leave the house but themselves go out and tease and comment on women they find outside. All because of their low mentality, the way they see a girl and talk about her, may be about her dressing style. These are the people who discriminate them. They don’t consider a girl’s freedom can be ever equal to a boy. It’s her wish! What to do, when to do. Then, society is the word which comes into the picture. What is society? It’s all about law. When a guy can do anything, so can a girl. Remember? That’s why we were taught about the fundamental rights: The Right to Freedom. Who are the people in society to decide that?
The family of the victim comes next. When her own people won’t support her and blame her for being too liberate then certainly she has nothing left in this world, which she can call her own? She can trust nobody, can have faith on nobody. It’s the duty of her family to support her at the worst time of her life. But they prefer to stand by the so called rules of society. Because, they feel they have lost all respect. Well, a parent who can’t support her own child at such a bad time certainly doesn’t deserve any respect. What they deserve is a nice tight slap.
Then the poor security of our country is to be blamed. When a person can walk in and place a bomb inside the parliament, it’s certainly a piece of cake to molest a lonely girl. In the case I read about, the girl wanted to keep the story confidential but because of the stupidity of the police men working in the case were responsible in leaking the story outside. She would have faced lesser shame only if the police could work a bit more smartly. And even if the culprit is caught, what’s the use? He will come out as a reference of some high profile person or bribing the police. They are treated like guests. And the one who is the victim is ill-treated: forcefully interrogated. The doctors who do the report work do the same.
The condition of the victim gets so dreadful that they have to go through a counselling session for days to be something closer to normal. And all this happens only in case the victim is a strong enough person to face it. Otherwise it is certainly a suicide case.
These were the victim’s own words “People look at me and make me realize that I am the one who was raped. It’s horrible.”
It made me sad after reading all this. And I wanted to share it. I really feel sorry for the helpless victims. And it rages me when I think about the vegetable-like people who don’t bother to help this serious issue and don’t want to get into this for the sake of their ‘name’ in the society, the jerks who consider girls as nothing more than a body with no heart and soul, about the criminals, the murderers who deserve to be hanged, are still roaming freely, and the blind society I am living in.

Ashish :(
Everything I wrote is based on true facts.
Courtesy: The Times of India