No words to describe it

Normally, I do not blog about current affairs, believing instead that what we need is long-term systemic change. But after telling my mother (and harshest/ best critic) that I would not blog about what's happening in my country today, I realized it is a part of the larger picture.

Conflict over land is the oldest reason for people to go to war. When the local tribal population in Assam targets illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, religion doesn’t enter the picture- they are merely protecting their land.

But since the tribals are Hindu and the immigrants Muslim, in the holy month of Ramzan, it can be projected as a religious war. People who cannot locate Assam on the map can be incited into joining the ‘jihad’. People originally from the region can be made to fear for their lives, and rush back home to safety.

Deplorable. Shameful. Words cannot describe it.
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Disclaimer- The photograph is not meant to imply I blame these ladies in any way. I use the picture, because I know that in their emancipation lies a part of the solution

Spot the Difference

While we were waiting for the bill after lunch at our favourite restaurant, the younger one trotted off with his brother’s camera and returned a few minutes later with a satisfied smile on his face. Not to be outdone, his brother claimed the camera that is rightfully his, and disappeared on a photoshoot. After signing the charge-slip, I paused for a moment at the door, took out the camera and snapped a quick photograph.

It was only while downloading the photographs that I noticed that the same scene had captured all our imaginations. Can you guess who took which one?

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See how you fared:

I - Thing One - the (nearly) nine year old

II - Thing Two - the six and a half year old

III - Biggest One - the mother

Follow your passion

When I look at some of the people around me, I am amazed. The banker who’s taking her passion for food to a new level by starting a gourmet food catering business. The full-time mommy (and runner) who’s just qualified as a sports nutritionist. The engineer who is a full-time fitness instructor. The software engineer who makes and sells jewellery.

A bunch of women who apparently have nothing in common except the fact that they all chose to move away from conventional career paths and explore unchartered trails. You don’t have to wait till you retire before following your passion.

Is this Independence?

Sixty-five years ago, the tricolour flag was unfurled for the first time in Independent India. The nation will be truly free”, Mahatma Gandhi said, “only when its women are free.” 

There were women doctors in the army, and a woman represented the nation in the United Nations- one hoped women would take their position as equal partners in the newly independent India.

Decades later, that dream is still a dream. Men outnumber women ten for nine. Women have no say in shaping their lives. Society dictates how women should dress; women are raped if they don’t comply.

Is this Independence?

My child just doesn't read

“My child just doesn’t read”, I hear parents complain. “I buy so many books, but she’s just not interested.”

I used to feel almost guilty about my son’s voracious appetite for books, till I realised he hadn’t been miraculously ‘blessed’ with the love for reading- he had merely inherited it from his mother.

“Which was the last book you read?”, I’ve now started asking. If they can remember that far back, it is usually the name of a potboiler or a self-help book they give me.

How can you teach kids to love books if you don’t love them yourself?

All I couldn't do....

All the things I couldn’t do, I wanted my son to do. Tone-deaf myself, I signed him up for keyboard lessons; only to find that the teacher could not cope with his left-handedness. Basketball lessons were dropped because he just didn’t like them. He refused dance lessons even before they started.

Don’t live your life through your son, I told myself. And let him do whatever he wanted to do. He reads, writes, takes photographs, and day-dreams.

When I let him be himself, he turns out to be a replica of me. Should I be happy? Yes, I am. Very!

It needs to change

“What would you like to change about woman’s boxing?”, an Indian boxer was asked.

“Nothing”, she replied. “It is society that I would like to change.” Her comment was as spot on as her punches.

An organization puts up posters threatening to throw acid on the face of women who dare wear jeans, and the police doesn’t take any action against them. A woman is raped in board daylight on a busy street- a cameraman shoots it live and broadcasts it on TV, but does nothing to prevent the crime.

Any society that treats women so, does need to change.