Raise Your Voice

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There is so much to protest and fight for and so much to question, but where are all the affected???

India is the world's largest democracy and we did not become one overnight. Thousands struggled and lost their lives on the way to achieve this freedom that we are enjoying today. In each struggle, lives were lost and lessons learnt. The one thing that kept the struggle going was the active participation of people. The history of Indian struggle for independence is a lesson to many but equally forgotten by many. There is callous disregard for all the sacrifice as it remains just in the history books. But my topic is not about the struggles and protests that our forefathers put forward. My topic today is about the fights and protests that we are not doing today. It is what we have become as a society.

As I said in the opening, we are all affected by so many small to major devious issues in the society but we have learnt to live with it. Isn't it close enough a crime, not to raise a question/protest against evil in a society which has seen great inspiring fighters? Isn't it a deadly crime to stay passive to all the injustice happening? Isn't it a sin to stay passive to the sufferings and struggles of our own kind? Let me explain in detail the concern that is eating my mind.

A petty shopkeeper sells things at a cost higher than the MRP but we never question him. Road rules are flouted by everyone and no one questions it. People throw waste on the road and make the place unlivable but we never question people who do it. The roads are always in a bad condition which leads to heavy traffic blocks but we have no time to question the authorities. The schools charge exorbitant fees and make education a business making it inaccessible to millions of poor kids but who cares? Officials ask for a bribe to do their job but we never question them as long as our work gets done. There are so many criminal and corrupt politicians in each political party but we still keep voting for them and bring them to power. We have no time to question them or protest against them. Women and children are molested, abused and raped everywhere in public and in private but we turn a blind eye towards it. There is a person on the road bleeding to death, but we have no time to help. The list is so long that I may need two more articles to list them. These are just few which keep eating my brain. These are smaller issues compared to the bigger scale issues that are plaguing the country.

We know there is wrong happening. We know that it is wrong to do certain things. We know that there are people suffering. Or have we become a robot or zombie to a level that we cannot even relate to human emotions? I believe, we have not yet reached such an abysmal situation. If we have an even little amount of humanity left in us, shouldn't we react? Shouldn't we feel frustrated and start protesting against the injustice, the rampant misgovernance and misuse of power?

Though the answer is a YES, we never say it. We are too engrossed in setting up a comfortable living sometimes even scrambling through the day without any aspirations that we have no time for such aroused sensitivity. We feel safe in the comfort of our home and office and imagine that we are living in a safe environment. We do not want to run the risk of getting into any kind of issue that does not affect us directly. Even if certain things affect us directly it is easier for us to just leave it unseen rather than stand up and question or protest.

The reality is we are selfish. I agree some are helpless. There are few who don't have the resource to question or are powerless to stand up and ask. There are few who are ignorant about their own rights and hence are doomed to live in fear. But what about people who are educated and who have access to the resources to eliminate the ignorance? How many of us are even aware of our rights as a citizen of this country? We never feel it is important to know our rights. We consider it a waste of time.

What I have understood from the news that is coming out every day is that it is high time we stand up and fight for our rights, fight against the injustice and misgovernance. It is high time we become active in the daily politics. It is high time we as citizens of this country start joining hands and stay together and gather power. Various kinds of powers are starting to take control of our lives through all indirect ways. If we don't become active, we are bound to get into another kind of slavery which unlike the British will be from within this country. We need to start from our daily issues. We should raise our voice against every evil, start questioning every wrongdoer. I know it is difficult. But as citizens, it is our responsibility. For that being aware of our rights is the first step. I hope more people become aware and stand up for their rights and also for fellow citizens. We cannot remain passive.

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Truly and Fabulously Feminist

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. ~ Arundhati Roy

What is Feminism?

Feminism is the movement which fights for equal rights of a woman as a man. Since we live in a patriarchal society, fight for equal rights for women in every aspect has been gaining momentum. From surviving the female infanticide to living a life of choice the female population in this world faces discrimination and oppression at every stage. Feminism fights against each of this discrimination and strives to get women equal rights.

Feminism is for all

When we fight for feminism we always talk about women empowerment. We talk about educating girls there by making them socially, economically and emotionally independent. But we forget the fact that men also need feminism. As Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stressed in her speech at the TED Talk, even men need feminism. How many of you have heard someone telling a boy "Be brave, don't cry like a girl"/"Only girls cry, boys don't cry" ? Most of us would have heard someone using such statements to a boy. By saying so we are bringing up the boy with a mentality that it is a shame to cry and such shameful activities are done only by a girl. The boy feels ashamed if he cries, whereas in reality crying is as natural an expression of feelings like laughing or getting angry.

My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes there is a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hence a boy has to be a feminist as equally as a girl is. He needs to understand that it is not a shame to cry. He needs to understand a woman is not born to cry and that she need not be protected always. She needs support like he needs at any point in his life. She needs respect the same way he needs. She deserves to stand up same as his entitlement. By not doing this we are putting pressure on men to behave in a certain way like we do to women. When making women strong and self-sufficient we also need to teach our men to respect such or any kind of women and not feel threatened by a woman. We need to teach both men and women to be a good human being. A person should be able to be true to his/her self-innate nature and not bound by the difference of gender that a society advocates. A weak man is as much a man as a strong man is. This way we liberate him of his insecurities and make him more sensitive to issues around him rather than concentrating on his ego.

A Feminist is anyone who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men. ~ Gloria Steinem

Feminism Vs Egalitarianism

Many people feel ashamed to call themselves a feminist even if they believe in equality. They are afraid of being looked at as a man-hater, a problem creator, a rude and harsh woman which is completely against the common traits expected out of a woman. They are afraid of offending men and all those people who impose the belief that women are supposed to be submissive and the epitome of sacrifice. Hence they take refuge in a much neutral and pleasant term "Egalitarianism".

Every kind of discrimination is wrong. Feminism is different from egalitarianism by the way that egalitarianism treats every person the same no matter what their social, economic and cultural background is. This is theoretically good but practically not workable. Every person/group needs different level and type of empowerment to reach the equal level. In that perspective, feminism looks at the gender- related issues which affect women and works on those issues to resolve them. Similarly, there are activists who work against various kinds of discrimination which is much more specific and fruitful than the general egalitarianism.

Be a Proud Feminist

There is nothing wrong in being a feminist. There is nothing hateful about being a feminist. A true feminist is not a man-hater in general. But a feminist reacts when a woman is treated lower than a man. A feminist questions and fights any system that advocates gender discrimination in any form. Feminism is nothing but realising that women are human beings too and that they are entitled to every natural and man-made resource on this planet as much as a man. In fact, every woman should be proud to call herself a feminist.

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The Smell of Rain

She walked into the store to escape the drizzling outside. She was not dressed for the rain. She felt a sudden pang of worry as she wiped off the water from her neatly waxed hands using the tissue paper from her . She was wearing the wristband in dull gold that Kevin had gifted her. Kevin had always surprised her with gifts. Though she liked all his gifts, she had a personal affinity towards this piece of jewellery - The wristband. She had chosen to wear this almost to all special occasions. She never knew why, but she just felt very calm wearing it.

The rain was pouring now. With a worried look, her eyes browsed through the store. It was a toy store and it was colourful. She started walking through the store looking at the toys. It felt good to get distracted from worries for some time. Walking through she saw a child dressed in a yellow and blue trousers holding a man's hand and looking at her with an awestruck expression. The little boy was cute. She smiled and winked at him. He stared at her with his wide eyes without blinking. She remembered she was overdressed for a place like this and she wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. But it was still raining.

The girl in the city radio had predicted heavy rain but when she had started from home it was not even cloudy. She was surprised how quickly nature had changed her mood. The blocked roads had forced her to get down a little distance before her destination and walk. But then the rain. The worry pang was back. The boy was still staring at her. His father who was looking through some toys noticed that his son was distracted. Turning around he saw her smiling at the boy. With an embarrassed smile, he tried to pull the boy away, but the boy would not move. His father was now a bit irritated as he had noticed that she was surprised at his behaviour. He apologised, and forcefully pulled him away. Walking away the boy was still staring at her.

She remembered how Kevin had stared at her with the same look the first day they met at a friends' place. She had gone to the party on her friend Riya's insistence. There was music, dance, booze and food. Though she liked all these, on that day she was not in a mood to party. But from the moment she met Kevin, her mood had changed. A friend's friend, he turned out to be more than just a party friend with his witty talks and caring nature. He was the one who had readily agreed to drop her home as her friend Riya was too drunk to drive and she herself could not drive. Well till now she had not learned the art of driving. She remembered, how even after befriending her with his endearing personality, Kevin had continued to stare at her all through the evening and all through their relationship for the next four years. He said he loved to stare at her, well he hated when she used the word stare, he called it admiring. He admired her till the last moment of their relationship when she bid her last goodbye to him breaking their relationship forever.

She was the one who had ended their relationship. He was the perfect lover any girl could dream of. He had respected her for what she was and had helped her carve her character as a strong independent woman. He loved her with no conditions or qualms. He let her be what she wanted to be. But she knew he loved her dearly. He cared for her safety even when encouraging her to travel a lot. They were in love which was full of respect for each other. But it had to come to an end.

Mark was the perfect choice for her life. Kevin was the love of her life. When she told Kevin about Marc, whom her parents had found for her, he knew she was stuck between her love for him and her parents. Her parents would never accept him. He was just a budding photographer with no great means to live and no family to support. She was the princess of her well-off father and he would never want to see her spend the rest of her life with a vagabond like him. All through their relationship, he had struggled to build a successful career but he had failed. He was still struggling after four years. What was the point in bringing a pampered girl into his life against her parent's will and put her through all the struggle? He convinced her to get married to Marc. A family friend with a successful business career, Marc was the perfect man for her life. Kevin was indeed a man of his word and had never tried to contact her after the last day they met and bid goodbye. Last she had heard about him he was married and happily lived with his wife.

She walked to the billing counter to pay for the doll she had selected. The rain had stopped by then. She saw the small boy being carried out of the store by his father. He looked back at her, waved his hand in a goodbye with a smile. She smiled back at him. As she hurried out of the store to meet her client, she could not help but think about her daughter who would be waiting impatiently for her to return home. The traffic had by then dispersed and the roads were clear. Even after building a successful business on her own she had never managed to learn to drive a car. Well she had learnt never to feel guilty about anything, thanks to Kevin. She felt relaxed that Marc would be coming to pick her up after her meeting as she did not want to get wet again in case it rained. She checked her watch, there was no need to worry anymore.

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My simple encounter with nature

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As I stood there looking at the evening sky, the soft wind caressed my hair. I could smell the wetness of the soil and the freshness of the greenery around me. I was feeling light and fresh. Standing like that I wanted to dissipate into the cool breeze like sawdust and travel through all the plains, flying between the trees, touching and playing with the soil, hitting the mountains and splashing the mighty sea. I felt aroused by just being present there at that time.

The lady of the house came around explaining how much she enjoyed staying in such a quaint place away from the busy city. Taking her seat in a chair she explained to me about her small vegetable garden in front of her house. I could sense the child in her while she was talking. She said “I plant one seed of a bean and that one seed sprouts into a plant which bears about 20 beans and each bean has at least 10 seeds inside it. Look at how nature is giving back to us”. Wow! It was such a powerful statement.  I could not help but wonder at the power of nature. But how much do we appreciate the nature that gives us so much? 

She said that every evening she sits in front of her little garden and watches the tiny garden lizard come to the garden and hide in the plants. They sumptuously feed on the moths that come to eat the plants. And thus this small garden sustains an ecosystem. It felt wonderful listening to her speak with the enthusiasm of a kid. Being a gated community away from the city, there is vast empty land around her house. She believes in natural farming and hence she simply throws various kinds of seeds all together onto the empty land around her house. She waters it daily. All these seeds of various plants sprout and grow together. For her, it is more about the happiness and satisfaction than the outcome of it. In this method she has grown beans, ladies finger, green chillies, Green leaves, tomato and may other vegetables all together like a vegetable forest. Initially, the residents of the colony were against her using up the free land. But she convinced them that anyone could bulldoze her garden and she would not feel for it as she looked at enjoying the current moment than worrying about the future. 

I stood there listening to her words and it kindled a sense of happiness within me. All my tiredness of the travel and the long day’s work vanished. I wanted to leave my life in the city and move into that small village. I felt like I could stay there forever and would never want to return to the city life. Nature truly is a magic. We get so much engrossed in our race to earn a living in the city that we have lost touch with nature. Like she said, we are stuck in an imaginary world filled with man-made comforts. We don’t know the real comfort. Comfort is not living in a busy crowded fast paced city and spending a rare weekend in a village paying for the experience. Real comfort is living in a village and living life with nature forever. I wish to live such a life soon. I look forward to those days.

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