The Brand called marriage

10.00 a.m.: The scrappy sister is snoring like Kumbhkaran. How can a 9-year-old do a PhD in snoring? I guess she deserves a spot in the Guinness World Records Book.

10.30 a.m.: I wake up after getting fed up by snoring. My hair looks like one of those religious babas who grow their hair for a decade and never comb them. I head towards the bathroom to brush my teeth. I accidently pour liquid soap on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste. Luckily, this sanitized and soap-full toothbrush does not touch my teeth as I realize about the soap.

11.30a.m.: I have breakfast. During breakfast, I require a dose of music to mentally wake up and for my mind to start working. For breakfast, Maa has prepared a salad of cherry tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. The scrappy sister hears the beats of ‘Cheap Thrills’, and stands up with a piece of cherry tomato in her hand. She starts doing Samba on Cheap Thrills. She is showing off her ‘moves’, when the cherry tomato falls for her hand. By mistake, she steps on it and makes a mess.

She blurts out “The tomato peed!” I give her the from-where-do-you-get-such-lame-ideas look. Maa shoots at her the you-need-to-clean-this-up look.

Baba enters and asks, “What’s going on?” I reply, “The tomato peed!”

“Did she do math this morning? She I acting like a wild animal!”

12.00p.m.: I have a rendezvous with my society buddies. My friend Vidhi wants to introduce our gang to a new friend of hers, let’s name her Friend A. I get ready and leave for the get-together. Avril calls me to ask what I am wearing today. I tell her I am wearing an animal skin dress and pink boots. She tells me I am crazy. I reply sarcastically and tell her you shouldn’t have asked dear, you know how much I care about fashion.

12.15p.m.: I reach Vidhi’s house where I meet my old friends and Friend A. Friend A reminds me of Mac Kenzie from Dork Diaries. Out of nowhere, Friend A blurts out, “Why does Sania Mirza play for India when she is married to a Pakistani?”

I reply, “Because her veins have bharatiya khoon and have you seen any sort of stamp or tattoo on her body that spells Pakistani?”

This reminds me of Twinkle Khanna’s tweet on this topic. Some random guy had told her that she should change her surname to Kumar now. She gave a really strong reply with the hash tag Married Not Branded.

I personally don’t feel getting married should change anything in a girl’ life. If she changes her surname to her husband’s, he should change it to hers. If she leaves her house, so should he. If she does household work, even he should do so.  A married woman isn’t a brand or property of her husband. She is an independent human being and should have all rights.