The melting ice cream

This poem has a story. My friends, Shruti, Tina and I were getting bored. So we decided to take up a poem challenge. Each one of us gave a topic to the other. I won’t disclose the topic Tina gave me or the suspense in the poem would go. I gave Shruti the topic racism and Tina was given the topic Harry Potter. So here is my poem from this challenge, dedicated to these two lovely people:

I had a dream the other day,

The earth was lit up in flames.

The lively blue and green,

Were turning into a dead black.

The color of death was prevailing.

And the colors of life derailing.

Fire was increasing,

Liveliness was decreasing.

The monster of fire was gulping life.

And the earth was choking with soot.

Life ceased to live.

And death got a new life.

The temperature was shooting up.

Earth was perspiring heavily.

Sweat was draining life.

I woke up with a start

My science textbook was by my side.

I saw the topic I had been studying last night.

The heading read Global Warming.

A tribute

I used to love this show called Kahe Diya Pardes until the couple got married. Indians are super obsessed with marriage, and we have some special lagaav with girls in this case. The lives of girls completely change after marriage. But I have a simple question—why does this happen?

The people of our country still believe in the silly views that people did in the past. We talk about scientific outlook and rational thinking, but fail to actually implement it.

I have dozens of questions. Why does a girl have to ask her in-laws whether she can work or not post her marriage? Why does she have to change her surname? Why does she have to leave her house? Why does she have to do all the household work? Why does she have to refer to her husband as ji? Why does her family have to pay for the marriage? Why does she have to wear mangal sutra or put sindoor? Why can’t the men do all of this? Why do women tolerate it?

When someone is getting married, it’s taken for granted that the girl’s side has to make all the arrangements. These arrangements in a lot of cases are a long Wish List given by the groom’s side. Why is it so? Just because the bride has to spend her coming years with the groom and his family. I personally cannot digest this logic or illogic. This stupid reason is also given for another nonsensical thing- dowry. No dowry means no marriage in few areas which is so  sad.

Coming back to Kahe Diya Pardes, the female protagonist, Gauri has expressed her desire to work post marriage. What are her sasural people doing? They are bombarding her for hurting the maryada of the house. Seriously?  She worked before her marriage, what’s the problem in doing so after it?

One of my articles, Kaali Maata ki jai describes my experience with the concept of marriage. Girls in India are groomed since birth to get married. They are considered a burden and in some cases ‘paraya dhan’…not fair at all.

Women want a simple thing—freedom. The world talks about it, so does our country. People want to make a change. But there’s a problem. It’s called perception. The stupid and illogical perceptions and opinions about women not doing certain things should be thrown away before discussing women empowerment. Women don’t want to be referred to as ‘items’ ,‘burden’, or ‘properties’, we want our independence, our liberty, our lives. We desire a broad-minded outlook and a changed perception towards us. As they say, change begins at home.

I urge all of you to not just preach but practice too. Respect, empower and encourage women in your lives and bring about a change !

The serial cycle

So, I didn’t post my article last week. Where was Bharatiya Chokri? Well, I was at a MUN conference. Sorry for the delay, but here you go:

Now, you all know that I hate daily soaps. All these shows have this typical story. So here I come, ready to describe the story of a daily soap through various steps:

1)    Mulaakat: The protagonists meet each other at this stage. Their relationship at this stage is karele jaisa kadva. They hate each other, but coincidently (or rather by the command of the producers) they keep clashing into each other. Either of them has this best friend with him/her. This best friend acts as a messenger of love and tries to light the spark between the two.

2)    Pyaar toh hon hi tha: Movies and serials put this perception in our minds about opposites being attracted to each other. That’s what happens here. So their karele jaisi kadvi relationship turns into rasgulle jaisi meethi. They fall in love. Now, whenever they meet, this irritating music plays which frustrates the viewer by its repetitive nature. The protagonists keep looking into one another’s eyes and voh aankhon mein aankhein daalte hai. One of them finally does pyaar ka izhaar and the other accepts the love.

3)    Tsunami:- So now we have a problem. Either the parents don’t accept, or the protagonists suddenly change their minds, or the vamp poisons their minds or the worst- they marry some other person accidently.

4)    Shaadi:- After climbing Mt.Everest, these protagonists finally reach the peak. They finally get married, either by running away or solving the other issues. Their marriage is this extravagant affair which basically takes up half the money of the producer. The heroine wears a designer lehenga ( even if she is poor) and the hero wears a flashy pagdi. All rasams take place. People dance on Bollywood songs which start playing from nowhere. The family faces some random issue at this time also. These issues include a disliking to the color of the heroine’s lehenga, to the groom’s mother’s father’s brother not being able to attend the meeting.

5)    Nirvana:-Everything is blissful. This stage lasts for 1 episode.

6)    Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi:- The kitchen politics begins. The hero and heroine, along with the infamous saas are shown practically jobless and basically are just interested in plotting against each other. They practically go to any hadh to destroy each other’s happiness. The hero basically stands between the heroine and saas and keeps wondering what to do.

7)    Lut gaye:- Some tragedy strikes. The eternal lovers break their ever-lasting bond and start hating each other. They have this ghrina in their minds towards each other.

8)    Leap:- So after this tragedy, a leap takes place. Their kids grow up. They have separated now and live different lives, trying to forget the past. But the kids help them to rekindle their love.

9)    Action Replay:- All this stuff keeps going on and on till their kids become the protagonists and their story begins which is again a repetition of this cycle.

Hope you all enjoyed this article!! I would like to thank my dear friend Maha (who watches 10 serials per day) for helping me with this article.