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.

The curse

The bird of happiness,

Which was locked up in the prison of madness,

Has escaped now.

The mind works,

The heart doesn’t,

All the heart says is,

Oh My God!

When will this stop?

Pressure is all that resides in the mind,

And forces us to increase the area of tension.

Ah! My life sucks!

I guess I just have no luck.

The candies have been snatched,

The eggs of happiness refuse to hatch.

Chocolates have melted away,

To enter a stream of melancholy.

The bricks of joy spurn to bind.

Green vegetables have entered this mind.

Exam is a never-ending ocean,

And a student’s mind is one of those infinite boats that float in it.

Exam is a Mt. Everest peak.

A student is that struggling mountaineer who reaches that peak after tons of hard work.

Oh Lord! Almighty!

Even atheists pray.

Please lift this curse and give us some rain,

Some sunshine, some hay.

Some independence,

And the power to survive this exam every day.

 

Dhal gaya din

Getting off the bed in winter is one of the toughest jobs on this Earth. Unfortunately, 5 days of the week are working. So, what is our condition on each day of the week? Let’s find out!

1)    Monday: Dude, nobody really likes you, so just get out of our lives and leave us alone. After a week of chilling out, we’re back to work. We feel as if this Monday is a vampire aur hamara khoon choos raha hai.  Mondays are like green leafy vegetables. We really don’t want them.

2)    Tuesday: Okay week, you have arrived, I’ve started accepting. We are at this stage when we are starting to accept the fact that we’re at work and we really need to gear up and pull up our socks. We are like this pendulum hanging at its mean position, ready to move to the extremes.

3)    Wednesday- Yeah, I’ve accepted it. We’ve finally accepted the fact that the week has begun. It’s like entering a new school and finally accepting the fact that you have adjusted well. Wednesday is the kuch meetha ho jaaye day as acceptance is an achievement and deserves something sweet.

4)    Thursday- You’re about to end! You tell the week that you are pretty happy about the fact that it is about to end. The acceptance that you had the previous day has vanished and formed water droplets. The mind is just waiting for the next day to end so that you can actually stand on the bed and dance.

5)    Friday- You dance to the beats of Thank God Its Friday. You make your hair brush your mike and sing in the most besurili awaaz possible. Your hair looked shabby and uncombed and you’re clad in just your boxer shorts and favorite t-shirt. You eat all the stuff that you can.

6)    Saturday- Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho is the perfect tagline for this day. We dance, party, sleep, eat, watch movies, shop and just go pagal. We watch our favorite Kapil Sharma Show or Bigg Boss or Indian idol or any other show and sleep. Our snores are the loudest on this day.

7)    Sunday- Weekend, I need another day. You really don’t believe how this weekend just evaporated into thin air. You mentally prepare yourself for the next day by eating extra ice cream tubs to decrease your depression.

So this was how condition usually is on each day of the week. Thanks to my lovely friend, Srija who gave me the idea of this article. It’s her birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARNIKA SRIJA AKA DORY!!!!! 

The Georgian

I am sitting on a red, old chair with a black folder in my hand and a placard spelling ‘GEORGIA’ . I have been at this place for the past 6 hours. I’m not bored, but extremely excited about what’s coming next. I am carefully listening to each and every delegate about what he/she has to say and am actually noting down stuff.

Have you ever heard a long boring speech? MUN would appear to the world as something similar to that. But to me, it was one of those action-packed, full of masala Hindi film that should not ever end. MUN for me was a concert of my favorite singers, an Assembly of diplomats who were strangers yet known people to me, a collection of people who taught me tons about life.

So, what was this MUN? I didn’t write an entry last week as I was at the Pune Model United Nations. MUN is basically a version of United Nations for students. We are assigned a country and a committee and an agenda. So we had to research and talk.

I spoke for just 2 minutes at MUN. But those 2 minutes were like a dream come true, like floating on a cloud and flying to heaven and like finding bliss. I had researched dozens and it all just evaporated into a 2-minute speech.

I made friends, learnt, spoke and enjoyed MUN a lot. There were 150 delegates in my committee, so there was loads to learn and absorb. The list is long so let’s not get into it.

Have you experienced something that leaves you spellbound and wanting more? Well, MUN was that for me. I watch Quantico every week, and I want more than that one hour of that show every week. So even after 12 hours of MUN, I want more.

I don’t really like McD burgers much, but for MUN I can definitely say, I’m Lovin It!

If you ever hear someone calling conferences boring, tell them to find their way to a MUN. 

 

Jingle bells

Naya Saal

9.30 a.m.: I thought I’d be partying this morning, as it was the first day of this New Year. But 31^st night was kind of pathetic. My scrappy sister, wanted to buy this New Year’s gift, so instead of partying at some cool spot, I was stuck at Phoenix. And you won’t believe for what reason- buying a makeup kit.

I hate makeup. The fact that I used to like this idiotic thing called makeup, and be one of those stupid girlish girls, talking about makeup, dresses and Barbie dolls all the time as a child scares me worse than a haunted movie.

Even I had bought this Faces makeup kit. It expired recently so the scrappy sister wanted a new one. We bought one after like 2 hours of searching. I seriously hate makeup. I believe in the beauty of the soul and so makeup doesn’t work for me.

Also, after we bought this stupid makeup kit, the scrappy sister came home and did her own makeup. I swear she looked worse off than Gabbar Singh from Sholay.

9.45 a.m.: I wake up frustrated and the scrappy sister frustrated me even more by wearing some random old frock of mine and putting makeup on her face. She taunted me by saying, “Learn something from me. Be a girl. “, I give her the I-don’t-understand-your-concept-of-being-a-girl look.

10.00 a.m.: New Year resolutions are the sickest thing about New Year. I came out and the first thing that was asked to me was what my New Year resolution was. I said I don’t really thing have one, cause I know I won’t stick to it. So I thought of suggesting New Year resolutions for others. I think the scrappy sister should take a resolution of keeping her nose into her personal business. Gosh, she has a pathetic habit of listening to others and troubling everyone.

10.30 a.m.: The first day of 2017 is pretty boring. I need to do something! So, I take my dear Huawei mobile. So I start looking at pictures from the past year.’

I think it was a great year. The rendezvous with friends, vacations, school gatherings, birthday parties, writing lovely articles and reading better books, and lovely family time was just amazing.

All my buddies made this year really special and kept my smile alive. I would like to thank everyone for this amazing year. Thank guyz! 

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!