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“The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling... Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.”
“The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling… Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.”
Here is the third winner of our January 2017 Muse of the Month contest, Pooja Sharma Rao.
The cue for this month was from the movie Queen, in which Kangana’s reel granny tells her that instead staying back in the hotel and watching TV and feeling bad for herself, she should go out and meet people, go sight-seeing…who knows she might find someone interesting too!
The baggage is heavier than any airline carries free of extra cost from the curious handmade potli to the now trendy strollers all carry centuries of Patriarchal mind-sets stashed away in side pockets hidden like lingerie and sanitary supplies
Pushed so deep inside that they are only taken out in the secrecy of bedrooms and bathrooms Alone, to be cried over like dreams of first love and stashed back with guilt of being the bad woman who desires
The instructions, too many Do’s and don’ts so that the status quo Passes on unhurt from generation to generation Heavy like that elusive ‘honour’ that she carries in a hidden piece of flesh and like a permanent scar on her being
The journey begins with birth but her routes and maps pre-decided like a pre-paid loyalty to ideal Indian womanhood good girls have no souls and own no compasses their maps are set only to matrimony, motherhood
Good Indian girls do not utter prohibited words Fantasy, ecstasy is overwritten by celibacy and virginity The line that was drawn to keep Sita safe is still strong in its invisibility
“Would he accompany me? If I was the one exiled? ” Questioning is also a luxury denied to her by destiny
and then with a single step the threshold is smashed the extra-baggage thrown out their maps and their compasses Abandoned As she decides to follow The call of her wanderer soul and breathe without the manual for the good Indian woman
The defiance is actually the last push to a glass ceiling Her mother and mother’s mother have been pushing too long.
Pooja Sharma Rao wins a Rs 250 Amazon voucher, as well as a chance to be picked one among the top winners at the end of 2017. Congratulations!
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Image source: shutterstock
Pooja Priyamvada is an author, columnist, translator, online content & Social Media consultant, and poet. An awarded bi-lingual blogger she is a trained psychological/mental health first aider, mindfulness & grief facilitator, emotional wellness trainer, reflective read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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