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Teaching your child honesty, while living in a corrupt world, is a scary proposition
Guest Blogger Meera Srikant is a professional freelance writer and manuscript editor, having contributed for various newspapers, for business magazine The Smart CEO and with one published novel, Written in the Stars, to her credit. She blogs regularly at http://www.meera-lastingimpressions.blogspot.com in English, and www.valadukaal.blogspot.com in Tamil.
A man explained to his six-year-old, cricket-crazy son about match fixing. “I will never take money when I play,” the boy declared and immediately became shy at such a bold declaration that evoked pride in the father’s eyes.
But the mother, standing near, felt her heart trembling with fear. The price of honesty today is death. The newspapers are full of it. A brave, honest person who stands up to the corrupt is either killed, or transferred or his life made hell. People around only feel pity for the honest man. They themselves don’t believe in solidarity or standing by the honest person. Most have many important tasks and so long as the problem is not in their backyard, where is the need?
And then, who knows if the honest man is really honest or has an agenda of his own? You may stick your neck out, only to find him forging a deal for his benefit! And then, why should one sacrifice his/her life and peace of the family for something someone else believes in?
In such an age, when bravery and honesty are virtues only for the others, which mother will put the mark of victory and send her son to the battlefield? Wouldn’t she also want the child to grow up healthy and lead a life of luxury? Even if the choice is not easy and her heart rebels? Can one drop make the sea? Can one mouse move the mountain?.
And yet, if all such mothers come together, follow their hearts, how many such warriors will come out in the world! To fight corruption, to fight evil, to stand up for their convictions! Then, will we need anyone else to tell us what is right and wrong? Doesn’t our heart tell it to us already?
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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