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Women have always been told they are second class citizens, their birth unwanted, always 'belonging' to someone else as if they are objects, not full human beings.
Women have always been told they are second class citizens, their birth unwanted, always ‘belonging’ to someone else as if they are objects, not full human beings.
For generations, women have come and gone, leading lives that have been shaped by the patriarchy, forcing women to lead a life that serves their potential poorly, in one way or another. The very patriarchy that isolates, excludes, discriminates, second-guesses, hates, hurts, harms, and abuses women also goes a mile further to tell women not to “play the victim card.”
To that patriarchy, I throw a challenge.
Try this.
Try living in the epicenter of a world that constantly tells you that you are worthless, that your birth was meaningless, that you are a burden on the family, that you menstruating makes men sick, that your family’s honour rests in your body, that every man around you is entitled to your body, that your personal agency does not exist, that your consent is a mythical creature that dances with unicorns, that your work no matter how good is not going to be remunerated as much as your male colleague’s work will be, that your consent to being married is consent to your body being used at your husband’s whim and fancy, that your place is in the kitchen, that your menopause is an excuse to get out of things, that your mental illness is just you being needy, that your education does not matter, that your freedom does not matter, that you do not matter.
Try living in the eye of this storm. Try doing half the things women do, staring the world in the face and throwing acts of resistance in its eyes to shake up the status quo. Try raising hell when the pressure of this feels like ten planets stacked up on your back.
And then tell me how tired it can make you feel. And then tell me how, despite finding all the courage in the world to fight it, there are days when you crumble and hold onto the pain because that’s what you want to do at that time. And then tell me that the resilience you found within is your bloody crown jewel that you wear with pride, with all its scars intact.
And then, tell me, just tell me, how you dared to think that a woman asserts her “victimhood” and doesn’t fight it.
Image source: a still from the movie Videsh
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As parents, we put a piece of our hearts out into this world and into the custody of the teachers at school and tuition and can only hope and pray that they treat them well.
Trigger Warning: This speaks of physical and emotional violence by teachers, caste based abuse, and contains some graphic details, and may be triggering for survivors.
When I was in Grade 10, I flunked my first preliminary examination in Mathematics. My mother was in a panic. An aunt recommended the Maths classes conducted by the Maths sir she knew personally. It was a much sought-after class, one of those classes that you signed up for when you were in the ninth grade itself back then, all those decades ago. My aunt kindly requested him to take me on in the middle of the term, despite my marks in the subject, and he did so as a favour.
Math had always been a nightmare. In retrospect, I wonder why I was always so terrified of math. I’ve concluded it is because I am a head in the cloud person and the rigor of the step by step process in math made me lose track of what needed to be done before I was halfway through. In today’s world, I would have most probably been diagnosed as attention deficit. Back then we had no such definitions, no such categorisations. Back then we were just bright sparks or dim.
Pathaan touted as SRK’s comeback has been in the news for mixed reasons. Right from the hype around SRK’s comeback and special mentions his body contours; yet I can't watch it!
The movie touted as SRK’s comeback has been in the news for mixed reasons. Right from the hype around the movie being SRK’s comeback and special mentions his body contours and even more than the female lead!
For me, it’s not about Deepika’s bikini colour or was-it-needed skin show. It’s about meaningful content that I find is missing big time. Not just this movie, but a spate of cringe-worthy narratives passed off as ‘movies’ in the recent past. I feel insulted, and not because I am a devoutly religious person or a hardcore feminist, but because I feel the content insults my intelligence.
But before everything else, I am a 90s kid who in the case of movies (and maybe more) is stuck in time as it wrapped around me then and the gamut has too hard an exterior for me to crack it open!
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