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A dad who wants to pass on his A-1 skills to his daughter
Tring..tring…tring…The phone rang late in the night.
“Hello…!”
“Rani…what is it?”
“Baba…Rishi….”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He …He…he is regular in college. Yesterday the Principal called. Rishi has been bunking classes. I did not ask him anything… Instead I followed him.”
“Good! So what did you discover?”
“I..I…saw him entering a café. Soon a girl joined him. There they sat for two hours. They then went to the park. Sat there for long…hands intertwined. He…he even kissed her!”
“Where?”
“In the park, Baba!”
“Na Nah! Where did he kiss her?”
“On her cheeks. But why do you ask?”
“Hmm…”
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
“Yes Rani, a lot! How does the girl look like?”
“How does it matter?”
“It does. I need to know my grandson’s choice. Next time you follow, stay put at a good angle…you know from where you can get a good look at the girl!”
“Baba..! This is serious.”
Baba lets out a chuckle.
“Raani do you remember when you were in college? How punctual you were…You never needed anyone to wake you up? You would be up early and dash away! You never missed your classes.”
“Y…yess Baba.”
“And that extra set of clothes you carried? I did not miss the twinkle in your eyes or the way you lit up when you left home…”
“Bbbabaaaa …How did you know?”
“Well, I do know my little girl. One day, I followed you! Reached Victoria Memorial and sat behind you drinking lassi. Then I watched the movie that you both saw, munching chips. Well, it was quite an exciting day!”
“What!”
“Yeah…I knew you would come and tell me some day. I was patient. Meanwhile I did some research on the boy you were dating. We have always been close, Rani!”
“But you looked surprised when I broke the news to you…”
“I pretended. I was waiting for you to share.”
“Oh Baba.”
“Hey…that’s Okay! Tell me…do you have the same equation with Rishi? He should feel comfortable enough to share it with you. Build that equation. I learnt it from my own experience. Give them space. Watch them grow and be there for them. It will all fall in place. Meanwhile get a good look at that girl and get me a picture from your cell phone. I think I need to give you some tips on being a sleuth.”
“Ha ha….I Love you Baba.”
“I love you too, Rani.”
Sreemati Sen holds a Masters in Social Work from Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan. She is a Development Professional, specialised in Psychiatric care of Differently Abled Children. That hasn’t stopped her from exploring other fields. Years 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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