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The darkness ended and they could see a rainbow of life in front of them. The green grass, the blue sky, the white clouds, the colorful birds and them, all became a beautiful part of the nature.
There was happiness and excitement all around. The Venue was decorated with balloons of various colors. There were banners flowers, lightnings everywhere. ‘Mamma, make it fast, I have to go’, said 9-year-old Parnika raising her voice against the background music, as her mother was painting her face in different colors. She was participating in a fancy-dress competition at her school. She was playing the role of Iris, the goddess of rainbow. Parnika looked beautiful and colorful in her bright costume and she carried a cheerful smile on her painted face. Hugging her mother tightly Parnika ran towards the stage.
Parnika was disowned by her own parents at the age of 4 when she revealed that she was a transgender. Her former name was Pranav and at the age of 4 years Pranav told his mother that he was a girl and not a boy. He always loved to play with dolls and dress up like girls. His parents could not absorb this transformation and did not accept his identity like many other Indian parents. They were more concerned about the society’s norms and family name so they cut him out of their lives. His life turned into gray at such a tender age when he did not know what was happening to him physically and mentally. He was abandoned by the very people who brought him into the world. He was not even accepted by any of the adoption homes and then Anandi invited him into her life. Anandi who worked as a social activist was a transgender herself. She could understand Pranav’s feelings and difficulties. When she came to know about him through a friend, she adopted him. And once Pranav was given more tangible and attainable options to live as his true self, that was when he started to become Parnika.
The school where Pranav studied earlier denied to allow him as it may be against their rules to accept a transgender student. Anandi expected that such a situation would definitely arise with such a stigma and so much judgment against transgender children as she had faced the same earlier. But this time she fought. She knew how it feels to be not identified as a normal human being. She always used to question the society, “Do we have a disorder or any disability?, Why do you compare our physical appearance to our gender? , Do we have to swaddle either in pink or blue?, Don’t we have a choice or a preference?” ,” we too have the same red color blood flowing in our veins. When everything in nature is accepted as God’s creation why not we? When we accept the transformation of an ugly larva into a colorful butterfly why don’t you accept your fellow beings? “. She fought with her own self and with the society’s hatred too. She made sure the child did not suffer like she had and painted Parnika’s life with new colors, The colors of freedom of life, The colors of emotions and feelings. Now for them life is no longer gray. The darkness ended and they could see a rainbow of life in front of them. The green grass, the blue sky, the white clouds, the colorful birds and them, all became a beautiful part of the nature.
“Hello I am Iris, the goddess of rainbow. Accept life as it comes. Sometimes it may throw challenges. Consider them as colors of the Rainbow and have the threshold to fight and conquer them and you will see yourself high in the sky like a real rainbow”, Parnika bowed on stage after giving her speech confidently. There were huge round of claps and Parnika’s face glittered in the light. Tears rolled down Anandi’s face as she saw such a positive and lovely response from the crowd. She moved towards the stage carrying a sense of pride on her face.
Image Credits: Pixabay
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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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