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The second road was the one not taken, the one which I wanted to take.
1st April 2020 was the end of navaratri, the day of kanjak, where girls are treated like devis. I got up early, washed and bathed myself (which is a whole difficult work for a teen). It was all in all my happy day. After all I was a kanjak. I’d get pampered and treated like a princess. But something happened. Something so emotionally straining for me which pushed me to write an article about this. I was in the shower, rinsing myself, then mother shouted, wash your hair, I’d already done that a day before. I didn’t want to. I said no. This time a bit violently, mother shouted, don’t sit for the kanjak then. I forgot to mention, I was menstruating.
Corona epidemic was ever increasing. No other girl was present except me and my sister. In the shower, early morning, I stood there, remembering Frost’s poem, staring at the two roads diverged. The first one was obvious, I’d wash my hair and then sit as a kanjak. The second road was the one not taken, the one which I wanted to take. In simple words, I shall refuse to wash my hair, emphasising that I am just as pure with menstruation. It would be a great fight in the morning, lots of screaming and crying, maybe my parents would refuse to talk to me for a while, but ultimately, I would be successful in breaking a heinous tradition.
I took the road which all Hindu women had been taking for generations. I poured water onto my hair and let the feeling of something breaking inside fade away. From far away, I watched me go numb while my folks were worshipping the goddess and praying for the Kanjak’s Ashirvad.
Image via 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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