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'Boys don't cry' goes the saying. This poem explores what goes behind moulding boys who don't cry and at what cost.
‘Boys don’t cry’ goes the saying. This poem explores what goes behind moulding boys who don’t cry and at what cost.
In the quarter finals of the cricket match,
The ball hit him hard.
He cried.
They laughed,
Boys don’t cry.
In the semi-finals,
It hurt again.
He felt ashamed.
He fought his tears hard.
In the finals,
It hurt more.
He did not cry.
He bowled more and more fiercely,
Denying all he felt.
The crowd cheered.
The boys patted.
The girls smiled brighter.
He was hailed as ‘the hero.’
That was his first day of perfect ‘self-deception.’
Indian boy image via Shutterstock
First published here.
Proud Indian. Senior Writer at Women's Web. Columnist. Book Reviewer. Street Theatre - Aatish. Dreamer. Workaholic. 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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