Waiting…

Waiting to walk down that school street together,

Waiting to knock down each other with our sarcastic wit,

Waiting to fight with you tight and not apologize,

Waiting to ignore calls more often,

Waiting to treat you as my brother and sound insane,

Waiting to be that friend like before,

Waiting to see you happy always,

Waiting to talk to you like never before,

Waiting to get your glimpse and cry my heart out,

Waiting for these moments as I always did,

Waiting to get hurt again, may be….

They were born equal!

India is under the surveillance of 33 crores god and goddesses. And I am a hardcore devotee of none. Neither do I consider myself to be an atheist for again god has given me the perfect reasons to have faith on him. However I believe in Gandhiji who said that it was apt to consider truth to be God rather than considering God to be the ultimate truth.

Getting a bit philosophical…..but who cares as life is all about it. You cannot ignore it! And the main motive of uttering such philosophy is that India at times is overshadowed with numerous beliefs and superstitions which turn out to be vague most of the times.

How long you will be ignorant of the fact that it’s the XY chromosomes of the men that determine the sex of the baby? It hurts when I see the women themselves are engaged in the accumulation of dowry on their sons’ wedding. If a girl drinks and smokes, people question their character. If a man drinks and beats his wife, India says –“Chalo yeh toh hota hai!” Come on, it’s a myth and there is a dire need to break it.

Don’t read Raja Rammohan Roy or Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar just as topics of History books. Centuries ago they initiated the fight against child marriage, sati and promoted widow remarriage. It’s a shame on our part that while the developed countries are moving towards gay rights and lesbian marriages, we are still somewhere in 17^th Century but with branded clothes and a posh lifestyle.

I belong to Northeast India. Well, here we do not witness dowry cases as such. In Assam, we have a ritual that at weddings, the bride cannot wear even a thread of her father’s house. Her clothes and jewelry are gifted by her in-laws. In Meghalaya, the youngest daughter of the family gets paternal property due to the age-old matriarchy. Nevertheless, we have to break the myth that women are totally safe here. As long as men possess the denial syndrome, women abuse in some form or other is ought to occur. Or else, there would have been no cases of witch-hunting in Assam or cases of rape and violence in Manipur.

Mythology, history as well as our present shows how women have greatly contributed towards the development of mankind and civilization. There is a Mother Teresa, a Kiran Bedi, a Irom Sharmila, a Sampath Pal and a Lata Mangeshkar in every soul. Just ignite your mind. Break free. Educate yourself and become economically independent. And if you cannot afford to study, then work and then study. Walk the extra mile, get the knowledge and know the world.

Well writing this stuff is easier than to redress the grievances of women folk. But I guess every effort counts. I hope we don’t allow patriarchy to stop us from enjoying our womanhood, what we have seen with our mothers, bitter but truth!

Women empowerment is the hottest topic of debate and discussion in recent times. It demands participation of women in economic, political and professional spheres. However I won’t recommend anyone to solely rely on government and NGOs to bring women abuse to a halt. You have loved your family a lot and they have hurt you a lot. So take the chance and move on. Holding on people and things will bring no good, but letting go may bring better upshot. But before that make a clear distinction between sex (biological) and gender (social construction)!

They say, “Sons are sons till they get their wives and daughters are daughters throughout their lives.” But I don’t believe so. At times we see things the other way round. So why not train your kids on ethics and equality from the very childhood rather than making them run after scores?

And at the end of the day, I promise to abide by whatever I wrote all this while for every change does begin at home. And this is the ultimate truth!

Beliefs and Zodiacs….predicting unpredictable life :p

Not once upon a time but everytime a cat crosses my road, I feel like giving him/her a two way slap. Afterall he/she is eishan faramosh of the highest order…..they bring bad luck to the person upon whose Amul Taza and fresh fish, they get fed :p  But do they really bring bad luck???? Believe it or not those fellas used to cross my road four-five times everyday I go out…and subsequently I have given up the belief of taking three steps backward, before walking on further! It hardly matters…to be precise.  And now not giving anymore footage to he and she TOM, lemme promptly jump onto the backdrop of this note….afterall a Humanities student loves to reason and place views, but its upto the reader to judge whether its coherent or fallacious:p

Luck and destiny….nevertheless the extreme truths and parts of life. But beliefs, superstitions no way can avert your luck from dazzling or destructing your life. We decide our day-to-day lives on the basis of the five stars that get published in morning newspapers. And once I was surprised to see the same forecast being published twice a month. But this is the extent to which we believe beliefs:p

I wonder and wait for the time when there will be no Ganesha Speaks on Google but something like Ganesha Shouts:p  Now I am getting confused which brings bad luck- a right eye wink or a left eye wink:p  If oil falls from  your hand, you will get money….last day I dropped a litre of oil, that too refined Dhara….and I hardly increased my bank balance! They say, if you laugh a lot, you have to cry soon…but does that mean we will count smiles before placing them:p  You get hiccups and you confuse them either with love bites or hate bites….drinking a glass of water will solve your problem, I guess:p  If you eat anything round before going for exams…..they say may God bless you. But since childhood, I am fed upon potatoes, my favourite vegetable, and my scores are average:p  Snakes in dreams indicate money, fish in dreams indicates you are lucky and you should buy a lottery ticket and falling of a tooth indicates someone you know is going to die….unfortunately the third one always came true in my case,again another beliefL

Linda Goodman in her SunSigns gives a detailed account of our lives…from a child,man,woman,boss,employee…we get almost every answer in her thick forecaster! The practical me says, these are bullshit…but the curious me says, huh how come she knows!

Some say keeping a eucalyptus leaf under your pillow on a full moon, makes you see your soulmate in dream. Now yeh jyaada ho gaya but kehte hai, shayad hota hai aisa:p  Wearing whites and avoiding blacks on interview dates to avoid bad luck….but wearing blacks on personal ‘dates’ to look stunning is ironical:p  In childhood, there was a typical paper game for predicting love called-FLAMES (friendship,love,?,marriage,enemy,sister)……literally this lovemetre means combustion:p

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai brought the concept of wishing for something and everything the moment you see a falling star…..but some people say seeing a star fall brings bad luck....ab maro jahaan marna hai:p  They say if you encounter with an elephant or a group of eunuchs or a dead body on the way, you gonna have a good day ahead. With the onset of Fengshui, Laughing Buddhas have hit our shelves big time. Earlier it was a parrot bestowing us with the luck factor and now its astrology, palmistry, numerology, tarot reading that have made us fall in love with our future foretell. Tuesdays and Saturdays, don’t start journeys….Thursdays don’t spend money- flights should be cancelled on the former and banks should be closed on the latter days then:p  Falling of a comb brings guests home, the singing of the owls indicates marriages at home, crying of animals brings bad luck to home.

Wishing for something when you spot a couple of Maina birds, wishing for something more when you see a running train and getting all the wishes shattered when you see a monkey on a journey:p  Crossing fingers were not just ample, so some end up crossing legs too…anticipating for some good news!

Don’t sneeze in good occasions, don’t look back while going out…..don’ts are lot when it comes to beliefs, but as far as zodiacs are concerned, you can heal your future accordingly:p  Buy a start up package with 500, and you get all solutions of unpredictable life. If it’s still much, then go for daily packs@ re1/day, on mobile networks these days!

Stretching from Aries to Pisces, I don’t know What’s your Rashee, but reading these zodiacs bring so much oddity,optimism,poise at one point of time that at the other point of time you gonna mess up big time:p  So no matter it’s a two star or a four star day on newspaper, you can still have a fine day provided you have done your homework well:p  Yet till the time you wed, enjoy having faith in these beliefs and zodiacs and predicting this unpredictable life….kyunki after that there will be a standard kundali matching occasion again predicting your unpredictable life leaving you to sing why this 3(kolaveri) di:p

Last but not the least, amidst everything, don’t get murky if next time you spot one star beside your zodiac as life is like a paheli and you never know when the tables are turned, stars are on your side and Rahu Ketu sending you a friend request:p

That Box…Those Faces….and the 90s kid!

Since my childhood Ma taught us (read my brother too) to preserve all those wonderful greeting cards our loved ones once gifted us on several occasions. And may be because of that we still have, may be hundreds of them very well kept, with all love. The oldest amongst them is from my mother’s friend which was given on my parents’ wedding day…25 years ago. Well, this time the note is not on the box in which we keep those greeting cards:p

Don’t exactly remember the year, date and time but yeah I still remember how I used to make a mountain of those greeting cards imitating exactly the way Renuka Sahni used to do at the talk show Amul Surabhi, which was aired every Sunday on Doordarshan. Another personality who shook me up during those years of bachpan was Smt.Nalini (‘Smt.’ is being added coz I don’t remember her surname). Her show Aankhon Dekhi on Doordarshan made me visualize her as a woman of substance with her look comprising a khadi kurti mingled with a scarf, she left her hair fall on her shoulders and a big black bindi completed her look. Looking her everytime on the smallscreen encouraged me to become a journalist…though it was my dream of early 90s:p  Again I remember the times when during festivities specially Durga Puja, kids particularly twins, were dressed in Shaktimaan attires, the brown superhero dress with a golden chakra intricately designed on the chest. Mukesh Khanna indeed instantly became our desi superhero with all his powers to destroy Shakaal:p   Raja Aur Rancho gave birth to the detective instinct among ourselves. Mandira Bedi is still popular as Shanti with homemakers and working ladies admiring her corporate look like never before. Vishal is more popular than any other VJ of channel V today…may be just because the late 80s and early 90s people grew up watching Disney Hours. And what to say about Mahabharat, Ramayan and Shri Krishna which were Sunday bonus to every mythological grandparents, parents and children respectively! That was a beautiful Doordarshan time…but cable tv didn’t bring any disaster however. Rather the cable era has brought with it globalized dreams…glittering paparazzi….spicy thoughts….a strong voice!

The Three Stooges taught us humor, I Dream of Genie made me rub all bottles and jugs with a belief that a beautiful Arabian girl in pink or green harems would make my world magical and finally Dennis The Menace, made us do all kinda waywardness! Small Wonder with Vicky, Jamie and Hariet made our world a beautiful small wonder indeed….my pet’s name even fell after Jamie and it was the same show which introduced me to the word ‘date’:p!

Meanwhile, fights over which channel to switch on began blossoming in every home. The Adam’s Family,Flintstones,Dexter’s Laboratory dominated the Cartoon Network with many naming their puppies with the super tag Scooby. Malgudi Days on Sony still reminds me how I used to hum the tune….tanana nanananana :p  Meanwhile all mothers would complete all their tasks just to watch Ghar ek Mandir starring Gautami and Ram Kapoor (these days mothers are busy watching Bade Ache Lagte Hai:p) and on a happy note they used to watch Hum Panch…the way I still spell it:p I still remember Late.Priya Tendulkar’s role where she used to talk from her portrait. It was fun watching them!

There were times when watching Hip Hip Hurray on Zee TV made us wear short skirts in schools….later Remix on Star One brought the hap thing amongst the teens with characters like Yuvraj, Ranbir, Anwesha and Tia. Terms like ‘hey bhaggu….paliz’ became the in thing. However the entertainment is still on with D3 and Suvreen Guggal!

No matter how much we criticize the soap operas, we have to admit that atleast at some point of time we watched them…..we need to watch them even to criticise:p Ekta Kapoor is undoubtedly the ambassador behind those creative and masaledar characters:p   10.30 pm soon became the primetime with the telecast of Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Every mother hoped to get a daughter-in-law like Tulsi, every girl hoped to get a husband like Mihir, every fan of this soap opera hoped to calculate Baa’s age:p  That non-living box in our bedrooms and living areas indeed blessed us with immense entertainment with versatile emotions:p

Once I was shocked to see Kumkum sarees on a sale and Ramola’s finger rings at a street market. These saas bahu dramas made characters like Komalika,Prerna,Anurag,Parvati,Om,Kusum,Kumkum,Mandira household names:p  And its more entertaining to see how these shows khatam hone ke naam hi nahin lete and kept on stretching and stretching. Omit the weeping on part of the sushil sanskaari bahus and leave the practice of polygamy aside…I wonder how Tulsi’s son,Gautam married thrice and you will love them:p

From these family shows, let me move to some laughter therapies….no no I am not talking about Raju Srivastav,Sunil Pal or Qureshi. Sad but I am referring to the Indian horror shows which make me laugh instead, with the make-up overdo:p  The Zee Horror Show, Aahat, Sannata and Sshhh….koi hai, the last being the most humorous:D  Then there came real comedy shows like Khichdi and Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai….if nothing else we smiled atleast;)

Meanwhile the 90s kids grew up and they started switching from desi to videshi channels…but it was the same box:p  The Amazing Race and Ripley’s Believe it or Not became popular and we tried our best to publicize our adventures:p  That time Late Steve Irwin with his crocodiles delighted us and now its Bear Grylls with his survival skills. Friends, Desperate Housewives, The Oprah Winfrey Show and Koffee with Karan….to name a few more,engaged us in Star World.

Again, Reality shows began to amuse us like never before. Shilpa Shetty and racism in Bigg Brother created a lot of sensation indeed. And how can we forget our very own Bigg Boss….every season brings with it heavy surprises. It was fun watching both censored and uncensored versions, whether its Pravesh and Claudia or Veena and Ashmit Patel…undoubtedly his name changed to Ashlil Patel after the show or its Dolly Bindra and Shweta Tiwari’s fights and how to forget the superstar…nah, not Salman but Kamaal Khan:p   Shows like India’s Got Talent, Indian Idol, are kinda less competition and more emotions:P  Roadies, Raghu’s masterpiece is the oldest Indian reality show. And all what I can say about the show is ‘RESPECT’. Splitsvilla…another  show on MTV which should be banned according to the parents of 90s kids:p  But to my surprise, rather horror, my mom followed each episode of Roadies 9 and to her, the gals and guys at Splitsvilla are very chic:p   Nathing else but Star Plus’s punch line, rishta wohi soch nayi stroke me:p

Arnab Goswami insists us to share a word for the nation, Anup Soni of Crime Patrol warns us to be alert and ACP Pradyuman justs reminds us of ‘Daya,Abhijit, darwaza tor do’:p  Rajiv Khanderwal, still known to be Sujal, encourages us not to be a part of Sach ka Saamna:p  and Ravi Kishan thrills us with Raaz Pichle janam Ka…..

Oh, how can I forget about the contemporary social issueswala serials:p  Child marriage,widow remarriage,witch hunting-all in one@Balika Vadhu…..dads hate Gauri, moms hate Jagat, parents love Anandi….I toh love Shiv with the Magadheera music on his backdrop:p

Desi and Videshi television has made me its super fan….but it doesn’t mean I’ll start watching Uttaran:p  

At this moment of time…Ek Hazaron mein meri Behna Hai has made me fall in love with my sister:p  Be Blunt with Adhuna Akhtar is provoking me to get some bucks from dad and visit Headturners:p  Bear Grylls is really not encouraging me to mess with a shark:p  I Shouldn’t be Alive is stirring me to be alive:p  Master Chef always makes me think this is what I should have opted for literally:p  Sweet Sixteen reminds me of the fact that I am still in India…sapne dekhna bandh karo:p  Feels good watchin Oprah’s Next Chapter with the colorful Indian states. I love another show in Turbo, I don’t remember the name, the 90s kid is growing old:p………where three teams are engaged in transforming damaged cars into some extraordinary motors that rides, flies and swims….in Videsh every other person is an innovator!  DID all seasons is just 3(kya baat):p and Satyamev Jayate is so very satya! And obviously the most favourite….how can I forget about it…afterall every other sister is a victim of her brother who watches it….Smackdown and Raw….newcomers are inevitable, but the 90s kid cannot forget the champion Triple H, the dead man Undertaker, the big Big Show,the sudden sensation Brock Lesner, the entry of John Cena into WWE with a fight between him and Kurt Angle, the notorious Ric Flair, the death of Eddie Guerrero, revealing of Kane’s face and the most popular Heart Broken Kid. Sorry for I never liked Rock and Hulk Hogan:p

Undoubtedly that box…irrespective of shape,size,color,price……has indubitably shaped our lives gratifying and amusing us with those enormous characters and faces………afterall the 90s kid didn’t grow up poking on FB and playing with an i-pad!

P.S.-  This note is dedicated to that faithful box which gives us a mini heart attack when it suddenly stops working. Happy load-shedding this summer:p