Just Musings

So we are almost at the end of the year 2016. And boy, what a year it has been! A joke doing the rounds in certain social media circle aptly describes the experience.  The joke goes something like this: The year is a hundred or so hence and a history teacher tells his class, “So that concludes the history lesson for year 2015 and now let’s move on to year 2017.” Surprised, one student stands up and asks him, “But sir, what about 2016?” and the teacher answers “We don’t talk about it.” Jokes apart, does this message strike home? Is this year going to be our shame, an embarrassment, we will never talk about?  Let’s have a look at the events. Brexit, Trump’s victory in the presidential election, an increase in racist attacks on migrants and people being judged for their skin colour, religion and their ethnic backgrounds rather than intelligence (even Obama and his wife Michelle have been targets of such racism) and closer home an increasing shift in how we vie...

16 th October is celebrated the world over as World Food Day. Bet you didn’t know that. Well, I didn’t. What pops into our minds when we think of this day? World hunger? Shortage of food? Wastage of food? Yes, all of it.  Let us concentrate on wastage here, though. After all each one of us is contributing to it on a personal level. It is estimated that the amount of food wasted on a daily basis, around the world is enough to feed up to 3 billion people. In India alone around 40 to 45% of the food produced is wasted, i.e a whopping 58,000 crores, according to the Food and Agricultural Ministry. Of course this is because of various factors like an increase in population, lack of proper facilities to store food, climate changes, hoarding, inflation, etc. But we also waste food on a personal level too. We, Indians tend to live large; sometimes larger than what our wallet allows for various social reasons. Huge weddings and lavish parties are a norm. Have you ever wondered what happe...

Yes, we did it again!! A hurray for women power. Take a bow men, we can do all that you can and maybe more. Social media is replete with messages of how the women have save the day for India at Rio. There are jokes of how women have to do everything, right from fetching the grocery to getting the medals. It makes you smile and as a woman, proud, that finally women in India have come out and shown the nation what they are capable of, in spite of everything. Something else though passed on as a joke, caught my eye. The clichéd “Behind every successful man is a woman” was jest fully being replaced by “behind every successful woman is a man.” This was mostly directed at their hard working, all sacrificing coaches. While this is wholly and emphatically true and will be totally endorsed by the players themselves, there are other unsung heroes behind the success of these girls. Namely their fathers. Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s deputy chief minister, while announcing a reward of one cror...

In the days after the declaration of the results for tenth grade, a very disturbing message was doing the rounds of some social media sites. Apparently a 15-year-old had been declared to have failed in one of the subjects and was subjected to humiliation, when her school told her that she had brought ill-repute to her school. The girl unable to face the humiliation of being branded a failure committed suicide only to be declared to have passed the subject. What the message tried to tell us was that if only she had waited a few more days or maybe even a few more hours’ things may have been different. It would have been a tight slap in the faces of those who did not believe in her. Instead, it has become a lesson in how easily we give up in the face of adversity, leaving behind a family who struggles to deal with what could have been. In most of the cases this is true. If only we had a little more patience and waited or looked elsewhere, we may have found what we have been lookin...

Two Minutes of Fame Another controversy has blown up on our faces, this last week. An icon of the film industry decides the physical stress of preparing for his latest flick leaves him “feeling like a raped woman” and the news media and social networks go berserk. To give credit where it is due, the star, immediately knew he had put his foot in his mouth and  apologized . He even requested the journalist interviewing him not to use it. And the journalist responds with a chuckle. But of course they are going to use it. If they don’t then what happens to the TRPs? So the interview is strategically made public and the media circus starts, as the man behind it quietly boards a plane out of the country to perform at an awards ceremony. So we have everyone, from politicians and women groups to self-proclaimed political activists baying for his blood; demanding an apology. News channels go through their usual prime time news with screaming headlines and discussions. Experts...

“Mirror…Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” The witch asks her magical mirror and the magical mirror shows her Snow White, the beautiful princess said to have fair skin. We have all heard this fairy tale through our childhood and retell this to our girls, somehow ingraining in them that a fair skin is equivalent to beauty. Dusky or dark skin equals ugly. Sometimes our obsession with fair skin goes beyond sanity; driving girls to use products that may not necessarily lighten your tan but lead to serious health issues. Cosmetic giants cash in on this madness and advertise their products, promising lighter, fairer skin and young girls in their quest to look more beautiful fall for it. Celebrities are only too happy to be paid huge sums to be the face of these products. It matters little to them that they can influence so many and that they may be misleading them.  A recent advertisement for one such product shows a young girl so obsessed with not getting...

Some feminist believe gender inequality and bias began with the Manusmriti. Although Manu’s diktat on woman and her place in society does come across as the ranting’s of a misogynist, I would like to point out that woman are no better in other societies. Gender equality and financial independence of women is still viewed with suspicion and disapproval in almost all societies today. Even those who consider themselves as the most ‘advanced’ of societies, like for example America, is still very patriarchal in their treatment of women. (Case in point, Trump’s spewing of hate filled speeches against woman and still being the frontrunner for Presidency) Women have been given gender specific roles to play in relation to men. They are still viewed as ‘homemakers’ and men are the ‘providers’. It does not matter today that a woman can outperform a man in any profession. She is still paid less and has to double her efforts to be taken seriously. Society prefers and is comfortable if she p...

Welcome!! Okay that sounded pretty lame. Hmm…so how about…Heeeyyy, another blog! No not that either. Have you been afraid of something in your life and wanted to face the fear head on? You keep going there and coming back and then again, you go there and take a step back. Yeah, that is how I have been feeling for the last few days…oh  well!! Months actually! Frankly social media frightens the crap out of me. I wonder about the people reading the blog and then hesitate to take that step. But finally here I am. I am facing my fear head on. So enough about my ranting! Let’s just get started. This blog is about everything women. Oh God, you say, not another one! Yes, this is about how it feels to be a woman. Your story out there. I would like to invite each and every one of you to share your experiences and thoughts of being a woman in today’s world. Mostly it will be about the problems we are facing today, contemporary issues that affect us and how we have managed ...