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Empowered on Paper, Invisible at Home: The Hypocrisy of Everyday Feminism

I never thought I would be writing a blog on such a "normal" topic but conversations with my family and friends have compelled me to write this blog. In recent years "women empowerment" has been prominent in almost every field of study and work but are women really empowered? I was playing with the kids in my neighborhood when I heard one of the old aunties say "meri bahu ka kaam he kya hota hai" (what work does my daughter in law anyway have?) Her "bahu" is a working mother of two kids.  My "feminism" (that many other people exaggerate with platitudes) couldn't be fine with it, so I went to confront the aunty.  "But aunty, I see her making breakfast for the kids and husband, attend to calls, make tea for you in the evening"(and with that, pretend to not care about everyday taunts and tantrums). Aunty goes "Well that's just how it is, am I not right?" ABSOLUTELY NOT, I say. I ask her, "then what work do ...

Stressing out?

Adolescence is such a crucial phase of life where you experience new things, that transforms you into a more mature person. So here, in the next few paragraphs I will very "maturely" explain fellow adolescents on how to be content.  The dynamics involved at this stage of life are too much to handle. You are due with 10 assignments every other day, concurrent exams, relationship problems, irritation due to small things AND SO MUCH MORE.  Just yesterday I was reading a news where a 12-year-old kid suffered a heart attack. Should this period really be so stressful? is a question that popped up in my mind. Well, the question is ambiguous. Some would say if not work now, then when; others would say enjoy the innocence right now deal with the problems later. I say that we do need to work hard today to have an easier life tomorrow. But it is not worth losing our mental and physical wellbeing in the process. There's already too much competition in the world, why don't we focu...

Biased Bollywood

There was widespread pretentiousness showcased by numerous actors of Bollywood namely Swara Bhasker  (wife of Fahad Ahmad), Alia Bhatt (daughter of Mahesh bhatt who's converted to Islam), Richa Chadda (wife of Ali Fazal) , Kareena Kapoor Khan , Sonakshi Sinha, fiancĂ© of (Zaheer Iqbal)  on the ongoing Israel-Palestinian war. They acted as fervent advocates by putting stories of "all eyes on Rafah" on their social media handles. But it hurts my heart to see that no-one is courageous enough, except a few to put a single message on the Reasi incident that took place in Jammu and Kashmir on 9th June,2024.  Everyone claims to be a sympathizer only towards the killing of innocents but were the pilgrims who were in the bus not innocent? Neither did these personalities (who have millions of followers) raise their voices on Oct 7th, 2023, when Hamas invaded the territory of Israel and raped and slaughtered thousands of innocent women and infants. If all of them are secular, t...

WHO IS THE REAL MINORITY?

 As the election season is near, I couldn't help but notice the negativity propagated by partisans and staunch supporters of the opposition parties. As a student, from the very beginning of my studies, my books have taught me how flexible our democracy is and how our preamble exhorts us to be just in all spheres of life. But I've always wondered if this plethora of goodness which is instilled in us really helps us to tackle different types of situations.  I say so because recently, I came across a news where a Hindu man was assaulted by a group of Muslim men as the former was playing Hanuman Chalisa in his shop. I'm not biased towards any one religion but having been a neutral spectator for some time, my stance on such matters has organically been influenced by interpreting who's the lesser evil.    While I was ruminating this news, I had several other epiphanies where I realized how news of atrocities faced by my Hindu brothers and sisters on a daily basis are ...

A trip to Asan Barrage, Dehradun, (Uttarakhand).

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  My parents recently joined a bird watching and stargazing group in Dehradun. It is administered by Mr. Satpal Gandhi, a professional stargazer and birdwatcher. Various sessions are conducted for the group members and their friends which helps spreading of this hobby to many future bird watchers and star gazers.            Mr. Gandhi, on 12th December, asked all the group participants if they were interested in going for a trip the next day, to a place called Asan Barrage for experiencing a meteor shower and observing rare birds. My parents asked my sister and me if we wanted to go and out of excitement we said yes. I was informed by my parents to pack warm clothes as it would be really cold and we would be staying near a water body during the month of December. We set off at noon and reached Asan Barrage at half past 2. We all got mesmerized the moment we saw that place. It was a magnificent riverscape and the cottages had a conical rooftop with...

INDO-PAK WARS.

It was May 1999 when an Indian army patrol led by Lt. Saurabh Kalia walking along LOC in Kargil went missing that raised eyebrows at the headquarters. What came back were badly mutilated bodies of our brave soldiers. This incident started the fourth war between India and Pakistan; The Kargil war or Operation Vijay, which started from May 3rd and ended on July 26th. Yes, this was the fourth time that a war was thrust upon the Indian subcontinent. The war continued for 2 months prior to Pakistan's defeat. 527 Indian soldiers were martyred, breaking the hearts of numerous people and leaving behind hundreds of families in grief. Many soldiers had been awarded with the Paramvir Chakra for their brave and courageous act. India had to fight to maintain its territorial integrity. Though in general wars are not desirable, but one can  flip the pages of history and more importantly in the Indian context, the wars had been fought against invaders, blunderers and enemies of the state. ...