OH DEAR CHILDHOOD!

I decided to write this post for two reasons:

1. I miss..miss..and terribly miss being a kid; and
2. The obvious..I am guilty of not writing for what feels like ages.

I am almost nearing the completion of a quarter of my life and with every passing day I only seem to be missing my childhood even more. To be more precise, let me list down the things I miss the most about childhood:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

If anyone of you reading this happens to be the human rights activist type please don’t take the sub-head literally. When I say freedom of speech I mean saying only politically correct things. When I was a kid I could talk all I wanted and sometimes even say the most horrible things and yet get away with them (Arre bhayi..bachche mann ke sache hote hain). If my parents did ever get upset with me for saying certain things, all I had to do was make a sad face- enough to melt their hearts :P.
  
PURPOSE OF LIFE

Err..what exactly is that? I thought I was sent on this planet to eat, drink, sleep and make merry. But then soon I entered adulthood. Purpose of life translated to what it is for most of us. Get a job with a fat pay cheque and ace every household chore so that one fine day my prospective mother-in-law doesn’t pack me off back to my mai-ka (mother’s house..as I write this line my mind replays the scene of my grandma talking about me and my cousins to our mothers and saying “Ye ladkiyaan apni sasuraal mein humari naak katwaengi”). As of now I have been able to accomplish neither of these goals, so the purpose hangs in there like an elusive trophy.

THE WORLD IS A STAGE..INDEED

Mr. Shakespeare, after all these years of hearing this famous statement given by you, it finally makes sense to me. The world is indeed a stage sir and the audience is anything but kind. You falter a bit and the critics will unleash their wrath on you. Having a bad hair day?? Brace yourself for all those judgemental looks.  In contrast, as a kid I didn’t have to give a damn about how I dressed or how my hair looked because I was cute anyway (not being boisterous..it’s the case with all of us).

MAKING MY PARENTS SMILE OFTEN

The little I would come from school and completing my homework was a sure shot way of putting a smile on the faces of my parents. They would praise me and the graph of my self-worth would touch the roof. But then I wonder what changed as I can certainly not bring my office work home. If at all I work beyond my office hours my mother will ask that if I am so indispensable for my company that if I took some time out for household chores the company would come crashing down (yes..no real breaks..I can’t afford to be seen around doing nothing, lead a ‘purposeful’ life or die). In such a case all I can do is respond with a blank look to pretend that I was engrossed in work and tuned out of everything else. There are times I feel like asking her..“Isn’t this a part of the purpose?” For some strange reason I feel making them smile is only getting harder these days.

Now let me move on to adulthood. These days it seems all about enduring the long metro rides to office every day, giving a co-passenger ‘the looks’ and hoping that she (no-no..I swear the gender war got over long back..Delhi Metro has a women's coach bhayi) would realise that her weight is about to squeeze the life out of me and she should rather lean on to a non-living thing. 

After coming home from work, every time I am lazing around in my room, either of my parents will barge in and rant about how other girls my age not only have fulltime jobs but also help their parents with chores around the house (where the heck are these girls..someone show me ONE of these). There are even times when my mother has told me that I act like a guest staying in a hotel..only coming to eat and sleep (I fear she may ask me to pay up one day).

In my lifetime of over two decades so far, I have realised that parents will always have a pet peeve when it comes to their offsprings..varying with age. Just when I thought their nagging about "padhai karo..padhai" was over, they found a new cause. 

Amongst all this madness, there are times when I am able to steal some moments for myself (when my guilt inducing parents are not around). In these moments I wonder why it is so easy to find reasons to be grumpy about. I would love to be that kid again whose smile could calm people down even when they were about to blow their lids off. As a kid growing up, going to office and making money seemed like ultimate bliss, but today I think I should only let my parents do that.

Today I miss the careless smiles and uncluttered brain. Though adulthood is not really a punishment, but comparing it with childhood, I can’t help but ask myself “Why the heck did I have to grow up at all?”

P.S. I love my parents no matter what they say! (^.^)

HEART BREAKING END TO THE YEAR OF 2012

As per the Mayan calendar, the human race was to end in 2012. But I guess what the Mayan calendar really meant to convey was that humanity would end and Mayans predicted it quite accurately. On the night of 16^th Dec, 2012, a Delhi girl who was out on the roads of the city with a male friend of hers, at a not so late hour, went through a spine-chilling physical and sexual assault. Her friend too was brutally assaulted. The girl was raped and put through unimaginable physical torture in a moving bus and finally dumped on a roadside by six men. She lay there unconscious with her friend when some policemen saw the two, covered the girl up in a sheet and took them to the hospital. The doctors there fell short of words when asked to describe her condition and were amazed to see her alive despite arriving at the hospital three hours after the unfortunate incident.

This news was soon flashed all over TV and newspapers. The city went numb with fear and disgust. People talked in hushed tones about this everywhere from the Metro to the office canteens, while the doctors in the hospital struggled to save the girl. This female was an iron lady and had no intentions of giving in. Right from the moment when she encountered the perpetrators she had been fighting, now in the hospital she was fighting death. She showed the will to live despite all and soon her health seemed tad better. The hushed tones grew into one loud and firm voice. This voice encompassed emotions which had been simmering for a while now. Unfortunately we waited too long to let them over-flow. Not just Delhi, but the entire country was angry and sentiments ran high. Protests and prayers across the country united the citizens. People questioned those in power and demanded befitting punishment for the culprits. Meanwhile the girl was flown to Singapore to save her failing health and may be calm down the scenario in India which once had Central Delhi locked up from all sides. She breathed her last in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore on 29^th December.

Honestly, going by the fight she had put up, for once I really thought that she might just pull through it. She paid the cost for awakening a nation of people who had been taking it all, lying down till now. I must say, it took a lot to prick our conscience. A family lost its sunshine, a child who was chirpy and a brilliant student. But now that we are up, it’s time we don’t rest unless the needful is done. The momentum must not be lost unless the guilty are awarded exemplary punishment and the anti-rape law amended. Out of the six culprits, one falls a few months short of being an adult and hence has chances of getting away with a maximum of three years and that too in a reformatory home. It would be an utter disappointment for two reasons: first- this one is said to have assaulted the girl most brutally and second- this case clearly qualifies as ‘rarest of rare’. I say the police makes the faces of the culprits known and gives them a dip in the sea of people and let these six realise how it feels to be helpless and know what fear is (human rights activists, please excuse as these six only ‘seem’ to be humans).

The girl lost her life wishing to see these men being sent to their rightful place. It’s time her last wish is fulfilled. Nobody and nobody at all has the right to rob a female of her dignity and overrule her right over her own body. We can’t afford any more of this, the government must prove to us that we didn’t waste our time and vote on the voting day. I don’t think me or anyone can ever write enough conveying the anguish each one of us feels. From the deepest corner of my heart I wish the girl’s family all the strength and pray for the innocent life lost.

This fight has to be won without any more sacrifices and the scum bags have to be shown their place. WE HAVE TO KEEP GOING..THERE’S A LONG WAY AHEAD OF US!