A (Not so) Fair Deal

Matrimonial advertisements are fun to read, for you, but certainly not the bride-to-be. Apart from the usual demands such as Young, slim and attractive… highly educated… good mix of eastern and western values… enjoy cooking Indian food,; more and more mother-in-laws are becoming adamant that their would-be “bahu” be “a Milky White Girl” No, this isn’t true just for small town folk, even the most-educated and modern of families wouldn’t settle for anything less. The fact that their own son’s skin color resembles that of a newly laid stretch of road is of little consequence.

In her effort to get the best bride for her son, the highly imaginative ‘wannabe-saas’ has coined one of the most regressive phrase in matrimonial lingo. I wonder why can’t they just use the word “fair.” Most of us would settle for the word fair to describe skin color. But a phrase such as milky-white is an extreme and desperate obsession for a particular complexion is nothing short of demeaning and derogatory for the bride who just aspires for a respectable and loving family.

The world regards India’s desire to have a woman president as proof enough of the respect Indian women receive. But to me this means nothing. In India, people, especially women are still type casted on the basis of color. In spite of successive governments enacting laws to eliminate racial discrimination, there exists a section in society which continues to pump blood and oxygen into ancient discrimination within the same sex. This perhaps is one of the most heinous forms of discrimination.

Glorifying a staunch preference for the fairer skin isn’t a reflection of a progressive society. As more and more corporate advertisers are booked for lack of sensitivity in their advertisements, newspapers continue to permit offensive and demeaning language rather blatantly. Can’t the newspapers adopt measures to put an end to the segregation of women based on color?

Till that happens, it’ll continue to rain milk, at least, in the matrimonial classifieds. So ultimately, it’s upto the would-be brides to see such requisites for what they really are; crap, which is anything but white.

Damn the World

There are certain lessons in life that are hard to forget. As kids we all spent years relentlessly trying to value the morals in life (yes, come to think of it, during school life, the strength of one’s ethics and morality are directly proportional to the marks printed on report cards at year end).
After having spent a good ten years in convent schools, I have formulated the opinion that the true strength of one’s character is determined by how one faces real-life challenges, and not by writing school exams.
Yet, there is one story from all the moral science classes I attended that still holds true, and has become my mantra in life:

A poverty-stricken farmer purchases a donkey to assist him in daily chores. One hot summer afternoon, accompanied by his son, the farmer sets oiut to perform his routine errands- but with a difference. His son is riding the donkey and the farmer himself is walking by their side. They come across a group of villagers who mock the son for being selfish enough to ride the donkey, and make his father walk. Realizing this, the son gets off the donkey and requests his father to mount it instead.

After traveling a kilometer or so, the trio are met by another group of villagers, who unlike last time, humiliate for not being considerate enough towards his son and making him walk in the hot afternoon. In order to please both groups of villagers, and above all – each other, they both decide to ride the donkey. After traveling another kilometer or so, they come across a third group of villagers who curse them for ill treating the donkey. The duo immediately dismount and decide to walk alongside the donkey. Soon enough they come across a fourth group of people who burst into spills of laughter at their sight. The response from the group is even worse. The villagers said that the father-son duo didn’t quite know the purpose of having a donkey as they were walking alongside it, whereas they should have been riding it!

Phew! difficult situation isn’t it? To cut a long story short, no matter how hard we try to please the world with our actions, the world will still think of reasons to laugh at or curse you. Criticism and hypocrisy are easy to come by in this world. But that isn’t a good enough reason for us to suppress our soul and simply do what the world expects of us. No, definitely not!

Like most lessons in life, I learned this lesson the hard way and seemed to completely agree with the story. I’ve learned that every situation in life is comparable to the situations highlighted in the donkey story, all we need to say is Damn The World!

My First Post

My account on wordpress has been around for quite sometime. After having made innumerable unsuccessful rounds to my abandoned blog, I realized that how ‘blogally‘ challenged I am! I spent endless hours frantically searching means to shed my blogging woes away. My quest did not quite end with compilation of notes that were meticulously penned down for starters like me. I thought that words of wisdoms from blogging stalwarts were not enough to get me going. I diligently studied the blogging patterns of enthusiasts, and tried imbibing them into the first blog that I was battling to publish. But, there was no respite. Once again I faltered, failing to come up with a piece that could fit into the blog which I had so zealously created for myself. Where exactly am I going wrong, I thought?

It is said that language is the best-fitted dress for thought. Then why not dress up my thoughts with a blog? And break the ice too!

My blog, too, has a post now.