A BIASED BEGINNING: by Naveeta Gupta

Follow your dreams, they all say. Go for what you are passionate about. Take the road not taken. Create your own path by doing something different. Amidst all the preaching, we forget the harsh reality that we all don’t start at the same page, we all don’t get the freedom to be what we want to and how destiny serves dilemma to our table to make it a Biased Beginning.

PART-I

It was just another Sunday morning for Swati, she was messing around the house, wiping the kitchen-slab, grabbing her toast and running to catch her cab which had been waiting outside for a while. She pulled the door of the cab, sat down, and apologized to the driver saying, “Sorry bhaiya! I will try to be on time from tomorrow.” The driver smiled as he pressed on the gas pedal, ‘cause he knew there wasn’t any end to her tardiness’. The sunny morning with wind blowing her hair around initiated her chain of thoughts, or rather regrets, that she never gets to be with her family not even on Sundays. And this thought took her down the memory lane to the series of instances which changed her life.

Five years back, she was working hard to become one of the best and renowned dancers of India. Dance, was her passion, her life. She couldn’t even think about not being a dancer. She was one of the best dancers of her academy, had won many state level competitions and was appreciated by everyone. She was so happy in enjoying this phase of her life. But little did she know what destiny has planned for her. Next, she was given with an opportunity to learn further in U.S.A at a workshop. Only a few privileged ones like her had a choice. But life gave her a hard hit, she was not privileged enough to continue and pursue her dreams. She financed her dance classes out of her pocket money and now she couldn’t afford all the expenses to go abroad. She couldn’t even stress her family as she belongs to a middle-class family and know how much pain her parents are taking to make her life better, she couldn’t ask for more. Being the only child, she had responsibilities to fulfill. Her parents expected her to be successful, earn a handsome salary and have consistency in life. She wanted to give it all back to her parents, live for them so she chose to be an engineer and now what she does is all work, work, and work. Nonetheless, how much she wanted to go with her passion, she chose to go and lead a life which most of us are forced to live as we fail to fight back our destiny.

PART-II

It was a great day for Shanaya, she was busy setting up things, making sure everything is perfect. While she was checking for the music system, she caught a glance of herself into the big mirror covering one of the walls of her dance academy, and, felt proud and ecstatic, like never before. Her happiness knew no bound as it was the D-day when her dreams were getting fulfilled. She had waited for five long years for this day to come. Her hard-work, her persistency, her talent made her one of the best and renowned dancers of India. She worked hard in her journey to get to this position but being born with a silver spoon, she was always provided with the best she could have. She was taught by the best dancers from the world and got the opportunity to pursue her dreams without giving a thought to other things in life.

Both Swati and Shanaya were from the same academy, equally talented, but Shanaya was able to grab the opportunity and live her dreams and Swati focused on finding stability in her life. In doing so, Swati just fulfilled everybody’s dream, gave happiness to everybody, made them proud but forgot to live a little for herself. This is how life works.

Compromising on your dreams to find stability, is it wrong? It’s not wrong, sometimes life leaves us with no choice but to quantify a simple livelihood over dreams. We say everybody is born with equal opportunities, equal freedom to follow their dreams, but it is not always the way we paint the picture in our mind.

It is mostly a Biased Beginning.

 

 

Never Quit : by Bhumika Jagota

There are a thing or two that I do

Some are old while some are new

Taking me places where others had gone

Or some places where no one has stumbled upon

There will be the days when zilch is what I receive

For I have to move on and not to wither in my defeat

I can never determine what might come

A loud thunder or a cheerful drum

As it’s not my place to render upon

For I am just a traveler that lives on

Not knowing what may be there

The result might be an endless galaxy that stares

Deep from the oblivion to back and forth

Telling me to never give up and to never lose hope

 

Hangman’s Noose : by Abheet Sachdeva

Stepped out of the tunnel, into the light,
Women stood there with visible fright.
Men wore hoods, afraid to quail,
up and down, on their spots they paced.
The gallows pole, in all its might,
stood in the middle. O! What sight!

Whispers around, a chill in the wind.
Heads turn. Enter the protagonist.

Chained hands, splintered feet,
black eyes, black hair, not the heart underneath.
He still repeats, what he said again n again,
‘I did not’, no one’s listening, my friend.
The stage is set, this is the last act,
Last.

He smiled at the hangman, sharply took a bow.
Greeted with cheer, just as darkness surround.

He accompanies the Reaper, chains now loose.
Childlike smile intact, a beard still due,
The town watched, awed and amused,
the lil’ boy of fifteen, hung by the noose.

The Paper Plain : by Abheet Sachdeva

Somewhere in the streets of the city,
A kid tried to fly a paper plane.
But how much ever he would try, still
His efforts would all be in vain.

Written on the paper were,
His dreams, o’ ever so great,
Was it the strain of these scribbles,
That his plane fell under their weight?

He flung it now with all his might,
Oh ! It hit Mommy in the eye,
He picked it up, tried again,
And it hit his neighbour this time.
‘Arey, it’s useless’, they said.
So he picked it, and ran to his room,
In his mind all across the world,
On that little parchment he flew.

Some said make it sleeker, some; thinner.
And deep inside he thought in pain,
‘They shan’t take it for itself. Maybe
I should have made it on a paper plain.’

He still kept on trying, day and night,
Until finally it fell, and sank in the lake,
He cried, he cried, day and night,
As Daddy said he’ll make him a better plane.

The innocent smile, is wrinkled now,
As he sits in a private plane,
And he puts the wine to his lips,
O’ boy, how he misses his paper plane.

PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY- A HINDRANCE TO WOMEN’S AUDACITY: by Naveeta Gupta

A society which expects women to be obedient and submissive at all times,

A society that oppresses women, exploits and abuses her in the name of control,

A society that considers women as subordinate to male dominance,

A society that offers protection of patriarchy by imposing boundations,

A society which provides moral values and a society which allows women to compromise on those values if and when required,

A society which poses a threat to women’s advancements, limits their scope, make them vulnerable to raise their voices and avoids the values of equality, is our deep rooted- Patriarchal society which covers the harsh realities of system in its dubious veils.

Patriarchy has become a deep rooted mindset of people in many cultures, both men and women. Women find themselves in a dilemma whether to rebel or hold back as Freedom is considered synonymous to Loss of Security. This can be exemplified with a real incidence of a girl, which is the story of more than half of the women. Let’s name this girl Anu, a sincere and introvert girl who was approached by a boy, but she didn’t respond. She was continuously being followed by the guy and then after some time they became friends, they used to meet often and she never knew that he has been giving her some drugs which would lead her to loose her senses. Taking the advantage of this opportunity many times he used to assault her and make videos of her, this went on for long and then the boy blackmailed her that all this would be posted on the social media if she doesn’t obey him. This made the girl suicide and give away her life when she could not fight more. This made her do everything she didn’t want to in order to protect her image, her family’s reputation in the society.

Did living with values of the society, not rebelling, saved the girl? Protected her from the pain of the heinous act she went through? No, raising voice should have made a difference but girls are taught to keep quiet by our society and families even in such situations. These fears and values symbolize the emotional, mental and physical vulnerabilities of women which give men the power to control, insult and assault them in the name of protection- a unique point of  male dominance.

India proves to be a good example of patriarchal society where a woman cannot do anything without the permission of the male counterpart. In Indian culture, the society teaches girls from the beginning to respect male, follow them, be timid, accept the decisions of males and teaches boys to be dominant and physically strong, i.e, a boy cribbing over something is considered a  weak trait, a characteristic of a girl. This discrimination allows men to disrespect women since childhood. If any act or mishap occurs, it is always a girl who is accused despite of being the victim and the culprit lives with all the freedom and respect. Had boys been given the values at childhood to respect women, consider them equal, protect them, rather than making them learn to make women respect them and making them dominant in the society, would have changed the way the society exists. Are you ready to bring this change?