Saturday 19 April 2014

Under the stars

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Victory's anger                            

"Just for the money." Victory said angrily about her class teacher. This was the first time I was seeing Victory so forceful and so angry so I couldn't help admiring her intense beauty at that crucial moment. Her eyes were really captivating with their light brown colour and long eyelashes. Her v-shaped chin and oval face highlighted her expression.

Victory lies to her class teacher

 "She called me just for the money. So I told a lie. I told her that I had booked a ticket to go home in the holidays while they went on their tour. Until now I didn't  expect anything from anybody. Normally I wouldn't have stood up when she asked who were willing to join the tour. Only after getting to know you I have started moving freely with others.
She said earlier that she couldn't take responsibility of me. Then when enough girls didn't join and so the amount for the van didn't add up to what was needed, she asked me to join.
.Just for the money."

Victory's past

Victory was partially blind in both eyes. But she wasn't born blind. Those who were born blind adjusted well to the situation. They had   learned to manage by themselves and understood that people might ignore them now and then.
When Victory was in the 8th standard she started having serious problems with her vision. Being unable to continue with her studies, she tried her hand at arts and crafts. But didn't like it.Learnt braille  and appeared for her 10th public exam. Then passed her 12th privately. And then joined this college to do her B.A. where they had a resource centre for the blind. That's where I met her as I had gone there to do my B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) and had opted for IEVH ( Integrated Education for the Visually Handicapped).
Both of us were at the hostel but at different blocks.So right after tea in the evenings I'd rush to the resource room to read out to her from her classmate's notebook while she typed on the brailler. An hour later we'd have compulsory prayer for 15-20 minutes. And then we'd be free.

 How we became friends
One day I went to meet her at this time.
"What do you want?" she asked roughly.
 "Why, I just came to talk to you," I said puzzled.
'Don't you have friends of your own? Didn't we already spend one hour together?" she asked in the same tone.
"That one hour is hardly enough to cover one whole day's portions. How can I talk to you at that time? So you find me disagreeable! In that case I'll go," I said and turned around.
"No,no, I didn't mean it that way. Come in." she said, inviting me in.

And that's how our friendship began. I found myself sharing with her all the stories of different books I had read, all the movies I had seen, all the places I had visited. She rarely interrupted me. Her lips formed a soft smile and she seemed to be imagining the stories.

"What are you thinking?" I'd ask her now and then. "Nothing special, just enjoying the stories as they are. You've taken me to a far off world of other people, their experiences. Until now I used to  think only about myself all the time."
In my own room I found an atmosphere  of envying, jealousy and snide remarks. So I found myself more and more in Victory's presence. In moonlight or under the stars, as long as we were allowed to stay outside our blocks.
Both of us realised that there were worlds outside our own where others too have experiences, some like ours, others different.
Victory grew in self respect and in a zeal for life, to overcome and to face what lay ahead.
                                                                                                              (a friend's story)

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Sunday 13 April 2014

Who's to answer ?

Baby cries
no mother to care
A passer by hears, hesitates
but can't pass by
picks up baby : feeds
then leaves baby,passes on
child cries
owner queries,passes on
child grows shy, hesitant
sometimes bitter,oft hard.
Society says 'misfit'
some say, 'sad'
some say 'bad'
Others are mad.
Who's to judge
Who to answer
The child pays for it all.

Child at home
parent busy
child touches
no response
child reaches out
call rejected
child shrinks,
pays all his life.

Sunday 6 April 2014

Education for the girl child in India - 12 reasons to vote for it.


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A friend's ( an educated woman's) words -

"Perhaps I was wrong not to try getting a son."
 Hardly had the words got out of her than we pounced on her for such absurd ideas. My friend is the proud mother of two wonderful girls and the most fussed over lady of the family.Any suggestion of abortion till the foetus turned out to be a boy was unthinkable.

 With her the matter ended lightly but unfortunately in some homes this preference for boys takes illogical proportions, specially in earlier days. The mother of the girl child was  looked down by the father's family members ( not knowing that he was the one responsible for the gender of the child). The dowry factor was the main cause of such ideas. Parents who couldn't afford a second dowry usually went in for such measures after a first girl child.

Woes of the mother and the new born girl -
Or they forcibly made her go for the abortions. Apart from a weak body after such harsh treatment , the resulting boy baby was taken over by the family in the name of caring. And spoiled to their heart's content. Special food for boys and the leftovers for girls was the norm in most families until recently. ie in families where the girls were left to live. Killing girl children after they were born was common in many villages.
 That's why we have many anaemic but mentally sharp and challenging girl children in contrast to physically strong but  anti-social boys. Only when a girl attained puberty was she given nourishing food so that she was strong enough for child bearing.

The situation today
Luckily the situation has improved nowadays. Girls have proved their mettle and started shining in all fields.Nowadays a girl can  tell her husband, "I have paid for the house. So if you can't behave yourself, you may get out."
I'm certainly not voting for broken families, but I like girls and women to be educated and self sufficient so that they are not helpless in a critical situation.
And mens' attitude towards women has changed also. With a reduction in the age gap between man and wife, men have learned to be more friendly and caring towards his wife.

In short, education can :

1) Change a girl's attitude towards herself  and towards society.It makes her step out where she once hid            herself.

2) Give her an idea about the world. So she can start a business on her own if she has the capacity
.
3) Make her qualified for jobs. Makes her independent and a support for the family too.

4)  Make her aware of her rights and the rights of other women so she can fight for them.

5) Make her aware of sanitation and other health aspects which will be useful to her in daily life.

6) Give her the confidence and the logic to think on her own and contribute her ideas towards society.

7 )Expose her to different fields which may click with her  areas of interest.

8 ) For working girls who don't have family or relatives to search for a suitable match, it provides them ample chances of exposure.

9)) For girls who come come from broken families, a girl's exposure to other girls and their families gives her         an idea of what families are meant to be, so that she doesn't continue` her parents' way of life


10 )  Reduce the chances  of domestic bullying or domestic violence.


11 )Help her guide her children in their studies.


12) Give her  a sense of fulfilment  and achievement and a reason to live
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