Beta Padhao...

Beta padhao, usse rakshas banne se bachao!

This has been the best slogan I read on Instagram today; we united our countries together Pakistan and India for justice for our little girls. We tweet, we make headlines, we walk the candlelight marches and make all the proper, perfunctory noises but do we do anything to nab the rapists?

Never, ever do we do anything?  All they can do is divide us into a Muslim vs. Hindu war or the best is oh its all the girl’s fault because of the clothes she wore.

When did wearing a salwar kameez ever incite these monsters? I just don’t get it, what are we lacking.  I am disgusted and it makes me puke that men would corner her in a temple of worship, and then would gang rape her and then clobber her to death. The question is why?

We shouldn’t worry about the world war three or the systematic destruction by nuclear weapons it will just happen by the raping of each other. In fact, by saying that we have become animals is also insulting animals, they don’t rape.

Animals still have a code. We have lost it.  A little young girl is meant to be cherished, caressed, be protected, brought up in a loving manner, but no, demons and monsters, vile ugly depraved men lurk in every corner killing, raping these innocent souls to just appease their sexual appetite.

What brought this on? Have you ever thought of this? Walking the march, closing down the country for reservations, holding a candle doesn’t stop this rot. Why can’t the politicians ask for capital punishment?

I have never been shamed to be called an Indian, but the shame is there now, where we will idolize and keep her woman self as Maa Lakshmi and Durga, Sarwasati but we rape her human form in such heinous way that it just makes me shudder.

Why do you bow and pay obeisance to her form? Rape is always committed by someone known to the victim, and a rape is reported every 15 minutes that is even quicker than the times an average Indian checks his face book feed. We check it every 19 minutes. And, this is just the ones that are reported.

I am appalled by what is happening, we made a hue and cry when Nirbahaya happened and now Asifa but does it stop. The worst is that one needs to prove that one has been raped. Can you imagine the stigma and the mental turmoil that she or her family goes through? A hash tag or Not in My name movement is needed consistently. Countless more are raped but all we do is make noises for a few days and then back to wondering how we can look better on the display picture of whatsapp. A petition needs to be made to the prime minister to change his slogan of beti bachao, which has backfired so badly to beta padhao. The heavens cry and weep, as the earth’s burden is getting too heavy. This is the Mayan tragedy that was predicted we all are on a path of self –destruction.

Happiness , the Punjabi way

Punjab is always in the news for everything that is going wrong drugs, drama, corruption, Dalit bandhs, no Wi-Fi, dwindling forest coverage, sinking water table and one of the most colorful set of politicians and the best display of water tanks decorated to even give Gaudi a run for his money! However, last week it warmed my heart to hear the story of a young widow who decided to stay back in good ol’ Punjab than go back to her home state of Bihar. She is 26 years old, has four children, the oldest being 6 years and the youngest is 3 years old. She has them enrolled in a private school and two in the primary government school.  Her story is the same as of many, where the husband dies drinking agriculture pesticide spray in a fit of anger and the young girl is left to fend for herself at the mercy of her in-laws for what ever time the meager compensation that was given to her in lieu of her husband.

I know it sounds straight out of Bollywood potboiler depending whether Shyam Benegal directs it or becomes a tearjerker by Rajshree productions. Sadly, there is no villainous zamindar that ruins everything for his greed and for lust. In fact, she loves the freedom of living here. She says she is safe here! I loved her expression. She is young, uneducated and knows one thing, she can live here freely without being judged as a widow, as free game to a strict patriarchal society where she would either be married off to someone older or she would have to embrace the strict rules of widow-ship.

Punjab for her, lets her begins that amazing? We don’t know the value of freedom till it is taken away from us. She walks to her walk, is an ayah at the local private school (thank god for the mushrooming of these private English schools)!

We take a lot of thing for granted, especially something that is always there, when one doesn’t have limits and it is always assumed that the rest also have it in the same way. Punjabi s, in their large hearted selves are one of a kind, no I am in no way promoting my state even though I am unabashed believed that Punjab will rise to its former position just like the Phoenix rises from its ashes.

Nevermore, is Harry Potter and the wizardly wisdom more true than ever, ‘Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young ‘.

We all weep, woe and despair over little things it is only when are we older do we realize what the value of things are that are taken for granted. And the biggest of all of them is freedom, and we got it at the stroke of midnight and how we misuse it. Ask them who are not allowed to step out of their homes without a veil just because she's a woman. Even, the Saudis are allowing baby steps! In fact, this incident has just warmed me all over and I have hope that Radha, Lakshmi, Arjun and Vishnu (that is what she named them) would be the true examples of Punjabi grit, and bravado!

The true path of Ordinary People

A couple of weeks ago, an old person had come visiting from the next district.  He had specifically said he just wanted to meet and spend an hour or so and wanted to just talk. An old man, dressed in an all white kurta pajama and wearing a cream turban and a bright pink watch that seemed so out of place on his wrist. A fitness band, that also was a watch but in a bright neon pink color.

I served him water, and asked whether he would like tea or coffee or milk, just the way we ask normally to anyone who comes home as a guest. He declined and kept on talking and then suddenly this old man who looked so ordinary started sprouting lines of spirituality and started quoting Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the true meaning of Sikhism or the way of life.

I was fascinated. We download apps, we try to read books to gain insight of the true meaning of life and here was one person who said that he had deliberately taken a duty in a dera (we probably have the largest concentration of dera, saints, followers) in the area where the animals were kept. He took the most servile job of cleaning up the cow dung, gathering it and cleaning the cowsheds and making cow cakes. In fact, the then head of Harkowal sahib told him that he should do some other work but he said this was the best seva. This was the only way he could kill his ego.  He belonged to the Jat community and deliberately took this chore to kill his hauma (ego), as this was reserved for the lower caste or for the migrant labor. Yes, this division still exists in Punjab.

I know this sounds far fetched and extremely bookish and very senti –shenti as the kids of these days say. But, its true.

Then last week I had the fortune of meeting Babaji Iqbal Singh of Kalgidhar Trust and he as he has repeatedly said, he earned the bachan of his Guru. He just followed and obeyed the path, that is laid out without question is ordained. Some things are best not questioned and the answers are revealed at the right time.

Wouldn’t life be simpler if we just followed what was written in the scriptures? Last week, everything was disrupted over the Supreme Act ruling, we had curfew like situation, no Internet, Wi-Fi was suspended and no one in the village had a clue. Everyone had a different reason, no clear idea, children, the youth, old ladies sitting on crossroads fighting for a cause about which they had no idea but suddenly it had become a war between them and us. Why is it so easy to inflame the people nowadays on the basis of religion, how come we suddenly start baying for each others blood, where as the same would gladly partake Prasad from the granthi in the gurudwara and the Prasad from the mandir. Overnight, lines get drawn and we start hating each other.

Baldev Singh in his simple clothes and his high intellect and his true path show me the way, which the right way is the intent one should have. When intent is there, we can do anything. It is listening to one’s heart when one quiets oneself. This is when one starts to look within. In fact, what we need the most in this country more than the paid news, more than the fake news, rabble rousing, like son social media and harping about success that can only happen when we can forgive each other and embrace each other as human beings, than dividing each other on the basis of gender, caste, religion, and have and have-nots.

Isn’t it time, we the next generation stepped up and about took charge rather than scrolling down  a social media feed , along with posting on a wall that is so far removed and wasting life in drawing room conversations?