Ye Kaisa System Hai?

I grew up in a family where there were no boundaries - caste, creed, religion, sect, race, class - nothing! There was just one house rule - Humanism! As long as we followed the tenets of humanity, we could enjoy our own sweet way of life. 

My father, a man of high principles, was an academician who defied societal stereotypes and kept making his own benchmarks and surpassing them. My mother, a highly intelligent homemaker, would though herself not break rules but would neither discourage us from not breaking any. The parents played reformists while we played rebels. 

And then, she entered. My grandmother! From the vintage pages of self-proclaimed royalty, she was all set to give us lessons on class and caste order that she herself religiously practiced. What followed is a tale of a family divide between two opposite ideologies, personalities and paths.

In this video, I share an extremely personal story of how my grandmother turned from someone who was obsessed with 'class' to someone who denounced it completely. 

Watch, share and do come back to me if you have a thing to say.

Ye Kaisa System Hai

Story: Tumhare Liye Kya Important Hai

This is a story of how social media almost broke me at a time when I needed its support the most.

A couple of years ago, one of my write-ups got featured by a prestigious international forum, The Huffington Post, on their platform. It was 'the' moment for someone like me who had barely started to take baby steps in the field of writing. The article "The Unholy Side of Holi", a satirical take on the way Holi is played in some parts of North India, made waves. It was taken up overwhelmingly by everyone and even lapped in other parts of the world. I began receiving complimentary messages with praises for the bold opinion and boisterous writing.

But in a matter of few days the wave took a huge turn. It started with one person (who was pretty popular a celebrity then) lamenting the article as "anti-men" and calling out names. A strange snowball started with her followers joining the bandwagon. Before I could come to terms with what had suddenly gone wrong, hoards of troll came pouring in.

Welcome to the new found world of internet troll and unhealthy criticism!

What happened next is this 'broke' story of mine. Watch, share and do come back to me if you have a thing to say.

Hey everyone,

Here's a (less than) 1-minute read which left me thinking for long months after.

I hope you like it.

Prose: Naked

She was running free.

Bare and naked,

Across boundaries, maps and fences

Butterflies followed her dances

The birds, her homelessness,

Rivers, trees, moors, moons

Hugged her bare skin in ecstasy

Until,

She reached the no-man’s land

where

a piece of cloth was hurled at her

feet tied up with strings

ears and nose pierced to give

the identity she must carry,

the identity to look beautiful

the identity to become the one who she never aspired to be;

Now lying under loathed bundle of cotton threads

her freedom is tied forever.

She longs to run wild,

free of identity,

free of bonds,

free of clothes,
once again

stark naked!!