Stand Together

Just done watching the show ‘Meri Bhabi’ (My Sister In Law), which airs at 8:00PM from Monday to Friday on Star Plus. This sister in law, Kittu, is the ideal wife, ideal daughter-in-law and of course the ideal sister-in-law. She is a character with whom the audiences instantly fall in love just as her family did.   I do not like this soap opera much because of how the characters on the show including her husband, Anand, and his family take her for granted and walk all over her. I do not know what message the director wants to convey to us about Kittu. Is he/she trying to tell us that this is how an ideal bahu and wife should be, let everyone walk over you or is the director trying to show us that being an ideal self sacrificing wife and bahu isn’t the best thing to do. I have been watching this show for the past month with my mother. She loves Kittu for being the ideal woman and I dislike Kittu for forgetting that she is a self respecting individual. Kittu is in th...

Two different stories about two different women hit the news recently. One is Nigella Lawson and the other is Yukta Mookhey. While one is a celebrated chef, the other is a former Miss World. While both their stories are about abuse in marriage, they have been treated differently by the media of respective countries. Nigella Lawson’s story was treated with the utmost respect in the UK. She is now a champion of the cause. On the other hand the Indian media handled Yukta Mookhey’s story most shamefully. Instead of writing about her plight and making her a postive example for many women who are in exactly the same situation, the media choose to write about her clothes and make up at various public events after she announced her divorce. It is such a shame. Indian media prides itself on being free and a champion of many causes then why couldn’t they show what they could do by citing Yukta Mookhey as an example and using her story to help other women fight their battles instead ...

Does anybody remember the story of baby Falak? The unamed two year old baby girl who died in a hospital after being beaten up most brutally? Or does anybody remember Nirbhaya, the medical student who was gang raped in a moving bus? These scars are still very fresh in my memory and ever since the gang rape and murder of the medical student I have read only about women being gang raped in moving vehicles, children being kidnapped and raped and murdered; young women and girls being raped in their own home sometimes in front of their beloved parents in the national capital and the areas surrounding it. Even sacred visitors from other countries are not spared. Sacred because of our ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ legacy. Do I take this as a positive sign that crimes against women and children are finally getting the attention they deserve or must I be shocked at the brutality of these acts? Honestly I am numb with fear with what the Indian male is turning into.  Yesterday I read about a 6 ...