Scorching summer is testing my sanity and making me crankier than ever, driving me crazy for all the known and unknown reasons for being a victim to the hottest climate. This is by far the worst summer season I’ve ever faced. Making matters worse in this extreme hot and humid climate is the constant scheduled and unscheduled power-cuts. Blazing sun and temperature soaring high, I’ve been on a constant battle with summer since last month, and have been trying all the possible options to cool-off and beat the summer heat. But summer has taken its worst face this year giving me tough time than ever, particularly whenever I am out of the office. Thanks to the centralized air conditioner in the office that I can feel at ease the moment I am in, and for this reason I always make sure to reach the office a bit earlier to relax a little before jumping in to my writing schedules. Still, evenings are the worst and them moment I am out of the cosy office ambiance, I feel as if I’ve entered in to a furnace, and often start having severe sinusitis problems, on being exposed to the hotness right from the cold and comfy office space.
Like every year, I’ve been ranting about my summer woes to everyone, irrespective of whether they are paying attention or not, but my dad is the only one who keep listen to all the madness that I keep blabbering on and on, while the others tactically escape from my jibber-jabber. The other day I was cribbing to my dad about the noise and fumes of fire crackers outside my house. Thanks to my neighbors who were enjoying the Vishu, and the ear-blasting noise and chocking fumes did nothing good but increased the temperature around. I know my rant is much worse than the summer heat, and at times feel so bad for him, for being left with no other option but to keep listening to my craziness. In fact, dad’s the best listener at home, be it summer or winter. Mom’s never patient enough like dad, and being busy in kitchen for major share of her day time, she’ll just drive me away the very moment I start pestering her with my summer worries and keep getting on her nerves.
Summer gets scorcher than ever at night, making me sleep deprived most of the day, even if I take a good shower right before going to bed. It’s during this time of the year that I often feel like filling water inside a huge bucket and sitting inside it the whole day. Last day, I met one of my friends who shaved off her hair to escape from the blazing summer. The very happy smile on her face made me wonder how could she manage to walk around happily with her fully shaven head and not get questioned by the whole group of preachers of ‘age-old’ femininity concepts. She felt so relaxed and calm that even I was tempted to shave off my hair save myself from summer, but to be frank, didn’t have enough courage like hers to face the world headstrong.
I’ve heard that summer season would last for another 30 days and I am really not sure how I am going to live-on.
“It’s a girl!” - Some thoughts on female foeticide
Believing the baseless prophecy of a godman, who told them that she will give birth to a baby girl, they deprived her of motherhood and mercilessly ripped-off the foetus from her womb. It was so sad reading the heartbreaking news today, about a 22 year old woman who was kicked and beaten by her in-laws who were desperate for a male heir. It was even harder to imagine what the woman would have gone through, after having lost her baby. It’s been more than six decades since we gained independence, but sadly we’re not yet independent from the age-old woman hatred in the country. What I can’t stop wondering is the logic behind the immense passion for tigers and stray dogs in the country where people ruthlessly kill girl children.
The country has had remarkable progresses in all sectors, but not in the mindset of the people who still consider girl child as a curse and boys as a blessing. This is a really massive problem that no one is actually interested in sorting out, resulting in the tremendously increasing ratio of female foeticide. Daughters are still considered a liability, mainly due to the legally banned but widely prevailing practice of dowry. No matter the number of amazing progresses made here, the country is still carrying the rotten stinks of monsters-in-law, mammas boys who are just ruthless gold diggers and have absolutely no mercy on anyone other than themselves, stealthily hiding behind the candid photographs of engagements and weddings that are happening around. I just don’t understand the reason why some women are so keen on clinging on to troubled marriages even after knowing that her husband and in-laws do not want her to have daughters, and forcefully insist her take inhuman steps. I think such marriages really don’t have anything worth taking a chance, especially when one is pressurized and forced to kill her child. Sometimes I really wonder how people can be so biased, especially some of those women out there, who join the men in the house to humiliate and hurt their daughters-in-law for not giving a male heir.
Now let me tell you a bit of my experience. We’re two daughters and I am the eldest. I’ve always heard my relatives lamenting and sympathising at my mom for having two daughters, which according to them is a backbreaking responsibility. They were always seen making sad faces at my mom for not having a son to ‘responsibly’ take care of them. As a child, such comments used to hurt me, but now I care a damn. Both me and my sister are now blessed enough to take good care of my parents and the male clan about whom my relatives were always seen going gaga are still on their road to success.
Millions of female foetuses get aborted every year, and there’s no one to question this savagery. Getting killed just because of being a girl is an unexplainable tragedy, and keeps affirming the sad fact that a girl child is still unwanted in India.
I still remember seeing an episode of non-fiction programme, aired a few months back, which showed the case of a doctor who used to do illegal abortion of female foetuses, that were later found floating in a river, wrapped up in polythene bags. So are we heading to world where there will be no women but only men all around? I really feel this would happen sometime soon, when all the female foetuses get killed one by one, and only boys are born everywhere.
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