Saturday, June 24, 2006

Opal Mehta…!!!

Well…for those who aren’t familiar with this name…lemme tell u something more abt her…She is ‘THE HERIONE’ (I like to put this way) of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life (HOGKGWGL) by Kaavya Vishwanathan. It’s a typical story of a gal who desperately wants to get into Harvard.

I had the OPPORTUNITY to read the book…!

Take my word…the book is mind-boggling….awesome….astounding…!

If you think I’m going to talk abt the storyline…I’m sorry…you are wrong!!! I’m not here to tell u the lighter side of HOGKGWGL, but of course, tell you abt something which made me sit back n think !

Be it India or the US…the mind set of the parents is so much alike (here I mean the Indian parents)…they want us to follow the trend…they want us to branded tags from the top colleges! They either want us to be a Engineer or a Doc or a Charted Accountant or to hold some kinda professional degree which is recognized (..approved by the normal society)!..And they go to any extent to get the thing done…! They are ready to sacrifice things for their ‘kids’, for no special reason other than though; other than good grades! Soon we get attuned to their dreams…we begin to dream their dreams, not realizing that we are losing our own originality…dreams that we had cherished for long!

Are we going to get the nxt generation attuned to our dreams…?

P.S: I prescribe this book to those parents who want their wards to be in the top universities…

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Why Gender bias ?

On one of those holiday mornings,
I went to the terrace, and stretched my whole self;
And tried touching the beautiful sky.
I thought, I nearly touched the sky!
Then I relaxed.
I breathed in the air with morning fragrance;
And felt my whole being-
Of being a girl, being as I am.
Became fresh and awakened.
My heart and lips murmured-
‘Lord you are Great and You made me great as a Girl.’

The feeling of gratitude, extended within made me relish myself as a girl!

With beauty and strength,
With intuition and intelligence,
With sympathy and care,
With sensitivity and love,
With peace and power!

This realization of million more girls in this world made me feel wonderful!

But when I came down to the drawing room and open the newspaper, a magazine and another magazine…it write ups on Sania Mirza, Kiran Bede and few other successful women…this was not all what I read…there was more about dowry problem, sexual harassment at work and female child infanticide…we are in 2006 now…heading towards the 6oth year of our independence…yet, we don’t have a solution!!!

Why this gender bias ?

…this question still remains unanswered.

God created men and women, as either cannot exist with out the other;
To complement each other and not to compete with each other;
To support each other and not to suppress each other;
To love and not to dominate over.