Faith. Hope. Love. Fairy Dust

Thank you Papa for being so patient with me! Thank you Dad for teaching me how to repair stuff and never throw away anything useful! Thank you Appa for being my personal super-hero! Thank you Appu for letting me be independent! Thank you Pops for all the lessons in persistence and perseverance! Thank you for being an inspiring person and a good human being to look up to!

Love letter to my beautiful mother who is my strength and my everything, which I wrote a few weeks before I moved to Canada. Dearest Mommy,                   For three decades, I’ve clung onto you – right from when you carried me in your womb two weeks past my due date, to routinely getting up with me at four in the morning when I revised for all my exams. Despite holding me so close to your heart, you are bravely letting me go far to pursue my dreams, and unlike all parents, you’ve always wanted what I’ve wanted. Now when I am standing on the threshold of moving miles away from you…there are interspersed moments of panic when I think of not waking next to you or not being enveloped in your reassuring warm hugs. But even in these agonizing instances of worry, your firm and determined eyes comfort me. No matter the distance I seek, I know I ca...

Two small words with an immense impact. A voice that said I will take it no more. A voice that clearly claimed that I will not stand in a corner hiding with an imposed shame. A collective voice that rang across the world. A voice that echoed over and over again – loudly, strongly, repeatedly. I heard it, read about it, was disgusted by it and wept with it. But all along I was silent. Not anymore. I religiously attended GRE classes at 7 AM on a Sunday morning. I was bright-eyed with star-spangled dreams and a mind yearning to learn more math. For two hours I sat frozen as the professor pawed his hand on my hip under the guise of clearing my doubts. I was 21. I was bicycling home from school. An unknown stranger followed me right outside, wildly squeezed my right breast and took off. I was 15. I went swimming with my family. I loved the water and strayed too far from my group. A random stranger repeated touched my privates until I swam away back to my family. I w...

  This is on Every One of Us. The parent who starts a dowry fund instead of an education fund. The parent who values an ugly 24-hour display of wealth over a progeny’s consent and choice. The bride who let herself be sold like a commodity.  The groom who is no different than a prostitute for receiving dowry in exchange for marital sex. The wife who indulges her husband’s every whim but comes to work the following day and thrashes him for being an inept partner.  The husband who’s so full of himself to enter the kitchen to cook and wash the vessels. The mother who teaches the daughter to cook and sends the son to play cricket. The father who was 100% involved in child creation and 0% involved in child rearing. The woman who bent her head and submitted without questioning the norm. The man who crass called a woman on the street and left dirty comments online. The women who threatened to self-immolate and the men who threatened to kill...